So. Tahoe. It was our first vacation with two babies. Our first vacation as a family of four! And I was SO excited for it! Sure, I know that a vacation with kids isn’t really a vacation, and I knew to keep my expectations low and to roll with the punches and keep a sense of humor. But boy, I didn’t know just how important that would be.
It started off SO good. The car ride up couldn’t have gone better! Sophie slept the entire time- nearly 2.5 hours! YAY. Sam even got a little cat nap in, which is always a bonus, and the rest of the time he was happy as a clam in his car seat, watching the scenery and playing with toys. It was great. Perfect. Yes, to be honest, I was cocky as all get out.
My bad.
We got to Tahoe, checked in, hung out, everything was hunky dory. Sam was exploring the suite- every nook and cranny. He was excited and loving it. A new place! All new things to discover! He was so happy! YAY.
Zack and I even got some hot tubbing in, just the two of us, while the grandparents watched the babies. It was perfect. So nice. So so nice.
And then dinner rolled around. We didn’t eat until 8pm, which was admittedly entirely our fault. Sam is used to eating dinner around 6/6:30, and his bedtime is 8:30, so this was reallyyyy pushing it. But he ate the spaghetti like it was going out of style! Alright! He was going to sleep REALLY well tonight!
Ha.
We didn’t even get around to bedtime routine until 10pm. And he was NOT having it. Poor guy, he was over-stimulated and we were just trying to put him right to bed, all wired and excited. In retrospect, we were doing ourselves NO favors here.
So he cried. And cried. He didn’t want to sleep in his pack n play in the closet. So we moved it into the bedroom, praying he wouldn’t wake his already sleeping sister.
And miraculously, he didn’t. All night, he didn’t. She slept like a rock through his wails and screams and cries and fits. And this lasted through to 3:30 AM. And then Nana came in to take over and let us get some shut eye, bless her soul.
And she played with him. Until the sun came up. And he got less and less upset and slowly, finally, passed out at 7AM.
It was rough, you guys. Really rough.
And then there’s Sophie. Perfect little angel baby who slept through it all! She woke up after 5 hours to eat and then right back to sleep for another 3 hours! Amazing. She was perfect the entire trip, actually. I never thought I’d say that a newborn is easy, but once you have a toddler, you realize just how easy a newborn really is. Of course, as first-time parents, a newborn is the scariest/hardest thing in the world. If only there were a way to be a second-time parent with your first born. Can we get that going? It would be a BREEZE.
So. I guess what I’m saying is, traveling with babies is NOT easy. A vacation with babies isn’t really a vacation. But even so, even with all of that craziness, it was worth it. Sure, it was challenging and frustrating and maybe we didn’t get to do everything we wanted, but we got out of our house, of our town, and yeah it was difficult, but it was difficult in another setting, so at least we got to enjoy the beautiful view. :)
Silver linings. It’s all about silver linings.
And also, this came to my mind as I was literally praying to God for a good night’s sleep on Saturday night. It’s all about perspective. We have two healthy, beautiful babies. Two funny, silly, amazing children. They are OURS. We prayed for them, and here they are! This life, this family, it’s all I’ve wanted. And God has blessed us immensely, tenfold! I have everything I want, and sure it isn’t easy all of the time, but it shouldn’t be. We need these difficult times to remind us how good the good really is.
And our good? It is SO good, you guys. So so good. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.
And here’s a little spoiler alert: the rest of the trip was amazing. Total recap coming tomorrow, so come back for that!
Do you have any trip nightmare stories of your own? Please share, let me know we aren’t the only ones!
xo
Oh yes, newborns seem so easy compared to having a toddler haha. We frequently make yhe 3 hour drive to see our families and have since our son was about a month old. The older he gets, the more curveballs he throws us with sleep! Around Christmas we went to a party and my parents watched him. We got home at 12:30 and as soon as he heard us in the house, he woke up ready to play. He was up for 3 hours! It’s so hard when they are wired when it’s supposed to be bedtime. It’s a vicious cycle of tired but wired and not going to sleep. Toddlers are so fun but so hard sometimes! Kid sleep in general is just a giant mystery sometimes.
Ahhh toddler sleep is the WORST. Sam is regressing bad right now, and it’s definitely stressful!!! I totally agree with what you said- kid sleep is a mystery!
xo
Oh my .. That first night sounded really rough!! :/ So nice that you got to get away on a little vacation! We’re going to Napa next weekend and I’m sure it will be a circus and a half! and I totally agree – it’s all about perspective. I try to remind myself that when I think things get crazy, I’m still super lucky for what I have.
YES. It is so important to remind ourselves of that, otherwise we’d go crazy! ;)
xo
We took our first two children to my family reunion when my son was 2 and my daughter was just about 3 months. She slept for the first 30 minutes. Then….mayhem. What is usually a 4 hour drive took us 7 hours, because we kept pulling over so I could nurse her to sleep. It was the worst drive ever. My 2 year old, bless him, sucked his thumb and stared out the window pretty much the entire time. The funny thing is my daughter is now 11…and she STILL hates long car rides. My oldest is now 13 and he’s still calm. I succumb to the lure of technology and give my 7 year old my phone to play wig on drives. :) I’ll never forget that first road trip!!
Ha! Yep, Sam stared out the window the whole drive too! These babies are so unpredictable! At least you can smile about it now… right? ;)
xo
My husband and I live about 6 hours north of our families so we make frequent trips down to see them especially if he has a lot going on in school. One of four trips home was AWFUL. Rylee was 5 months old and slept for 30 minutes and then cried and screamed and cried and screamed for about 5 hours and then fell asleep 30 minutes before we pulled in the driveway. That was the last trip I did by myself and am slightly scared to ever do that again! On the flip side we just went to Colorado last month and she did so so so good. It was a 10 hour drive that we split into 2 days. I was so scared for that second day in the car.
Oh my gosh, bless you for even attempting that trip by yourself!!! I would have gone MAD! So glad you got a good trip the last time!
xo
I would never, ever tell parents of a newborn that newborns are easy but now, with a thirteen-month-old? The newborn stage looks so easy from this distance! And yet it was so exhausting to be in the middle of it! We did our first plane ride over Spring Break and it was exhausting. Little girl just wanted to run up and down the aisle and pat strangers on the arm! Our first night away was terrible (praying for sleep sounds familiar) but then she was a champ the rest of the week. And in the end, it was worth it. Glad you found that to be your experience too!
Oh, you’re so right. Never tell parents of a newborn that it’s easy, because it isn’t!! Not when you are those parents! Funny how everything changes depending on where you are in life. And yes. Praying for sleep is a common occurence these days. ;)
xo