Road trip!
Ok, so Clay is 7 months old, and we hadn't really taken him out of town. We have a nephew in Biloxi, and he was celebrating a birthday over the weekend. Sooooo, we decided to try a quick weekend road trip with the baby. His first weekend away!
He slept most of the drive down, only getting cranky near the end, when we were (I freely admit it) hopelessly lost trying to find hubby's sister's house. EVERY time that we go to visit Stacey, we get lost trying to find her house. What follows are several fruitless phone calls between hubby and his mom and Stacey. He doesn't really tell them WHERE he is at that moment, so they can't direct him properly. And there's always stuff going on in the background (in this case, Clay complaining in his car seat in the back). And they never seem to be able to talk us in. Thanks goodness I finally got on the phone with Stacey's husband. He gave me excellent directions, and we got there in time for the party. For the rest of the trip, I insisted on this M.O. to get us where we needed to go.
We went straight to a really loud, really crowded skating rink, with tons of lights, music, and stuff going on everywhere. I was positive Clay would have a meltdown. But I was wrong. He was very interested in everything going on around him, and his big blue eyes darted from one thing to another for most of the party. He loved looking at the children and watching all the arcade games. Hardly a peep of crying or fussing. YAY!
We stopped by the hotel to check in and let him stretch his little legs a bit, then we went out to dinner with the family. Again, I was fearing a crying jag. But little man surprised me yet again. He sat calmly in the highchair at the restaurant, ate his pureed garden vegetables, and cooed at his cousin and grandmother. I even got to eat my entree WHILE IT WAS STILL HOT. (Mothers of infants know what a big deal this is.) I could hardly believe it.
We went back to the hotel, and after his usual bath and bedtime bottle, we put him in the pack and play we'd brought along for him to sleep in. Now here, I was really expecting some resistance. He's never slept in the pack and play before. In fact, he's never slept overnight anywhere except his own bed. But we turned off the lights, and he laid himself down. He looked up at the ceiling for a while. The little booger was asleep by 8:30 pm. A miracle.
But at 10:45 p.m., he woke up. And he WOULD NOT go back to sleep in the pack and play. I brought him up into the bed with me, where he kicked me in the ribs, snatched at my hair, and made a general nuisance of himself until falling back to sleep for a few hours. Then we repeated the whole charade a few more times before morning, with Clay intermittently wailing like an Irish banshee set on fire. Miserable. Especially miserable since he's been sleeping through the night with no problems for more than 2 months. (You get used to sleeping again, people. And then when you don't for some reason, it's like a gut-punch.)
The next morning, hubby and I arose like the walking dead, stumbled through most of the morning, and got in the car for the long, yawn-filled ride back (which, of course, Clay slept right through - the little rascal).
Lessons learned on this trip:
1.) Little man can actually handle more than I thought, stimulus-wise. He behaved quite well in two or three restaurants during our trip.
2.) We had better get the baby used to sleeping in the pack and play before we take ANY MORE overnight trips. Because we are planning a week-long vacation in Gulf Shores this May, that will mean LOTS of nights in the pack and play between now and then. May God have mercy on our souls.
He slept most of the drive down, only getting cranky near the end, when we were (I freely admit it) hopelessly lost trying to find hubby's sister's house. EVERY time that we go to visit Stacey, we get lost trying to find her house. What follows are several fruitless phone calls between hubby and his mom and Stacey. He doesn't really tell them WHERE he is at that moment, so they can't direct him properly. And there's always stuff going on in the background (in this case, Clay complaining in his car seat in the back). And they never seem to be able to talk us in. Thanks goodness I finally got on the phone with Stacey's husband. He gave me excellent directions, and we got there in time for the party. For the rest of the trip, I insisted on this M.O. to get us where we needed to go.
We went straight to a really loud, really crowded skating rink, with tons of lights, music, and stuff going on everywhere. I was positive Clay would have a meltdown. But I was wrong. He was very interested in everything going on around him, and his big blue eyes darted from one thing to another for most of the party. He loved looking at the children and watching all the arcade games. Hardly a peep of crying or fussing. YAY!
We stopped by the hotel to check in and let him stretch his little legs a bit, then we went out to dinner with the family. Again, I was fearing a crying jag. But little man surprised me yet again. He sat calmly in the highchair at the restaurant, ate his pureed garden vegetables, and cooed at his cousin and grandmother. I even got to eat my entree WHILE IT WAS STILL HOT. (Mothers of infants know what a big deal this is.) I could hardly believe it.
We went back to the hotel, and after his usual bath and bedtime bottle, we put him in the pack and play we'd brought along for him to sleep in. Now here, I was really expecting some resistance. He's never slept in the pack and play before. In fact, he's never slept overnight anywhere except his own bed. But we turned off the lights, and he laid himself down. He looked up at the ceiling for a while. The little booger was asleep by 8:30 pm. A miracle.
But at 10:45 p.m., he woke up. And he WOULD NOT go back to sleep in the pack and play. I brought him up into the bed with me, where he kicked me in the ribs, snatched at my hair, and made a general nuisance of himself until falling back to sleep for a few hours. Then we repeated the whole charade a few more times before morning, with Clay intermittently wailing like an Irish banshee set on fire. Miserable. Especially miserable since he's been sleeping through the night with no problems for more than 2 months. (You get used to sleeping again, people. And then when you don't for some reason, it's like a gut-punch.)
The next morning, hubby and I arose like the walking dead, stumbled through most of the morning, and got in the car for the long, yawn-filled ride back (which, of course, Clay slept right through - the little rascal).
Lessons learned on this trip:
1.) Little man can actually handle more than I thought, stimulus-wise. He behaved quite well in two or three restaurants during our trip.
2.) We had better get the baby used to sleeping in the pack and play before we take ANY MORE overnight trips. Because we are planning a week-long vacation in Gulf Shores this May, that will mean LOTS of nights in the pack and play between now and then. May God have mercy on our souls.
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