We had a seat for Tess’ car seat. We thought,

This way we’ll all be able to get some sleep.

Well give a kid an ear infection, screw with her sleep schedule and put her down for the night in a car seat – and see who sleeps. Tess ended up passed out sprawled across my lap in all her pink-striped glory, sturdy legs dangling into the aisle. Thar she blows!

Dave and I were schooled by smart family and friends, whose wisdom was reinforced by an army of experienced NICU nurses. We were trained not to let her fall asleep in our arms regularly so she didn’t get too used to it. So this babe in my arms is novel and delicious, despite the fact that she’s got sticky cheeks and I can’t feel my left arm. This little person takes comfort from me. How incredible is that?!

In the middle of the trip, the great reality tv show that is our life felt we needed a challenge, so Tess regurgitated most of a bottle all over herself, her clothes/toys/blanket and flooded her car seat. We sprang into parental action: Dave stripped Tess while I dug out the clean onesie and the wet bag for disasters. We fit a major diaper change in, wiped her and the car seat (ew) from top to bottom, and zipped the grossness into a sealed bag as our grand finale. Ha! (Of course, we used our last diaper toss bag and had to pray for no more incidents for the rest of the day until we got our luggage sorted, but our efforts apparently sated the tv audience, so they let us gloat in our success.)

Tess chose to sleep in our arms the rest of the flight, but was great. Parents are proud. She then dramatically impressed us and everyone else by making it through the day until about 5 pm, when she had a complete breakdown. Poor thing! We got lots of sunshine today, and she had tons of new things to look at, but even daddy is on the verge of collapse! So we’re sitting silently in the dark hoping she’ll go down for a nap before we dive out into the night for dinner, where she’ll get stuck back in her stroller.

Despite being well-prepared, I’m wondering if bathtub laundry will play a part in our overseas adventure. Lets just say I brought a Baggie of Dreft and am not afraid to use it.

Still, we’re here! Deuce isn’t! All is well with the world. 🙂 33 weeks on Friday. So close to hitting 34 (again)! Jan in there kiddo, and let us experience the joy/torture that is traveling with infant. 🙂