Friday, August 5, 2011

How to survive a long-distance move with an infant

Soon after I got pregnant, I started to worry about how we were going to be able to move cross country with a small baby. My friend, Faith, just made a similar trek [documented on her blog, The Pickle Patch]. She gave me hope that it was doable, but then again, she is amazing, so I knew she was making things sound easier than they would be for me. Just over a year later, the time has come. Here we go! 

Today is the day we've been promised to get the keys to our new house. So we've made it part of the way through the process. I've learned a few lessons about moving with an infant. 

1) Ask for help. I have a completely untrue fantasy in my head that I am a woman that can handle anything. That makes it hard to ask for help, but I know I need it sometimes. So far: 
  • Our community group brought us meals so we didn't have to pack our kitchen at the last minute or eat out a million times. I think more than the meals, it was great to get to spend one last hang out time with each of them so we could say proper goodbyes. 
  • Neighbors, friends, and family took lots of food and miscellaneous items out of our house that we couldn't move with us, easing my neurosis about anything going to waste. Neighbors also made us feel like we would be missed in our building, and that felt amazing.
  • My amazing husband and my friend Amy's amazing husband [Paul] baby sat our baby girls so that Amy and I got to go see Bridesmaids. Oh how good it was to laugh for about two solid hours! This was my first movie in a theater since Sofia was born. What a treat! Thank you Paul and Manny!!!
  • Our friends, Lexie and Jamie, let us stay in their apartment so we could be more ready when the movers arrived and didn't have to make a long road trip on the same day that the moving took place. They were so gracious. They cooked for us, entertained us, and were all around amazing hosts. [Technically, I didn't ask for this, they offered, but I accepted the help, so I'm leaving it under this point]
  • Both sets of our parents came to help us pack, and by pack I mean they played with Sofia while we packed. Poor Grandparents. [ok, they did pack some boxes!]

2) Don't get divorced. Moving is stressful folks. Everyone who calls to check up on us keeps asking if the stress is ending our marriage. And I'll be honest. There were a non-zero amount of fights and tension. There were some talks about communication, equal work loads, gender roles, etc. Somehow we worked through that and we actually still love each other, I think, right Manny? It did not hurt that my parents made it possible for us to take some date nights by baby-sitting Sofia. We got to go out to dinner and a movie! Granted, I was too worn out to do both in one night, but that just meant we got to spread out the fun. MMmmm . . . rissotto balls!



3) Sprinkle in some fun. Between parenting an infant, selling our car, arranging a cross-country move from three cities at once, packing, setting up utilities in a new state, the work load was exhausting. Did I mention that said infant had not one, but TWO teeth break through in the middle of all of this? 

This was in between tooth one and tooth two breaking.
It's not been the easiest month or two of my life. But it helped that we managed to have some fun through the process. Our friends, Nate and Annie, visited from the Bay Area. We got to visit my sister. My parents came and took us out to good restaurants and we took them to the Wild Animal Park.



I'm sure I'm forgetting many of our fun activities we squeezed in between the boxes and arrangements. But I think my favorite part was the songs Manny and I made up to sing to Sofia out of complete delirium. I think Sofia was properly entertained as well. Personal favorite? Start singing Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" in your head, now replace the sexual lyrics with "Boxy Lady" and fill in some text about packing and moving, and you've pretty much got it. Awesome. The things you do when you have a baby!

Somehow I fear that unpacking without all our great friends, family, and neighbors around means the hardest part is yet to come, but there's no deadline and things have gone well enough so far, so I'm hopeful. Wish us luck, Lobsters [and if you love Jesus, please pray]!  








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