Our journey across the country has come to an end. Well... maybe it wasn't a journey across the country but it was a journey that took us over 1500 miles covering seven states; Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana. Seven states before Milo was seven weeks... not too bad. Milo definitely did way better than I could have hoped for.
He has had several firsts on this trip... first church service, first hotel stay, first babysitter, and he met tons of people... including a great grandma, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, old neighbors, etc. We wrote down in our calendar what we did each day, so we can be sure to get it all down in his baby book/first year calendar.
Over the course of this trip, I feel like we definitely learned a lot about Milo. He is definitely laid back and flexible. I'd also say he is very social. He was having some tummy discomfort during our cook out with friends in BG, but most other days he was very happy no matter what we were doing. I think almost every night he had a different sleeping situation. That was totally my fault, but he seemed to do well.
My favorite sleeping arrangement was co-sleeping. I have never been a co-sleeping fan. I always said, if it works for you, great. But I never had any interest in trying it. My biggest concern was safety, followed by having a physical barrier between mom and dad. However, after co-sleeping a couple nights in BG... I totally became a fan. I loved being snuggled in next time him all night. Nursing was super easy... and he seemed to sleep pretty well. I know co-sleeping has been and is still being done in many cultures across the world. It definitely makes sense. Now that we are back home, I'm going to try very hard to resist the urge to bring him to bed... or at least wait until after 5 am to bring him to bed with me. I want him to be an independent sleeper. So we'll see what tonight holds. But I definitely understand why people co-sleep.
I have been saying for a while how people always think Milo is older than he is. And this trip continued to bring on those comments. People would ask how old, expecting me to say something closer to three months and would be surprised when I'd say 6 weeks. I don't know if its the hair, or the fact that I actually carry him in my arms and not just in the carrier. But he is definitely a big, strong boy for his age. In fact, at my parents church we met a couple with a little boy who was just a few days younger than Milo, and he seemed like such a feeble little infant, cute but not near as alert as Milo. And he was called a girl about four or so times while on our trip. The only thing we can figure is he is just so pretty! LOL! Maybe its the hair. Or maybe its the way we dress him. I don't know, but it certainly doesn't bother us.
The last thing I'll cover in this post is what I learned about packing. Don't pack so much! I think I did pretty good for a first timer taking a six week old on such a big road trip. But maybe next time, I'll leave the Boppys at home instead of taking three! I definitely won't take the swing or the changing pad. Nathan's grandma actually bought us the swing after I had a bit of a freak out one evening about where he'd sleep. But its great because we needed our own for home anyway since we were just borrowing the swing from our friends. I wouldn't take the infant seat because there was usually someone around anxious to hold him. I also had a 'secondary' diaper bag for things I may not need, but may want to have just in case. I didn't end up touching that bag once. And even my hand pump didn't get used. I hand expressed twice to leave a bottle for Milo when I left him with Nathan, then with my parents. But as I said, it was a learning experience. I'm just glad we didn't try to take the cat! Oh and I did a perfect job guessing how many diapers to take since we were doing disposable for the trip. We came home with only three diapers to spare! {I'm definitely glad to have his little hiney back in the cloth diapers.}
We sure had a great trip and were happy to introduce Milo to his family. But I'm glad to be home to get back to normal. We just wish our normal was closer to our family.
No comments:
Post a Comment