My grandmother passed away (dad’s mum) so we are driving down for the funeral. The drive is 14 hours and being 25 weeks pregnant and sitting in the car for the long journey isn’t going to be the easiest task. The plus side to this is that we have done a lot of road trips with our daughter and she has always been an amazing trooper, I am just hoping that now that she is older (13 months) it will be just as pleasant. Our first road trip with her was when she was just 2.5 months old and the drive was 12 hours, so lets just say we started her young – the only difference this time is that she will be older and will not sleep most of the journey, and the second is I will almost be into my third trimester and already find sitting for long periods difficult..so basically we will just have to take more breaks during the drive which will result in the journey taking us longer than the estimated 14 hours. Now really who wants a drive to drag on longer than it has to right?! I will probably just suck it up and have the hubby keep driving just so we can be done with the drive. We would have flown, but as most of you know flying last minute is just ridiculous in price and with a second baby on the way, we gotta save money somewhere right. Besides it is nice to know that we will have our own vehicle there and not have to worry about finding rides and worrying about lugging a car seat with us.
I have to be grateful again for the magic of a having a tablet. I mean it is a lifesaver, especially when my daughter is rear facing in her car seat and there isn’t anybody there to entertain her. Given the long journey, there isn’t that much she can really see or do, and lets face it, there are only so many toys you can put in the car before they just are flat out bored. When it comes to a road trip, and the hours upon end of just ‘sitting,’ you gotta do what you can to keep them calm, happy and entertained – even if that means using technology. We are expected to leave first thing in the morning to maximize daylight, but as many of you know getting your own stuff together along with a toddlers always ends up taking so much longer than you had anticipated, and time just always seems to slip by you and before you know it you are leaving 2 hours later than you had originally projected. I only say this because ALL of our road trips in the past have ended up exactly like that. It also doesn’t help that your scrambling to get things organized and together last minute because you find out of a sudden loss and the funeral is just a day away. I am also one that needs to be sure that the house is clean before going out of town, and that the garbage and fridge have been cleaned out. Nothing worse than coming home to a messy place that smells like food gone bad..The problem here is that you are so busy doing all of that, that you then have to also worry about packing, and that ends up being done at nearly midnight, when all you can think about is getting some much needed sleep as you know you have to leave the next morning bright and early.
Now, we all know (well I could be wrong here but it is true in my case) that the men cannot be relied on to pack everything for their child, things always get missed, and they simply do not place importance on things we mother’s do. I know there are many people who pack a few days prior, but even though the news was sudden, I still wouldn’t manage to be one of those people who packs ahead of time no matter how organized I may be in other facets of my life – I am what they call a procrastinator, and I am guilty as charged. So while I was worrying about gathering all of the necessities, the hubby is busy burning a new CD for the car!!! I mean there is already so much to do and only so much that one person can remember – and he was worried about making sure their was a ‘new’ CD to listen to on the drive. This is when you truly see the differences between men and women. As the saying goes, men are from Mars and women are from Venus. I guess they sure know how to keep our lives interesting…not that children don’t do that already. I am sure 14 hours will pose some fun blogging material…stay tuned.
