Thursday, January 15, 2009

Trip to Michigan

On January 7, 2009, we flew to Grand Rapids, MI, for a week to visit my family. Judith got to meet her aunts and uncles (and cousin Jada!) for the first time, and she got to spend some more time with her grandparents. Here's how it went:

Wednesday: I had day-mares about how the flights would go for at least a week ahead of time. On the trip out we had three flights (and two layovers) to get to, and a total travel day of about 14 hours or so. And it started out well, even though we left the house at 4:30 a.m. Judith was happy on the first flight and content to be entertained by us in the seat. And the five hour layover in Atlanta was ok too. We put her down on a blanket on the floor for a while and she and Lance played. The flight to Cincinnati wasn't so good. It was much shorter, but it also was the worst pressure-change flight I've ever experienced. Our ears were popping for a good 45 minutes before we landed (and the flight was only 1 1/2 hours) and Judith really felt that. She was eating for the first part of it, so that wasn't so bad, but she fussed until we landed after that. And we got off the plane to discover that our flight to Grand Rapids (the last hour of our day!) was cancelled due to weather! So we had to stay overnight in Cincinnati without our luggage and without a crib for Judith. We got a room with two queen beds, thinking that we'd put Judith in one bed and sleep in the other. But it was so cold in the room that I put her between us in our bed for the first few hours. (Which of course meant that I didn't get any sleep and I moved to the other bed in the middle of the night.)

Thursday: The next morning we got our flight to Grand Rapids. It was a tiny plane, but Judith did just fine. Judith got to meet her cousin Jada (she's 3) - which was way more fun for Jada than for Judith. Jada had a great time showing Judith how all the toys worked! Judith also got to see snow for the first time!

Friday: Judith got to meet her great grandparents (my dad's parents) when we went to their house to celebrate Great Grandpa Sjoerdsma's 80th birthday.

Saturday: We really just hung out at home all day, which was great. Judith got to play with everyone (and I got a break from having to entertain her!).

Sunday: We visited my parents church in the morning and showed Judith off to their friends. In the afternoon we spent some time playing in the snow! (Ok, we spent like five minutes playing and just took pictures.) Judith used a snowsuit that Jada had worn. She looks adorable sitting in the snow, and she certainly was fascinated by the stuff falling on her face.

Monday: We had lunch with Kim Verbrugge Groenenboom (a high school and college friend of mine) and her family, which was a lot of fun for me, and somewhat less fun for Judith and Lance. We said goodbye to Auntie Jen and Cousin Jada :-(.

Tuesday: We had originally planned to head up to Cadillac on this day, but winter weather (and our own colds) prevented us from going. So we hung out at home again. That night we said goodbye to Auntie Lis and Uncle C. J :-(.

Wednesday: Judith started the day by starting another growth spurt. She ate every two hours the whole way back to Sacramento! We said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa :-(. (Grand Rapids was setting records for low temperatures - our plane left Grand Rapids at noon, and the temperature was 7! We were very glad to be going home to Sacramento where they were setting records for high temperatures.) I was anticipating that the travel home would be better than the travel out to G.R. (especially after our flight was cancelled). At the same time, we did have a two hour flight followed by a 5 1/2 hour layover, followed by a 5 hour flight. And it wasn't so nice. Judith did fine on the first flight. And the layover in Atlanta, while long, wasn't too bad either. But by the time we got on the plane to Sacramento, it was almost Judith's bedtime. But I'd estimate that she didn't even sleep half of the time on the plane. She slept through takeoff, and then was awake for at least two hours. The latter part of the two hours she was pretty fussy - wanting to sleep but finding it difficult with all the distractions. I finally stood up and "rocked" her a little bit, and she drifted off. She slept the rest of the way home, which meant that both Lance and I had sore arms by the time we debarked! Judith woke up as we landed. Uncle Tim drove us home from the airport, and Judith fell asleep, but when we reached home she woke up and wanted to be awake and playing! After a good 45 minutes of fighting with her, I decided to feed her again, which calmed her down enough that she could drift off. Unfortunately she was awake every hour crying for her pacifier!

Today she seems a little jet lagged - out of sorts, and is still eating every two hours. I'm really hoping that she'll sleep better tonight because I need it as much she does!

2 comments:

Erin said...

Other the the flying part - it sounds like you had a great time with your family! I hope Judith gets back into good sleeping patterns - for yoursake and hers :)

Barbara Ford said...

Thanks. We did have a good time, and I'm really glad we went. If only we could "beam" there instead of flying!