Poor kid passed out on the beach after a long day playing...
Just before leaving Carpinteria--Cam was super grouchy and I am super swollen...
Just about to enter Sea World--He actually was really well behaved and enjoyed seeing the "sisshies".
******************************************************************
Oh. My. Goodness.
I am freaking tired. Like exhausted. Like burnt out. Like I just ran a marathon, climbed half dome and took a 3 hour like spin class tired. AND I just got back from SO-CALLED vacation!!
Ions ago vacation was laying on the deck of a house boat in Havasu, drinking whatever was handed to me, out of a plastic red cup. Now, vacation consists of renting a mini-van (don't laugh! It was the best part of our trip! BOTH Shawn and I want one so bad now!) packing for every situation imaginable, and walking--lots and lots of walking.
Our trip started last Tuesday, when we got into the "blue bullet" (our wonderful Dodge Caravan rental) and drove half way to San Diego. In case you didn't know, "half way" to SD from here on the 5 freeway is a lovely little town called Buttonwillow, Ca. It pretty much consists of a truck stop and a Motel 6. Sooo, after driving for 4 hours (Cam only screamed for the last half hour! A small miracle!) we crashed out in our lovely Motel room. Cam took about 45 minutes to get to settled down; after jumping from bed to bed, and finally standing at the door and wailing to go "AYA" (ie: Outside) he crashed out. Apparently he has something called "sleep anxiety". Basically, he is so used to his daily/nightly routine, and sleeping in his own room, in his own bed, that when we take him out of that environment, he can't settle down and ends up walking around most of the night. It happened the first time at my family's cabin over Easter break when Shawn's family was in town. He was up until midnight, wondering around, crying on and off. It was so sad. Thank goodness our cabin is just half an hour away, and we ended up coming home and letting him sleep here. The second time it happened at my Mother/Father in-laws house when we went down there in May. Cameron was up screaming and crying from 2am-6am. He wondered around, cried to go outside, and did basically everything but sleep....So, knowing that this was a pattern, I was NOT looking forward to our 7 day (and NIGHTS!) trip. He had a rough time getting to sleep each night, and woke up earlier then usual, which made for some pretty cranky days. But nothing, NOTHING could have prepared me for what happened when we left SD after 4 days and headed to Carpinteria (10 miles south of Santa Barbara) to join my family who was already there camping on the beach.
Cam LOVED playing on the beach, running around with all of his 'aunties', watching the waves and looking at the oil drillers all lit up off the coast line. Around 9pm we all started to settle down. That's when he got a little panic attack--We were supposed to be sleeping in a pop-up camping trailer with my mom. We tried taking him in it, and he started screaming and whaling to get out....With no walls to keep his screaming from waking everyone in the campground and the next campsite only feet away, we had no choice but to take him outside. Poor Shawn walked around in the dark for what felt like hours. Cam would fall asleep on Shawn's shoulder and then as soon as we tried to put him in the trailer on the bed, he would wake up screaming! We must have tried this 20 times--finally around 11pm Cam started asking for the "NEW car" (That's what he was calling the mini-van!) He actually WANTED to get into his car seat in the car!!! Poor thing was yawning and rubbing his eyes and just totally exhausted. Sooo, my mom jumped in the car with him, buckled him into his car seat and sat in the back with the mini-dvd player watching Bob the Builder for about 5 mins. before he was asleep again. STUPID us, we decided to try and take him OUT of the seat and put him into bed again! (You think we would have learned by now!!!!!!!!!!) The screaming commenced again, this time with the kid shouting NEW CAR-NEW CAR!...Sooooo, YOU GUESSED IT!!! We finally let him SLEEP IN THE CAR IN HIS CAR SEAT!!!! I slept in the front seat for half the night, until I woke up around 4 am with my feet swollen so bad I couldn't walk (just a really fun side effect of being 9months pregnant in the middle of the freaking summer!) so, Shawn switched with me and spent the second half of the night in the car. Cam woke up "full of beans" (as my mom calls it) with tons of energy, and no apparent side effects from sleeping in the car all night! (I wish I could say the same for his exhausted parents and grandma!) He had a great day playing and even took a 2 hour long nap under the umbrella on the beach. That night we decided we were going to sleep in the motorhome. It has a couch and dining area that fold into a giant king size bed. We figured he'd feel more comfy in there-----WRONG!!!! Since the motorhome is more sound proof, we actually let him cry for almost half an hour (he pretty much was hoarse by the end) before we gave into his screaming for NEW CAR-NEW CAR!...That's right folks. He slept in the car--AGAIN!!!! We were smarter this time and folded down the 3rd seat of the mini-van and made a big bed area where my wonderful mother volunteered to sleep. Cam slept soundly in his seat from 11pm until 7am....And his parents woke up bleary eyed and ready to GO HOME!! We left that afternoon and Cameron slept for almost 4 hours in the car. Poor thing was just exhausted!!!
I am freaking tired. Like exhausted. Like burnt out. Like I just ran a marathon, climbed half dome and took a 3 hour like spin class tired. AND I just got back from SO-CALLED vacation!!
Ions ago vacation was laying on the deck of a house boat in Havasu, drinking whatever was handed to me, out of a plastic red cup. Now, vacation consists of renting a mini-van (don't laugh! It was the best part of our trip! BOTH Shawn and I want one so bad now!) packing for every situation imaginable, and walking--lots and lots of walking.
Our trip started last Tuesday, when we got into the "blue bullet" (our wonderful Dodge Caravan rental) and drove half way to San Diego. In case you didn't know, "half way" to SD from here on the 5 freeway is a lovely little town called Buttonwillow, Ca. It pretty much consists of a truck stop and a Motel 6. Sooo, after driving for 4 hours (Cam only screamed for the last half hour! A small miracle!) we crashed out in our lovely Motel room. Cam took about 45 minutes to get to settled down; after jumping from bed to bed, and finally standing at the door and wailing to go "AYA" (ie: Outside) he crashed out. Apparently he has something called "sleep anxiety". Basically, he is so used to his daily/nightly routine, and sleeping in his own room, in his own bed, that when we take him out of that environment, he can't settle down and ends up walking around most of the night. It happened the first time at my family's cabin over Easter break when Shawn's family was in town. He was up until midnight, wondering around, crying on and off. It was so sad. Thank goodness our cabin is just half an hour away, and we ended up coming home and letting him sleep here. The second time it happened at my Mother/Father in-laws house when we went down there in May. Cameron was up screaming and crying from 2am-6am. He wondered around, cried to go outside, and did basically everything but sleep....So, knowing that this was a pattern, I was NOT looking forward to our 7 day (and NIGHTS!) trip. He had a rough time getting to sleep each night, and woke up earlier then usual, which made for some pretty cranky days. But nothing, NOTHING could have prepared me for what happened when we left SD after 4 days and headed to Carpinteria (10 miles south of Santa Barbara) to join my family who was already there camping on the beach.
Cam LOVED playing on the beach, running around with all of his 'aunties', watching the waves and looking at the oil drillers all lit up off the coast line. Around 9pm we all started to settle down. That's when he got a little panic attack--We were supposed to be sleeping in a pop-up camping trailer with my mom. We tried taking him in it, and he started screaming and whaling to get out....With no walls to keep his screaming from waking everyone in the campground and the next campsite only feet away, we had no choice but to take him outside. Poor Shawn walked around in the dark for what felt like hours. Cam would fall asleep on Shawn's shoulder and then as soon as we tried to put him in the trailer on the bed, he would wake up screaming! We must have tried this 20 times--finally around 11pm Cam started asking for the "NEW car" (That's what he was calling the mini-van!) He actually WANTED to get into his car seat in the car!!! Poor thing was yawning and rubbing his eyes and just totally exhausted. Sooo, my mom jumped in the car with him, buckled him into his car seat and sat in the back with the mini-dvd player watching Bob the Builder for about 5 mins. before he was asleep again. STUPID us, we decided to try and take him OUT of the seat and put him into bed again! (You think we would have learned by now!!!!!!!!!!) The screaming commenced again, this time with the kid shouting NEW CAR-NEW CAR!...Sooooo, YOU GUESSED IT!!! We finally let him SLEEP IN THE CAR IN HIS CAR SEAT!!!! I slept in the front seat for half the night, until I woke up around 4 am with my feet swollen so bad I couldn't walk (just a really fun side effect of being 9months pregnant in the middle of the freaking summer!) so, Shawn switched with me and spent the second half of the night in the car. Cam woke up "full of beans" (as my mom calls it) with tons of energy, and no apparent side effects from sleeping in the car all night! (I wish I could say the same for his exhausted parents and grandma!) He had a great day playing and even took a 2 hour long nap under the umbrella on the beach. That night we decided we were going to sleep in the motorhome. It has a couch and dining area that fold into a giant king size bed. We figured he'd feel more comfy in there-----WRONG!!!! Since the motorhome is more sound proof, we actually let him cry for almost half an hour (he pretty much was hoarse by the end) before we gave into his screaming for NEW CAR-NEW CAR!...That's right folks. He slept in the car--AGAIN!!!! We were smarter this time and folded down the 3rd seat of the mini-van and made a big bed area where my wonderful mother volunteered to sleep. Cam slept soundly in his seat from 11pm until 7am....And his parents woke up bleary eyed and ready to GO HOME!! We left that afternoon and Cameron slept for almost 4 hours in the car. Poor thing was just exhausted!!!
He slept really soundly in his crib that night and took another really long nap the next day. Clearly he has some anxiety issues (I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE HE GETS IT FROM--because as we all know, I certainly don't have any anxiety---HA HA HA HA!!!!)
At any rate, we are home now, and waiting for the birth of baby boy #2--(any time in the next month!) and not planning on going on any ''vacations" for some time!
No comments:
Post a Comment