Second trip:
Two weeks ago. Had to go solo on this one but I figured with just the kid and one dog, it wouldn't be too bad. Bandit had a vet appointment in Santa Cruz, so I thought the DZ might enjoy a change of scenery. Afterwards, a friend and I made loose plans to possibly meet up for lunch. Right off the bad, I knew I was in trouble when after waking up by 5:30 - 6 every morning for weeks, the DZ decided to sleep in until 7. Usually, I'd love the extra sleep, but my plans had been centered around her waking up at her usual time. Because I figured she'd eat by 6 and then be ready for another meal by 9am or so. Giving me some time to get her fed and ready to go by 10. Which then gave me plenty of time to make the 11 am appointment. Sounds perfect right? Rookie Mistake # I have no idea: it never works that smoothly.
Some of you might be thinking, what's the big deal, so the kid decided to sleep in a little. And up until a few months ago, I probably would have agreed with you. Because honestly, who structures their plans around their kids' sleeping/eating schedule. If you gotta be somewhere, you gotta be there and the kid's going to have to deal. Well, I've been discovering these last few weeks what the big deal is. Because if she ate at 7, she's generally ready for her next meal right around 10, right when I'm supposed to be leaving for the vet's office. And I don't want a starving baby in the car.
I struggled with the decision of whether to wake her up. Because the other thing is that she loves car rides. If I could grab her still asleep and throw her into the car seat, there'd be a pretty good chance she'd stay asleep. If I chose to wake her up, I'd have to do it by about 9 or so to give me enough time to feed her and get her ready. But after waking up at 7, it was almost 8:30 by the time she went back to sleep. So, I went back and forth. There were probably a few emails to G in there wondering what I should do. Maybe some agonizing indecision expressed in a chat with a friend. You'd have thought I was debating a career path or a life or death situation the way I was agonizing.
Finally, I decided to let her sleep. Figured if I left right at 10, I'd be early for the vet anyway and could give her a quick bottle in the car just before the appointment. Except that she got up just as I was loading her in the carseat. And started wailing, but since I didn't have enough time to feed her before leaving, I figured I'd just throw her in the car and hoped for the best. The next big task was to get Bandit into the car. That was an even bigger chore, because these days, Bandit's pretty darn deaf and blind. She hides out under G's desk for much of the day, and convincing her to leave it even for fun stuff is a HUGE event. Because she has no idea what you're asking.
So I had the car seat in one hand and was trying to drag Bandit out from under the desk with another. The kid was bawling and Bandit was resisting so much that her collar almost came off in my hand. And I kept saying, "Come on, Bandit, let's go for a ride" because she likes rides. The problem with that though was that guess who else likes rides? Mia and Tucker who DID hear me just fine and were racing around the living room all ready to go. So then the trick became getting the DZ and Bandit out the door while keeping Mia and Tucker in. I can't express to you how much fun this all was. I finally went and got the kid's seat into the car and came back for Bandit. During which time I could hear the kid bawling in the garage all the way from the house.
Needless to say, I was NOT early for my vet appointment. The 45 minute drive over wasn't too bad except that every time I stopped for a light or gas or in any way slowed the car down, there'd be screaming from the backseat. I think the commotion made Bandit even more convinced that she was in for an ordeal. So then I was stuck instead trying to give the kid her bottle in the waiting room at the vet. By this point, the DZ had calmed down considerably and decided to sort of take her bottle but that she really preferred smiling and cooing at the vet's nurse instead. Which was great except that then she got hungry on our way back home and the car ride back was pretty much the same as the ride over. And I was so tired that I decided to just go home rather than meet my friend for lunch. Which was also great because I had left the house in such a rush that I hadn't eaten all morning. If there's one thing more fun than sitting in a car praying that the light would turn green so that the baby would stop crying, it's doing all of that starving. Just awesome.
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