On New Year’s Eve I got the flu. And the flu decided to hang on to me for a week wherein I drowned myself with some sort of disgusting liquid medicine (with an ice cream chaser to kill the taste) and slept as often as I had someone around to watch my daughter. By Friday January 7 I was feeling 95% better.
But…

On Friday we (myself, my 17 month old daughter, my husband, my mother, my sister and brother-in-law, and my 7 month old nephew) intended to drive from PA to FL in order to surprise my grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary. The plan was to leave in the evening around 6ish, which is normally my daughter’s bedtime, in hopes that she would drift off to sleep in the van and snooze her normal 13 hours while we drove over half of the trip.
But…

Adaline about 2 hours before we left.

My brother-in-law got tied up at work and one thing led to another and they didn’t end up getting to my house until 7pm or later. I’m not really sure as I think I blocked a lot of it out. Between the excitement of so many family members descending on the house at once and the fact that it was over an hour past her bedtime sweet Adaline was overly tired. Surely she’ll drift right off to sleep in the van.
But…

We strapped this poor over tired baby into a car seat (which she normally doesn’t mind) and she was very upset. I tried going through her night time routine in the van giving her the same doll and pacifier, reading the same books, singing the same songs. It was all for naught as she continued to cry and request “up” out of car seat (She would also randomly request “Elmo”, “Bottle”, and “Baby” but each time I attempted to fulfill her request she shoved the item away and said “No!”). She would repeatedly say “itchy” and then I would attempt to scratch her neck or back while she was still strapped into the car seat. She would fall asleep from time to time but while awake she was just miserable. We weren’t far into our trip, maybe about three hours when it was time for my husband to take over driving the midnight shift. He’s used to working shift work for his job, so driving this time of night should be no trouble for him.
But…