Car trips longer than 1 hour are hereby prohibited.  At least for the next few months.

Mostly because I find it difficult to even walk straight when Daphne is crying.  Every nerve in my body feels like it’s being tractor beamed in her direction to discern the source of her displeasure.  But driving with a wailing infant in the back seat?  That doesn’t work.

I’m talking about our trip to my mom’s place in Seguin this weekend, which was not exactly a restful respite from the rigors of routine.  The drive out on Thursday started just fine, as Daphne was asleep in her car seat for the first 45 minutes.  But then the kraken she awoke.  And that with a vengeance.

She screamed for the next 45 minutes straight, until we arrived at Buc-ee’s (don’t ask, it’s a Texas thing), and we lifted her out of her seat for a change/bottle.  This appeased her for a little while, right up until we strapped her back in and got on the freeway.  Then she went right back to crying, and continued to do so until we pulled into my mom’s driveway.

But at least the drive was over, and we could set about the task of ensuring her happiness, right?  See, that’s what I thought too…

But as it turned out, she was inconsolable for the entire day on Friday too.  Just cried and cried and cried…  And so we basically hid away in the guest room all day, with the occasional 10-minute appearance in public to say hello before the fussiness reclaimed her and we scampered back to the Weeping Cave.

In all, not a good day.

And so by Saturday morning Jen and I were tired, frazzled, and ready to hurl our stuff into the car and rocket back to Houston at the first sign of tears.  But they never came.  She was perfectly quiet, calm, and happy.  All day.

“What’s your problem?  I’m fine.”

“Thumbing” on the patio with Uncle D.

This finally gave us a chance to decompress for a few hours (which was quite nice), before it was time to head home again.

“You mean we’re getting back on…the freeway?”

But, relief upon relief, she was quiet and/or slept the entire way back.  And she was an absolute angel for the rest of the long weekend, particularly on BumbleDay when we both just grinned at one another and played for hours and hours until Jen got home from Pure Barre.

Funny how just one day like that bleaches away the agony of hard days that came before.

Erm…  I’m still not driving anywhere with her for a while though.

j.s.