NSJ

Three outfits, four bottles, three diapers, two traffic jams, and nine and a half hours later we made it back home.

In all our trips to San Diego the drive never took longer than seven hours (and usually took more like six and a half). Put a three day old in the car and Murphy will have it take nine and a half. The four and a half hours on the 405 in stopped traffic was bad enough but then we finally broke away into the grapevine only to have highway 5 temporarily closed because of a tractor trailer accident.

Nicholas did great. He slept most of the time and kept his volume levels to half of what we know he is capable of producing. He was screaming something fierce in the traffic jam on the 405. He hadn’t taken his turn driving yet so I knew he wasn’t upset about the traffic. That leaves three reasons he would be hollering:

1. Hungry
2. Yucky Diaper
3. Upset about the current administration’s foreign policy decisions, complete disregard for human rights, and irresponsible military spending

Turns out he had pooped the largest poop of his life and was pretty unhappy about sitting in it. I was very conflicted while changing the diaper. Part of me was thinking, “Great poop! Solid work. That’s my boy!” The other half was thinking, “Oh dear god, there is poop everywhere. On my shirt, on the car, on the boy. I think there might be poop in my hair.” Mixed feelings to say the least.

Unbeknownst to us Lynn had prepped the house with baby supplies and sticky notes throughout with baby advice. Margaret had dropped off our baby dog, a bassinet, and a wide array of key baby stuff. Auntie Meg had shipped out a bunch of essentials (and luxury items like a wipe warmer). Auntie Jan had prepared us with a Michigan outfit for the game today. Adoption wisdom tell you to not buy supplies beforehand lest you be left with a bunch of baby stuff and no baby should it not work out, so this was an amazing help.

Grandma Olbrys had filled the refrigerator with food and Grandma and Grandpa Johnston, in from Michigan, were waiting for us when we arrived. Nicholas, having slept the last nine hours, had no interest in sleeping once we got home. Jul finally got him to sleep a bit from 5am to 7am and then I got him down again around 9am. Mom and Dad took him from 7-9 to give us some time to sleep.

I don’t remember who told me this but it didn’t hit home until last night. Babies totally violate the Geneva Convention guidelines on torture (most specifically in the area of parental sleep deprivation). I’ve printed them out to read Nicholas tonight.