Traveling with Cooper

They say when it rains, it pours. About 3 weeks ago, Chris’s Grandmother Hazel Foley passed away. Hazel was one week shy of 89. She was slowly deteriorating and finally God called her name. The three of us made a 10 hours road trip to Lubbock, TX which is 9.5 hours away from Houston. We were gone for 3 nights and 4 days. Thanks to Baby Einstein and the DVD player, we were able to make it on such a long trip. I just kept feeding him and giving him bottles and that seemed to make him happy. But during these 1o hours, Cooper barely slept. Cooper will no longer sleep in the car. Yes, I know this is crazy. Babies should sleep in the car right?!? The only way that Cooper would fall asleep is if we let him wail until he would just give up. But he would only sleep for 20- 40 minutes tops. I think the whole trip in the car he slept a total of one hour. Thankfully, once we arrive he had a lot of distraction to keep him from loosing it.

Then a week later my Grandfather Bill Brogan passed away suddenly and unexpected at the age of 80. I booked a plane ticket to return to Maryland last minute, but the ticket prices were so high that I was the only one able to go. Chris had to say behind. I took Cooper with me so that my family could see him. So for the first time ever, I took a 3 hours flight alone with Cooper.  I just returned yesterday. Let me say this, I will never travel on a plane alone with Cooper ever again! Well, I would travel alone with Cooper on the plane if I bought him a seat and put him in his carseat for the flight. At least that way I don’t have to hold him the whole trip. In summary he was so squirmy. All he wanted to do was crawl all over the plane, touch the man next to me or kick him, eat the seat belt, or basically do anything he was not allowed to do. He will not sleep in my arms anymore so that made traveling hard because he was tired but refused to fall asleep. He cried on the way back for the first 1.5 hours. I was “that mom” who could not control her son. I tired everything to get him to calm down, offered a bottle, offered food, tried to rock him, turned on the DVD player, handed him toys…but he was just so tired he could not help it. Finally, I stood up and went to the back of the plane and he feel alseep in my arms for 10 minutes to the hum the plane was creating, but he quickly awoke when I was asked to return to my seat and then his crying only increased in intensity. Finally, he calmed down after taking a bottle (which he had refused 3 times prior). Then I read him his favorite three books over and over and over. The poor guy next to me must have hated to hear me reading him the same books like a broken record. I really did not care, it was keeping him distracted and calm. All the while, I just kept handing him Gerber puffs to keep him quite and to keep his ears from popping during descent. When I was exiting the plane the flight attendant said to me, “He did OK.” I laughed and said, “your kind!” She patted me on the back and gave me a look like, “well at least it’s all over.”

So Cooper survived the car and plane and sleeping in many different places. He is such a trooper. He really did a great job with not following a schedule, missing naps, and asking a very active 10 month old to sit still for so long. I know our family is glad that we brought him along to the funerals so that he could be apart of the family. Something about a young child or infant can really breath life into such a sad event. I know that Chris and I will miss our grandparents. We are glad that both of them got to meet Cooper. I am sure that neither of them would have wanted Cooper to stay behind and not be present for their funerals/ day of their funerals.