Easter 2009

April 17, 2009 at 10:11 am (Baby Stuff) (baby, family, holidays, infant)

First off:

I so love having a little girl.  I get to dress her up whenever I want! For a little while, she was wearing little knee-high white socks and some pink shoes… I didn’t get a picture of it though.  Maybe I should get her dressed in it again another time, before she outgrows the dress. Hmm.

Anyhow!  Last Friday was our first Easter dinner, with Chris’ mother’s side of the family — sort of.  More like his aunt-by-marriage’s side, which meant a ton of people we didn’t know, and maybe ten that we did.  Ten may sound like a decent amount, but when you consider that there were THIRTY PEOPLE there, it’s not really.  And with that many people, Maia was pretty overwhelmed.  She definitely had a rough time for the first few hours we were there and I felt horrible; she was crying, didn’t want anyone but me or Chris holding her, screaming whenever someone would get in her face and try to make her happy (what is with that, btw? if you were upset and scared, would you REALLY want a stranger getting in your space, making faces and being loud?).  After dinner — which of course I spent in a separate room with her, nursing, and no one thought to bring me my dinner plate, which just sat at the end of the table getting cold (and someone stole my bread off it!) — she calmed down a bit.  And in fact, she let other people hold her!  One lady that I’m not particularly fond of, the mother of those two boys from Thanksgiving, actually held Maia for a long while, bouncing and walking around the house with her.  It was surprising, but awesome.

When we went to leave, Maia was actually good when we set her in her carseat.  Usually she’s pissy in the carseat but happy once we get into the car.  People crowded around and cooed at her, and she let them see her BIG, dimpled smile.

So then when we got into the car… she was okay, wide-awake though.  She stayed awake, watching the shadows play over the roof of the car, looking out of the back window at the streetlights.  Of course, this couldn’t last; I was waiting on her to fall asleep, but she decided to start crying instead.  I tried a few different things to shush her, but no dice.  Eventually we had to pull off the highway so I could feed her.  Why she was hungry again after having just been nursed before we left the party is beyond me, but whatever, it worked out.

So Sunday, we were heading to Easter with Chris’ father’s side of the family.  The house was literally 15 minutes down the highway.  Again, Maia was fed before being put in her carseat, and she was happy; again, she started wailing when we got on the highway, where we encountered massive traffic.  Stop-and-go driving does not make my baby very happy.  Eventually Chris put his fingertip in her mouth and she suckled on it long enough for us to get to the house, which was kinda nice.

This gathering was MUCH smaller — there were 10 people altogether.  One of Chris’ cousins, who has been a nanny before, totally loved Maia and took her out of our hands for most of the night.  This was great… I actually got to eat a warm dinner!  AT A TABLE!

But guess what happened when we left?  Yep, the baby started to scream again as we encountered traffic … on the highway… at 10pm on a Sunday night.  If we managed to go 10mph, it was a triumph.  Seriously?  We’re 15 minutes down the road on a normal day.  I managed to quiet her down a little with a rattle, but mostly I just tried to hold her hand as Chris pulled off the highway and zoomed down back streets.

I’m not liking this whole “happy in the carseat, pissed in the car” thing.  Especially with the prospect of our trip out to Connecticut in another two weeks!