our weekend

Well I guess I hadn't mentioned our weekend plans. Perhaps you stopped by here over the weekend and saw my cryptic post below. I figured out how to text messages to the blog from my phone, and that was a desperate, silent, cry for help.

We drove over to see Jim's mom for the weekend. It's usually about a 3 or 3.5 hour drive. Our first road trip with the babies. She lives by a big lake east of the mountains. It's a beautiful area. She's been giving us tons of guilt about how she never sees her grandchildren. She last came over to see them in December, and we had not yet been to her house with the babies. Oh but let's not mention the fact that she is the one that a) is retired and b) doesn't have to do the drive with 2 screaming babies in the car. But that doesn't seem to matter - she won't come visit us again until we have come to visit her. whatever.

Aaaannnyyyy waaaay, I digress.

I think flying with babies is easier than driving with them. People get all nervous about taking a flight with a baby. But ours have been easy so far. Because on a plane you can get them out of their seats and hold them and play with them and feed them. In a car you are all just trapped. Like rats. In a trap.

So my plan had been to leave right before afternoon nap time on friday. I thought we'd get the car all packed up, get them fed, and then hit the road. My hope was that they would take their afternoon nap in the car. Not sure what made me so delusional.

They napped for about a half hour. Then they were awake looking out the window and playing with toys for a while (I must have brought every toy we own). About 2 hours in Callie started to lose it. So we pulled over to the side of the road and got them out and I nursed them both. This helped for a while, she was ok for maybe another 1/2 hour. But for the last hour of the drive she just wasn't having it. I kept turning around, trying to give her a pacifier, letting her suck my finger, stroking her head, shaking toys at her. She had just had it. Finally we just had to let her scream. And Danny chimed in too for the last 1/2 hour. It was afwul. By the time we got there they had mostly cried themselves out. They were both gasping for air because they'd been sobbing so much. Their little eyes were red and puffy. Their noses were snotty. It was sad. I felt like a terrible parent - like we'd been torturing them.

The weekend was fine. It was really warm, they actually got to play with less clothes on than they've ever had before. They got passed around a lot and managed pretty well. Relatives and their friends tend to get a little annoyed when you put them down for naps though. Like they think you should keep the babies awake to provide the entertainment. They don't seem to realize that two screaming overtired babies wouldn't be very entertaining. But otherwise everyone mostly behaved. I was all prepared for some passive-agressive comments about the fact that I'm still nursing, how long was I planning to do that, etc., and really we didn't get any of that. A few "oh you're feeding them again?" type comments, but that's it.

I had been a little conflicted about what to take to feed them solid meals in. I ended up taking our one Bumbo seat with the tray, and that worked great for Danny. Callie arches out of that thing too much, so I don't put her in it. And for Callie I took this thing that attaches to the table, and it was perfect. We took two portable cribs for them to sleep in. I was a little worried about how they'd sleep, because at home they still share a crib. But they're too big now to share a portable crib. And they did ok sleeping apart. I think they were tired enough each night that it was ok.

Then there was the drive home....

Callie started in within the first hour. It was off and on for 2.5 hours. My neck is sore today from constantly turning around to try to soothe her. We finally stopped for a break at Snoqualmie Pass, about an hour from home. Danny had been screaming for about a half hour by then two. They were so happy to be out of their car seats. Callie was practically giddy, she was so excited to just be out. We all got to stretch, get some fresh air. I nursed both babies. And then the real fun started.

Danny spit up all down my back in the front seat of the car. Covered my shirt. Filled the seat of the car. I wiped it down as best I could with baby wipes. But I'm sure my car will forever smell like sour milk.

Then I was changing him on the front seat. I had just gotten his diaper off. And I remember noticing that the diaper seemed pretty dry, thinking that he hadn't peed much. So then he let it flow. Peed all over his clothes, sent a perfect stream right into his left eye and ear. Filled the pad. Jim and I were laughing so hard we could hardly stand. And he just laid there with the funniest look on his face. I would have thought that pee in the eye would burn, but it didn't seem to bother him. He just looked sort of insulted. Like "This is just great. Could my day really have gotten any worse?". Half a pack of wipes later, we got him all cleaned up, dressed in clean clothes.

Next was Callie's turn. And wouldn't you know it - she peed as soon as I got her diaper off too! Hers actually soaked through the pad and got onto the seat of the car. So I picked her up and Jim's holding, with her bottom half naked in the breeze, while I try to clean up the car seat with wipes. We then spread another fresh pad on the hood of the car and got her cleaned up and dressed.

We all got tucked back in the car, babies settled with toys, taking a deep breath and start to drive away. And as the car starts to move - the pad from the hood flips up onto the windshield - in all the chaos we had forgotten to put that one away.

We finally eventually made it home and the babies slept for the last half hour. We were exhausted. It will be a while before I feel like making a road trip again.