We left at 5am and she was obviously still asleep. She woke up around 7-7:30 to eat, we fed her in the carseat and she went back to sleep until i think like 9-9:30 when we stopped for breakfast. After that she went back to sleep and really slept almost the entire time. She would watch the ipad a little bit, talk and laugh some, fussed a couple of times (mostly when she was hungry or had to get back in her carseat after being out for a little while we stopped and ate), but i was so shocked at how well she did with the drive.
The resort we stayed at Ocean's Pointe was not too bad. There were a couple of issues here and there with the other room, but ours wasn't too bad. The only issue we had was the room we were in was not big at all! We had a double bed, a nightstand, dresser and we did have a bathroom connected to our room. There was not a lot of room to walk around in our room and so having to put up a play pin for her to sleep in was difficult because no matter how you did it, it would block something. Either the closet, or the bathroom, or the door, or the dresser. I was not about to rearrange and entire bedroom just to still figure out it would still block something. So the first night we blocked the bathroom door which was not a good idea and the second night we blocked the closet door, nightstand and my side of the bed and the last night we packed it up and just let her sleep in her little co-sleeper thing in the bed with us because she was ending up in bed with us the other two nights anyway. Which brings me to my next point of I WILL NEVER GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT HAVING AT LEAST A QUEEN SIZE BED. We have a king bed at home and Tyler puts off a crazy amount of body heat and is all over the bed and honestly i wish there was a bed that was double the side of a king. I usually bring Lakelyn in our bed in the early morning around 6-7 whenever she wakes up to eat and she also puts off alot of body heat like Tyler. So going from a king bed with Tyler (who is 6', 200 pounds) a baby that has to have her own space so she doesn't get suffocated, and me to a double bed that can barely fit Tyler just screams disaster/miserable sleep.
It was so hot at night i would wake up drinched in sweat even with the fan on. I got up and turned the a/c down to 69 the first night and the other two nights Tyler put it on 64 and it was still hot. There was NO room at all for me and him so when i had to put her in the bed with us because she wasn't sleeping well because she was in a strange place i literally had only enough room to lay on my side which got very uncomfortable after a little bit. So the last night since we were waking up at 5 anyway we decided to let her sleep in her co-sleeper in the bed with us and we turned sideways which was the only way we could fit us in that bed. that was horrible because Tyler was halfway off and in the middle of the night would turn long ways which got in my way so i would have to keep waking him up to move. Even my legs would hang off the bed which was uncomfortable. So you get my point. It freaking sucked and I will NEVER, EVER, EVER do it again!
The first day we drove to Key West and walked around and went shopping. We had her stroller and other than it getting kind of hot she did well. We would take her out for awhile and carry her, i did give her a little water to drink and she loved that and i think it helped her cool down some. She didn't nap very much so when we started the drive back to Key Largo (2 hour drive) she started to get fussy. We stopped at a few more stores on the way back and also stopped to eat dinner and it was late when we got home and way passed my child's bedtime so she got a bath, fed and was out.
The second day, we got up and went fishing on a charter boat with a guide. We were on a big boat and had the entire front of theboat to ourselves (the entire veronee clan) to fish and we had her stroller and she loves boats and fell asleep on the way out to our fishing spot. She woke up, but was content laying in the stroller for awhile while we all fished. She was in the shade and it was kind of cloudy and there was a breeze so it wasn't too hot. After a little she did get fussy and so Tyler's dad held her and then it started to down pour and storm. There was a covered aread where pretty much everyone on the boat ran to hide out until it passed. Some of us stayed out and fished and it really wasn't that bad. I was kind of chilly with the rain and wind and i didn't have a rain jacket, but since Tyler's dad was under the cover they gave me his to wear and once i put that on i was fine. The rain stopped and they came back out eventually and so did the sun. We only had a little bit more time to fish before heading back in so again, it wasn't too bad. She fell asleep on the ride back in and we got our fish we caught and headed back to the resort. They decided to go to a state park down the road that had a sunken ship or something to snorkle and the rest of us planned to just stay in the water or by the tent with Lakelyn. That "beach" was a joke. The water wasn't pretty like we thought, but it was still kind of clear i guess. The entire area was covered in rocks so it killed your feet trying to get into the water and the nasty grass stuff you had to walk through to get to the water was disgusting and hot and horrible. The water smelt like eggs and wasn't refreshing at all. It made me feel like i was contracting some kind of disease so we got right back out. The sand wasn't really sand it was like rocky sand. Not soft at all. We didn't stay there very long. We ended up leaving. Tyler and I rode around to find a float we could use to take in the water for lakelyn since we were supposed to be renting boat the next day and then went back to the room. We cooked dinner, again it was way past my childs bedtime by the time we ate and so i took her back to the room to go to bed while everyone else went to the tennis court and played tennis.
The third and last day we were there we were going to be renting a 27 foot bayliner deck boat for all of us to go out on and just swim and snorkle and hang out in the pretty blue water. Well we called that morning to let them know we would be there probably around 10-11 to get the boat instead of 9am and they had given our boat away and gave us a 24 foot deck boat. We headed out to Islamorada (where the boat place was) and it was HORRIBLE traffic. We were gone about an hour when it started raining and the wind was blowing too. We decided the boat is probably not a great of an idea. So we decided to go to this theatre thing that had different stuff to do like swim with the dolphins, swim with seaturtles, swim with sharks, different shows, snorkling and what not, but that place smelt horrible like cat pee and the reason why is because they have cats inside of the store. (There were SO MANY cats in key largo it was crazy) the swim with the dolphins was $195 a person so needless to say we did not do that. Everthing was basically booked so we left there and made an hour drive back to see about half of us going snorkling and the other half of us taking a glass bottom boat (basically snorkling without having to swim and get in the water which was perfect for Lakelyn) Well it was decided that everyone could just go on the snorkling boat and who ever wanted to snorkle could and those that didn't could stay on the boat. It was still raining and the capitain didn't even know if they were going to go out on the boat. So we had time to kill until 4:30 and I did not want to pay for me and lakelyn to go on this boat to sit. It was pointless and a waste of money to me and it wasn't even that nice of a day so Tyler and I decided to stay back and just go back to the resort because Lakelyn was sleeping. We went ahead and packed up most of our stuff and loaded it in the car. She woke up we fed her and hung out for a little there and then decided to go to the "beach" area at the resort. Again not an ideal beach, the water still smelt like eggs and it was grassy, but the sand was a little better. I hung out with lakelyn in the shollow area and let her play some in the water and Tyler went out and snorkled. He saw a lot of cool stuff better than what they saw on their snorkle trip. He saw two 4ft sand sharks, a manaray, blow fish, and some other stuff. After he go done we went back to the room at the same time everyone else did and Lakelyn got a bath, fed and went to bed AT HER BED TIME FINALLY! We played cards a little bit and then headed to bed.
We were up at 5am and headed back home!
Half of it was pretty stressful because lets face it, vacationing with a 4 month old is not actually a vacation, but some of it was also fun. This is another "i'll know better next time" moment!
Some things I would change:
-make sure your room is big enough to set up baby's are to sleep
-make sure your bed is big enough for you, your husband and baby
-plan out what you are going to do before you get there and have a good back up plan incase the weather is bad
-have better movies downloaded on your ipad for baby to watch/ or have a portable dvd player with movies
-do lots of pumping and storing so that you have plenty of bottles for the car ride, day trips and stuff so you dont have to pump as much while in a car
-having bottles ready to feed baby while in the car makes it easier to be able to switch out drivers so one doesn't have to drive the entire 12 hours!
-if the weather is warm or hot, bring a little fan to clip onto the stroller
-try to find a hotel or resort that serves continental breakfast so you dont have to make or buy breakfast and can save a little bit of money that way since lunch and dinner will most likely be eating out or cooking in your room (both really equal out to the same amount unless you go to a 5 star restaurant.)
-if your baby has a bedtime try to stick with it no matter what other people say or what is going on. Unless you have an aswesome baby that does not get fussy and cranky if she/he misses bedtime
-bring plenty of baby clothes with you and keep a few extra outfits in the car
-bring baby powder with you if you go to a real beach that has real sand, baby powder gets the sticky sand off of you and baby
