First Road Trip

Last weekend, we decided to take a road trip to Abilene for our college's homecoming weekend and Jimmy's 10th reunion. There were all sorts of choir events going on, and our old choir director is retiring this year, so we wanted to be there to see him one last time, as well.

The trip is usually about 5.5-6 hours from Houston to Abilene, but we figured it would take longer with a nursing infant. Boy, did it ever! Our first mistake was timing our getaway. Caroline typically nurses every 2.5 hours from the start of one feeding to the start of the next. So if I nurse her for 30 minutes, we have a two-hour window for travel.

The goal was to wake up, get the car packed, feed Caroline, and load her up as soon as she was done nursing. Unfortunately, that didn't quite happen, and by the time we finally got on the road, we had already lost an hour of our window. So we had to stop an hour or so into our trip to nurse. Fortunately, we found a great park where Jimmy and Anna could go run around, and the weather was delightful, so I just rolled down the windows and fed Caroline in the car. She seemed to like the breeze, and I got some great smiles and coos while we sat there.

Shortly after that stop, it was time for lunch, so we had to stop again. Then we had to make a pit stop about an hour later, and Caroline was ready to nurse again an hour after that. So 4 hours into our trip, we had already stopped 4 times! I was getting concerned that we'd NEVER get there! Fortunately, after the second time we stopped, Caroline decided to take a nice, long nap, so we made it to Abilene without having to stop again.

Friday night, we had a choir barbeque followed by a rehearsal. After an hour or so of rehearsal, it became abundantly clear that Caroline was not going to just hang out with me, so I decided to take her to the nursery that was provided. She stayed there for about an hour and did okay, but they did say she fussed some. By the time I got there to check on her, she was just starting to really wail, so I fed her again and decided to take her back to the hotel for the evening. I'm really glad I got to sing in that rehearsal, though, since I didn't get to sing in any of the events that weekend. It was amazing singing with our old college group. From the moment Doc raised his hands for the first time that evening, the sound was gorgeous, and it was like we had never been away.

Saturday morning, Jimmy sang in an alumni concert, and then Anna, Caroline and I went with some friends to pick out bridesmaid's dresses for my friend Joyce's wedding. Joyce's fiance was with us, and the poor guy ended up pulling childcare duty for my kids and my friend Angie's two kids. I started trying on dresses first, since Caroline was asleep in her carseat (a rare treat!). Of course, as soon as I got myself halfway buckled into the steel-belted undergarment the saleslady had given me (I swear, it had about 60 hooks on it!), Caroline woke up and screamed. She timed it just perfectly so that there were no women around, so Nathan had to take her out and figure out what to do with her. He did a great job bouncing and rocking and making little noises to try to settle her down. I told Joyce that any guy who would work that hard to comfort a baby he'd never even met before was definitely a keeper! nathan said he saw it as "practice"!

Saturday night, we went to an alumni banquet, where Jimmy got to sing with the alumni choir again. After that, we went to All School SING, and Caroline did great while we were there! Sunday morning, we drove to Sweetwater to attend church with some friends and then ate lunch at their house before heading home.

The drive home actually went MUCH better than the drive up there. I nursed Caroline before we left, and then we put her in the car and went. She made it about 3 hours before she woke up wanting to eat, and then she made it the rest of the way (over 4 hours!) without needing to stop again. We got home Sunday night around 11:00 after finally leaving Abilene at about 4:00 -- not too bad!