First Road Trip ... with two Kids

Last Sunday G's nose started running.  Then he started coughing.  I was very aware of D and did not want him getting sick.  But it's a cold.  It's airborne.  And G loves his brother.  I tried to keep them apart for the most part, but there was no keeping D from catching it.  By Monday D was coughing some and spitting up phlegmish milk.

Monday night G also discovered he could climb out of his bed and not get back in it, and sit by the gate.  He was up and down all night long.  I slept none at all.  Literally, none.  Between waking to feed D and putting G back in his room twice and listening to him cry outside the gate or slamming his bedroom door ... it was a nightmare.

So the next day, I was a bit frazzled.  Both kids were sick.  We were supposed to drive to New Mexico on Wednesday.  I can't travel with two kids.  What do we do?

I went so far as buying myself airfare and pumping at every opportunity to provide enough food for the 9 hours I would be gone to attend Dad's retirement by myself.  Tuesday was just not a good day.  I was exhausted.

Tuesday night, God took pity on me, as it usually happens.  Just when you hit a breaking point, something will happen to ease your burden a bit.  In my case, D slept for 6 hours, and Lewis turned the door knob hardware around so that the lock was on the outside of his room, and we just locked him in. He hated it.  But he screamed for ten minutes and then went to bed.  The whole night.

So Wednesday was a much better morning.  I woke up not feeling like run over dog poop.  And decided it was my father's retirement; we all had to be there.  So I called and canceled the airfare I'd bought, repurchased one in Lewis's name (who had already changed his work calendar to where he had appointments he couldn't break), and I ran through the house throwing clothes in bags and got us in the car by 10AM.

13 hours later, I made it to ABQ.  It's a 10 hour drive.

Logistically driving with two small kids is a nightmare.  Every stop I had to change two diapers, carry two kids into the disgusting road side restrooms so I could go.  Feed the baby for practically half an hour, and then find something to feed G and then myself.  I stopped four times.  Probably 30minutes to an hour stops.

Pleasantly both kids were angels.  D cried some but as he's a professional, he'd cry, I wouldn't help him, he'd give up and go to sleep.  G actually took a two hour nap in the middle of the day and he played with the ipad and watched movies and looked at trucks and trains.  Super pleasant.

The way home?  Not so much.

But we made it in 11 hours with two adults.  G didn't nap and didn't sleep until the sun went down.  He was exhausted and moody and grumpy and wanted to go home, or back to Gramma's or to the bounce house or anywhere other than his carseat I think.  D was, as ever, the true professional, and slept.

So I highly recommend two things ... ipads and rest stops.  Rest stops along highway 287 are really nice and they have grassy areas for playing and benches and they are just better.  I think this is why they exist.  Only bad thing here is you have to get gas at another stop.  So that sort of sucks.

I managed it.  I did it.  Sometimes I think I do these ridiculously tedious things just so I can throw my every day life into perspective.