I'm so glad I'm finally home! What a trip!
We had a doctors appointment for Bella last Tuesday, so we went, and she got four shots! Poor baby got a fever from the shots, so we were up all night monitering her, making sure it didn't get to high, and soothing her because she was very fussy. Then the next morning we left for Alabama. We left late, but figured that would be fine.
Then our battery died when we stopped for lunch. No problem, someone jumped us off, we'd go to an autozone when we got out of Atlanta. Then we got caught in traffic and our car overheated because my husband had unplugged the fan to balance it (or something, I don't speak car) and forgot to plug it in again. So we had to stop for awhile to let our car cool, and my husband had to plug in the fan.
Then we finally made it out of atlanta, and got to the autozone, where they tried to charge us $90 for a new battery, or "if you slip me a $20, I'll get you a used battery from the back." That's ok, it had enough of a charge on it to get where we were going.
Then we picked up two nails and got a flat tire. Thankfully we had a full spare, and someone stopped to help us. By now we are hour 5 into our 4 hour trip and only a little over halfway there.
The baby starts crying. So we stop again and we feed her and change her, and once she's happy, and we've calmed down a bit from all the craziness, we get going.
Bella cried when we got out of Birmingham, no problem, we stopped again and fed her, and changed her and got a bite to eat ourselves.
We hit a problem when we past Jasper at 11:00 at night and nothing was open and Bella was crying again. She still wasn't feeling that great, and she'd been in the car for hours, honestly I felt her pain, but there was nowhere to stop.
So we drove the rest of the way with a crying baby.
She was hoarse by the time we arrived at his grandmothers. I said a quick hello, then went to the back to feed her, and went to sleep. She was exausted, and I was exausted.
The next morning she got to meet her family, which was nice. People kept coming over and every other hour or so I'd have to slip off to feed the baby. It wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't for the fact that all of these people were just dropping in to say hi, and always when I had the baby in the back.
I actually didn't care. We'd met all the family I'd ever met by this point, and they were sticking around. These were great aunts, and second and third cousins, and people who if I haven't met in over three years of marriage on top of a year long engagement, and dating for three years, I don't figure will be too broken hearted if I don't cut feeding my baby off short every two minutes so whichever relative dropped by could say hi.
I didn't mind, my husband didn't mind, and my overwhelmed, tired and hungry baby didn't mind. The family minded.
Or maybe it was all in my head. I'd come out of the bedroom with a happy well fed baby and hear about all the people who came by while I was feeding the baby. Which I already knew because my door had been knocked on every time they dropped by.
Day two I was being asked if I would consider formula.
Hah! How much I would love to feed my baby formula. She used to get a bottle a day of formula, but recently she's decided she'd rather not bother with that stuff anymore when she can get it from the direct source.
His grandmother is sick. She keeps thinking she has ms, even though the doctor has said she has a slipped disk (which sounds incredibly painful when I think about what that means) and she's on a lot of pain meds, and has really high blood sugar, and all of this is compounded by the fact that she smokes and eats a lot of sugar. She was fine until about Saturday when the most people showed up, and then I think her nerves were frayed by all the company because she kept snapping at everyone, and got really upset when she was told she couldn't speak to her 3 year old great-grandaughter on the phone at 1:00 in the morning, and to please stop calling. Everyone was stressed, and the stress was stressing the baby.
I kept trying to go into town with my husband but he wasn't getting the hint that maybe we should give the family a bit of space for awhile. "No, you stay here, I'll run and grab whatever, it'll be faster without the baby."
*sigh*
Also I was hungry. I don't eat red meat. I used to not eat meat at all, but have had to eat fish and chicken just to have options while traveling, though I still don't care for it. I haven't eaten meat since I was 9, long before I met his family, but they never remember, and that would be fine if they didn't act insulted when I either bring my own food, or go get food out. Really? I get his grandmother not remembering, but even my mil forgets. Which when she forgets is fine, because she doesn't get upset when I walk in with a sandwhich instead of whatever was cooked.
I was excited to see my husbands aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents, and his parents and siblings. Both sides of his family live in the same town so it works out well.
Bella got a stocking, and toys and clothes, and we tracked santa with norad on christmas eve. We had a good time, and saturday we had a baby shower.
My real baby shower was in July while I was pregnant, but since his family couldn't drive the four hours to attend (I completely understand, four hours is a LONG drive, it sounds short, it does, like wow, just four hours, but really, it's a lot) they wanted to have another shower for me when I visited. It was sweet. So they made chips with sausage dip, and punch, and a few relatives showed up, and the baby acted adorable, and everyone was happy.
Except the relatives who couldn't come because they were busy, they told me to come by in January and they would throw me another shower.
I said thank you for the thought, but I think we're done traveling for awhile. Which was apparenly offensive.
I had a nice girls night with my mil, and my husbands cousin, and then we went home.
Praise the lord we are home! I'm visiting my fathers side of the family in February, and then I'm never traveling again. At least not until next thanksgiving.
I think that's what we're going to do. My family for thanksgiving, his family the week after Christmas , and if we can afford it a nice trip for us at some point inbetween (my fathers family lives in florida, so that can always count).
I say the week after Christmas because I want to have our own christmas as Bella gets older. This year we're celebraiting Christmas in January due to finances, but once she's old enough to know whats going on, I'd rather do Christmas with just us, and visit his family when stores and restaurants are less crazy, and everyone is less busy.
Thank God I'm home, I'm glad we went, I am, but thank god I'm home
Taking a Little Break
3 weeks ago
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