I thought I’d packed everything possible. I mean, I come from a family of condense packers. The frequency at which we shuttle between Nigeria, the US, and Europe requires skillful packing. After all, we have to fit three suitcases worth of crap into the single suitcase British Airways allows us economy travelers to carry. On the few occasions we fly business class, those three bag allowances are worth more than the fancy-sounding four-course dinners they serve in Club World.
But I digress. This time was different.
Even though my husband and I have driven this same 12-hour stretch so many times, this was our first roadtrip together with a 2-month old. Portable crib, enough clothes for a month, bottles, pump, diapers, laptop, camera, stuff, stuff, stuff.
Our 12-hour trip went on and on and we arrived at our destination two days later. Granted, we were hit by a freakish April snowstorm (it is Sweden afterall) on the second day that caught even the meteorologists by surprise so we had to stop for yet another night.
Roads were covered with snow. The wind threatened to run us off the road. My daughter had already downed all the milk I had pumped like tiny shots of alcohol and was screaming her lungs out. Stopping by the side of the road meant getting stuck in inches of snow and spinning on summer tires.
I was tired, nervous, clueless, scared… We were crawling at 30-35 miles/hour on the highway, trying to make it to the closest town Skellefteå in one piece as we passed a similar car already in a ditch, the driver making calls on his cellphone while waving us on.
I’ve always known that we ultimately have no control in life. We may choose which paths we’d like to pursue, but in the end, we can’t honestly say we fully control the outcome. We’d planned for every possible situation but hadn’t anticipated that the conditions necessary for each situation to “be” possible would be soooo unpredictable.
If we ran out of milk, we’d just stop by the road to feed her, but what if we couldn’t stop by the road?
I was confident that I’d packed enough clothes for the month, but under the two-day drive, she’d already pooped through 1/3 of the clothes.
The main thing these last few days have taught me is that I’m technically back to square one as a traveler when it comes to traveling with a baby, an infant. All the jet-setting skills I’d been so proud of have been eroded by the fact that I now have another human tagging along that is totally dependent on my decisions.
Admitting that I have no idea how to properly travel with a breastfeeding baby isn’t the easiest thing to do. We haven’t taken her on a plane yet. I’m planning that for sometime in May. It would probably be a lot easier and smoother than packing for a month up north and a 12-hour (without kids)/2 day (with kids) roadtrip.
This means I’ll definitely be hitting up some mommy traveler blogs for awhile, and may very well start compiling my own experiences and advice based on trial and error.
Who knows. When it comes to going with the flow, I’m no longer a casual believer of that mantra. This baby is forcing me to fully and completely live it.
@Adeola – We made it back down in 15 hours, yay! Small steps.
It was probably hell, but I smiled reading this post.
Especially your admission that you might need new strategies for this new part of life.
I wish you all the best.
Btw, I guess you got up north safely. Yay!
@Perlina – Ooooo yes, they do! 🙂
@Kate – I was totally freaking out especially since we were on summer tires and the roads were unbelievable. The latest high adrenaline rush experience with baby was snowmobling – http://blogs.sweden.se/photo/2012/04/23/snowmobiling-through-halltraskskogen/
@Lily – That’s the beautiful thing, that it all seems to work out in the end.
@Nancy – No one can really prepare you. People give advice and tips, but once we held our baby, it was a whole new reality.
@Lisa F – Totally smart! I had packed the electric pump all smugly but forgot to grab the manual bit, never anticipating that we couldn’t stop and I needed to manually pump in the moving car. Lesson learned for sure!
Oh, Lola, that reminded me so much of our first two travel experiences with baby… the first an “8 hour” roadtrip to Atlanta for a rugby game where on the way home we ran into a torrential downpour in the mountains of Tennessee at night and had to turn back to find the nearest hotel when we probably would have pressed on without a 2-month old in the car. The second involved a longer-than-expected car trip while in Montana when I ended up hand-pumping tiny bits of milk into a cup to feed the then 6 month old until we could stop. The things that you can never imagine doing!! Glad all ended safe and sound. I look forward to sharing in your new travel adventures, and, picking up some tips myself!
Illuminating. I guarantee J & I will be back to sq. one as well, when we start traveling with our little one. So glad yall stayed safe. Looking forward to hearing what next happens on your journey!
Lola, I had to smile at the story, because I literally could visualize my sister who went through this as well in the beginning! She was a jet setter too. When on vacation in Mexico last January, she didn’t plan on her suitcase being lost by the airline (temporarily thank God) and other such practicalities (like the milk running out). Anyway it was an eye-opening experience for me as well! In the end it all worked out of course, and it just made us all realize how life changes all the time. You just never know what’s next, no matter how good you are at planning! That’s what makes it all so fun and interesting, I say. Hope you weren’t stuck in snow for long though!
What a nightmare to be stuck on the roads in that weather with a baby. It’s already unnerving to be at the mercy of the elements, but when you have to face that reality with a baby depending on you–it must have been unbelievably tough. Looking forward to following this next stage of your journey.
)) ah ah ah children change life.