Whew! After a week on the road we needed a day to decompress after getting back to Evansville. Yesterday we sat around in our PJ’s, did many loads of laundry, scrubbed cat vomit from the carpets, cleaned cat boxes… You know all the chores and stuff that go undone while you are away.

Everly was a doll during the trip. The plane ride wasn’t an issue, she nursed and played and sat in our laps for the 10 hour travel day. She did well on the road also. We drove 6-10 hours a day for three days and and she just slept or played with her toys in her seat. As long as we made frequent stops for diaper changes and feedings she was happy.

We did crazy things to entertain her and ourselves when it was time to stretch the legs. Here is an example:

Speaking of changings… We made it the whole trip on just the twenty or so cloth diapers I have. We only had to wash them once right before we hit the road to head home. 7 days, 20+ diapers = 1 wash. When we got home E had to sleep in a disposable overnight while every single diaper we had was being laundered. I am proud to have cloth diapered the whole trip though. It was a breeze!

As for feedings, I just breastfed her as usual and supplemented with baby foods and snack puffs as usual. Now, she’s really getting in to being involved in meal time though!

When we stopped for a snack at the mall with my mom Everly grabbed my straw right from my mouth and even sucked juice from it (which she’s never been given the opportunity to do). She is hardly doing the sipply cup thing so we were pretty surprised at her instinctual straw drinking.

I was just glad I was pinching the straw and holding on to it tightly or she would have successfully gotten a mouthful of sugary strawberry lemonade up it and in to her mouth. No sugary lemonade for baby! Luckily we have a straw type sipply cup thanks to Maiden53, time to bust it out.

Now she’s getting more adventurous with her foods too. She’s just starting to get the hang of her sippy cup and is having “juice water”. She’s also enjoying sampling new flavors on the go. Like the skinless tomato chunk I stole from my mom’s plate and gave to her…

She would gladly try more things like our coffee and over processed junk food we are enjoying if we let her. We are being super selective about what we let her have, we are overprotective parents :-P

We have moved through all the organic stage one flavors of food and are progressing to more exciting flavors (not more sugary though). I am a sugar natzi, sugar has had a major impact on my brothers as they were growing up. One has a sugar addiction still. So we are trying to get her in to the bland flavors before the sugary ones are introduced, so she’s not always expecting her foods to be sweet and sugary.

Thanks to her meal time interest we were even able to brave a Denny’s one morning for breakfast. She sat in a yucky high chair like a big girl and we ate a meal together.

She of course didn’t order off the restaurant menu, she opted for boobie and a nap while we finished our meal. It was progress though.

As scary and anxiety ridden the idea of taking a trip with baby seems I am glad we did it. Once you are in the thick of it you realize it’s really not all that insane and it provides baby with much needed stimulation and the opportunity to adjust to changing situations.

We’ll probably be taking many more trips as a family now that we know how adaptable and well behaved E can be (if money permits).