ROAD TRIP!

I know, I know. You are thinking "Are you nuts? Going on a road trip with a one month old?" And the answer is "yes I am."

Thursday we packed up the car and headed from Dallas to Galveston to introduce Emily to my grandmother. The night before I sorted through all of the baby stuff, decided what we needed and piled everything so high we could have had an amazing bonfire.

I had to have plenty of cute outfits to show off in but Mike made me parse 20 outfits down to 8 (for a 3 day trip mind you...) And no I am not talking about outfits for myself, but outfits for the baby. A weird thing happens when you have a daughter. You don't really care so much what your outfit looks like anymore. You just want to make sure she is the best dressed gal in the room. As long as she looks cute, who cares if you do? I swear, no one looks at me anymore. And I find that somewhat appalling given that I have more cleavage than I have ever dreamed of having. But whatever, Emily is the star, and if that means I can get away with not wearing makeup, I am surprisingly ok with it!

Although we planned to leave around 11 it was well past 1 when we left and we had to pick up lunch on the road. Emily was great. She went to sleep and stayed asleep all the way to Buckees outside of Houston. We parked in the back of the parking lot so I could feed her, which was uneventful. But then I tried to change her diaper. I pulled out a changing pad and laid it on the back seat to change her.

For those of you who have read my previous blogs I would like to reference the Exorcist Incident. Now, lucky for me there was no spit up this time, just explosive poop. And we were in Mike's brand new 4Runner. Now, also lucky for me, I managed to catch it all in the diaper and on the changing pad, bub Baby Emily ended up with a onesy covered in poo. So we cleaned off the changing pad, laid it on the concrete next to the car, pulled off the onesy and got that diaper changed. Outfit changed and smelling like baby wipes, Emily happily went right back to sleep in the car seat while Mike and I hightailed it out of there praying no one took down our license plate and called CPS.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, but the evening gets better. We arrived safely in Galveston at my grandmother's house and took baby inside to meet her. We ate dinner, then got my 88 year old grandmother situated in a chair with a boppy pillow. We handed her the baby and a pacifier, then went out to the car to get all of our luggage. As I pulled the door shut behind me I thought, uh oh! But before I could catch it, the door shut. AND LOCKED. So we were locked outside with no key, and my grandmother was locked inside with a baby in her lap, unable to get up to let us in.

And the moment I realized we were locked out, Emily started bawling at the top of her lungs. I panicked. Mike didn't. By the grace of God, he had left his cell phone in the car. I called my mother. She immediately set to work calling her siblings who live in Galveston. Meanwhile I am yelling through the window at my grandmother. "We locked ourselves out. Can you hear me? Don't try to get up!"

My aunt and uncle arrived about 5 minutes later to let us in. Emily was still crying. Apparently she threw her pacifier on the ground and then flailed about wildly at my poor grandmother. All in all, it was a non incident, but hearing that baby cry and being powerless to reach her was definitely emotionally trying!

The rest of the trip went really well. Emily got to meet one of my cousin's, several aunts and uncles, and of course, my grandmother, who might have been as traumatized as I was by the whole experience. We got a picture with 4 generations - My grandmother, my mom, me, and Emily.

The ride back was pretty easy. Emily slept the whole way again - with only one stop to feed. I had a great time in Galveston, but getting home was definitely a relief. It is just much easier to handle a baby when you are in your own space, in your own routine. And of course, having a nanny sure helps too.