another adventure...

nick wanted to go on a road trip to ohio while i had maternity leave, so we all set off in the minivan. yeah... i know what you're thinking. was i crazy? yes, quite possibly. but we did survive.

we actually drove straight through on the first day and left at 4 am and got to cleveland about 6pm that same day. i do not recommend doing this with small children. the plan was to just get clay out of bed and put him in the car seat right before we left and let him sleep in the car, but he did not cooperate with this at all. he woke up, and stayed awake from 4 am on. he did not go back to sleep, in fact, until we were about an hour away from cleveland, and by then he was exhausted.

ethan did better; he slept the whole way, and nursed when we stopped at rest areas. however, i think i accidentally flashed a trucker at one of the rest areas. i was nursing ethan in the van, and we were parked near a semi where a trucker was sitting reading the paper. i didn't think he was paying much attention, but ethan moved his head and i suddenly noticed the trucker was no longer reading his paper, but staring at the van. hmmmm... guess i gave him an unintended eyeful. probably gave him something to talk about in an otherwise uneventful day. at any rate, when ethan started nursing again, he went back to his paper. probably was a bit of a shock to see until he realized i was just nursing a baby, and not delivering a peep show.

i actually had to pump while we were driving a few times as he got hungry and needed to eat before we could make stops. that worked pretty well, too, if you can handle covering yourself with a blanket, staying covered, and managing to pump all at the same time. i also do not recommend this practice while riding in the car. however, it kept ethan happy, so it worked out.
once we got to the hotel, we were all exhausted, and i went to bed when clay did. however, despite the fact that he had to be exhausted, he was awake at 6:30 the next day. in fact, i woke up to see his little face about an inch from mine.

"mommy, are you awake?" he asked brightly. well, after that, i was... i was wide awake. nothing like waking up to see someone staring at you. but we had fun. clay swam in the pool and loved checking out the "hot pool". he was very impressed with the "bubbles" in the hot tub, and thinks we need to have one at home. i agree, but i don't think our budget would.

at any rate, we are back home, and i have a nice pile of laundry waiting for me, so i suppose i should go and sort that out. yay...