Caroline Goes to Florida

We left for Destin last Thursday morning. A normal drive there takes 6 to 7 hours. It took us 9 hours. Caroline did great until the last stretch of the trip and what normally takes 2 hours took us about 4. She cried quite a bit, so we kept stopping to clam her down. We had a great trip. My mom drove down on Saturday and Chris left early Tuesday morning to travel for work. We went to the beach for a very short time on Monday-- really just enough time to take a few pictures before Caroline was tired and ready to go home for a nap. The weather was beautiful the whole time. A little chilly at the end of the trip though. Other than the short beach trip, we pretty much stayed close to home
The trip home on Thursday was a different story entirely. First of all, mom and I had a heck of a time packing up. We took a lot of stuff-- a Pack n Play, swing, jog stroller, bikes and 2 dogs. plus their crate. And of course all of the stuff has to be broken down and taken apart to get it in the car. Once we finally left, things just continued to go downhill. We got about 45 minutes of driving under our belt before we had to stop to feed Caroline. After that, we could drive about 30 minutes before she would start crying. We let her cry for a bit every time and would pull over when we felt like she had had enough. Between stops for crying and stops for nursing-- it took 6 and a half hours to get to Brimingham. Normally, a 4 hour trip. After Birmingham, I decided that we were going to have to let her cry. Even stopping to calm her down wasn't working. We would stop and get her out of the car seat and she would stop crying and fall asleep. But the second I went to put her back in the seat, she just started crying again. So, I let her cry for an hour before I couldn't stand it anymore. It felt like an eternity and I just felt horribly guilty for letting her cry and not being able to hold her. But--- we had to make some progress to get home. Anyway, the whole trip home took 10 and a half hours. UGH!!! We were all exhausted.

The only good thing about it was that Caroline slept the entire night without waking up. Not surprising since she spent all but about 2 hours of the day crying. She definitely needed the rest (and mom did too!). So, lesson learned. The trip to Florida was a bit ambitious at this age. We definitely won't be taking any long trips in the car in the near future.