Trip to Dallas

So we are back in St. Louis. Evidently we missed a lot with the tornadoes that struck Friday. Thankfully, no one was killed and our house was still in tact with no damages.

Noah did pretty good. The drive down was rough especially at the end when he was really tired and refused to sleep in the car seat anymore. He didn't want to be entertained or anything, all he did was cry and scream. We made it and of course, then he still had no desire to go to sleep. We ended up having to lay in the bed next to him and even then, he woke up several times during the night crying.

The other nights were a little better. We still had to rock him to sleep but at least he stayed asleep for the most part. He did toss and turn a lot which I think was either due to temperature (it was hotter at the house we were staying in than what he was used to) or he does that every night and we just don't know it since we don't sleep right next to him.

For the drive home, we left earlier and did all our driving during his normal awake hours except for a few naps. He slept quite a bit and was entertainable for the rest of the time. We hooked up David's iPad to the car and played Noah's signing videos for him. He really seemed to like that.

Sadly, the whole trip has screwed up his sleep schedule. Last night, when we got home, we were able to just set him down in his crib and he put himself to sleep (same as before the trip). However, today for his naps, he wouldn't go down unless we rocked him and normally he takes 1 longer nap but he woke up screaming after only an hour, so we had to put him down for a second later afternoon nap. Then when we put him down for the night, he just screamed. David tried but he wasn't going to sleep at all. So then I stepped in. He kept tossing and turning in my arms, which is what Noah usually does to put himself to sleep. So I went ahead and layed him down and of course, right away, he sat up. So I layed him back down and tried "shushing" him while standing next to him. It was enough to get him to lay his head down but I could still see his eyes open. So we did that for maybe 10 minutes and then I started backing slowly out of his room and made it. He wasn't fully asleep though, but he was able to go to sleep on his own without crying.

I don't like to let him cry it out, but I also don't want him to get too used to us just rocking him to sleep every night. Hopefully he goes back to normal Noah soon. This really worries me for when we take our trip in June. Maybe because we are taking a much shorter flight rather than a long drive, it won't mess with him as much.