Today was awesome. I went to visit Ben at work for lunch. I've never been on a car trip with Luke that long before. I mean, just me and him. I wasn't sure what to expect. Before, when he was younger (and backward facing), I would stress out a lot about driving somewhere. Always wondering if he'd make it or not. Wondering what'd I'd do if he started crying. Freaking out about not being able to pull over to attend to his needs. It was almost the same to me as driving through snow on the way home in Klamath Falls during the winter... gripping the stearing wheel, tense shoulders, very anxious.
Well, I'm proud to say that it's so different now. I wasn't even worried about driving to Newberg. I wasn't even considering that it might be a bad trip. In fact, I was assuming that we wouldn't even need to stop. And... we didn't! The entire trip was perfectly fine. Luke was happy the entire 45 minute drive. He didn't even fuss at all, not once.
What's so different now? Well, the front facing car seat is SO much better. He likes watching where we are going. That was one of the greatest moments for me as a Mom, is turning that car seat around on his birthday.
Second, I picked up a kids songs CD from the library. He loves it. He loves it so much that when we get home and I turn the car off, he signs 'more' to me and gets a little upset that the music stopped. We listened to it on the way down to Ben's work, and we just sang along. He even does some hand motions to 'the wheels on the bus', and he claps along to BINGO and another song. It's really cute and really fun.
Third, I think I time trips better. I know when he has to pee.. so we usually pee before and then he's fine for the trip. I also have been trying to stick to my schedule so I know when he's usually tired, when he usually wants to nurse and when he's willing to sit in a car. I think that might be the most beneficial. We went after breakfast today. That is by far the best time of the day for Luke and was just great on the trip.
I'm just so proud. I'm so happy that I can go (almost) where ever I want now. It's so liberating and just feels like another phase has passed. People always say when you're a new mom 'this will pass', and they are right, it does pass. And when it passes you feel so good and so happy that you made it. Well, we've made it through the 'i don't want to be in this car ever' phase. It feels good, really good.
2 comments:
This all sounds so wonderful! So weird to think that Luna will be one year old soon. You're little guy is around 13 or 14 months now, right?
Luna is up and down with the carseat .... sometimes she's fine and other times she's as upset as can be. We drive around too much though running errands.
You sound like such a sweet mom :).
I remember when I was grateful if we could make a 7 minute drive somewhere! Now Michael does so great in the car. It really is liberating and so much more FUN when you can go places!
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