Last weekend Jason and I realized that if we wanted to take Nate to meet his Great Grandma and Great Aunt and Uncle we'd have to go this weekend. I go back to work in a week and Nate starts daycare and the thought of spending 10+ hours in a car the weekend before we make that particular transition is enough to give me a panic attack.
So last Saturday Jason gives everyone a call to make sure they are free and I begin to figure out how you get a three month old to travel five hours without screaming.
It turns out you don't.
We got really lucky on the way down. After a few hours of continuous napping Nate woke up for lunch. We laid him on the booth bench so he could get the wiggles out (the wiggles are a genetic condition he got through me). He was perfectly happy there while Jason and I ate, then he ate, then he pooped then we got him back in the car and got another hour and a half before he was. not. happy. Naturally at that point, we're so close to where we are going that it doesn't make any sense to stop so we spend the last 20ish minutes with a screaming baby. FUN!
After some visiting and dinner we check into our motel and try to settle in for the night. We moved Nate into his own room after he had been home for a few weeks because no one was sleeping. We kept him up, he kept us up. It just didn't work. Friday night brought that all home again. Nate's schedule was in shreds (shreds) by this time. So, he's completely exhausted and a super fuss-butt. We finally get him down in the pack and play and try to get ourselves settled for bed.
And then Nate sneezes...
...and then Nate sighs....
We get to sleep at 11:30
Nate cries twice at 2 a.m....
....he sneezes again at 2:45.
Fast forward to 4 a.m. and he is UP and ready to PLAY. We finally get him back down at 5:30 and sleep for an hour and a half.
Incidentally we ran into the people that had the room next to us and we apologized for all the noise. The motel had thin walls and we know Nate woke them up. And see, this is where having a charming baby makes all the difference. As we were eating a light breakfast our neighbors came in for theres and Nate made them fall in love with him. They didn't stand a chance - to the point that they sat down with us and made faces at him for 20 minutes.
We met up with Jason's family after that and visited some more before the long drive back home. By this point the newness of everything had wigged Nate out to the point that he wouldn't really sleep so we ended up stopping every hour and a half to two hours for a good hour to feed him, change him or play with him. All I can say is thank god for McDonalds. Jason and I haven't been to one since we met (his hatred for McDonalds is unnatural) but they are clean, tolerate screaming children, have changing stations and only charge $1 for a soda. It took us 7 hours to get home
But we made it. Nate ate, Nate got a bath, Nate slept for 11 hours.
All in all, the road trip wasn't the nightmare I imagined it would be. But, you couldn't pay me to get back in a car today.
No comments:
Post a Comment