Sleep?

Luke has never slept in the car well. Our first long trip, about 2 hours, to my parent’s house for Christmas when he was 3 weeks old was our first real test. We were told, “oh leave when he has a full belly and he’s ready for a nap” and “when he’s tired enough he’ll sleep”. Well, it didn’t work. On the way down to my parents he screamed for about 1.5 hours. On the way home it was for the entire trip!! It didn’t get better from there. We eventually found that blasting Randy Travis seemed to get him quiet…never put him to sleep, but it did get him quiet.


Then we took our first Wisconsin vacation trip when Luke was about 8 months old. We thought surely sometime in the 9 hours on the road, he would fall asleep. But, no…the most he did was one 10 minute cat-nap. The rest of the time he was usually crying. Only when he heard Randy Travis did he let up.

Now he is old enough, that he will watch cartoons on our travel DVD player. Although it has to have music, like Baby Einstein does. It is wonderful to have something to keep him happy when he is tired from his therapy sessions and we have a 35 minute drive home. Although, I tend to get tired of hearing “Old McDonald” over and over.

We are going to embark on a real adventure soon. We are taking Luke to John Hopkins to a Center for Hypotonia, hoping to find answers. Only the drive is about 12.5 hours…I get exhausted just thinking about it.

In preparation for this trip, and thinking of my husband’s and my sanity, we are trying out various cartoons and musicals so we don’t have to listen to the same songs for the whole 12.5 hours there…and back. We have expanded past Baby Einstein to Robin Hood (who can forget that whistle song at the beginning), Sleeping Beauty (my husband isn’t sure he wants his son watching that one), and of course some of my personal favorites; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Oklahoma! Of course all of this stretches my husband’s “ideals of a boy”, after all his boy should be a “man’s man” or something like that. I try to explain that doesn’t mean he can’t appreciate some good music.

I think I will win that battle when my husband doesn’t have to hear certain songs over and over for 12.5 hours. Especially if we don’t have to listen to Randy Travis the whole trip!!