Any way, we started planning away and mom had agreed to watch Caedmon for the weekend (our first over-night trip away), so on the Monday before, we decided to make sure that Caedmon would be ok drinking from a bottle instead of nursing (he still nurses 4 times a day). So, that afternoon before his 5pm nap, I tried the bottle and there was no success, just screaming, crying, squirming and sweating! Later that evening before bed, Brad tried the bottle a second time with Caedmon and he experienced the same thing.
What the heck were we going to do? Since mom's only 15 min. away, we thought that she could try to get him to take it, especially if I wasn't around, so I called her at about 10:30pm Monday night and arranged to bring Caedmon over Tuesday morning. I took Caed over to mom's to put him down for his first nap that morning and the plan was for him to sleep over there, play when he woke up and realize that I wasn't around, so he'd know that there was no chance for milk except from his bottle. This attempt, however, was again unsuccessful. Mom tried again 2 more times that day (from a bottle, a sippy cup, a spoon) ... nothing worked. Caed still ate his lunch and a good snack that day, so he didn't starve, but there was no hope for the bottle. So, by the end of the day, we were coming to the realization that we wouldn't be going to Asheville after all.
Brad and I were pretty disappointed. We hadn't put a whole lot of effort into planning, but we were still very excited to go away just the two of us for the weekend, so we were trying to come up with other scenarios that would make it work out. We came up with three options: 1) Take Caed with us, 2) Since mom had offered to watch Caed anyway, why not see if she would want to come along and watch Caed in Asheville while we went out during the day and enjoyed an evening or two out on the town, or 3) Stay in Raleigh, but have mom babysit a night so that we could go out. Thinking about staying in Raleigh was definitely a downer since we had already planned to be out of town, so we thought through options 1 and 2 carefully and decided that option 2 would give us the most flexibility to enjoy our time in Asheville -- just the two of us. So, as romantic as it sounds, we ended up going to Asheville to celebrate our anniversary with Caed and my mom, but it turned out to be a really great weekend! Thanks to mom for being so gracious to come along with us, along with Tucker & Champ, and hang out with Caedmon at the house while we went out and enjoyed Asheville Saturday and Sunday!
When we first arrived, Brad took me up to see the Grove Park Inn. I had definitely heard about it from all the spa ads that you see on TV, but when Brad got to stay there for a restaurant show he was in this past February, I
wanted to go and see what the hype was about. Wow, what a gorgeous place! The weather was just perfect when we went, so we strolled around the property, through the main lounge, onto the veranda overlooking the spa and view of Asheville. There was a wedding just beginning on the left veranda, so there was nice music playing as we strolled down the steps to the little waterfalls. Then, as we were about to leave, we grabbed a seat in the rocking chairs by the enormous fireplace (how neat to be there in the winter with the huge fire blazing!) and then we thought we'd have time for a quick drink ... it definitely wasn't a quick drink, but it was so relaxing to just sit back and enjoy the scenery.That evening, the 4 of us were planning to go out for dinner to Barley's Taproom, but Caedmon was way too tired to make it, so Brad took mom over to the Fresh Market to pick up a salad and sushi and she ended up staying home with Caed so
he could get to bed. (Thanks!) So, Brad and I ventured to Barley's alone and enjoyed some good beer and pizza. Then, we stopped by the Thirsty Monk to enjoy another beer after dinner. What a neat little place!Then, on Sunday morning, we got Caedmon all situated and we headed toward Hot S
prings for a day of hiking and sightseeing. We ended up spending most of our day on the Laurel River Trail. It definitely wasn't a very strenuous hike -- all fairly level -- but it was fun to venture out onto the rocks into the river. We picked up lunch from the deli at Ingles (what an experience) and ate out on the rocks, partially under my umbrella (well, just me ... Brad braved the rain).After a few hours of hiking, we turned back and drove through Hot Springs and up the winding mountain road to Max Patch. This was only a small portion of our day, but it was one of the neatest parts. The views were just amazing and the
light breeze and moderate temperature felt heavenly!
Then, after we finally found our way home ... mountain roads can be tricky to navigate sometimes ... good job Brad ... we headed home to clean up and enjoy and evening out at Salsas!! (Our favorite!!!) (Funny thing, when we got there, we ran into Mark (Brad's brother) and Jed. We knew they were in Asheville for a backpacking trip, but didn't get a chance to connect with them to see what their plans were, so it was nice to run into them briefly.) If you haven't been to Salsas, we highly recommend it. The atmosphere is neat and the food is fantastic ... Mexican/Carribean ... yum. This time around, Brad and I shared a nacho appetizer (w/ pork ... yum) and the Cuban Mojo Steak ... yum, yum, yum and I washed it all down with a delicious margharita. We were definitely living it up!
On Monday, instead of getting up early and heading out as originally planned, we ended up sticking around and enjoying downtown Asheville -- Brad, Caedmon, Mom and me -- the fun window shopping that you can do there.
What a fun weekend! It was really nice to get away and be out of town when the entire purpose of the trip was to do just that -- get away. Thanks again, mom for being such a huge help with Caedmon ... we had a really nice time celebrating our 5th anniversary a few weeks early!
2 comments:
So glad you had a good weekend after all of the craziness! :) Alli took a bottle for a while and when I went back to strictly nursing due to her reflux (which is WAY better by the way) she started refusing when I tried to give it to her again. We've been giving her a bottle at night since she was just a few weeks. She wanted no part of it from me or Daniel for a while. I pretty much spent an hour at a time just getting her to take 3 ounces! I was going back to work though so she had to take a bottle for my mom. I had no other choice. It was quite crazy but now she takes it great and sucks it right down! They can be little stinkers, can't they?? :)
Caed didn't use to have any problem drinking from the bottle ... it was actually much easier than nursing when he was much younger b/c it took half the time! But ever since Christmas when he cut that time to about 10 minutes tops, we haven't done the bottle much ... only when I've been away. But he always took it fine. He even took it at Easter, but something happened between then and now and he won't have anything to do with it. I spoke with the lactation specialist at our pediatrician, and she says it's a pretty common problem for 9-month-olds, but to just keep trying, mainly the sippy cup and see what happens. If that doesn't work, we'll just have to grin and bear it until I begin weaning him at 1 year. (sigh)
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