Sunday, October 4, 2015

Road trippin'

I wrote this on 8/16/15 and then couldn't upload the pictures since my parents live in the middle of nowhere... And then things got busy and I forgot about it! So this is a bit old, but still cute!

With my sister getting married in a few weeks, Big A and I had to travel back to Michigan for the start of the wedding festivities. Since J couldn't come for as long as I needed to be there, my dad bravely drove out to get us and drive us back. He ended up coming out a day earlier than planned even to fix our AC!

This was my temporary jury rig until my dad could get there.
Super Grandpa!

It just so happened that my girlfriend was also visiting that weekend to meet Al - so we had a houseful, which is always fun!

On Monday my dad, A, and I hit the road. She had been super ornery all morning and wasn't napping, so I was hopeful that she'd nap for a while in the car.
Success!!
Aaaaaand about 15 min later. Whomp whomp.

We made it about an hour and a half or so and had to stop because cranky pants was fussing. Little did we know this was happening:
Al's first blowout!

And of course it happened on the road where I had to clean her up with baby wipes in a gas station parking lot. Nothing to see here folks! Just making memories!
Road trip outfit #2

We had to stop a few more times, were stopped on the Tollway in Ohio due to an overturned semi, and had to pull off to a rest area because of a rain storm that was so bad we couldn't see, but ultimately stopped somewhere in Ohio for the night with a super exhausted baby who had maybe slept 1.5 hours of the 7 hours we were on the road? She had a meltdown in the room and I put her to bed by 9:30 where she completely passed out finally. Around 2:30am she started fussing so I got up to feed her, which of course woke my dad up too. When he came back from the bathroom he flipped his pillow over and happened to notice a little bug on it - which he grabbed and smashed. And then he got looking in his bed and found another one - which he took into the bathroom to inspect... And wouldn't you know it? Bedbugs. Insert my horrified face here.

So at that point we're up and there is no way we're going back to sleep - except for Al who was done eating and already zonked again. Awesome! What do you do at 3am with a sleeping baby and bedbugs? You hit the road apparently - after you complain to the night manager, get your money back, procure a bunch of trash bags to bag up everything in the room, shower, and then try to carefully load your sleeping baby into the car seat that has become her own personal little prison (in her mind). The silver lining to all of that was that A slept for 2 hours straight in the car until it got light out!

Trying to trick her into sleeping longer

A few more stops and we were home before noon thanks to our early, early departure time - which was great since then we had to do 5 loads of laundry on hot to kill any bedbugs or eggs that might have hitched a ride.
We made it to Grammi!
All my bites showed up 24 hours later and are still hanging on 7 days later. Hopefully they're gone by the wedding!

So yeah. The trip was basically terrible - but we made it! Al has been sleeping in various boxes and suitcases since then because we are trying to make sure there aren't any bedbugs on her pack n' play. 
Baby in a suitcase!
Baby in a box!

Just shows how adaptable babies are! Wish us luck for the rest of this trip - we need all the luck we can get based on that first leg!