The opportunity presented itself to have family pictures taken in Central Park and we just couldn't turn it down. However, the very prospect of driving into the city, with the babies, very nearly sent me into a anxiety attack. To help combat that feeling I tend to plan everything that I possibly can.
My grand plan for this morning was we would wake up, bathe the babies, feed them at 9:00 am I would pump then we would leave by 9:30, ensuring more than enough time to get to NYC. Once in New York we would park in a parking garage on 73rd street (see I plan these things). In said parking garage we would feed and change the babies, I would pump (pumping, modestly in the car is an art I mastered on our Cape Cod trip) and then we would walk to the block to Central Park. It was such a lovely little plan, that for the most part all fell apart.
The mornings never go as they should but we did leave the house at 9:45 which I thought was decent. Until... I remembered we would need cash for tolls, so we stopped at the convenient store to use the ATM. While Marcus was in there I remembered that while I had breast milk I forgot the formula and the babies would starve since I don't make enough for them. So back we went... still we weren't too far off schedule, until I remembered we forgot our camera (we were on the freeway at this point), so back again... Only an hour off schedule.
Once in New York I learned that the parking garages are not what I thought. They were little tiny boxes that fit a few cars and have attendants that you leave your keys with, and then they charge 4 million dollars (Which I was expecting). Given all of this, there was no way that we could stay in our car to feed and change the babies, not to mention pumping was entirely out of the question. So while I pondered this new discovery we did laps around the block. We tried a different garage in hopes that it was a self service one, but no such luck, so we quickly unloaded everything and tried to figure out how we were now going to accomplish the feeding and changing of the babies (I had given up any hope of pumping). After walking a few blocks down we saw a ton of free street parking (since it's Sunday) so I sent Marcus back to the garage to retrieve our car (we paid $12.60 for 20 minutes of parking), while the babies and I wandered the streets of Manhattan (I found 74th street to be particularly pleasant, no people, very clean).
Once parked on the street we balanced the babies on our knees, fed them quickly, changed their diapers, and put them in clean clothes. For some reason both babies thought this balancing act was great fun, and they were both smiling away during all of this, we were grateful that they weren't melting down. Not exactly how I planned but we had two happy, clean babies.
The photo-shoot was great. I got to meet a really great woman from a message board I'm on, and Central Park was beautiful. The babies did pretty well too. No smiles and Emerson pretty much slept through the whole thing, but I'll take what I can get considering their age. I wish we had more time and energy to explore, but we don't like keeping the babies out for very long. So after our hour shoot, we just went home. The babies were tired, we were tired, and we just needed to be home.
All in all it was a successful day. It's hopeful for me that once just taking them to the pediatrician was a huge ordeal and we've now tackled a week in Cape Cod, and a quick day trip to NYC.
Once home everyone (except me napped). I finally pumped, washed bottles, and enjoyed the quiet....
Which didn't last too long before both babies were in their nightly meltdown mode, crazy kids.
1 comment:
I never begrudge a nap from Daddy as long as a child is with him - plus it's always a cute photo, isn't it?
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