Saturday, February 20, 2010

First drive with your newborn

When you held your baby in your arms for the first time, I'm sure your emotions were running wild.

Please tell us about how you handled your first drive with your newborn?

Was your first experience a drive back home after being discharged from hospital, or something entirely different?

I remember the feeling of elation, holding my baby in my arms for the first time. That feeling was erased though when on discharge from hospital it was a cold & miserable day and my newborn baby, my partner & I were to drive home. I can recall trying to get baby clothed & ready in her capsule in my hospital room. I fiddled for a while trying to make sure she was comfortable & warm with what I thought would be the most appropriate clothing for the weather conditions outside.

Getting her to our vehicle without being stopped by passer bys or hospital staff was time consuming & nerve racking to say the least. It felt like it took us an hour to reach our vehicle, which under normal conditions would have taken 15 minutes. When we reached our vehicle, under cover, we were under pressure to put baby's capsule with her in it, into it's base for safe travel.

Why were we under pressure? Someone else was waiting for our car space. Being our first time placing our daughter in our vehicle, we didn't want to be rushed so waved traffic on. Baby was sleeping which was helpful because her Daddy was fussing with the base for the capsule & seatbelts to make sure we were set. It also didn't help that the vehicle we were in, was our brand new 4WD that was collected on the day I was discharged. Why? We didn't have time to prepare in advance, the baby capsule set up.

All the same, we all eventually settled in and then excitement was in the air. Rob & I had achieved the thrill of adding a child to our family circle and were relishing the drive home actually, all 10 minutes of it hahaha.

I look forward to your story.

Cheers & happy adventures,
Maria


8 comments:

  1. I remember bringing my daughter home from the hospital. I was so excited but absolutely terrified. She was so tiny and fragile, I watched her the whole time. Now I spin my head around and catch her staring out the window as we're driving. Time passes way too fast.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Chavah, if only we could read their thoughts. I often catch Siena staring out into the distance through my rear vision mirror also. Although a beautiful sight, I agree, time does pass too quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sadly, I don't remember much of driving our daughter home from the hospital. There were complications with my epidural, resulting in the famed horrid migraine. I had to be wheelchaired to the car, and the passenger seat was as fully reclined as possible to keep my head down. (In hindsight, no... I probably shouldn't have been discharged in that state!) I did ask my husband to take a photo of her though so that I would be able to look back on it later.

    2 1/2 years later, when my son was born, I took great pride in walking to the car with my baby boy in my arms, and clicking him in myself. And there were lots of photos to prove it!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm flabbergasted that even in your state of disrepair, you managed to ask your hubby to take a pic of your daughter so that you would have a physical memoir on hand for the album. Wow!

    In hindsight, I'm delighted to hear that your condition upon discharge with your son was quite the opposite. Would love to see some pics.

    Actually, if you are happy to share them please forward to newbawntravel@gmail.com so I can upload them to the site or alternatively you can fan me on Facebook so they can be uploaded as Fan pics.

    All the same, I'm glad you have pics of both bubs in their capsules xxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. I did the thorough check of baby capsule before putting my son in for our first drive. What i didn't register was the recline. I should of tested with a doll or the like, cause as we were driving I realised I didn't have the capsule back far enough and my poor baby was slumped forward head folded down. After a quick yelp and an immediate cry to stop, things were adjusted and we continued on our. What would normally be a 3 1/2 hour journey turn into 5 hour ride home, taking in consideration feeds and many unnecessary nappy changes. Oh well, i enjoyed every minute of it as I sat in the back not able to take my eyes off my adorable wee bundle the entire way. xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Lauren, I empathise with you about long journey's taking longer with a newborn. However very impressive overall, considering it was your very first with baby! Congrats xx

    For all our readers, how old was bub at the time of this 5hr long haul in the car?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi again my boy was 5 days old when we did this journey. Which we do on a regular basis now and happy to say it only takes us the scheduled 3 1/2 hours.
    We're about to venture on a 3week tour around the South Island very soon. Shall keep you posted on how that all goes

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks Lauren. Would love to hear all about your trip with bub around the South Island (NZ). Three weeks, fantastic! Happy adventures & safe travels xx

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails