Harry Potter to the Rescue

Scott took the 6:00am feeding so that Susanne could try to rest up as much as possible before her six hour drive today. She was hoping to leave by noon, but she knew that she needed to add two hours to whatever she had set her goal time for. It was just how it always seemed to work out no matter how hard she tried.

Susanne started her day running. First, she pumped. This always took up so much precious time. Next, she set up Paxton's next feeding. During his feeding, she started sorting through what she needed to take back to Virginia with her. She also needed to think about what she would need for the fast approaching trip to Boston. She was taking Paxton up there for a follow up cardiology appointment as well as for a consult with the craniofacial team and a neuro-ophthalmologist. As she was moving everything she would be taking with her to one area, she heard Paxton gagging. She rushed in to scoop him up to try to prevent a major disaster. She got to him just in time, but he ended up vomiting all over himself. Susanne couldn't believe that she dodged a big bullet. She was in the line of fire the entire time, but only a small amount of spit up got in her hair. Luckily, her outfit was salvaged. Scott brought Susanne breakfast in the middle of everything. This was the most helpful thing he could have done especially since meals were often an afterthought for her because of her busy schedule. She took time to eat while Scott tried to help finish gathering her things. Gigi ended up sitting with Paxton so that someone could keep a close eye on him. She played with him using some of his new toys that he got for Christmas.

Scott and Susanne spent some time packing all of the bags and suitcases. By the end of it all, there was a total of two suitcases, two breast pumps, six bags full of stuff, one cooler, and one purse. Not to mention the car seat with the bug and his equipment for his feedings. Yikes. How in the world would they condense all of this for Boston? It had been done before, but it still seemed impossible.

Susanne and Paxton finally got on the road around 3:00pm. This was definitely much later than she had hoped, but it was too late to do anything about it.

Poppy had made the suggestion earlier in the day to take a book on tape for the ride. He had the complete series of Harry Potter books on CD that he recommended. Since they had just watched the third movie in the series, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", he thought this would be the most appropriate choice. He was right. This helped Susanne tremendously during the drive and it was actually interesting. She had never listened to a book on the road before. She had always avoided them because of her short attention span. She thought for sure that she would lose interest pretty quickly, but that was not the case. The key to success was the fact that she had just watched the movie. It helped her to visualize what they were talking about.

Paxton did well durning the trip. He had his car seat lined with freezer packs and his own personal fan attached to the side. Susanne had made sure to also supe up the car seat with a variety of toys. Some crinkled, some lit up, some played music, and some were just plain cute. This decked out seat kept him entertained and cool up until they were thirty minutes away from home. He started to cry, wail, scream, and eventually sound like he was holding his breath. His personal fan helped in the beginning, but then Susanne had to add in rubbing his head. This seemed to soothe him enough to quiet him down for the last few minutes before pulling into the driveway.

Susanne immediately took him upstairs and got him out of his car seat. This was definitely his nemesis. She changed his dirty diaper, took him out of his clothes, and let him cool off. Within minutes, he was smiling and laughing. It was amazing how easily he got over things. Susanne loved that about him.

Paxton was worn out from the drive. He was dead asleep within the first hour of being home. Susanne was then able to unload the car, pump, eat some dinner, sort through mail, and most importantly catch up on her favorite TV shows.