Road trippin' with triplets

We didn't arrive until 2:15 a.m. (3:15 our time), but we made it!  Overall, the trip wasn't that bad, which is not to say that we didn't have a few mishaps. We started off on bad foot when we got 20 min into the trip and I realized we'd forgotten the bottles in the fridge. So we got out of the house ovee an hour later than I'd hoped and then had an additional forty minute do-over.  

All the kiddos fell asleep pretty quickly and slept until shortly before the Pennsylvania/Ohio border, when one by one they started fussing which quickly turned into wailing. We were hoping to make it to the first Ohio rest stop to feed them but wouldn't you know that rest stop was closed! So we got off at the next town.  While evaluating our options (McDonald's, BK, & Arbys) Michelle noticed a Best Western and thought that might be a better spot for feeding babies.  The plan was just to walk in and start feeding, figuring someone would have to be pretty bold so come up to us and complain.  But when we walked in the front desk person was super friendly in greeting us, so Michelle just asked her if we could feed our three hungry babies here and she said "of course!"  That was a great call on Michelle's part because it was completely empty, had subdued lighting, and an easy access clean bathroom.  

I call this the double cross-over burp move!

Nursing Avery & bottle feeding Ellie

     

  Diaper change & car seat break station

The kiddos weren't too happy to get back in their car seats and had quite the little chorus while we were in the Arby's drive thru so we could grab a bite to eat. But I randomly started singing "wheels on the bus" and magically they all stopped crying!!  They all slept nicely again for a while. The next time they started stirring I joined them in the back and continually put pacifiers in; it felt a little like trying to plug the holes in a leaky dike!  Our second stop was at an Indiana rest stop near Elkhart. This was not nearly as nice of a place to feed babies!  The only way to not sit near a kind of sketchy dude meant sitting near a leaky ceiling!  But we manages and I pulled double duty again, nursing Avery while feeding Ellie a bottle. I did all the diapers at our first stop so Michelle did the second--boy did I luck out!! She had three big poopy diapers at our second stop. 

Rest stop booth diaper change station

    

The precarious leaky ceiling of impending doom

 Packed up & ready for the home stretch

Because she'd only fed one baby and there was a pretty long interval between, Michelle was getting particularly desperate to pump. So I drove after the second stop so she could pump. She got all set up and turned the pump on, or should I say tried to turn the pump on! Apparently the batteries had died!  And of course we'd already pulled out of the rest stop!  So we made two additional stops to find batteries to operate the pump! Just what we needed on an already long drive!  Did I mention it was raining for the second half of Ohio and super foggy all across Indiana?!?  Needless to say, we are glad we made it and ready for a little snooze now! Fingers crossed the babies are down with this whole napping thing!!!