Road Trip to Madison

We drove to Madison this past weekend for a wedding. Eric's old co-worker, Josh, married Raechel in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. The drive usually takes us about 4 1/2 hours but things are different with a 6 month old. Maeve still isn't a good bottle taker so when she refused a bottle before we left home at 8:30am on Saturday morning (note that the wedding started at 2pm) we knew we were in for trouble. Maeve slept for a few hours and then refused her bottle the rest of that morning. We tried plugging in our new bottle warmer in Eric's truck but it wouldn't work because of the heating element in it, so we resorted back to what we usually do - warm the bottle in a glass of hot water. No luck still! With 30 minutes left to go we were starting to become concerned because Maeve hadn't eaten in 6 1/2 hours. We stopped at a rest stop and finally had the bright idea to try the bottle warmer. It worked! So our 4 1/2 hr road trip took about 6 hours. We didn't make it in time to go to the ceremony but were able to check into the hotel and go to cocktail hour.  It helped that our hotel was a 2 minute walk from the reception facility. Maeve was great during the cocktail hour and dinner and then Kate went back to the hotel room where she held Maeve most of the night (oh, did I mention that she was getting an ear infection and didn't want to sleep in her crib - good thing we brought the rock n play as a back-up). She finally went down and Kate fell asleep at 9pm. Eric came home later after enjoying the reception with his former co-workers.

The way home was just as eventful! Every stop we made the first thing we looked for was a plug for the bottle warmer! That thing came everywhere with us. She took her bottles like a champ - guess she likes it really HOT! No lukewarm milk for Miss Maeve. Our last stop was eventful. Eric wanted to get Spotted Cow beer - only sold in Wisconsin - and Maeve was fussy. We thought she just couldn't put herself to sleep. Well, we found the problem. She had a dirty diaper that required an outfit change! Welcome to solid foods and formula!! We stopped at Holiday gas station and changed her in the back of the truck. It was a two-person operation! After that, we were on to Culver's to find a plug for the bottle warmer and get a much needed ice cream cone for Mom and Dad.

All in all it was a fun trip! Just takes a lot longer and we didn't get to watch the 4 movies that we brought along! This upcoming weekend we're flying to New Jersey for Kate's cousin's wedding.  Lets hope the start of an ear infection is better come Friday morning!  Wish us luck on our travels!

Mom and Dad