Debriefing the Trip

I would like to begin by apologizing to the couple in Room 103 of the Springhill Suites outside of Atlanta Friday night. The babies aren't usually so poorly mannered; they were just adjusting to their new environment. I know it sounded like we were torturing them, but we were indeed trying to comfort them. I hope wherever you stayed Saturday night (maybe it was just in a different hotel room further down the hall) you were able to get to sleep earlier.

The following ramblings are just my ruminations about the trip for me to refer to in the future. Feel free to read quickly/skip. Summary: Overall the trip went well.

Well, we survived our first out-of-town experience. It was definitely not a flawless trip, but overall it went well. Both H and I feel better about traveling with the babies now that we have this trip behind us. The travel time was significantly slower with triplets than when the two of us used to travel. It took us eight hours to get home where it used to take us five--and they are still in diapers.

When my sister's husband Jon went to help H unload the vehicle he said, "This is crazy," referring to all the stuff we had. It was crazy. It took me three days to pack, and I'm still not unpacked, for a 48 hour trip. But, the only thing we brought that we did not use was a small bag of books. Now there were some things that we didn't use all of--like diapers and wipes. I brought too many of those, but who wants to run out of those things?

The two things I want to work on for our next trip are the mobile feedings and the napping. We need a better system of mixing up bottles for the on-the-road feeds. We need something quick and ready. But we have issues to deal with like the babies not liking cold bottles and mixed formula needing to be cold. We have tried those bottle warmers you plug into the cigarette lighter (do we still call them cigarette lighters or are the cell phone charger outlets now?), but they don't work too well.

The other issue we have to deal with is napping. We were very quick to throw naps out the window when they didn't fit into the schedule for the day. This made for several meltdowns. Also, sometimes our babies need to settle themselves down and I was reluctant to do this with others around. I guess it is the fear of them thinking I am not a good mother or that I am not doing it right. Those are just my issues to work out.

The babies had several meltdowns, always in regard to sleep. We had three pack-n-plays. Elliott slept in his both nights. Mazie didn't sleep in hers either night. Lucia slept in hers most of the second night. I think she would have slept in hers the first night too had she not rolled over and banged her head into the wall. Kids sleeping in the bed with parents is something I am not in favor of, but my strong feelings went right out the window when I knew two weary travelers were trying to rest about five feet away from us with only a thin wall separating us.

Also on our trip we took the babies out to eat for the first time. Their Tia Karen got to be with us for the thrilling experience. We went to the fine dining establishment of Panera Bread. Everyone except the babies got coffee and bagels. How did this experience differ from a trip to Panera Bread sans triplets? For one, we got to spend our 20 minutes there talking to a grandmother (with jet black hair, clad in tight black leggings and a tube top. she goes by mimi, not granny) about our babies and her grandbabies. I enjoyed talking to her; she was sweet and fun. Another occurrence "dining out" with triplets is that I did not eat my bagel until we left Panera and were in the car headed to my Grandma's house. Several other people asked us brief questions and one group of ladies sitting near us talked about people they knew who had twins and Jon and Kate Plus Eight.

We have begun talking about where we might go for our next trip. One thing we are learning is the more you do it (whatever it is), the smoother it goes.