The other day, Katie and I were going to meet Grandma in Waco for lunch and an exchange of goods. My plan was to keep Katie happy with different toys through the ride, along with snacks and water. I had her kid songs CDs in the car, and even my iPhone with the car hookup cable to play white noise in an emergency. I was hoping she would eat lunch and sleep the whole way back. I thought I had everything covered. Boy, was I wrong!
She fell asleep on the way up there, about 15 minutes into the drive. She slept for 30 minutes, and then I handed her toys and water. Fifteen minutes later she started crying. I found an exit (we were in Marlin, TX), found a random hotel driveway on the side of the road, and got out to check on her. I should mention that a cold front had just blown through, and it was quite windy. I checked her diaper, rubbed Peace & Calming essential oil on her--this worked pretty well on the last road trip, and she did calm down. I also gave her a different toy and a snack. This settled her down until we were about ten minutes away from our destination.
I heard her cough a little, so I looked at her in the mirror. We have a mirror facing her in the backseat so I can see her while I'm driving. Anyway, I looked back there just in time to see her throw up. All down her front, all over the car seat. About the time the smell hit me, she started screaming. I took the first exit I saw, which literally went nowhere, but thankfully, there was an extra wide paved area so I could park far off of the driving lanes and feel safe.
I grabbed some napkins, and ran to the backseat to clean her and her car seat up. Fortunately, there was a plastic grocery bag on the floor back there to dump the trash in. I got her out and into the trunk to change her. I had a change of clothes in her diaper bag, thankfully, but the pants I packed were too small. Oh well. At least she had something, right? So after I changed her, I put her on the ground and told her to wait by the car door while I finished cleaning up her car seat and the trash. Suddenly, I heard the car door slam, Katie started crying, and the trunk closed on me at the same time. A huge gust of wind. My heart sank into my toes. I thought the car door hit Katie when it blew closed! I ran over and picked her up, still crying and wailing. I tried checking her over for bruises, and didn't find any. Maybe the wind knocked her down and it all scared her. But still she was crying uncontrollably.
At this moment, I did not know what to do! I'm standing on the side of the road next to the car, in the wind, holding my daughter, and did not know what to do.
Finally, it hit me that we were very close to where we were going to eat. I told Katie, "I have to put you in the car, it's a short trip." And we were off. I held my bottle of Stress Away (yummy mixture of lime, vanilla, and other soothing essential oils) in front of the air vent to help with the smell. She quickly stopped crying! When we got there, Grandma greeted us with hugs and picked Katie up. She perked up pretty quickly, and even ate pretty well at lunch.
After we ate, Grandma put some jeans on Katie that she had added some cute ruffles to:
There was a shopping center next to where we ate, so we took Katie there. She literally ran through half of the store, and then stopped, looked at us, and sat down! We carried her through the other half. On the drive home, she slept for an hour, and did great.
The next trip, I will use DiGize (stands for "digestive energize") and Peppermint essential oils as a preventative measure for her carsickness. Praying this is an effective solution.
Never a dull moment being a Mommy!
