adventures with evan and eli: Delhi Belly

Our first full day in India was magnificent, spectacular; it was… ahem… the Taj Mahal of days. It will be a day I will never forget. The amazing drive to Agra, the majesty of the Taj Mahal, and Evan falling asleep on his menu at dinner – all wonderfully exciting and new.

Our second full day in India was much, much less glamorous and will also likely be a day I will never forget. Pat woke first with some intestinal trouble. I woke feeling nauseous and dizzy, and poor Evan started his day by vomiting on his father. Although, after he was sick, he promptly asked for breakfast - which we took to be a good sign. Pat took Evan down for food and I crawled back into bed until it was time to leave. Little Eli was the only one of us unperturbed by the adventure thus far. His smiling face reassuring of us of happier times to come.

Pat and Eli standing out at the Mosque at Fatepur Sikri

Once we were in the car everyone seemed to have perked up a bit, although the very thought of eating made me queasy. Our first stop was Fatehpur Sikri a beautiful, abandoned, royal city, a bumpy one-hour ride from Agra. It was hot, but there was a nice breeze blowing through the monument so it was bearable. Unfortunately shortly in to our tour I was overcome once again with a wave of nausea. Evan too was getting restless so he and I went back to the air-conditioned car to lie down. Pat went on to have a wonderful experience touring the rest of the city and the beautiful mosque while Evan and I napped. Later when I was feeling better I was a bit jealous of what he experienced, but at the time I was grateful for the chance to lie down. By the time we left for the excruciatingly long and bumpy four-hour ride to Jaipur I was feeling worlds better.

Evan however, was sick again just an hour later. I hate to see him sick. I had been worried for months before this trip began about him getting ill, and here he was suffering from a mild case of Delhi Belly and I found myself calm about the whole thing. I knew we had done everything right. I had watched him like a hawk since we landed – making sure he didn’t touch anything dirty, that his hands were washed and sanitized, and carefully monitoring everything that went into his mouth. He wasn’t running a fever and he didn’t have the runs, so I knew it wasn’t that serious. My hunch was that it was just his immune system running in overdrive.

Sure enough, by evening he was swimming in the pool and downing an entire pizza (thank goodness our hotel offered western choices – the thought of anything spicy today made me uncomfortable). For our part, Pat and I soldiered on, our discomfort of minor consequence when your baby is sick.