Week 12: Baby’s First Vacation

OK so I know I’m super stealth and all and you guys hardly missed the fact that I, um, totally didn’t post Wes’s 12 week update on Friday.  Right?

 

See, we just returned yesterday from the Great Cross Country Road Trip Extravaganza of 2012.  And by cross country I mean from Colorado to Texas, which if you’re a geography buff (which clearly I am not) is not actually cross country.  Regardless.  Friday morning I was tired and had quite the bit of packing to do and so I figured the update would just have to wait.  Besides, I didn’t have all the photos yet!

So here’s what we did:  we drove from Denver to Lubbock to Weatherford to Irving back to Lubbock and then back to Denver.  And I absolutely adore my sweet little boy, but at the moment he is currently passed out from what I can only imagine is extreme exhaustion from refusing to sleep in the car and crying for 11.5 hours straight yesterday.

 

Update #1: Weston is not cut out for road trips at the moment.  Luckily he’ll probably grow into them.  Or we’ll just take out stock in Children’s Dramamine.  ToMAYto ToMAHto.

We had a great time in our first Lubbock stop where we enjoyed delicious homemade food and got to watch my parents snuggle and love on Wes.  To say that he’s loved is an understatement!

 

Update #2: Wes absolutely hates being held any way but facing out UNLESS he’s totally exhausted and we’re on our way to feeding time.  And yes, he knows the difference!

Weatherford was a blast too – I totally got the staredown from the donkey in the picture above (fun fact: apparently farmers use them to protect against coyotes because they kick so hard.  Who knew?) and the baby bull below was totally about to attack if only that darn fence hadn’t been in the way.  Completely unprovoked!  I mean all I wanted was an Instagram photo, no biggie.

 

Side note: this bull’s eyes were totally too widespread for my liking. That is all.

P.S. Has anyone eaten at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop before? Delicious…I would drink the garlic sauce they put on their tacos.  I’m just sayin’…

On this trip we gorged ourselves on our beloved Tex-Mex and I didn’t even think twice about it.  It’s SO GOOD!

 

Update #3: Wes loves Tex-Mex too.  He told me so.

We had such a fun time being able to spend a lot of time together as a family.  I know Nate misses being around us when he’s at work and obviously we miss him like crazy when he’s gone.  It was so nice to hang out with no agenda other than letting the grandparents love on Wes and spend time together!

One thing I have to add in here is that I kept up with my jogging/workout plans while we were gone, which is something I’m super proud of.  It’s always hard for me to kick the vacation mindset and get moving sometimes, but I felt so much better after going for runs or walking when I could.  And I know that it made things a lot easier for Nate and Wes!

Well, exercise and red wine.  Obvs.

Another fun thing: my sister was able to drive up from Austin to come visit!  She’s so busy training and working these days, but was able to take off and come see us which I was so thankful for.  It was hilarious – when I was finished feeding Wes I handed him to her and not even 3 seconds later he had completely soiled his diaper. We took him upstairs to change him where he proceeded to soil his diaper and his changing pad while my sister rolled on the floor cracking up.  So mature 🙂

 

Update #4: Wes has developed a more predictable diaper pattern, which is unexpectedly nice since we can estimate his needs a little better.  Strange but true!

We also got to visit Central Market which is just about the best place EVAH.  Think Whole Foods meets Trader Joe’s meets regular supermarket and you’ve sort of got Central Market.  It’s beautiful when you walk in and see all of the fresh produce arranged by color and type, not to mention the signs stating what’s local and where it was grown.  I could just stand around the store for days and days exploring!

I’d like to say that I’m one of those moms who can brag about how well her baby handled traveling, but sadly I can’t.  Wes did the best he could but it was really hard for him to be in the car for that long on the days that we were driving, and we didn’t take his swing and so naps were hard as well.  Poor little guy wore himself out!

 

Update #5: Wes loves his swing more than ever for napping, which means that I think we’ll slowly have to wean him off of it if we’re ever going to travel anywhere ever again.  Not today, just sometime 🙂

About 2/3 of the way through the trip we discovered that he would sleep better if we put him in his car seat and rocked/swung him which was GREAT because my little dude was exhausted, but hard because he’s getting HUGE and it’s not so easy to swing a 14-pound baby + car seat for long periods of time.  Mom and Dad were tired too!

 

While we were in Dallas we got to go hang out with some of our old friends at Watermark (I miss it!) which was so encouraging.  It’s hard to be away from home and being able to see family was incredible, but it was great to get to hang out with friends too.  We definitely feel emotionally and mentally rejuvenated from the smiles and hugs and words of encouragement we got from everyone!

When we drove back up to Lubbock this past weekend we did something we haven’t done in about (gasp!) 6 years: walked around Texas Tech’s campus!  I grew up in Lubbock and remember walking around the campus even as a really young girl with my parents, so Tech has always felt like a second home to me.  After 4 amazing years of college I grew to love it even more, so walking around it this past weekend was such a fun experience for us.  Wes did great in his stroller while we all talked about how much everything has changed and is updated.  I loved being there but WOW did I feel old!

 

Update #6: We decided that Wes (if he wants to, which he probably will) will play football and come back to redeem the Texas Tech football team after the crippling Mike Leach/Adam James incident.  If you don’t know what that is, look it up – I can’t talk about it.  Let’s just say I miss my Red Raiders of yore…

And then yesterday we drove 11.5 hours back up to Denver with our little nugget crying pretty much the whole time and refusing to sleep.  I have to say that other than the first 2-3 weeks of his life where crying was happening much more often, it was probably the hardest thing we’ve had to work through with Wes.  The hardest part about this time around was the fact that now we KNEW what he needed (quality sleep – probably in his swing) but couldn’t do anything about it.  The second we got back to the house we put him in there and he fell asleep instantly while we unpacked and grabbed dinner.

 

Update #7: Throughout the trip he was starting to revert back to waking up once during the night when he wasn’t getting enough sleep, which he did last night as well.  I’m hoping that once we get back on track with our normal-ish schedule he’ll start to sleep through the night again.  I still love those midnight feedings though – it’s a snuggle fest like you wouldn’t believe 🙂

OH!  And one more update – Update #8: Wes has started (when he’s getting enough rest) “talking” to us, smiling a TON and reaching out for things!  It’s seriously so cool to watch him develop and every little thing he does I’m so proud.  Totally that mom that brags about her kid to EVERYONE who will listen.  Even though we had a tough road trip it was amazing to get to watch him with all of his grandparents, aunts and uncles.  He is SO loved and is such an incredible blessing in our lives!