2004-06-06 - 11:17 p.m. - Cycle day:

Well, we survived the First Road Trip. We learned some important lessons, though, the first of which is: keep road trips with near-toddlers under four hours. She did great for almost all of each drive. She had one really bad hour each way, though. Looking back, this probably could have been avoided, or at least lessened, if we'd taken more than one break and let her settle down for a bit, but we're the kind of travelers who can't come to a complete stop once we start seeing signs that indicate our destination. Besides, she can't walk, so there's not much she can do at a rest stop. So I spent the last leg of each ride sitting in the back seat, trying to dangle enticing, distracting objects in front of M. without actually looking at her (I not only can't read in the car without getting extremely nauseated, I can't look at a map, change the radio station, or frequently switch focus between my child and the road).

Once we got to New Orleans (did I mention we were going to New Orleans?), she was a total trooper, though. We hauled that little girl all over town for three days straight, and she put up with (nearly) every minute of it. It helped that The Husband had a last-minute stroke of genius and threw the baby-backpack in the car. We were able to stroll all through the French Quarter, the Arts district, and even a lively Greek festival without a word of complaint from the wee one. She even napped in there. We kept seeing other parents trying to push big-ass strollers over the bumpy old sidewalks and I wanted to hand out flyers saying "Get a backpack!" It truly made the difference between an enjoyable trip and a barely tolerable one.

We also discovered that Ms. M. is a big fan of swimming. This is a new development since our last beach trip. This time, we put her in a little inflatable baby-boat and she kicked her way all over the hotel pool. She was so delighted.

Coming back required the usual adjustment period, but after things seeming to normalize for a couple days, we're now in a pretty weird spot. M. has been waking up - and I mean wide-awake, not midnight-feeding-awake - at strange times, like 4 and 5 am. It takes an hour or more to get her to settle back to sleep. She's also been a non-stop poop machine (after refusing to poo the entire time we were in the state of Louisiana, and then blowing out her diaper as soon as we drove across the LA/MS border). I've been changing 3-5 messy diapers a day, which is a big change from the one every 3-5 days that was her previous norm. And then today, she seemed to spontaneously develop a really harsh diaper rash. She just started hollering for no apparent reason, and after trying everything else, I changed a fairly new diaper (which, of course, was dirty) and noticed a big red circle over her bum and bits (not scientific language, I realize, but I'm trying to reduce the odds of perverts stumbling across this site via Google). It was obviously causing her a lot of pain. I tried to delicately clean her off and then slathered on the rash cream, but when I changed her next diaper (another poopy one), it looked even worse. I don't know if it's from teething or an allergy or what. She had about half a teaspoon of peaches for the first time tonight, but those are on Dr. Sears's list of the least allergenic foods. Just looking at that rash makes me feel like a negligent parent, even though it appeared out of nowhere. I'm hoping someone in my mama support group will know what's going on, but I'd be happy to hear any suggestions/theories/advice from my dear readers.

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