Driving 500 miles with a two month old, a 21 month old, and a German Shepherd is about as much fun as a root canal. I think. I’ve never had a root canal (and hope not to), but I’m sticking with the cliched saying despite my dental inexperience. My parents live in Sacramento. We live in San Diego. Sacramento seems close because we used to live on the East coast, but every time we make the drive up North I’m reminded that eight to ten hours in a car is actually a really long time, and when you factor in breastfeeding, diaper changes, screaming children, and a smelly dog, the trip can seem like an eternity.
But we had a bright idea, a genius way around this nightmare. We would simply drive at night, the time when the kids usually sleep, and they would rest peacefully in their car seats. We’d stop for bathroom breaks and night-time feedings, but Henry can go 3, sometimes 4, hours at night between feedings, as opposed to the 2 hour day-time schedule. Meanwhile, Dave and I would quietly listen to podcasts and congratulate ourselves on our picture perfect all-American family.
We really were that naive. About half-way through the trip, as Amelia and Henry alternated screams, and Dave tried to keep his eyes from falling shut, we admitted that this was a failed experiment. Let me break down all the break downs. Yes, the kids were tired and did fall asleep in their car seats, but they did not go quietly. Amelia has been sleeping through the night since she was 9 months old, recently had a early morning set back, but after some sleep consulting, is now again sleeping from roughly 6:30pm to 6am most nights. Why did we mess with that!? She let out tired why are you making me sleep in this car seat screams for much of the trip. Meanwhile, Henry, wee little baby, hated being in the car seat, not a hatred we could make go away all together, but poor guy got his typical evening gas and didn’t have either one of us to help him out.
Okay, so dealing with screaming tired babies was bad, but we also overlooked one giant flaw in our experiment. Driving at night meant we would also be staying up. We = very tired parents who can use all the sleep we can get. Plus, Dave had a night flight before this and my ability to see in the dark is bad, very bad, to say the least (and I am saying the least). As we stopped for coffee at midnight, this flaw dawned on us for the first time. Why oh why were we driving at night? We should be sleeping, not sitting in a shady gas station as I nursed an upset Henry underneath a giant billboard advertising a bare elegance strip club (classy, I’m sure). Whipping out a boob in the middle of the night in a not so nice LA neighborhood is not something I recommend.
We got here safely a few days ago. The kids have caught up on their sleep (although I quickly put the kibosh on my parents’ plan to transition Amelia to a big girl bed. Did I mention I don’t want to mess with a good thing?). We are still tired parents, but tired parents who now get help and can enjoy a hot tub, so all in all, a successful trip despite our poor prior planning. Now if I could only do something about all the annoying dogs here….
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Poor Mommy and Daddy! Glad you made it up to Sac safely and got to enjoy some grandparent help. We got a whole hour to ourselves last night–after I’d managed to pump enough for the six-week-old to stay home with Grandma and we’d finally convinced our cough-riddled cranky 2.5-year-old to stay in bed and then missed the movie we’d hoped to see (haha)–anything we can get, we’ll take it, right?! If you haven’t already gone home, wave toward San Jose on your way :)
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