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Relaxing vacation? What’s that?

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I’m afraid we’ll never be able to relax on vacation again.  Despite the fact that in the two days we’ve been here, I’ve taken three naps because we are sharing a tiny hotel room with Joshua and if he’s sleeping, what are we supposed to do except sleep, too.  At the moment, we’re each on laptops on one side of the room while he’s in the pack-n-play on the other side of the room.  He keeps standing up and sticking his head over the top of the pack-n-play.  At the moment, he’s bouncing up and down. He thinks this is hilarious. We, his parents, do not.

And y’all, this lack of relaxing makes me sad.  I can’t lie.

Friday night was kind of “OMG.”  We had a six hour drive to get here and we left our house at 6:20 pm.  Joshua goes to bed at 7:00.  Ummm…yeah.  About that whole “sleeping in the car” thing?  Well, he didn’t get the memo that car + long trip = snoozing before you’re out of the driveway.  He’s NEVER been a car sleeper.  Hell, he’s never liked being in the car.  I don’t know what made me think this would be different.

And it makes me think, what the hell are we supposed to do?  Never travel!?!?  

So he whined and fussed and sometimes cried for almost two hours and finally fell asleep around 9:00 Friday night.  He slept until we got off the highway and then he started waking up.  And by the time we got into our hotel room somewhere around 12:30, he was awake. We tried to get him to lay down and sleep with us but that was NOT happening.  So, in desperation, we set up the hotel pack-n-play at around 1:15 am and we put him in it with a bottle and he went to sleep.  HALLELUJAH.

But he was up at his usual 6:30, despite the jagged sleep.  And his naps were decent on Saturday and he was a TROOPER at the wedding on Saturday evening, but there hasn’t really been any “relaxing” going on.

While we’re in the room, we’re trying to keep our Tiny Terrorist from destroying the place and costing us an arm and a leg in fees.  When we’re in the car, he’s being Captain Crankypants.  When we’re wherever we’re going, he wants to run free.  Which means we chase him.  Which isn’t SO bad because it’s not like I’m not carrying around a few extra pounds or twenty.

But still, this weekend trip has confirmed for me that yet another thing about our lives has changed since having Joshua.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my son and I wouldn’t trade him for anything in this world, but this is another thing that you can’t prepare yourself for before you have kids.  It’s just another of the ways in which your life will be different.  And different isn’t necessarily good or bad.  It’s just…different.

I even bought a bottle of wine and I’m drinking it from paper cups in the hotel room in an attempt to make this feel more relaxing.

No dice.

I kind of long for the day when our activities aren’t dictated by a nap schedule, but I know that’s a long way off if we have a second (or third).  I know that this “vacation” would be different if we were actually staying AT or ON a beach instead of in a city with the beach half an hour away.  I know it’d be different.  Then we could go out to the beach and back inside for nap and back out to the beach and back inside for a nap and back out to the beach or out to dinner or whatever.  Maybe I’m just sad that a real vacation, one that isn’t go-go-go, isn’t in the works for us this summer.

Don’t think that we haven’t enjoyed ourselves at all. Joshua LOVED the beach today, and he thought the pool was pretty okay, too (and I have a funny story to tell you) and I have pictures for all of that stuff, but right now I can’t get them off of my camera because I think my card reader has bitten the dust.  But know that this hasn’t been all bad.

What have y’all’s experiences in traveling with a toddler been?  Good? Bad? Ugly? Tell me, so I can better prepare myself if there’s ever a next time.

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Grace

Monday 31st of May 2010

ok, I said I'd comment, so here I am!First of all, to answer your question: Relaxing vacation, what's that? ONE THAT DOESN'T INCLUDE A TODDLER (or baby in your case). I think it starts getting fun again in about 10 years or so when you can say, "go play in the ocean, i'll watch from here (sipping margarita)."

We have traveled A LOT with our lovely child (7 Roundtrip international trips, plus several 5 hour car rides) and each time I ask myself, how did I manage to get in this situation again?!

A few tips: (prev. poster mentioned) if at all possible put pack n play in the bathroom or walk in closet (we've done both). For long trips in car or plane, load some games on your iPhone or ipod, download some cartoon episodes from iTunes & load your camera with pictures and videos of your kiddo (they are obsessed with themselves!)

ALWAYS bring a toy or game that your babe has never seen before. Next trip: introduce stickers. That will buy you at least 10 minutes. ;)

Oh, and I am right there with you having an early riser. Each time we go to Oregon it's a two hour time change (backwards) so my kid usually gets up by 5am no matter how late we keep him up. UGH!

Ok i'll end my novel now...

Eclipsed

Sunday 30th of May 2010

Wine in any vessel is good in my book. People say they don't remember life before baby, but I do and it was great. Vacations entailed sleeping in, drinking cocktails, and napping between the beach and dinner. Vacation after baby...not so much. We're going to the Jersey Shore (unfortunately not the Snooki kind b/c there's a girl I could get down with) for an entire week with Isabella and my parents. What were we thinking I cannot even imagine.

Here's to wine in paper cups and sleep where you can get it.

Mighty M

Sunday 30th of May 2010

I can totally relate to this post! We had to hide in the bathroom once to get our child to go to sleep in a hotel room! I always hope the closet or bathroom will be big enough to put the pack n play into it. It is so much easier if they have their own room to sleep in!

Alison

Sunday 30th of May 2010

You are very brave for even trying!! And I like the wine in a paper cup - nice!! :)

Hello! I'm Kate.

Sunday 30th of May 2010

I was reading my life right here! Seriously--I was just nodding my head with the whole post!

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