Or perhaps I should title this... "Parenting 101: What the Heck NOT to do with Your CHILD"... or "Don't Believe the Weather Channel"
Anyway, yesterday we had a day of adventures planned for us. 1. I had a doctor's appointment (I'm cleared! Finally!), 2. We had our free car maintenance at Bommarito Volkswagen up in Saint Louis. 3. We planned to pilgrimage to Cotton Babies, and 4. SHOPPING! I love the malls in STL, and I wanted so many things (none of which I found to buy, of course).
So, we did get to do all of those things, baby in tow. She was doing great. This was my first big trip with baby, so I felt silly like I was packing our lives away in the diaper bag, but I wanted to be prepared for anything (oh.. foresight). We got great things at Cotton Babies, I found the vest I'd wanted for half off (I'd ordered then canceled, then went back to reorder, but figured I'd look at them first--50% off!!). I also am wanting to try cloth wipes for at home use, so I picked up a bottle of wipe spray, but decided I'd make wipe cloths instead of buying them, since they're too darn simple not to make (and I have a ton of flannel just laying around with nothing to do).
But at the Galleria, we didn't find anything, and we needed to get home, so we cut our shopping short. Not short enough, however. As soon as we hit the road it started to mist (I'm recalling a Stephen King story about how the mist was deadly... I think I'm pairing it with falling, man eating frogs that came from the mist, but I might be mingling stories here). Anyway, my dad called from home and said it's bad, stay up there, get a hotel. No sooner did I get off the phone, it WAS bad, so bad in fact, we didn't know exactly what to do. We'd made it to I-70 (for those not local, that's the highway that cuts through the state, and takes us home), but cars were sliding left and right (and right off the road, and into other cars, etc.). So we tried to make a "hasty" retreat to a gas station, only to get stuck on the off ramp. The car was sliding so bad I just threw it in park and sat there. It was too slick to even get out of the car to walk... and oh we'd made it so close to that gas station/McDonalds. A very nice, saintly gentleman was walking back to the highway and helped us maneuver the car up the rest of the ramp (he literally stood at my window, guiding the car--he could push it... since we were on ice and all). We got to the station and found out in fact I-70 wasn't an option--a few semis had jack-knifed, blocking the way, and they were shutting the highway down, at least for a while. Many people in our situation were simply stuck all night on the highway in their cars (we only had a half tank of gas, which used to be my definition of "basically a full tank"... we'd have never lasted all night on that though!). So we settled in, did a diaper change and a feeding and discussed options (there weren't any).
The baby was a dear. She loved the lights in the McDonalds, so we just kept her happy and kept checking for news about when we could leave. My diaper bag was pretty stocked--I had 3 disposable diapers, plus 4 BumGenius diapers (that's a good day/night of diapers, if not more), so we were set. I also had 12 hours of formula or so, but at midnight we gave her her last bottle, so I started to get scared, as we weren't leaving yet. Now, Claire's normal feeding schedule was just about the same... we always give a late night bottle and then make it till about 5 a.m. So, I figured we had a few hours, but with our situation, who knew when we'd get home! I also realized that I'd ill-packed one item--wipes! I never really do diaper changes on the go, so I had no idea how many we had in our little travel pack, but realized at the gas station that we were down to our last two wipes. I started to panic, since they didn't have wipes or formula at the gas station, but I remembered my earlier purchase of butt spray (and our easy access to napkins!) and was at least relieved I wouldn't be dunking and flushing my daughter in a seedy gas station bathroom to get her clean.
Well, we called the hospital for advice on what to feed her (we got a big fat--don't do anything but formula) so we started to re-access. We were at mile marker 200, there was a Wal-Mart at mile marker 193. We found out from some locals that the south service road was passable, so we could get there. It kind of felt like the Zombie Apocalypse, discussing rumors about where people were headed for safety and which places were impassible. Minus the zombies, of course. I was apprehensive about leaving a known safe place for the unknown, because if we got stuck, well, then, what? We filled up our tank and headed out though, because the promise of Wal-Mart and formula was too strong a draw. We made it there (it took about 30 minutes to make it 7 miles) and basically made Wal-Mart our house for a few hours. Poor Claire had thrown up part of her midnight bottle and was gooey with formula, so she had a little impromptu hair wash and outfit change in the Wal-Mart family bathroom sink (I have travel cleaning supplies in the bag, clever me, plus a change of clothes, plus an extra hat). We also immediately bought some formula, for just in case. Then we strolled around Wal-Mart--they had a really neat selection of stuff there, not like our normal store, so we found lots of stuff we probably should have bought, but didn't (you don't need baby toys during the apocalypse, right?).
We unfortunately were NOT getting any updates at Wal-Mart, it was sort of like a dead zone. So I took a brief "break" in the car (parked in the lot with about 100 semis, not even kidding), and we finally heard through MoDot's hotline that they'd cleared the highway so it was open. We ran to a gas station on our way out and asked, sure enough, they thought we could make it. Now, normally from that exit (it's also, little known fact, the home of the closest Jack-in-the-Box to where I lived in Columbia during college, don't ask) it takes me an hour flat to make it home. Well, it took us about 2 1/2 hours to get home... getting us home just after 5, which was exactly when Claire woke her pretty head up and started fussing for a bottle (we never even needed the extra formula, thank goodness).
NOW the story is funny, and kind of wonderous, but at the time I was freaking the "eff" out. On my own I'd have been scared, because that's the way I am. I don't talk to people. With just Matt this would have been an adventure. It'd have been kind of fun in a weird way. With the baby... well, it was one of the scariest things I've ever been through. Amazing what being "responsible" does for the psyche. I was just impressed I packed so well, in the end! Now I'll never make fun of myself for packing like we'd be gone for two days, as, we almost were!
Our lovely Planet Wise wet bag held all our dirty diapers with no stink or mess. The baby slept great in her car seat (and since she has to sleep elevated anyway, it actually worked out better than most nights--she slept like an angel). Even though our iPod jammed (with the repeating tracks of the vacuum playing, which is her "lullably") we had static from the radio and the new Taylor Swift CD... which she adores. So she was happy as a clam. Other than US being extremely tired when we got home, for her it was as if nothing had happened. I never really realized she'd actually developed a bit of a pattern to her daily routine until we were out and about and she held to it. Now I'm even a little relieved at knowing when I have to go back to work, I already have her in a set routine of sorts!
I think for any parent this would be scary. Just remember, Wal-Marts are the best place to get stuck because they have everything you'll ever need. Second best places are gas stations with McDonalds built in. If we'd made it to a hotel, we'd have had a place to rest and sleep, but still no supplies (not that we actually needed any) but still--it's better to have stuff and little comfort, than great comfort but no stuff. That's the moral of the story. Oh, and don't believe the stupid reports about a "chance" of glazing on overpasses and bridges. What they mean by that is, don't, for whatever reason, leave your house, ever. So, there you go. That was our night of horrors. At least there weren't any actual zombies. (And if there were, Wal-Mart DOES have guns and ammo... so... just saying).
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