Trippin'

Last week, our little family hit the road to visit old friends who live about 10 hours away.  The drive there was relatively uneventful...when Babydoll was sleeping.  BD and I took turns keeping her company in the backseat, while the other drove.  It was a mostly peaceful journey.

BD had a doctor's appointment that couldn't be rescheduled, so he had to leave us a couple days early.  For weeks, I'd been seriously worried about taking that long drive back on my own.  He's so much more patient than I am (in my opinion, he is the better parent for that reason and so many more).  I worried that she would sleep the whole time, then be up all night when we got back home.  I worried that she wouldn't sleep at all and just scream at me the whole time.  I worried about everything.

I got a taste of what it might be like when we drove back to our friends' house, after dropping him off at the airport.  It's about a 75-minute drive, and Babydoll was extremely unhappy the entire trip.  She cried and screamed and let me know that things were not good in her world.  I stopped once and checked her diaper, offered her water and milk, a pouch of applesauce, toys, you name it - I tried it.  I stopped again about 20 minutes later.  I pulled her out of the car seat and just hugged her.  Hugged, and rocked, and sang, and said every soothing thing I could think of.  Once she calmed down, we took a short walk and checked out some interesting things on the ground and up in the sky.  I put her back in the car seat and she started again.  I figured that we couldn't live in the parking lot of Freemark Abbey for the rest of our lives, so I shook off my own tears and hit the gas.

She fell asleep 10 minutes before we arrived back at our friends' house.  Of course.

As much as I hated that drive, I'm thankful that we had it, because it told me I better get my shit together and have a better strategy for when we drove home.

We left town on time, and I had my armory in place.  Babydoll's car seat is rear-facing and in the middle of the back seat, so it's pretty easy for me to watch her in the monkey mirror and hand stuff to her from the driver's seat.  Here's how I rocked it:

• I had a sippy of water and one of milk in my cup holders.
• I kept a box of Bunny Grahams in the front seat and handed her a couple at a time.
• I dressed her in stretchy leggings and a t-shirt, no shoes.
• I had an extensive playlist of Adele, Jeff Buckley, Heart, Kings of Leon, Zac Brown Band, Bruno Mars, Plumb, Eva Cassidy, Indigo Girls and Neil Diamond set up on shuffle (she has eclectic taste).
• I took my time - we took a leisurely lunch at the family-friendly Harris Ranch.
• I kept a box of toys in the front seat.  I'd hand her one and when she got bored with that, I'd hand her another one.  The box held a mix of books, stuffed animals, noisy toys, quiet toys and a MagnaDoodle.  When I stopped for gas/lunch/peepees, I'd gather all the toys and refill the box, then start over when we began driving again.

I don't know if all of the above really worked, or if she just sensed that Mama really needed her help in getting us home safely, but we had such a nice drive back.  

Until I got a ticket.  Sigh.  "But officer, it didn't feel like I was going that fast."