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But… (Part 4)
On Friday 01/07/2011 myself, my husband, our 17 month old daughter, my mother, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my 7 month old nephew embarked on a road trip from PA to FL to surprise my grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary. I had visions of sleeping in and sitting around the vacation villa writing blog posts to my little heart’s content while my daughter played with her cousin and was supervised by the four other adults present. BUT…things didn’t quite work out like that. This is Part 4 (the final installment) of my story…
Read But…Part 1, But…Part 2, and But…Part 3 first!
In South Carolina my brother-in-law (who drives like a pokey old man) was driving 74 in 70mph zone and was pulled over by a State Trooper in an unmarked car. Now we have two upset babies in the van that want out of their car seats and my brother-in-law was a nervous wreck because he had no idea why he was pulled over. The State Trooper said that he pulled him over for speeding (you should’ve seen how fast the cars were passing us on the highway…this was a super dangerous road for the cop to make a traffic stop on). My husband was in the passenger seat and didn’t say a word but left his badge sitting on his leg during the stop. We’re not sure if that’s what did it but thankfully the trooper gave Matt a warning and told him to “be safe”. We were able to keep driving straight through and we made it back to home sweet home at 2:30am on Sunday morning. Hubby unpacked the van and I got the little lady to sleep in her own crib for the first time in nine days. We can finally get back to our normal routine. But…
Actually for the most part Adaline has readjusted rather well. Aside from her nap/sleep schedule being off an hour here or there she jumped right back into sleeping regularly in her crib and she miraculously has abundant and unconditional love for Daddy and Grandma that she somehow couldn’t channel while in FL.
Adaline loves Grandma again!
She was no longer attached to my hip and other than being a little upset if I left the room, she was perfectly happy to completely ignore me most of the day. *She still had a cough and her runny nose was getting worse. She cried every time we changed her diaper. For the most part Sunday 01/16, Monday 01/17, and Tuesday 01/18 she was a perfect angel, but for whatever reason on Wednesday 01/19 she decided to break out the tantrums. She was screaming and crying and running from me and saying “no” every chance she got. At one point she swatted me in the face (um, I don’t think so, young lady!) which resulted in a very strong reprimand from mommy followed by her very first time out (sorta). It was a long and exhausting 20 days and I was looking forward to putting it all behind me and getting back to blogging. But…
Considering I spent the first week of the month sick with the flu, the second week of the month playing conjoined twin with my daughter in FL, and the third week of the month reorganizing the house after vacation whilst getting the smack down from my precious first born child…the Christmas decorations were still up. I’m not sure why the magical elves did not come and put everything away for me, but they didn’t. And so we spent the fourth week of the month taking down Christmas decorations at our house and the church. After my “vacation” with no internet access I also have about 80 million emails to read and about 40 posts to write. And just when I thought it was all going to get back to normal my husband and I decided that we are fat (or on our way there at least) and started doing the 30 Day Shred in the evenings. Thursday was our 4th day in a row, yay us! But of course all of the physical fitness cuts into my blogging time (boo!).
Is this the elf who should've taken down my Christmas decor while I was on "vacation"
I’m hoping that I have a spare moment to get a half-decent post up in the near future. Perhaps this post (turned “series”) was so long that you’ve quite had your fill of me for awhile and can do with another break from my rambling. Nonetheless, if I do find said spare moment this weekend I’m going to be blogging next week about the other parts of our trip…all of the details I left out of these four posts. (What?! There’s, more? You left out details? How is that even possible?! Jenn, say it isn’t so…) These will be real stories and not fragments of me complaining in a blog post about why I don’t have any time to write blog posts. Hmmm…
But…no more “buts” for awhile (I hope).
*Adaline is feeling fine now. Her cough and runny nose are now gone and she’s not crying during every diaper change anymore. The tantrums have stopped but she has been showing much more of a temper lately than what we’re used too.
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But… (Part 3)
On Friday 01/07/2011 myself, my husband, our 17 month old daughter, my mother, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my 7 month old nephew embarked on a road trip from PA to FL to surprise my grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary. I had visions of sleeping in and sitting around the vacation villa writing blog posts to my little heart’s content while my daughter played with her cousin and was supervised by the four other adults present. BUT…things didn’t quite work out like that. This is Part 3 of my story…
Read But…Part 1 and But…Part 2 first!
We managed to get Adaline to take her medicine and her fever broke after only a day. When asking my husband to fill up her bottle with some fresh soy milk before bed he and my mother discovered that for the past day I had been giving my daughter spoiled soy milk (and the Mother of the Year Award goes to…not me!). Poor baby. No wonder she didn’t want to take her bottle. The milk didn’t give her the fever since she had the fever prior to me opening up the brand new, factory sealed container of soy milk (with a May 2011 expiration date) for her in the van on Saturday. It may, however, have contributed to the vomiting experience we had.
Adaline decided that after be traumatized by a long, grueling ride strapped into a car seat with a fever while being force-fed spoiled soy milk that the only way that she was going to sleep on Saturday night, and Sunday night, and Monday night would be directly on my chest. She would take naps the same way (if she napped at all). That’s okay, though, right? Because with all of the sleep that she’s getting now surely she’ll be in a great mood during the days and I can get some rest while her Grandma and others take turns fawning over her.
But…
Adaline napped on Mommy throughout the trip
Adaline also decided that she would want to be attached to me every single minute of every single day or incessantly cry “Mama!” until your ears would bleed. Daddy? No, thank you. Grandma? No, thank you. Aunt Jessie or Uncle Matt? No, thank you. Mommy? Yes, please! All Mommy, all the time.
Mommy while sleeping, Mommy while awake, on Mommy’s lap while she uses the toilet, Mommy in the bathtub with me when I take a bath, on Mommy’s lap while she tries to eat.
Walking with Mommy? No, thank you. Strapped to Mommy in an Ergo Baby Carrier? Yes, please. Sitting next to Mommy? No thank, you. Sitting on Mommy’s lap clinging to her like a baby monkey? Yes, please.
Oh, the separation anxiety…it was extreme, intense, severe, and unlike anything I’d ever experienced in my life. Luckily as the week went on she became a little more herself. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights she slept in the pack-n-play. And while she still wanted to be attached to me a good bit of the time she began to warm up to the rest of the family again and let them hold her on occasion and she began playing a lot more. We would be heading back home soon and hopefully the return trip would go much better since Adaline was feeling well.
But…
Adaline's attached to Mommy
On Thursday we spent all day at the Magic Kingdom and it was cold. Friday morning Adaline woke up with a wet sounding cough and a mildly runny nose and…her diaper had exploded. I’m not talking about some wet jammies…I mean that the diaper busted open and she was covered in pee-filled gel. We had to go right directly into the tub to try to wash the junk off of her. The runny nose and cough must’ve made it hard for her to sleep, so she slept on my chest again on Friday night (and left an outrageous amount of drool soaking on my shoulder). We left for home around 9am on Saturday morning. We planned on stopping to stay at hotel again since the whole “driving straight through” thing didn’t work for us the last time. Adaline did really well. Although she had her moments from time to time she was pretty quiet through most of the trip and took regular naps (one of them lasting three hours).
Adaline sleeping during the trip home
Dominic, however, did not fair so well. On the first trip he slept most of the way and was quiet and happy when he was awake. Not so this time. He didn’t sleep as well and when he’d wake up he was screaming and it was near impossible to calm him down. He wanted out of that car seat in the worst way. He was kinda driving us all crazy, waking up Adaline from her naps, and the whole thing was really upsetting my sister. She wanted to stop at a hotel (so that he could wake up screaming in his pack-n-play every 45 minutes rather than the van?). We were making great time and Adaline was really behaving so we wanted to keep driving as long as we could.
But…
(To be continued on Friday 01/28)
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But… (Part 2)
On Friday 01/07/2011 myself, my husband, our 17 month old daughter, my mother, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my 7 month old nephew embarked on a road trip from PA to FL to surprise my grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary. I had visions of sleeping in and sitting around the vacation villa writing blog posts to my little heart’s content while my daughter played with her cousin and was supervised by the four other adults present. BUT…things didn’t quite work out like that. This is my story…
Read But…Part 1 first!
West Virginia decided to greet us with a snow storm. It was dark and it was snowing quite a bit. You couldn’t see the lines on the road. You couldn’t really see the road itself. Had it only been dark and not snowing or had it been snowing but in the daytime, there wouldn’t have been any problem. We were creeping along at 30 miles an hour. I envisioned us needing to pull to side of the road trying to keep the tired babies warm and then getting slammed into by another car that lost control. Never underestimate the ominous feeling of an intuitive woman (or me 😉 ). I spotted a sign for a Sleep Inn in 8 miles. My husband reluctantly stopped at the hotel. We weren’t making good time so there was no need to put our lives in danger braving the elements. At the hotel we decided that the ladies and kids would stay in one room and the fellas and the cold medicine would stay in another room. This way the guys will be sure to get the sleep that they needed to drive in the morning and we could get our tired babies a good night’s sleep in the pack-n-plays versus the car seats.
But…
Adaline would not sleep in her pack-n-play. I had to put her in bed with me (something I’ve never done before). She wouldn’t lie next to me, but rather slept on my chest the whole night. I did not sleep at all because aside from the fact that I was afraid to fall asleep and either crush my daughter or send her rolling off of the bed, I was also kept awake by a freight train driving right through the room my mom snoring and hungry screaming pterodactyls my nephew waking up crying every 45 minutes (*sweet dreams, Jenn*). Nonetheless I wasn’t too concerned about myself and rather just wanted my precious daughter to get a good night’s sleep so that she’d be more pleasant for the rest of the drive in the morning.
But…
I'm so refreshed after my night of (no) sleep and the pack-n-plays that weren't slept in
On Friday before we left on the trip I thought that Adaline felt a tad warm. In the van I thought she felt even warmer but figured it might just be from all of the screaming and crying she was doing. In the morning she felt just as warm if not warmer and after making all of the other adults touch her forehead we agreed that she had a fever. Naturally I had no thermometer to confirm this and no infant medicine to administer to her anyway. The poor darling girl screamed and cried and fussed most of the day. She didn’t want her bottle, although she drank it from time to time. She was miserable and she wanted me to hold her. Of course I could not because she needed to stay strapped in. Finally we were able to get some infant medicine at one of the convenient stores. Now I could give her medicine to break her fever and she’ll feel better much better for the rest of the trip.
But…
This irritating toy kept Adaline quiet for a short time while Cool Daddy was trying to get some rest.
I put the medicine in…and it came right back out. Adaline threw up for the very first time in her life in a van in a parking lot of some random rest stop. She had it all over her sleeper, on me, and on her cousin Dominic’s Glow Worm. I wasn’t going to try to give it to her again. She was nearly hysterical while crying and grasping onto me for dear life. Somehow I managed to get her cleaned up and back into her car seat. It wasn’t pretty, but we made it to Orlando after 10pm on Saturday night. Once we could get settled into the vacation villa and get Adaline some medicine and some regular sleep in her pack-n-play she’ll be back to normal.
But…
(To be continued on Wednesday 01/26 and Friday 01/28. Read But…Part 1.)
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But… (Part 1)
On Friday 01/07/2011 myself, my husband, our 17 month old daughter, my mother, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my 7 month old nephew embarked on a road trip from PA to FL to surprise my grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary. I had visions of sleeping in and sitting around the vacation villa writing blog posts to my little heart’s content while my daughter played with her cousin and was supervised by the four other adults present. BUT…things didn’t quite work out like that. This is my story… Pay no attention to the sleeping old woman with the monkey on her head, this photo is about me having the flu.
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…
Despite getting the flu shot my darling Cool Daddy had caught my flu. He had managed to keep it away all week while he was taking care of me, but on Friday it hit him. He got worse as the night went on and he was coughing and sniffling and just plain tired. He hadn’t taken any medicine because he needed to drive. Good thing we would be driving straight through and getting to FL on Saturday afternoon so that my man and my baby girl could get some much needed sleep. But…
(To be continued on Monday 01/24, Wednesday 01/26, and Friday 01/28)
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Fun and Dysfunction 