The Chicago trip was a great success, and give me hope that we will be able to take more ambitious (read: international) trips with the twins sooner than later. It's true, we haven't tackled airplane travel yet, but we did great with a 5-hour car ride. We had fresh diapers on and had just been nursed when we got in the car to leave, later than we normally would have left, but it coincided with the kids' morning nap. This worked out great, we had one stop in Funk's Grove (I think we always stop there partially because of the great name..) where we freshened up our diapers, stretched our legs a bit, and had some cheerios. I admit to about 20 minutes of crankiness total, but after this passed, they pretty much slept the rest of the ride.
Upon checking into our downtown hotel, they were still passed out, so Matt stayed with them in the car (we didn't want to park quite yet anyway...that's another long story.) while I went in to check in and make sure they had put two pack-n'-plays in our room as requested. They had not, and *claim* to have told me over the phone that they could not, due to fire code issues. Of course, English is my first language, and I am a good listener, and I KNOW she had told me that this would not be a problem - but, not one to make a fuss, I sent Matt upstairs with the extra pack-n'-play that we had brought, anticipating such SNAFUs. We jumped back in the car and headed for our first play date.
It was lovely seeing friends and being able to spend the bulk of our time inside their apartments, as it was really too cold and snowy to navigate the stroller outside, and the kids got to cruise and crawl about to their heart's content. I believe this helped mitigate fussiness, since we weren't really subjecting them to major stroller time or anything.
We did have to do a few restaurants, and the solution came in the form of these ingenious little roll-up placemats with suction cups on the bottoms - since they will fling a plate or bowl that isn't suckered down at this point, before this I had to put little finger-sized bites of food directly onto the table - which made even dirt-friendly me cringe a bit. They were champs at trying all the new foods, (they loved the vietnamese taro-coconut rice pudding!) but we brought cups of cheerios just in case. Yes, we left a mess under each table when we were done, but I try not to feel *too* guilty about it since the kids were quiet and good the whole time.
We did have much more traffic, and more car seat time, than normal - this was handled by again planning trips during naps as closely as possible, and worked like a charm. Even hanging out with single friends who didn't "get" that we had a new, much earlier bedtime was okay with the babies, since car rides=longer naps=staying up slightly later. We packed light, but still decanted into a smaller "daytime" diaper bag that was less bulky. Carrying the food mill allowed me to smush up whatever we were eating to give them some, and that worked quite well.
Our last stop, as requested by Matt's mom, was to Ikea - I wish all stores were this kid friendly!! Not only did they have shopping carts, but also mini shopping "strollers" which allowed matt to push one and me to push one without having two bulky carts. There was a play area, Smalland, which the kids aren't quite old enough to use yet, (can't wait for that!) but when we were ready to go, we had dinner in the quite bargain-priced restaurant, then to the family restroom where we comfortably changed into our pajamas, changed diapers, even nursed! When we got in the car at their normal bedtime, they slept like champs the entire ride home!!
So to recap: we were pretty flexible about the rules: foodwise, they ate what we ate, which wasn't always as baby-friendly as my home-prepared organic meals: they tried some spicy chili, some thai noodles, even things like truffle pate and cranberry-orange scones. But I did bring a couple of jars of "baby food" to make sure we got full if they really hated the food, as well as the ever-popular Cheerios, and they did get milk and poly-vi-sol. Naptimes happened during car rides mostly, and I nursed while at friend's houses, or they had bottles of formula if we were out. We switched to disposables for the week, and while I find them much more difficult to put on, they were very convenient, no leaks, and the vacation from laundry was nice. They met new people and saw lots of new things, but didn't seem to feel completely disoriented or cranky by the experience, because we tried to keep to their normal "rhythm." We skipped the bath a couple of nights, and went to bed about an hour later, but that seemed okay, too. Once we got back, we fell into the old routine and everyone is doing fine! Now let's start planning that trip to Europe...
2.07.2011
The Joy of Travel
Ok, I haven't updated in awhile - as it turns out, I don't have as much free time as I anticipated - what a surprise. We've had some snowstorms and other interesting developments. The most important of these would be this: we finally got the babies into their own room, and kind of halfway sleeping through the night! Ok, they wake up twice, (which means I'm up four times) but it's at like midnight and 5:30 AM so it's better than it was. I'll take it!
We're slowly learning to self-soothe - no more bottles right before bed - the pediatrician reminded me of what I already knew - if they think they need food in order to go to sleep, they will keep waking up and asking me for it instead of just putting themselves back to sleep. It's much more difficult than it sounds, though - we still end up nursing in the middle of the night, even though they are "technically old enough to not eat during the night."
Anyway, we've gotten some more teeth, and what appears to be our first colds- no doubt brought home by Daddy. Just some snotty noses and crankiness, though, not too bad so far. I'm just keeping them hydrated and sucking out their noses with the little squishy bulb thingie they give you at the hospital- they are not big fans of that, but it works.
The big news is - we have some vacation time that is "use it or lose it," so we're taking the big plunge and doing our first family vacation! Four days in Chicago - it's about a four hour drive, we'll be visiting friends (some with new babies!) and our favorite restaurants. I've been dreaming of the bahn mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) at this little place near Lincoln Square called Nhu Lan...and of course we can't wait to visit Hot Doug's Encased Meat Emporium.
This will be our first venture anywhere so far, so there are a lot of things to consider. I know the babies aren't at an age where they understand or appreciate the concept of "travel," so to them it will be the inconvenience of an interrupted routine. I'm going to try to make things easier by making a couple stops along the way to get out and stretch our legs, as well as time the trip so that we leave during the first naptime - we might get an hour or two of sleeping that way.
Then, when we arrive, staying in the same place and setting it up to be sort of familiar will be key. I'll have to update to tell you how it went, so for now I'm nervous and excited about it. We're switching to paper diapers for the whole time, and I guess I'll bring the food mill and a whole box of Cheerios - whoever invented those deserves every penny they get from them. I think Cheerios could keep them entertained and quiet indefinitely.. not sure if i should bring jarred baby food or not - at this point they are eating finger foods, and get kind of upset when presented with puree from a jar (can't say that I blame them...they are used to the taste of taste now) so we'll see how that goes. Also, the crying at night might stress me out if we're in a hotel - I am also nervous about being out and about in the snow, taking the L train, and a bunch of other things - any tips or advice on travel with twin babies is appreciated! I know it will be a learning experience, and I hope they do well...wish us luck!
We're slowly learning to self-soothe - no more bottles right before bed - the pediatrician reminded me of what I already knew - if they think they need food in order to go to sleep, they will keep waking up and asking me for it instead of just putting themselves back to sleep. It's much more difficult than it sounds, though - we still end up nursing in the middle of the night, even though they are "technically old enough to not eat during the night."
Anyway, we've gotten some more teeth, and what appears to be our first colds- no doubt brought home by Daddy. Just some snotty noses and crankiness, though, not too bad so far. I'm just keeping them hydrated and sucking out their noses with the little squishy bulb thingie they give you at the hospital- they are not big fans of that, but it works.
The big news is - we have some vacation time that is "use it or lose it," so we're taking the big plunge and doing our first family vacation! Four days in Chicago - it's about a four hour drive, we'll be visiting friends (some with new babies!) and our favorite restaurants. I've been dreaming of the bahn mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) at this little place near Lincoln Square called Nhu Lan...and of course we can't wait to visit Hot Doug's Encased Meat Emporium.
This will be our first venture anywhere so far, so there are a lot of things to consider. I know the babies aren't at an age where they understand or appreciate the concept of "travel," so to them it will be the inconvenience of an interrupted routine. I'm going to try to make things easier by making a couple stops along the way to get out and stretch our legs, as well as time the trip so that we leave during the first naptime - we might get an hour or two of sleeping that way.
Then, when we arrive, staying in the same place and setting it up to be sort of familiar will be key. I'll have to update to tell you how it went, so for now I'm nervous and excited about it. We're switching to paper diapers for the whole time, and I guess I'll bring the food mill and a whole box of Cheerios - whoever invented those deserves every penny they get from them. I think Cheerios could keep them entertained and quiet indefinitely.. not sure if i should bring jarred baby food or not - at this point they are eating finger foods, and get kind of upset when presented with puree from a jar (can't say that I blame them...they are used to the taste of taste now) so we'll see how that goes. Also, the crying at night might stress me out if we're in a hotel - I am also nervous about being out and about in the snow, taking the L train, and a bunch of other things - any tips or advice on travel with twin babies is appreciated! I know it will be a learning experience, and I hope they do well...wish us luck!
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