Naptime

I must admit, I’m not writing because I have a story I must share. I am writing more for a distraction right now. It is time for Julia to start napping in her crib during the day. The transition begins today. Our strategy: Let her sleep in somebody’s arms for the morning nap. Keep her awake for three hours after the morning nap (she normally only stays awake 2- 2 ½ hours before napping again). Try to force another feeding before the afternoon nap. Put her in the crib (as long as she looks tired), close the door and wait for sleep to come. So here I sit trying hard not to listen to the faint crying in the background. We have a monitor turned on in the bedroom, but I haven’t turned on the parents’ portion yet. There’s no reason to sit and listen to the screaming. I hate this. Don’t great me wrong -- I absolutely want her to nap in the crib. I just hate the “screaming because I’m not being held” phase. I go in to check on her and comfort her for a couple minutes every 15 minutes or so, but it’s still heartbreaking. Okay, moving on to my distraction.

This past weekend we took a very, very quick trip to Illinois. Steve Manz, one of Kevin’s friends from seminary was ordained on Sunday. Kevin really wanted to be there, and I was interested in going too. His congregation is where my dad was pastor for 7 years. I really wanted to see how the town had changed and see some people from my old church. We left Sunday around 2:00 by the time we ate lunch and finished packing. It was a 3 ½ hour drive. The girls did very well. Julia slept the whole way. Chloe napped and entertained herself the whole way. When we got there we drove around town a little bit, and I pointed out where I went to school and worked. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the church. I sat with another pastor’s wife (friend from seminary) so I would have help with the girls. I hear that Chloe did very well during the service. I don’t know that firsthand, however. I guess Julia decided she hadn’t had enough talking to and interaction for the day yet. I was not able to sit in the church with her. I tried interacting with her in the pew, but it wasn’t good enough for her. I was very disappointed not to see the ordination.

After the service there was a reception with lots of visiting, of course. Since the ordination didn’t start until 7:00, it was 10:30 by the time we were leaving the fellowship hall. The original plan was to drive to my parents’ house (which was an hour away) and spend the night so that it wouldn’t be a miserable night of driving to get all the way home. We didn’t take into account how late we might be at the church. Plus we had only gotten about 5 hours sleep the night before. We ended up getting a hotel room in town for the night. I feared the hotel experience with a toddler and a baby was going to be miserable, but I was pleasantly surprised. Chloe went to sleep minutes after the light was turned off. Kevin had to walk Julia around in the dark for about 20 minutes before she went to sleep, but at least she didn’t cry. The next morning we met up with Steve and a few others for breakfast. After some visiting we headed home, later than we had intended. The girls had a bit of a rougher trip home. Julia sleep a little less than three hours of the drive home and was hungry, but we made her wait since we were so close to home. Chloe napped about 20 minutes until we stopped for gas. Then she was slightly crabby after that, but not horrible. It was an odd trip for me because when we got home it seemed like we had been gone much longer than 24 hours, but by the evening it seemed like we had never left. It was a slightly crazy trip, but we both thought it was worth the effort.