what a ride!

We have been in Northern Maine for a few days now.....long enough for some of the details of the traveling part to be fading away a little...

It is difficult to get from Nowhereville, Montana, to Nowhereville Maine. It never seems easy....but this time we created a whole new level of difficult. You will probably never guess what the hardest part was....It was not the hours spent with Astrid on my lap on the flights (although one of the flights was well over 5 hours long) - she was an angel, knowing she had to stay on Mama's lap the whole time, it was not our cancelled flight, or the time in the airports strolling around and around, not the circus routine I had to pull sometimes to keep Astrid happy, it was not the scary hotel room, or the slow service in the restaurant....It was bedtime in the hotel room.

When we finally got to bed it was 10:15pm (8:15 Montana-time). When we checked in I had asked for a crib - but all of them were spoken for by the time we got there. Astrid had to sleep in bed with me. So, in preparation I rolled up the top cover to make a "sandbag" on the side of the bed that she was on. I added both pillows and put a chair up to the side of the bed as well. None of this would be enough for Astrid and my little 'nightmare' of a night.

I don't nurse Astrid anymore (we got rid of the last morning nursing on the day we left on the trip)...but in desperation to try to get her to settle down I nursed her...and nursed....and nursed. I know there wasn't anything in there, but you do what you have do when the goin' gets rough and you are traveling alone and you are dead tired. Nothing could settle her down. She was tossing and turning and for the first time ever I understood the stories other women would tell me about their kid being "too overtired" "too overstimulated" to go to sleep! Before now I just didn't "get it".

12:00 midnight rolled around finally...after a tearful call to Jeff for some words of encouragement...after sobbing and crying out loud in desperation (this actually made it worse - since Astrid didn't know what to think...why was Mama crying? When she heard me crying Astrid started crying hysterically - tears pouring out of her little eyes - I could see her tiny frame sitting up in bed looking at me silhouetted against the window - it made me feel even worse - if that was possible.)

The only thing left in the arsenal of tricks was the Infants Motrin. I didn't have the dropper since it was in the checked luggage, but I estimated two baby spoonfuls would be about right. Just enough to make her drowsy. About 15 minutes after I gave her this she quieted down and stopped nursing...fell asleep. Since it hadn't taken very long my worries of her falling out of bed subsided and the worrying about whether I may have overdosed her began (I'm still surprised about how crazy I feel sometimes being a mother!). Every 5 minutes I had to check her breathing....It was a comedy for sure. After about an hour I was able to slip off to sleep. 4:30 am Astrid woke up like it was time to start the day and struggled to get quiet and slip off to sleep again. I was never so happy when I got the wake up call at 6:15 to get up. Astrid (of course) was sleeping like a log... I woke her at the last second at 6:25....and we were off to the airport again...

(we were waiting to the side after standing in the refugee line....for the Delta Rep, to tell us whether we got on a flight for the next morning)

(in our little hotel room for a few hours rest - notice the sandbag. This pic was taken moments before I woke Astrid to go back to the airport.)

(Astrid traveling in style with the Go-Go Babyz wheels! She quite liked it!!)

(Genevieve and Ella picked us up and we were on the road again.)

(The gals with Grammy at last!)