First Travel Alone with Baby=EPIC FAILURE!

As you saw in my previous post, this weekend I was supposed to be traveling to my friend Kristy's house for our quarterly Girls' Weekend. The day was splendidly going as planned. I had successfully packed my car with all our crap and even tidied up the house and washed the cloth diapers. Little boy had napped, fed, and pooped right on schedule. I had it all perfectly timed so that our 3 hour trip would go seamlessly and that he would take his nap on the way. After about 30 minutes of driving, Nolan passed out. YAY! This trip was going to be a success! Then disaster slapped me in the face and put me back in my place. That's right, red brake lights of traffic happened after I had been on the road for just about an hour and 20 minutes. I thought ok surely to goodness it won't take long...they'll move whatever wreck caused this and we'll be right on our way. After about 30 minutes of not moving, baby boy woke up. He was doing pretty well under the circumstances of not moving at all. However after an hour, he was not having it. We were not making any progress, and I couldn't pull off to the side of the road to soothe him because people were speeding down the side of the road trying to get to an exit which they couldn't do because some truck drivers had pulled over to block that from happening. As we are inching on, he is crying hysterically, and I happen to have a bottle of pumped milk packed. I grab it, and as I am sitting in the front seat I try to help him hold it as he is drinking it. He drinks about 3oz, and then we start moving again. I have to stop holding it, and he is getting more upset.

Finally, I see an exit sign (we had not passed a single one this whole time). I thought ok I am getting off on this exit, feeding him and turning around to go home. We had almost been in traffic for almost 3 hours and only 60 miles from home with about another 150 miles to get to our destination. Then just when I think this trip can't get any worse...it DOES! The exit has signs and cones up saying "Road Closed." You have to be kidding me?! There is no way I can sit any longer in this car with my baby crying. So I did what any good mother would do, I went around the cones and took the ramp anyways. That's right I said forget the signs and the cops. I pull into the Shell gas station and hop in the backseat to feed my little boy. As he is taking his bottle, he's smiling at me. I knew he just wanted me with him but obviously that is impossible when driving alone. I take him out of the car seat we go in to get a water and the attendant tells me that a truck driver had wrecked at about 8am that morning. I ran into the traffic about 3:30pm, so I knew it had to be a bad one for it to take that long to clear up. We get back in the car, and I put him back in his seat...he starts crying again. However, this time he is so exhausted he passes out after about 10 minutes. It takes us about an hour and a half to get home and at that point my nerves are so shot. I'm so stressed out and exhausted, needless to say we all went to bed early after the day we had. After 5 hours of being in the car with no destination reached, I was just glad to be in my bed with a full tummy baby sleeping happily in his crib. I guess we'll have to try to take a trip some other time because this weekend was just not in the cards for us.