Road Trip from Hell:
Thursday:
5pm: Rental SUV is stuffed to the brim, babies are stuffed with grilled cheese and yogurt; off we go!
9pm: babies begin cycle of one falls asleep, the other screams and startles the other awake, and so on until about...
11pm: both asleep finally! Until- something wakes Violet up, and she sobs so hard she vomits. We are somewhere in dark, flat Ohio. Ben pulls over and takes her out, snuggling her vomit-covered body on the side of the road while I clean out the car seat. Yuck. All the ruckus wakes Oliver, who screams and shakes. I am feeling like we are back in the colic stage.
11:45: Back on the road. We start to watch a Baby Einstein DVD in the back to calm everyone down, but then I smell something awful. I ask Ben if it's possible that we're still in Amish country; he answers that he doubts it as we're in Ohio. I realize the smell is my beautiful doll-baby of a daughter, who has filled her diaper and then some. Sigh.
We stop for a road-side diaper change, and then, thankfully, both babies fall asleep. Whew!
2:30am: Ben feels his eyes closing so he pulls over to a rest stop. The four of us sleep there for an hour. Normally, I would be terrified of being murdered, or at least of strangers staring at us through the windows as we sleep, but I'm just grateful we can all sleep in the quiet.
3:30am: Ben rouses and we hit the road again. Babes are still asleep- wa-hoo!!
3:40am: a HUGE traffic standstill only miles from the rest stop. We turn the car off and sit here for TWO HOURS. It turns out to be at huge semi that drove off an overpass. What a nightmare- one of the (very few) benefits of driving at 3am should be NO traffic! Babes wake up at about 5am.
6am: back on the road.
6:30am: Ben pulls over on the wrong side of the road (i.e. not the shoulder) to vomit. O and V stare at daddy dry-heaving into the gravel as I scramble for towels and a new DVD to distract them....
10-ish: we arrive in Milwaukee!!!! Never happier to be there.
*everything in here I'll discuss later, since that's all the GOOD stuff! Let's continue the Timeline of Hell first:
Sunday:
1pm: on road- leaving earlier this time, since we know we can't count on the night sleep. The babies are asleep within moments of getting in car- they are exhausted from being TRUE party animals! This is the best part of the drive- they sleep for three hours straight, even with terrible Chicago traffic, and Ben and I get a chance to talk in quiet.
8pm: We've hit so much traffic that we decide to pull over at a hotel. We think we can take the babes for a swim, have dinner, maybe get some decent sleep and leave in the morning.
8:04pm: Getting Violet out of the backseat, I shut my hand in the car door. I scream words I wasn't even aware that I knew- it hurt THAT much. I basically caught the tip of my (so appropriately named) swear finger. I think I might vomit. Mostly I am worried because I do not have time for a broken finger- esp in the middle of South Bend, Indiana, where one can't even find Tylenol on a Sunday night. Hell.
10:30pm: I, my huge purple finger and Oliver are asleep in the pack n' play (yes, I am IN the p n' p), and Ben and Violet are asleep in the bed. Finally! I sleep fitfully because of my finger, and Ben because of the little monkey he's in bed with.
3:30am: Violet awakens, for no reason, and starts an intense conversation about cars, trucks and Cappy with Oliver, who immediately jumps out of the p n' p to chat. Ben and I laugh (I believe it's called delirium) and decide to just pack up and get on the road.
2pm: We drive and drive...babies sleep on and off (um, never at the same time though), we watch DVDs and change diapers and snack. Oliver seems really cranky....and at
2:30pm: Oliver yaks EVERYWHERE. Again and again and again. I want to get home!!! Somewhere in western Pennsylvania is a pair of horribly vomit-stained Baby Gap footie pajamas on the side of the road, just too gross to go back in the car.
5:30pm: After pulling over twice more for O to throw up, we get HOME. The car smells of every bodily fluid imaginable and is filled with french fries, crayons, dvds and the like, but we're HOME!!
postscript: Oliver kept NOTHING down after getting home, and we had to take him to the CHOP ER the next day. Poor baby! He was very brave, and it's an amazing facility. LUCKILY, they did not have to get liquids in by IV. They gave him a medicine to stop him from vomiting, and then we could get some juice in him. By the time we left, he was climbing on the Firetruck-shaped X-ray machine! Whew! And of course, no story about twins would be complete without Violet starting her stomach flu yesterday.....
the Sheaffer men!
babies dancing on the altar
high five, Uncle Adam!
Ollie, stealing the show!
Violet with Popi's niece, Ellie.
Oliver and Laurel- who will get the chair?
Ruby (Laurel's twin) and Ollie
O looking too dapper!!
laughing with mama!
Avery teaching Ollie about the truck
Oliver and BenAnd now, the good stuff! The babies LOVED being at Grampa and Popi's !! There was a HUGE yard, lots of flowers and trees, toys waiting for them to climb on, fountains and even a pond with fish!! I already love thinking about the memories my babies are going to make with their grandfathers. I have great memories myself of my grandparents' houses and land and towns, so I know this will be special.
The ceremony was beautiful, and both Grampa and Popi were very understanding when Oliver wanted to climb up on the altar with them mid-speech. I love, love Ben's family and really wish we saw them more often. The babies finally got to meet their twin cousins, Ruby and Laurel, who are adorable and sweet, like their big brother, Avery! We loved meeting some of Popi's family, too! The twins also loved spending quality time with Uncle Adam and Auntie Dana- who were, as always, amazing helps with letting mama and dada have a break! Seriously, could these babies be any luckier with these relatives?
The ceremony was beautiful, and both Grampa and Popi were very understanding when Oliver wanted to climb up on the altar with them mid-speech. I love, love Ben's family and really wish we saw them more often. The babies finally got to meet their twin cousins, Ruby and Laurel, who are adorable and sweet, like their big brother, Avery! We loved meeting some of Popi's family, too! The twins also loved spending quality time with Uncle Adam and Auntie Dana- who were, as always, amazing helps with letting mama and dada have a break! Seriously, could these babies be any luckier with these relatives?
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