Oh MY GOD. Today, and especially this morning, has been nearly as insane as when I went into labor. I know it's my first time traveling with an infant and everything, but I think I might lose my mind if I don't get to take a shower and just go to bed.

We didn't pull into our destination of Cleveland until after 7:00 PM. My husband thought (rather foolishly) that we'd be in around 3:00 PM. I knew we'd never make such good time, even if we had gotten out early like we planned to (but didn't) but I still thought we'd make it in sooner than that. It was still light out, though, so that's a plus.

Another plus is that the baby slept through the night for the first time ever. Of course we were counting on him to wake us up between 3:00 and 4:00 AM like he always does so we could get an early start, but he obligingly slept all the way to 5:00 AM! Normally I would be ecstatic. Instead I was well rested and totally late.

Even though I spent the better part of two days planning and packing for this trip we still managed to be completely consumed by chaos this morning. I had to feed the baby and pump and then re-sterilize the breastfeeding equipment since we didn't know if our hotel room would have a microwave for the sterilization equipment (it's Avent and I LOVE it. So much better than boiling).

And that was if we actually made it to Cleveland. I wasn't 100% convinced we'd get out of Manhattan.

In all the madness we still managed to get the house in order, change the sheets, feed and walk the dogs, pack up all our stuff and get the hi ho out of dodge. Our kitchen looked like a war zone. Our bedroom looked as if it had been robbed. There was basically nothing left in it. Like a cruel game of Tetris we loaded the Ford Escape with the material aspects of our lives. Then we got in and drove off.

The baby, contrary to what I believed would be the case, was an absolute gem the entire time. He cooed and slept and drooled the way babies are supposed to, even when we got caught in Battery Tunnel traffic. In short, he was perfect. The two of us, however, were not.

I nearly lost my mind at the house trying to get the baby monitor cord untangled from the rest of the cords and a wire bookshelf. My husband couldn't fit everything we desperately needed to pack into the Escape. Frankly, the rest of the morning was a blur, and I'm glad I don't remember it.

Speaking of not remembering things, as soon as we hit our first rest stop we realized we forgot the baby bjorn. Seriously. So, uh, how are we supposed to get the kid through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, let alone around Louisville and Indiana? We have the stroller, as it fits the infant carrier (which fits the car seat base) so we have some wheels, but the ease of the bjorn will be sorely missed, almost as missed as the bjorn itself. Sigh. It was THE ONE THING we REALLY needed to NOT forget.

So we hit a little bump. Then, later, we hit traffic. Throughout ALL of Pennsylvania. No, really, like every twenty minutes we came to a complete stop for at least twenty minutes due to road work. We asked a nice trucker at a pit stop if there were any way out of this and he replied that PA had two seasons: Winter and Construction. The road work was why we were late, not the baby. Did I mention the little cherub was a dream? Well, he was. In fact he is sleeping in his pack and play right now. Wish I were.

If I get a chance tomorrow I will get into the gory details of the first part of our trip. Right now I am looking forward to a nice hot shower, a good night's sleep (the Sheraton Independence ROCKS almost as much as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) and the second half of our trip.

All I have to say about Pennsylvania, besides that it is truly beautiful country speckled with a lot of road kill, is that Ohio has Starbucks. And Starbucks has wi fi. So tomorrow, hopefully, you should hear from me a little sooner than 9:21 PM, which is normally after my bed time.

Tomorrow I promise to add some fun pics of the trip so far--nothing like the real thing right?