Robert, Kaylee, and I went on our first camping trip as a family this past weekend......and I forgot to take a single picture. Yep, I get the bad mom award for that one!
Camping was an interesting ordeal. It was fun, hard, exhausting, and crappy all at the same time. My mom, dad, and sister Kathryn came with us, and we each brought a canoe. We left the boys at home being watched and fed by my friend Sandy. Kaylee was set with everything any baby would ever want. We even bought her her own full sized tent!
We got there Sunday evening, and had a wonderful dinner and Kaylee stayed up until it got dark around 9:30. I was expecting a LONG night of her waking and having issues, but she slept until 7 the next morning! Her trouble started after she woke up though. She started throwing up for no apparent reason and nothing really came up. Just a bunch of gross saliva and gagging noises. I think she was just really hungry or she got too cold.....another bad mom award! She was happy after she got some warm food in her, and then was content to play on the ground while the grown ups got ready for a day of fishing.
We went out on the lake before we even ate breakfast! It was very relaxing to just sit and fish for a while. Especially since the fish were not interested in becoming anyone's dinner that day. It seemed like no one on the whole lake was having any luck. My mom caught a little one that had to be released, but that was it. Bummer. We all (except Kaylee) went out on the canoes for fishing and quiet time. Kaylee mostly walked around, assisted by someone's finger of course, played on the ground, or took shoulder rides on Dad and grandpa's shoulders.
I took her around the lake once in what has become my new favorite baby accessory!!
It is the new child carrier I have been saving for, and I love it already. It is so comfortable to carry her in, and she is slowly getting used to longer and longer walks and hikes in it.
She ended up taking a very good nap in the middle of the day, which was also a big surprise to me. I was impressed and relieved that she was handling it all so well. Then things with her started to fall apart. She drank a bunch before her nap that day and then refused to eat more than 5 oz TOTAL for the next 24 hours.......and was not a happy camper (no pun intended).
A nice "catch and release" family ended up giving us the 4 fish that couldn't be re-released for whatever reason, so we got to have yummy fish for lunch that day. I am not a huge fan of eating trout, but it is part of camping and fishing. Kaylee had a couple bites of fish, and I think it may have given her a tummy ache because it was after that that she wouldn't eat anything. Later that afternoon and evening Robert was able to catch two fish of his own! I guess he was the lucky one of the trip this year. Last year it was Kathryn. Maybe next time I will get some fishing luck!
The evening and night was no fun at all. Kaylee was acting completely exhausted (and starving) so we decided to put her to bed early. She fell asleep really easily and I was hopeful she would stay that way. She was up after an hour, and then kept waking every 10-15 minutes. She was miserable, hungry, and didn't want her bottle.
It was obvious that if I was going to get any amount of sleep I needed to be by her, which wasn't an option because she was in her pack n play. So we rushed to empty out the back of my parents' suburban and set up a bed for me and her. It was surprisingly comfortable and comforting to sleep with Kaylee within arms reach. She woke up countless times during the night, but only required a few pats on the back to go back to sleep. I can't imagine how awful the night could have been if I had had to get out of my bed and tent and into her tent for every wake up. Plus it poured rain and thundered all night so I was glad to be in the car.
Am I pathetic that the car is my favorite place to sleep when camping?
The next morning Kaylee still didn't want to eat, and was not a happy girl. She was all out of sorts from being away from home and being in a rough sleeping situation. Kathryn and I went out on the lake in the canoe one more time, and had some time to talk which was greatly needed. I miss being close to my sisters, and need to make more of an effort to stay in touch with them.
Once we got home Kaylee ate a whole 11 oz bottle of food and went to sleep for a good long time. I guess the little girl was just homesick. That doesn't bode well for my 6 day trip to Arizona.......
Oh, I got the picture situation worked out and will continue to be able to post them. Yay!
