This will be the last "chapter" summarizing our eventful September 2008. I look back now as I have written these past few posts and say "oh well, that's life" but at the time everything was happening, I was quite overwhelmed. Thanks for letting me document in dialogue as every step forward (and back) during that time added more lines to my face...LOL.
The second week of our Outer Banks getaway was as I mentioned in the previous post, FANTASTIC. Sadly just as we found our vacation groove it was time to pack up and head back to our real lives, miles away in Minnesota. With all the changes in our travel plans TO the east coast, we had kept our flights out of Charlotte on the return leg. We left Hatteras around 10am and expected to arrive at our day's destination by 5pm or so. Our plan was to then eat dinner, check in to the hotel and get up at the crack of dawn so that Dave and Tucker could drop Cole and I off for our early flight. Several hours into our road trip, we were cruising along, Cole was happy watching CARS on the DVD player. Dave and I chatted about the long hours ahead for him as he raced back to MN in order to get home so that we could use the car to get to Cole's ortho appointment on Monday morning. I felt badly that he was going to be pushed to drive through but Dave being the road trip veteran said he didn't mind at all, the thrill of pushing the envelope was a motivator. I kept thinking to myself, what a waste the 12 hours in Charlotte would be which began a crazy sequence of thoughts in mind. An hour later I blurted out "why don't we just drive through the night as a family and get home tomorrow midday?" We both looked at one another and laughed initially and then we both looked at one another again and said "hmmmm, maybe that could work", then we both looked at one another and said "let's do it!". We quickly found the nearest TARGET and stocked up on our library of DVDs, changed our GPS track and charge with adrenaline and our ambitious goal, began to head north towards WestVirigina instead of west towards Charlotte.
The afternoon and early evening went well. We stopped when both kids needed to stretch, eat and run or the Volvo needed gas (all in all we spent a heart stopping $996 in gas for this trip over almost three weeks...OUCH). The sun was setting as we headed through WV towards Ohio, 10 hours into a 24 hour drive. I drove about 150 miles with Dave taking the wheel the other 850. We had the Volvo packed so full that we couldn't use the rear view mirror so when it got dark, it was challenging for me to drive without it. Cole had been a trooper but now he was sick of his car seat. We had hoped with a full belly and with night falling that he would just go to sleep. Ummmm...did we forget who our child was? Did we actually think that our son who has never slept well a night in his life would suddenly be soothed by the motion of the car and rocked into dreamland? *sigh*...so after quite a bit of protesting, followed by quite a bit of wailing, I managed to crawl back into the tight space that Tucker occupied and got Cole to fall asleep. He kept waking up every 20-30 minutes so I stayed holed up back there with poor Tucker willing Cole to fall into a deeper sleep. Alas, that didn't happen for a few hours and thus, from sitting in such an awkward position, I threw my back out again. I had also begun to feel queasy and thought I was car sick. So I crawled back up front and after quite some time, I began to feel better. Of course, now that Cole is asleep, we need gas. We both knew as soon as the car stopped, he would wake and sure as "***", he did just that, protesting loudly. It was around midnight now, 14 hours down, 10 or so to go! I felt lousy and now thinking maybe I was getting sick. I had to crawl back again to get Cole back to sleep and begged him silently to fall back to sleep since I thought I was going to throw up and just wanted to lay my head and fall asleep myself.
Without much space I just crawled into a child's pose yoga position and rested my head on my heads. I was pushed up against a warm and sleeping Tucker on one side and thus I managed to nod off. Around 3am, Dave whispered until I awoke. He had to stop and rest himself. I still felt awful and thus I could be of no help in taking over the wheel. So somewhere in Bloomington, Illinois, Dave pulled into an empty parking lot near a hotel and we fell asleep as a family. Forty five minutes later, Dave awoke and felt ready to continue. So off we drove into the night. There were some bad storms coming across the plains so he changed our course to attempt to avoid the worst of them. So instead of heading north to Wisconsin, we continued due west towards Iowa. It would add some time to our drive but he hoped to not have to navigate in the dark during a thunderstorm.
Dawn broke and we found ourselves four hours from home. We were approaching 24 hours on the road but with stops and meals, our total time would be approximately 27 hours. At this point, we were counting down the miles and were relieved when we began to see signs for Minneapolis/St. Paul. Around noon we pulled into our driveway, a misty rain was falling, the yard was strewn with leaves as they had changed and fallen during out almost 3 weeks away but we were home.
Looking back, we ask one another if it was worth it and would we have done it again. The answer was probably yes. Getting home Sunday afternoon gave Dave time to regroup, rest and unwind. He wasn't pressed for time as he would have been if he was racing to make it home by Monday morning. He went to bed at 6pm exhausted but so glad to be back at 3408 Quebec Avenue South. Both Cole and I followed suit and hit the sack early. Cole still awoke numerous times but fell back to sleep soundly.
Other than unpacking on Sunday we also had to rearrange Cole's room immediately since he wouldn't sleep in the crib. Dave took the front rail off to create a daybed but he was still hitting his cast on the other rails so after two nights of multiple awakenings, we dismantled the crib entirely and brought up the spare queen mattress and put it on the floor. It has taken the past few weeks to adjust to his new surroundings but he is slowly back to his "normal" routine. With all of his non-sleeping habits, Cole never gave us problems going to sleep. Well that has changed as well, the power struggle over bedtime has begun and the challenge of getting him down before 8:30 or so has us both frustrated.
Cole's ortho appointments went well and his cast came off October 20. He wore a splint for just over a week and now is back to using the arm as he was pre-break. Cole may be a leftie now as he utilizes his left hand for most fine motor skills over his right. Time will tell as he continues to strengthen.
He goes back to school after a 8 week absence beginning next week. He would not have been able to play outside on the playground (sand) or paint or do many of the projects that they do at school without asking his teachers to closely supervise him. He gets messy when he eats and keeping his peers from spilling on him would have been a difficult task so it was just easier to monitor him at home.
We are now enjoying some late Indian summer weather (despite the snow that fell last weekend) and gearing up for the winter ahead. It was a crazy time for us Denhams but as they say "everything happens for a reason".
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