A year and a half ago, I agreed to be a bridesmaid in the wedding of my oldest friend, Becky (who now goes by Rebecca). I knew at the time that there was a chance that I'd either be pregnant or toting a little baby to this wedding, but I also knew that I had to make it to the event, since Rebecca had traveled to Syracuse from Japan to be at my wedding. We don't talk a lot anymore, but she means a lot to me and I wouldn't have missed her wedding for anything.
So, this past weekend, Carter took his first "vacation," and I overcame several of my fears.
When I booked the tickets for this adventure, I opted to pay a much higher amount to fly out of Syracuse rather than Buffalo for the sake of convenience. Who wants to cart a 5 month old three hours away to Buffalo, just to get on a flight and spend another 2+ hours traveling. Not me, that's who. What I didn't consider though, is that flying out at 6:00 in the morning may save me some money, but not any portion of my sanity. I must have been insane when I booked these tickets because in the crazy days prior to heading out, I wondering what person in their right mind would fly out at 6am knowing that in order to do this they'd need to wake up a happily sleeping infant at 3:30 am -- three hour before he normally wakes up. Stupid, Stupid!
Luckily for us, this particular infant is an extremely good sport and woke up all smiles. He smiled as we carted him through the Syracuse airport, flew to Detroit, carted him through that airport, flew to Cincinnati, carted him through that airport, rode a shuttle to the rental car place, and then drove to our hotel and set him up for a nap. Fortunately, as you can see, his sleeping habits remained largely the same in his Kentucky port-a-crib. Such a good sleeper:
While in Kentucky, we needed to eat many of our meals out and we obviously needed to bring Carter with us to do that. For a child who rarely goes out into public situations because his Mama is intensely afraid of a public meltdown, he did incredibly well. I'm so proud of him, and frankly, I'm proud of Brian and I for facing our (okay, my) fear.
We had one minor -- scratch that -- major meltdown on the way home. Just as the pilot announced that we were beginning our initial descent into Syracuse, Carter LOST IT. Flailing, screaming, thrashing, crying, sputtering... he did it all, and he did it all at once. Luckily, this episode only lasted about 5 minutes until he calmed down as I held him as tight as humanly possible, but I nearly had a breakdown with him.
We're home again now, and we're oh-so happy to be here. Thank goodness for Becky, Sean and Carter, who volunteered to take a vacation to Kentucky and watch Carter during the rehearsal and wedding. Having familiar faces who were willing to help out as needed was a huge relief. The weekend was fantastic, but I'm relieved to have it over and behind me now and to have started building confidence in both myself and Carter so that we can travel again soon.
5 comments:
i cannot believe how big he has gotten! i am glad that things went well for all of you. he looks so cute all swaddled up like a burrito.
I am glad to hear that all went well and that you accepted facing all your fears in one weekend. That can be overwhelming but I know that Becky and Sean are a great support since they travel all the time.
I think he was crying on the flight back to Syracuse because he got wind from Colin that traveling is fun and he wanted his vacation to be a little longer!!!!
That's funny about Becky's name -- my sister did the same thing in college, and now no one except her family knows her as Becky. It always sounds so weird to me when I hear people call her Rebecca!
I'm glad you guys had a good trip. Elaine makes a very good point -- for your first travel adventure with an infant, it was smart to have Becky and Sean and Colin there, seeing they have traveled so much as a family!
You look beautiful in the last picture, I would love to see more!
As if I didn't get their names mixed up enough on this vacation, looks like you have the same disease. Sean Becky and Colin joined you in KY. When I first told you I would come I didn't even think about the logistics of it, then I'll admit while I was booking everything and realizing the cost of this little 'favor' I had a "what was I thinking moment". However! I am SO SO SO glad we went. We truly had a really nice getaway and I don't think I ever would have gone to this region otherwise. I think Sean and I fell a little in love with the Ohio lifestyle. People are so FRIENDLY and no one honks when you sit at a light. The weather was even nice, although I would like to see the place in January before I fully decide how much I like it! =) Thanks for a great trip! Sometimes you need to rip the band-aid off and just do it...I was a mess before our Switzerland trip, but after wards I knew I could handle anything!!
Oops! Funny that becky picked up on that AFTER I proofread 3 times. I really shouldn't have picked a C name... I don't do it when Colin's not around, but when he is I rarely call my son the correct name. Oy.
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