road trip success

We're still recovering from our jam-packed weekend in St. Louis around here because it was certainly one of the most fun trips we've had. And traveling in the car for 6+hours with a newborn turned out to be no big deal. My meticulous planning and lists and packing days in advance definitely helped make it as painless as possible. Not only did we fit all of our crap, baby gear, and three humans in the car but canine brother Henry got to make the trip, too! Yes, we are just that crazy, folks.

So we left at 6:30 pm on Friday after a long day at work and daycare. Truman was fast asleep in his car seat by 7:00 and although we kept sneaking peaks into the back seat he did not wake up one time during the entire trip down! We stopped once for gas and scurried around like crazy just in case he would wake up without the motion of the car but he continued to snooze away like a champ. Henry, of course, was another story and perched next to Truman's car seat all the way down with his chin on the edge of the seat watching over Truman and refusing to sleep. His panting and horrid breath probably put Truman in a trance, now that I think of it.

When we got to St. Louis at 12:30 am Truman did wake up famished and needed to feed for a good while. He was a bit confused and wanted to smile and play but we convinced him to go back to sleep a bit longer as we crashed from exhaustion.

The next day, my Mom drove to St. Louis after dropping my dad off to golf with Nate and the boys in the 'burbs. The photos began that morning because I could NOT get over how much these babies have changed before our eyes since their last meeting!













They are madly in love, obvi, and will probably date someday if their parents allow it.

My dad hasn't gotten to see Truman in the flesh (aside from Skype dates and whatnot) since they were at the hospital for his birth! It was pretty cool to see my dad's eyes take in the big baby boy that is his grandson. Too bad my brother had to work or we could have had an official family photo! Truman is very concerned about Uncle Michael here, as you can see.


First grandchild=lots of kissing.


Then Tilly-n-Truman decided to entertain us by their cuteness. Since Tilly is a big girl and can sit up (and roll, and eat her feet, and be generally adorable) we had to prop Truman in their Bumbo. It was a hit for about 2 minutes then a major meltdown struck and it was over. :)




But wait....Tilly has the Baby Einstein Jumparoo that we have as well (because I copied Hannah's registry items, duh!). Just for fun we tried to put Truman in it even though I assumed he was too little for this beast but with a little blanket to hold his trunk up for him we found ourselves the next new toy in Truman's life. We set our jumparoo up right when we got home on Monday...videos to come. He LOVES it and it's super cute to watch him take in all the toys. In fact, he just started to successfully grab objects and pull them into his mouth. Literally, this is a new trick he learned from Tilly or something because it's only been happening consistently since our trip. SO CUTE.




Oh, and we went to eat lunch down the street at Square One and braved the 95 degree heat like champs. This is how we toted our babes around town that day.




Had a little BBQ that night with more friends, said goodbye to my parents, and caught some z's as able. Then we headed to brunch the next morning at Sqwires and of course we had to get this shot of the gals. Baby Nora is just 3 weeks old on the left and Kristen is due next month on the right! Lindsey is holding it down for the non-mom/non-pregnant population out there and I'm sure she doesn't feel the pressure AT ALL with our bunch. :)


The boys and their kids. Why do pics like these make my heart hurt?


Nate popped Truman's collar despite my protesting. Only Truman can pull it off with gusto and look cute while crying, right? :)


Baby Nora passed out and SO teeny ! I just wanted to eat her up.


Truman made a new friend and since we have the orange version of this toy at home, it came out from the shelves when we came back, too. So many new toys and friends!


This one cracks me up for some reason. It's like he's a little man just sitting tight with the ladies.


That afternoon the boys were going to golf (again---lucky men for having such cool wives) but we really wanted to take the babies to the neighborhood pool first. This involved us waking Truman from a nap which has the potential for disaster but actually, he was totally fine with it. We really just wanted to see how he'd react to a pool since bath time is usually happy time but sometimes it causes meltdowns. And plus, we got him a ridiculously cute swimming suit to compliment Tilly's cuteness.


After lathering Truman up with a boatload of sunscreen we were off! Little fatty marshmallow man floats like a champ and ended up loving the water!

Tilly let him borrow her raft and he was all over that one.


Oh wait, minor crying fit! All better with a few more splashes in the water.


"What is his problem, anyway?"


Us and our water babies. We are such moms now, it's insane.


"Hi guys! I'm swimming!!"






Once the boys finally left for golf Hannah and I began the Tilly photo shoot. Truman observed from the sidelines and gave me pointers about my ISO and aperture of course.





So after the shoot on Sunday night we just hung out and waited for the boys to come home with our Dewey's pizza (drooling right now just thinking about it). We left on Monday morning at 9:30 or so and ended up back in Milwaukee by 3:30. Not too bad, huh? I was worried about driving during the day thinking it might mess Truman up for sleeping at night. But he basically just took two 2.5 hour naps in the car and then we stopped twice to let him eat and play a bit. He is a great road warrior at this point and now that our first trip is behind us I know we can do it again!

When we got home we had to do some tummy time, after seeing how amazing Tilly is with her head control and rolling and whatnot. I discovered that if I put T over the Boppy he does a lot better with tummy time because he can actually look around. I guess it's sort of hard to stare at the ground a few inches from your nose when you are all the way down, huh?






Things I've learned on this trip:

1. Disposable diapers do not work well on Truman. Maybe it was because I bought 'size 2' instead of 'size 3' but baby boy crapped out the back of FIVE DIAPERS on our trip. Seriously. Total outfit changes are not fun but are especially awful in the bathroom of a Culvers in the middle of Illinois, while a handicapped lady waits outside the stall impatiently. I was sweating bullets trying to get him cleaned and it was not pretty. Also, he got his first diaper rash after wearing the 'sposables so I'm even happier we use cloth for Truman. We've never had a poop blowout before in cloth, although we have our fair share of peeing out diapers---but baby breastfed poop is WAY worse than pee. Lesson learned. But I still don't want to deal with using cloth on a trip away from home...

2. When a baby poops out the back of his last outfit and you are only 30 minutes away from home, it's perfectly acceptable to poke holes in the bottom of a Target plastic bag and use it like protective overalls on the babe. I mean, you have to protect the car seat right? I hope that visual doesn't make us horrible parents because it was actually hilarious to see Truman wearing a bag over his clothes. And yes, I changed his dipe as soon as we walked in the door so no harm done:)

3. You will need more baby clothes than you think you need on a weekend trip away from home, unless you do laundry there. Also, you may need more memory cards for the camera. Borrowing a pack-n-play for a crib is genius and we did just fine without our stroller, using the Bjorn as needed. Oh, and pumping in the car at night is pretty freaking stressful but it can be done. Just be glad nobody can look into the car and see your udders hooked up to the machine!

4. Packing days in advance and making lists for what needs to be done each night before you leave is key. Plus, list making is the bomb in general, if you ask me.

5. While nursing in the car in a parking lot, wearing a nursing cover, and entertaining a frazzled dog in the back seat, do NOT set off the car alarm. You will definitely draw attention to yourself and there's not much you can do when a baby is attached to your boob. Nate had to come back out from his Dairy Queen stop (the horror) to turn off the alarm for his silly wife. Turns out if you try to unlock the car from the inside it will freak out. But hey, I was dripping in sweat and needed a breather....plus it was worth it to see Nate's face as he came over to the car. What a scene we made...