This weekend we attempted to make a trip up to Vermont to attend T’s aunts funeral and services. From where we are in Massachusetts it was suppose to be a four hour drive. Key words “suppose to“.
Friday was a day from hell to begin with which I should have taken as a sure sign things probably won’t go so swell. I went to my doctors office for pelvic pain and ended up being put on an IV of fluids + given medication through IV. Long story short after labs were done I ended up with kidney stones… OUCH! So I knew the discomfort of the stones would make for a very unpleasant drive. That’s number 1.
Number 2, V had not taken a nap for my mother while I was gone that day so I knew right away we were expecting a sleeping toddler in the car on the way up. Despite my attempts to keep her awake and the bribery of snacks + a portable DVD player, she passed right out after only 1 hour of the ride behind us.
Did I mention we left 1 hour after we planned to! Oh yeah, so there’s number 3.
Number 4, Vermont weather is not like Massachusetts weather + the highways are nothing like ours. We broke the NH border and headed off onto the highway only to find out we would be traveling at a pace of 12mph. A trailer truck was off the road, cars were parked and we passed a three car pile up (everyone appeared to be okay, thank god). So that set us back another 45 minutes at least!
We arrived finally, at 9:30 pm. V had been asleep for well over 3 hours and now she was ready to party…. until 2:30 am… in our bed! AHHHH! 😫I felt like my eyes were going to burn straight out of my skull. Number 5 added to the list. Part of number 5 would be the 9 cousins that came to the house we stayed at to hang out while the adults attended the services. Did I mention they came at 7:00 am.
My baby girl who usually sleeps a solid 11-12 hours a night was woken up after only 5.5 hours of sleep (I’m not counting the car ride, because I’m stubborn). I felt so bad she looked like she was in a daze the whole day. I stayed with her while T went to the services and then by 2:00pm she still was fighting a nap despite her exhaustion and we had to head off to the after party function.
At that point I glanced over to see my poor little girl so tired clinging onto her Grammy with her head down. I looked at T and said “we need to take her home, home to Massachusetts home”.
Where we were staying the adults were all about to gather to play cards and hang out which I knew she would never sleep through. Although family members were upset we were taking the princess home with only an hour of visiting, it was what was best.
We left Vermont at 3:00 and made it home for 6:45 just in time for a nice cup of milk + some much needed puppy snuggles with her pal.
The services were attended by T for his aunt and that’s what matters most. But the decisions we make as parents for our little’s are always to come prior to making anyone else happy.
She was overtired, she was uncomfortable and to me she just looked miserable. Something I could never be okay with.
There will be many more visits from family, in fact once again in a few weeks. We look forward to that! For now, my baby is happy and well rested and I know I did what was best as her mother.
Isn’t that all we can do as parents?
Try our best!
