Rilyn and I got back from our travels today, and we are recovering from the long drive, late nights, and huge amounts of fun we had in Montana. I realized I would end up writing the longest post ever if I didn't split up our Montana trip into different posts. So, this post is about the hardest part.....THE DRIVE.
I have to say that traveling with a 1 year old by yourself for 9+ hours in a car is not all that easy. Sometimes I think I'm crazy to make that drive alone, but I figure if I ever want to see my family I might as well suck it up and do it. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for being brave enough to make the trek alone!
However, this was the easiest drive I've had with her so far so I'm just hoping they get easier. Rilyn was AMAZING!
A couple things make the drive a little difficult.
1 - Rilyn is still rear-facing in her carseat. We would like to leave her rear-facing as long as we can since the statistics show that it decreases injury in a car accident by A LOT. We considered turning her around just for this trip, but she is still a little short for our new carseat to go forward facing and we didn't feel it was worth the risk.
2 - Because Rilyn is rear-facing I don't feed her in the car. I have always been afraid to feed her in the car and have her choke since I can't see her face. Feeding her in the car would save time on our stops and give her a little something else to do while sitting for so long.
3 - Rilyn does not entertain herself well. That is just a fact. This kid of ours doesn't like to sit EVER and is not entertained by much for more than a minute or two.
4- Most of it is spent driving through Wyoming. No offense to anyone that loves Wyoming, but really I could do without that state. It's always windy (like 50+ gusts), you never know when you will hit snow (like I did today), and the scenery really remains unchanged the whole way.
So, with all that in mind I set out at 4 AM for what I thought would be a pretty horrible drive. I figured I would get as early a start as possible. The 4 AM departure time was golden. She slept most of the way to Casper, which is half way and wasn't miserable when she wasn't sleeping since it was so early.
I did bring along some of those fruit pouches since I wasn't afraid of her choking on them since it's practically baby food and is a special treat for her since we don't buy them.
She wasn't super happy on the way there but only a couple big meltdowns. The trip back was even easier because she was tired and my amazing grandparents bought us a portable DVD player for the trip. My dad and I had to rig it a little to make it work on the back seats, but it worked. My mom got her a couple of short DVDs and Rilyn watched them to her heart's content. She hasn't really ever watched TV before either so this was also a special treat.
Again, crazy mom that I am was I was super nervous using the DVD player because really (as with all things) become objects to hit my baby in an impact. And, we have a family friend who's son was only hurt in a car accident because the DVD player went flying through the air and hit in the head. Granted on these trips I end up with so much stuff laying all over the place that really there are a lot of potential weapons laying all around.
But, she loved it and I will definitely be using it on our next trip.
The good news, I'm not at all worried about traveling with her again. However, I can't imagine there will be too many trips left before this next one arrives, and then I have to figure out how to make the trip with 2 under the age of 2. Let's see if that actually happens.
I have to say that traveling with a 1 year old by yourself for 9+ hours in a car is not all that easy. Sometimes I think I'm crazy to make that drive alone, but I figure if I ever want to see my family I might as well suck it up and do it. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for being brave enough to make the trek alone!
However, this was the easiest drive I've had with her so far so I'm just hoping they get easier. Rilyn was AMAZING!
A couple things make the drive a little difficult.
1 - Rilyn is still rear-facing in her carseat. We would like to leave her rear-facing as long as we can since the statistics show that it decreases injury in a car accident by A LOT. We considered turning her around just for this trip, but she is still a little short for our new carseat to go forward facing and we didn't feel it was worth the risk.
2 - Because Rilyn is rear-facing I don't feed her in the car. I have always been afraid to feed her in the car and have her choke since I can't see her face. Feeding her in the car would save time on our stops and give her a little something else to do while sitting for so long.
3 - Rilyn does not entertain herself well. That is just a fact. This kid of ours doesn't like to sit EVER and is not entertained by much for more than a minute or two.
4- Most of it is spent driving through Wyoming. No offense to anyone that loves Wyoming, but really I could do without that state. It's always windy (like 50+ gusts), you never know when you will hit snow (like I did today), and the scenery really remains unchanged the whole way.
So, with all that in mind I set out at 4 AM for what I thought would be a pretty horrible drive. I figured I would get as early a start as possible. The 4 AM departure time was golden. She slept most of the way to Casper, which is half way and wasn't miserable when she wasn't sleeping since it was so early.
I did bring along some of those fruit pouches since I wasn't afraid of her choking on them since it's practically baby food and is a special treat for her since we don't buy them.
She wasn't super happy on the way there but only a couple big meltdowns. The trip back was even easier because she was tired and my amazing grandparents bought us a portable DVD player for the trip. My dad and I had to rig it a little to make it work on the back seats, but it worked. My mom got her a couple of short DVDs and Rilyn watched them to her heart's content. She hasn't really ever watched TV before either so this was also a special treat.
Again, crazy mom that I am was I was super nervous using the DVD player because really (as with all things) become objects to hit my baby in an impact. And, we have a family friend who's son was only hurt in a car accident because the DVD player went flying through the air and hit in the head. Granted on these trips I end up with so much stuff laying all over the place that really there are a lot of potential weapons laying all around.
But, she loved it and I will definitely be using it on our next trip.
The good news, I'm not at all worried about traveling with her again. However, I can't imagine there will be too many trips left before this next one arrives, and then I have to figure out how to make the trip with 2 under the age of 2. Let's see if that actually happens.
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| Running free after being cooped up for 8 hours in the car (we only had about 30 minutes left but had to make a stop). |
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| enjoying a wagon ride with grandma and some much needed fresh air |
So glad you two could get out to see your family Anna! You are so brave to do that drive--you can totally do it with two :)
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