August 21, 2012

Chattanooga or Bust

We took our first road trip with Peyton this weekend! We got to celebrate Mac and Paisley's first birthday. Although we just went to Chattanooga for the day, we learned that travelling with a baby is a lot of work. We made a few rookie mistakes...

1. Departure- We planned to leave at 10am, which was the beginning of nap time. This would put us in Chattanooga at 12pm, which was feeding time. Great!
Well, we had some success...we did indeed leave at 10am, but we had several stops to make (gas, dropping of Rowen, etc) so by the time we actually got on the interstate, it was 11:30. We made it a half hour before we had to stop so I could feed Peyton. Oops. Our usual 1.5-2 hr trip turned into 3 hours!

2. Clothing- When we left the house, Peyton was all ready to go in her party dress! My thought was that when we arrived in Chattanooga, she would already be dressed and we wouldn't have to change. OK, I can't even believe I made this rookie mistake. I know very well that babies always have blowouts when travelling (usually at 30,000 feet and you get to change them in a tiny airplane bathroom!). My redemption? I packed an equally cute backup outfit, so I guess we did meet our goal of arriving in Chattanooga dressed & cute!

3. Clothing- Wait...didn't I just cover that? Remember, there are 3 people involved here. With the previously mentioned blowout, we had a near miss with my outfit...and I did NOT bring a backup! Let's just say that the diaper change involved a McDonald's parking lot, a squished backseat...oh, and it was raining. Fabulous.

4. Supplies-I wouldn't necessarily call this a mistake, but we waaay over packed for just a day trip. It is so hard to know what to bring, and I didn't want to be without our usual comforts of home. I don't think I will change this for our next trip.

Overall, I think Ben and I did pretty good for our first trip away from home with a baby. Peyton? Well, she took the whole thing in stride. She ate in the car, napped in the Moby, and spent most of her day sitting in the carseat-her whole routine was totally out of order! She did great though, and only fussed when she was hungry.

It's hard to believe that my favorite twins are already one year old. It wasn't long ago that we were praying for Ashley while she was on bed rest, then welcoming two healthy babies into the world!

Gorgeous Table!