When Little Dimples was born I had a theory, that having had a rubbish sleeper who hated cars, I would most probably get a fabulous sleeper, who loved cars, but to balance it out was trickier during the day (curly headed boy was pretty easy, despite a wish to be held a lot). But it didn’t work out that way! She HATES the car, and is only a smidgen better at sleeping; probably because I went straight for co-sleeping this time. This means that we have a pile of patient people out there who haven’t seen us for probably 10months or more, unless they were willing to travel. I imagine that some think that we are exaggerating though, and if I hear one more time ‘Really, my child slept in the car!’.
So here is the reason why I eventually started to pay a lovely little old lady to look after Willow to reduce the car trips from 20 to 10 per week. Yes, it does go on, and on, and on, and in fact this is not her at her worst, because after 5mins she also goes bright red and starts to sweat (no I did not purposely put her in the car to record this video). Once started there is no way to get through to her. We’ve tried toys, holding her hand, constant nursery rhymes, music, mirrors, different times of day, different car seats, a chiropractor, making it more comfy, making it less comfy, loads of things!
There are 2 rays of light though:
- Curly Headed Boy was the same, but when we turned him round to the front facing seat at 9 months, he was fine. Little Dimples should be big enough when she reaches 10 months, so not much longer to go.
- Mickey Mouse and an Ipad have come to our rescue and at least 50% of the 10 remaining school trips are OK, because she can sometimes last 15 minutes! This might sound like a bizzare or expensive option, but after many hours I promise you, you’d pay anything. Goodness knows what it is about Mickey, but Little Dimples has loved him since the first moment she clapped eyes on him (yes, I am a bad mother, who watches Disney and Cbeebies with her kids). On the iPad (which appeared for my birthday after we tested it out, lucky me!), he is incredibly clear, so he gets hung on a piece of string over the headrest in the car.
If you happen to come by this post because you too have a screaming baby in the car, then try all the things I mentioned, but if the worst comes to the worst, just remember that it will be over and try to reduce the numbers of times that your baby gets that stressed out, as it is not good for their brain development. There are advantages to having to stay put sometimes. It saved us tonnes of money because we couldn’t face travelling to Devon for a holiday, and couldn’t find anywhere abroad from the nearest airport by train. I am really tired, especially after falling ill, so it reduces the stress levels as travelling with a baby is tough. Plus, those ‘free’ weekends when we would have travelled to visit people, have instead been times that we have been consolidating, ebaying and freecyling our house; it’s beginning to look really sorted.
So a big ‘Thank you’ to all those family and friends who have been so kind as to visit us this year; just hold on, it’ll get better come 2011 and we’ll try to make it up to you! To those in the same position, breathe and remember that ‘this too shall pass’. To all those who hate TV and think it destroys children’s brains, my baby’s brain would be much more detrimentally affected without Mickey; there is never one rule for everyone and if you don’t recognise that there is a benefit to everything somewhere, then you are not trying to address the problem clearly.