Back in April, I bragged about a mini-vacation that we'd planned to take in May. Roger's mom came to town earlier this week and she and Delaney and I went to stay at a local resort where Roger was speaking as part of our company's annual conference. At the close of that post in April, I said, "We may not be going far, but it'll still feel like a vacation to me."
Ha, ha, ha. How naiive and misguided that assumption was. It's true that we didn't go very far but other than ordering room service nothing about the last 24 hours felt like a vacation to me. Delaney and I cut our "trip" short and came back home last night, a day early.
This brief excursion was the first time she and I had spent the night away from home since she was born. So, it was kind of a big step for us, but I never thought of it that way throughout the planning process. She's such an easygoing, agreeable baby and she continually goes with the flow without comment or complaint that it never occurred to me that disrupting her schedule on such a grand scale would actually phase her. Uh. It did.
My parents came out to the resort last night so they could babysit Delaney while the three of us (Roger, me, his mom) attended the conference's infamous welcome reception. They watched her in Roger's room (we had separate rooms so that Roger could work late into the night, getting ready for his various speaking sessions over the three-day conference) and the plan was for them to put her to bed in the pack 'n' play and Roger would help me transfer her to a crib in my room when we got back from the party.
The reception, complete with open bar, was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the familiar faces of customers I've worked with over the last ten years and catching up with them while enjoying a couple of adult beverages. I even wore a sparkly new top and glittery shoes. A few people remarked on my weight loss. Another told me I looked great, as if I'd left my "mom persona" behind for the night. It felt so good to be out enjoying myself and not worrying about Delaney's needs for just a few hours. When we got back to the room, my mom told me that they were able to put Delaney down for bed without any trouble. It was easy, almost too easy, she said before she and my dad left. She was right.
While Delaney slept peacefully in the bedroom portion of Roger's suite we ordered room service and stayed up in the living room talking until about 11:30. Then, it began. I heard Delaney crying. But, it wasn't just any little cry. This was the cry of a confused, scared, desperate baby. She woke up and didn't recognize where she was and no one was there with her. Roger picked her up and tried to comfort her, but she was crying too hard, reaching for me and starting to hyperventilate. I was able to calm her down and soon we walked her back to my room. We got there at midnight and Roger put her in the crib where she seemed to settle down. But, as he and I were saying goodnight, she started crying again. Roger had to leave to finish some work for the morning. I told him to go that I'd get her back down and everything would be fine. What a joke.
She wouldn't settle down or stop crying or coughing for anything. We may have gotten a grand total of one hour of sleep that night. It was miserable. As bad as our previous rough night had been, this was so much worse because this time Roger wasn't with me to take turns with her. It was all on me and I was unbelieveably exhausted (she'd been up coughing a few times the last few nights so I wasn't getting as much sleep as I was used to).
We were supposed to stay one more night, but after careful consideration, I made the call to take her home last night. Roger and his mom stayed at hotel and Delaney and I returned home where she slept for 12 blissful hours. I think she just missed home and her bed and we'd taken her out of her comfort zone. But, as nice as it was to get her back to her routine for that night, getting her back to her regular schedule hasn't been that simple. She got off of her napping schedule too so now we're back to a little CIO to get her back on track. And? It sucks. I hate it and now I find it hard to believe that I'll ever get to or want to go on a "vacation" again.