The Reading expedition

I learned a few lessons yesterday.

1. Make sure you understand the directions before leaving the house. The directions I got from the hospital told me from Philadelphia to get on the turnpike. So I went to mid-county to get on the turnpike. Then I looked at the directions and they said to get on west. Well there is no way to get on going west from Mid-county but I was already through the tolls so I went towards Lansale. Which was super wrong because it is a long drive until you can get off. I then called Mark and had him give me directions to Reading from Lansdale. We drove all over God’s green earth and it took us two hours to get to the hospital. And of course Noah didn’t sleep through much of it. He was pleasant for most of it thankfully but he also had some crying moments. It sucks to get totally turned around and drive far away. It double sucks when you have a carseat-hating infant with you.

2. When going to see a friend in the hospital call close to departure time to make sure they are still well enough to receive you. When we finally got there Janette was very tired and very sick. Poor thing. The drugs they gave her to alleviate the pain of the C section were not agreeing with her. She was doped up and not keeping anything down. When she drank some cranberry juice and it came back up she apologized to Noah. No need to apologize to the king of spit-up. Little Jules was swaddled and sleeping so I didn’t get to manhandle him too much – but he was breathtakingly small. Already I can’t imagine Noah was that small – but he was of course. Anyway we didn’t want to stay because Janette was in dire need of more rest. Noah and I left the happy parents and new arrival after only a half hour.

3. Bring the stroller. I didn’t want to put Noah right back into the car. Neither of us would have survived that. So we decided to take a walk in downtown Reading. I had the Bjorn, so it wasn’t that bad, but it was a long enough walk that the stroller would have been way better. We found a nearby coffee shop and made ourselves at home. They had a couch in the window so Noah and I just hung out there – people watching, squeaking, eating Gerber puffs and pureed bananas.

4. When things aren’t going perfectly take a step back and look at what went right. Noah really is such a good boy. I’m astounded by how good spirited he is and how much he just enjoys being out in the world. (With the exception of course of his car seat.) I had a lot of fun wasting time with him in that coffee shop – and it was something that could have been disastrous had he been less congenial. And since I didn’t put him back in the car until close to his bedtime he slept all the way home. Good stuff.

Janette will probably be in the hospital until Friday. In retrospect I should have gone today to visit and given her a day to recoop, but I was just SO excited to see Jules on the day he was born.