On the Road: Installment Three

We arrived safely at my parents' house late Monday night; Mission Accomplished! Our plans had been to drive as far as we could based on Lydia's temperment and our energy level, and it turns out "as far as we could" was all the way. We rolled into Forest Lake at 3 AM to find two very excited grandparents, and we were very glad we didn't have to do the hotel thing and then drive more the next day. (We did have an interesting encounter with a police officer at 2:30 AM when we missed the speed limit change coming into St. Paul. Turns out that speeding through a city in Minnesota in the middle of the night with an infant makes you look a little suspicious. The Texas driver's license and plates did not help. We couldn't figure out why he was drilling us with such questions as "How long are you going to be here?" "Why are you traveling?" and "Where are you coming from?"--Robin said he felt like we were crossing the border rather than cruising through St. Paul--until we later came to the conclusion that he may have thought we'd stolen Lydia. She is pretty cute.)

Our trip so far has been wonderful. As I'm sure I make pretty obvious, I am a Minnesota girl at heart; Robin and I both feel the pull to the Midwest pretty strongly. The 70s and 80s days are a welcome change to the 100+ weather we had all last week, and introducing Lydia to family and friends that I have known since I was in junior high or high school has been so rewarding and fun! (When I saw the person I sat next to in band my senior year, and he asked with shock, "Is that yours?") We also had the chance to go out to dinner with some very good friends who had a baby in May; Lydia loved meeting Sam! (Yes, Laqua family... Lydia had a date with Sam. How coincidental? For the non-Laquas, my great-grandma Lydia is Lydia's namesake, and she was married to great-grandpa Sam!)

I also have to say that Lydia traveled extremely well. Only towards the end did she get fussy, and after spending 19 hours in a carseat, I would have been fussy, too. We managed to make the trip in about the same time frame we would sans baby, fueled by our willpower and the handy battery-powered Medela Swing pump. I had prepared a few bottles for the road and sat in the backseat with Lydia almost the whole way. (Normally, Robin and I always sit in the front together, but we figured between feeding, pumping, and having to entertain Lydia, a backseat rider was necessary.) I would feed her, pump to make up for the ounces she ate, play with her a bit, and then she would snooze until the next feeding. We got home, and after being rocked by some very excited grandparents, she went to bed. I am also glad to say that by the next night, she was right back on her regular sleep schedule, something I was very worried about.

Only those with infants that share Lydia's dependence on swaddling will appreciate this: WE FORGOT THE SWADDLE-ME!!! For those not in the know, the Swaddle-Me blanket is an amazing contraption that velcroes around babies to keep them secure at night. Lydia tends to startle and wake herself up, so swaddling is really helpful, but she is so strong, that she busts out of any sort of wrap we try to do ourselves, hence the Swaddle-Me. We did manage to improvise with a large blanket and some reinforcement that I will not specify here, due to my guilt over "reinforcing" something keeping my baby's arms and legs restricted, but it did the trick until we made it to Babies 'r' Us yesterday for a new Swaddle-Me.

Photos will be coming; I just wanted to check in!