Indiana trip

We survived our first road trip -- and what an experience it was!

Let's start with Friday morning when we left around 9:15 am:

About 15 minutes from home, I make the silly comment to Mark: "Wouldn't it be just terrible if baby boy made a blowout diaper mess in his car seat while we are on the road? What would we do? We don't have any extra car seat liners." And Mark said: "Well, I think you just got what you asked for." Next thing I know, we're in the Brunswick McDonald's to solve Crisis #1 of our trip: The bathroom was so tiny and had an angled Koala Care changing table that made him keep sliding down towards me as I cleaned him up. Trying to keep my cool (I've done this a million times, right?), a McDonald's employee came out of a stall and said "Boy she's chubby, you're sure feeding her well. How much does she weigh? She's so pretty. What's her name?" I said: "HIS name is ALEX. HE weighs 12 lbs." What I wanted to say: "He's healthy lady! So what that he likes his bottle! His Dr. is happy. You want to see his messy butt?" Lesson learned: Pack Shout wipes or a Tide pen in my diaper bag for the future. (And I was positive that I had everything I could possibly need in there...)

Then, we decided to go ahead and feed Alex since he started acting hungry, and then we got back on the road. By this time it was about 10:30. Needed to fill up with gas about another hour down the road. Then another hour goes by, and we stopped to 'Noodle' in Columbus. Diane and I always joke about Noodles & Company, so an inside joke there... If you've never eaten at a Noodles & Co., go! By this time, I think we had been on the road for about 4 hours, and we were only in Columbus. Hubby & baby boy slept for about 3 hours while I drove us all the way to Indy. Thank goodness we made up some time. Stopped to feed Alex again in Indy at a Burger King, had a diaper change in the trunk of the Mazda because BK didn't have a bathroom changing table (what in the world?), and on our way again. Needed gas again when we reached Terre Haute, and Alex had another messy diaper! We usually only get one per day, but since we were traveling, of course he wanted to surprise us. He cried and cried and cried and cried until Sullivan when IT happened:

Meltdown #1: 6 hours in his car seat was all he could handle. As he cried off & on, Mark and I just let him cry. But then, he got louder, and his face started turning red, and I couldn't calm him down. Then, he started gasping for air and his face started turning blue. I scream: "Pull over!!!" On Johnson street, I pull him out of the car seat, hold him, & kiss him. He calms down, but then has these after shakes, which freak me out, so I start crying. Motherly love told me he deprived his little brain of oxygen and was now having miniature seizures. We were miles from home -- oh God what will we do? Mark told me to stop freaking out, took baby Alex, hushed him to sleep, and we continued to Oaktown when we finally made it to Magic Mimi's house (more on that later...) I've got to chill out. I'm still learning how to be a Mom.

9 hours later (I was right about my car trip length prediction), Alex meets Mimi and she says: "He's so pretty!" Everyone thinks he is pretty. Mark's Grandma Rose says that he has perfect little baby features. Rose's nursing home friend asked what HER name was too... He's a boy! He's a boy! But I'm not getting all bent out of shape -- because yeah, he is kind of pretty. Mommy is biased on his cute factor though.

So Mimi wants to feed him, and hold him, and kiss him. I was so happy that she finally got to meet him. Auntie D was there too, and she was dying to hold him as well. Then, my Mom comes in from work, and she heads straight to baby Alex. No "Hi Sweetie, how was your trip?" -- straight to the baby. Lesson learned: No one tells you that after you have a new baby, your existence is barely there anymore. So, I joke and say Hi Mom, nice to see you!! After we made it to Mom & Dad's house, I dug out my baby book to learn about a future timeline for when to expect other milestones from Alex. It seems that I was crawling at 7 1/2 months, walking at 10 1/2 months, and teething at 11 months. Potty trained before I gave up the bottle though...

On Saturday -- we spend the entire day at Mimi's. We have Oscar's breaded tenderloins for lunch that were the size of a basketball. It's not a visit home unless I have a breaded tenderloin. Barb & the girls arrive. Barb takes him and sheds a few tears. It was enough for my own waterworks to start flowing. The girls each hold him, and we had a yummy cookout for supper. We named Mimi "Magic Mimi" this evening because no matter how mad Alex was, when she took him, he calmed down and slept. We truly tried to convince her that she needed to come back to Cleveland with us.

Sunday -- we visit Tiff, Nick, and Spencer in TH. Spencer is sooo cute! He's a year older than Alex. We have some Italian Beef for lunch (yum!), and have a nice visit. Back to Mimi's Sunday night for some more Alex time with the family, and we have some Bobe's pizza. Gosh, I love their pizza. We take our 4 generations picture with Alex, me, Dad, and Mimi. In one of the pictures, Mimi is looking straight at Alex. Just like Mark's Grandma Rose did in the 4 generations pictures we took of his family. :)

Mom's friend Debbie had a granddaughter Myrah who was born 3 days before Alex, and she wanted to get the babies together while we were home. Myrah comes over, and the 2 babies cry at each other. Ha! And Myrah's already on solids -- eating sweet potatoes!! So she's of course sleeping 8-10 hours at a time. (Sounds pretty tempting huh?) But Alex's doctor hasn't even approached us about eating solids. We're positive that he's getting all the nutrients that he needs right now in his formula. So, we will continue our regimen.

Monday -- Molly comes over to visit with Alex. We had an awesome visit. I think she liked him. :) Then, Mom wanted to take baby boy to her work to show her friends. He has a crying fest at the hospital. He had hardly napped all day, and I think today was the day where he had enough of being shuffled around everywhere because he was just cranky. Went to Zander's for lunch. 3 words: pistachio ice cream! I can say with 100% confidence that this was the first public place that I noticed stares while Alex was having another crying fit. It bothered me for a brief second, and then I didn't care anymore. After we left, we have car Meltdown #2 right before Apple hill orchard. Mom consoles him while Mark and I sneak inside to get a cherry pie and some peaches to take back to Cleveland with us. He was still pretty upset as we left, so Mom takes him out of his car seat again and walks around with him out of the car. Took Mom to Cecil's to get Dad's truck, and I went to visit Papa's grave. Had a nice chat with him. I was already pretty sad, so it seemed like a good time to visit him since I knew I'd just cry again when I got there. Told Papa that I was still tired. He always used to tease me about being "born tired". Told him about baby Alex being too cranky to meet him right now. Told him what a great Pepaw my Dad was. Told him to take care of Stephanie's baby Kaia, my friend Travis, Holly's Dad, and Michael Jackson. Told him that I had been surrounded by many deaths lately, and it's been really hard. Told him that I loved him, kissed his grave stone, and I left. Had a nice chat for 2 hours with my Mom outside that evening while Mark fed Alex. And he finally slept for most of the rest of the night. Literally 6 hours in a row...

Tuesday -- going home. I think we were ready. Alex was ready for sure. He sure needs his cradle swing by this point. We have an awesome breakfast and chat with Mimi. She makes us coffee, toast, english muffins with peach jelly & blackberry jam (a new addiction of mine, which is strange because I loathe blackberries). We talk about life. Life with Alex, life in our careers, life, life, life.... I love these discussions. Mark and I agreed in the car ride home how much we really enjoyed that breakfast with Mimi. I will remember it for the rest of my life. Mimi gives us another tractor that was Papa's for Alex's expanding tractor collection started by my Dad. I love his tractor collection. It represents our side of the family.

In Terre Haute, we fill up with gas for the long trip home, and get some lunch. Long John Silvers was giving away free baja tacos that day, so we head there. Mark and I dub the "LJS incident" of which we laugh about for at least an hour together while Alex slept. It was silly laughing too; he described it as 'dating again' laughing. I think we just have been so stressed about making it through this trip, and out of our home element, that we were entirely slap happy. But man, was it fun!

Meltdown #3 happened in Indianapolis. Baby boy started making his faces again. The freakout faces. We pull over on Washington street. I pull him out, he calms down, we wait about 30 minutes, put him back in his car seat, and he freaks out again. Then, I just went ahead and gave him a cold bottle because we were trying to make it to Auntie D's to give him a bottle, but he just wasn't going to settle down. Finish feeding him in the park, and then head to D's. By this time, we'd been on the road for 4 hours, and we were only in Indianapolis.

Meltdown #4 happened at an Ohio taco bell. Mad, mad, mad. If Alex isn't sleeping or enjoying the 'Mr. Ribbit show' in his car seat, then he is mad. Mark finally gets the Pina Colada drink he's been wanting from Taco Bell, we feed Alex the final bottle we had packed (please God don't let him want another bottle), and we had another 'trunk of the Mazda' diaper change. Mark coined our ride as a bunch of traveling hilljacks. Seriously, the trunk was packed with a bunch of baby stuff, sweet corn, peaches, etc. and a make-shift diaper changing station. We laugh absurdly again.

Now, I normally don't break the law intentionally. Sure I speed like the rest of them, but when you have meltdowns #5, #6, & #7 (we will name them the 'almost home' meltdowns), you take your baby out of his car seat and calm him down while driving. You drive the speed limit instead, you put on your defensive driver frame-of-mind, you calm him down, and then you put him back in his seat. We finally get home around 11 pm. Another 9 hour trip...

Lesson learned: For road trips, I definitely need a pack n play, our pitcher mixer (if a fridge is available), extra travel size diaper wipes, nursery water, my bottle brush, and stain remover. I DON'T necessarily need a bottle warmer (Alex drinks cold bottles just fine).

All in all, it was an exciting, stressful, emotional, exhausting, elating, joyful, summer-fun filled adventure!