We made the trip home today, and have lived to tell the tale! Actually, Jackson was absolutely wonderful on the trips down and back to Florida, but the hours in the car really wore on me and Eric! We were just way too tired. I think we would both like to sleep for about three days straight, but unfortunately, that won't happen. :) Luckily, Eric (who is ALWAYS thinking- one of the many reasons I love that man), took tomorrow off, too, to get a vacation from the vacation. After doing 95% of the driving, he deserves it!
As for getting there and back... we left last Saturday night, at about 10 PM. Jackson had been asleep for a few hours at that point, so we thought the transfer to the car from his crib would be seamless. We were wrong. Oh so wrong. He was awake for the next 3 and a half hours, and finally fell asleep again at 1:30 AM. He awoke again at 4:30 AM, and that was it. No more sleep. Out of the 10 and a half hour trip, he slept 3 hours. Luckily, as I mentioned before, he was extremely amenable to a long distance car ride. This was a very, very fortunate thing for all of us! We did try to give up and find a hotel in GA overnight, just to sleep for a few hours, but every single one we tried was full. I think our mistake was running out of steam near a crowded resort area of Georgia, or maybe it was Eric's wild haired, unshaven, road trip look that put the innkeepers off. ;) Anyway, we persevered to Florida, and ended up staggering around a Daytona Beach Walmart like a family of zombies (I think we kind of fit in) to let Jackson stretch his legs at about 7 AM. We finally arrived at Disney a couple of hours later, and begged them to let us check in early. We finally were in our room, 13 hours after leaving NC. Lesson learned- no more all-nighter road trips. Eric and I just can't handle them like we used to in our child-free and non-preggo years. There's no opening the sun roof and rocking out to loud punk music when your energy's flagging with a toddler in the backseat.
On the way back, we decided to break the trip into 2 parts, which was much, much better than driving straight through overnight. We left Disney at about 6:30 PM, straight from Epcot, and drove until midnight, partly through very heavy rain. Jackson went to sleep at about 8:30 PM, and pretty much was down for the count until we reached our hotel in Walterboro, SC (near Charleston). We arrived at the hotel, and quickly got ready for bed. We made the decision to let Jackson sleep with us in our bed, which we had never done before. We just didn't think it was fair to subject the entire hotel to even a few minutes of Jackson's midnight squalling (he's not a huge fan of his Pack n Play, and fusses for a few minutes before going to sleep in it). To our amazement, he quickly settled down between us, snuggled his stuffed Sorceror Mickey doll, and went to sleep. Of course, we woke at 6 AM to a toddler tornado- he was just happily spinning and turning over and over in bed- but overall, I'd call the night a success.
We finished our trip back to NC today, and we were home at about 11:30 AM! We've done most of the unpacking, and are currently finishing up copious amounts of laundry. We all had an absolute blast on our trip, but it feels so good to be home and back to our own beds, routines, etc. Special thanks again to the Balhoffs for pulling cat duty; we've got liquid rewards for you :). Speaking of our own bed, I'm about to go get in it, just after I rouse a snoozing Eric off the couch. I'll update with pictures and blog entries about the exciting part of our vacation (you know, the parts where we weren't driving), hopefully tomorrow!
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