We just got back from our first road trip with Charlotte. Jay and Charlotte are sacked out in the bedroom, Charlotte not even out of her car seat and I have a chance to contemplate. Of course I do my best thinking while pumping. I think in the past three months I know that it is the only time I have to think, so let the self reflection begin. Charlotte did pretty good, but Jay and I learned some lessons on the way of course.
We have never traveled with so much luggage in our lives, which is fairly comical seeing how we were only gone a little over twenty four hours. Jay has been fairly lucky over the past six years by traveling with such a light packer as a wife. Charlotte on the other hand has some stuff, and most of it is big, bulky and does not fit neatly in suitcases.
I would say that the trip going was much better than the trip coming. Charlotte slept most of the way there, and when she was not sleeping she was pretty happy. We left the house after Charlotte’s usual eleven hour sleep so she was in pretty good spirits. This was a wonderful opportunity for me to get some major things completed in the car: embroidery on the beach quilt, some circles cut for an upcoming surprise quilt and letters cut out for Charlotte’s next play quilt. It was lovely, just how I imagined a family trip to be: sleeping baby, husband driving and singing to the ipod and me happily sewing. We made a couple stops including for lunch where Charlotte talked to everyone who would make eye contact with her.
When we got to the hotel we had planned to swim in the indoor pool with our little water lover. We were officially in the pool for five minutes and little C’s whole face started to shiver so we took her out and talked with our legs (ours, not hers) dangling in the hot tub. The rest of the day went wonderfully, Jay went to meet his appointments, Charlotte napped, we had a pizza picnic in the hotel, went for a walk and got root beer floats. At nine o’clock Charlotte was still in great spirits and ready to take on the world. I am not sure if Charlotte ever got really sleepy, ever, the whole night. Between Jay and myself we must have gotten up thirty times to replug with the pacie, but she never even let out the tiniest cry. Her crying in the hotel had me really worried. I could just see her having a rough night and us keeping the whole floor awake. I will call the night a success, no major crying, no major sleeping for that matter, but we didn’t get any complaint calls.
On our way back the ride did not go as smoothly. Charlotte was constantly sucking on a bottle, awake and crying or asleep with the bottle in her mouth. Not exactly the picture of perfection as the day before. The major highlights of the day was a blowout so big her car seat had to be dismantled and washed when we got home and a relaxing and charming picnic behind a subway for lunch.
At the end of the day I really did feel sorry for the little tike. All cooped up in her car seat, tired and bored. It is a good thing that parents think there kids are so cute or road trips would never happen. I was reading a blog the other day and she described her feelings towards her children as she can see why some animals reproduce over and over purposefully and also on the other hand why some animals eat their spawn. That made me laugh, now I understand. Again, that is why they are so cute! The rest of today I am sure will be filled with recovering from the forty hour trip, really it will probably take another forty hours just to get things back to normal. In Jay’s words today has been kinda like half death, half Saturday. That is what parenting is though right?! Half bliss and strangely have destruction. Of course Charlotte and in turn Jay woke up after I finished the first paragraph about them peacefully slumbering. It took Jay a solid ten minutes to calm her down, because she was still coming down from her “I have been in this car for two whole days perspective”. Major lessons learned and we are all the better for it which is good because we have some major travels planned for this month!
-melissa