Road Trip

 

Driving to and from GA was a lot more complicated this time around. Everyone likes to warn you about how difficult your life will be once you have kids; they talk about lack of sleep, lack of personal time/space, toys taking over, dirty diapers, etc. They fail to warn you about how incredibly difficult it is to pack for a small child and that for the next 18 years, you’ll be responsible for lugging around someone else’s junk every time you want to take a vacation. This new life change doesn’t suit me well, as I am already a chronic and incurable over-packer. I just feel bad for Derek, especially when/if we have another baby..that’ll be like 4 suitcases (at a minimum) and a kennel he’ll have to lug around. I mean we had to use a freaking luggage cart at the hotel! That was definitely a first for us.

So the trip started off well. We left later than anticipated, but Madeline fell asleep pretty easily, and slept for about 2 hours. By then we were in Delaware and ready for a quick stop anyway. We fed her and were on the road again. Then the problems started. She had a harder time falling asleep the second time and when we got stuck in ridiculous traffic – well, she had enough. I ended up feeding her in the car seat for the last hour or so of the trip. We reached my cousin Meredith’s house and we had a really nice time visiting them and seeing her two adorable kids and Nanny. I don’t think anyone took pictures, which is really a shame, but at the time it was really the last thing on my mind. We ate dinner with them and hit the road in time for Madeline to fall back asleep. Derek actually sat in the back with her while I drove, which made a huge difference in the amount she slept.

Unfortunately, all that sleep in the car meant no sleep in the hotel room. Baby girl had a hard time falling asleep that night and refused to sleep by herself. Which meant I was up and down until about 5 AM when she finally crashed. Then I had the joy of sleeping with a baby on top of me for the next 4 or so hours. It did not make for a happy mommy. But it didn’t seem to phase her..she was all smiles the next morning.

Obviously, we slept in, and hit the road headed for my Uncle Bill’s house. We had a really nice visit with them as well and managed to head out as someone was getting tired again.

Some pictures I stole from Corine:

Madeline and two very sleep parents

Madeline with her cousin Jill

Madeline and Great Uncle Bill

Madeline and Cousin Josh

Somehow, Derek managed to make it the next 5ish hours home. He really is superman when it comes to road trips.The baby did really well until we got to Atlanta. The last hour or so was pretty hard on her. Maybe she could sense we were close. By the time we pulled into the drive way in GA, we were all exhausted. I’ve never been more excited to get out of a car in my life.

The way home was not nearly as fun and involved. We did stop for some yummy BBQ in SC and Madeline took some time to drive the car for us.

But, we spent most of the trip freaked out about her rash. She didn’t do well in the hotel Friday night and woke up covered in red rash (the picture from the pervious post), so I spent all day on Saturday on the phone with doctors and insurance. We ended up driving home just long enough for Derek to run in and drop Ari off (poor guy went from car to kennel) and then we drove over the bridge to Queens to take the baby to the closest Urgent Care. It was a super quick trip, with no wait, so I was really pleased, until I found out the doctor there misdiagnosed her (but I didn’t know that until a few days later).

We didn’t get to the house until around 10 PM. The car wasn’t unloaded until the next day and the bags still aren’t unpacked. All in and all, it was crazy stressful, but I’m so happy we did it and that Madeline got to meet everyone and spend her first Christmas with family.