a trip to maine

Riley got to take his first trip to Maine this weekend. We went up to see Shelby's cousin Jon & his family on Friday night after I got off of work. We’re finding that trips like these can be a bit challenging with our newborn boy. It’s amazing how important keeping to his sleep schedule is. We found ourselves with a wide awake and wired boy at 12:30am, mostly due to the fact that he hadn’t had one of his regular naps during a very busy day, and then he didn’t get put to bed until late because we were traveling up to Maine . That left him overtired…a recipe for sleeplessness for all of us. We finally got him to sleep and then got to sleep ourselves. Then came the 1:30 feed. Oh boy! At least Riley was ready to sleep right after that and was out for the next 4 hours. Mom and dad both appreciated the short rest. Shelby was up at 6:00 for a feed. I fed Riley a bottle at about 8:30 (in bed) and he was tired afterward so we both took a nap until about 10:15 (while mom went out for a walk.) Good thing we didn’t want to make an early start.

It’s amazing to me that Riley sleeps less if he goes to bed late. I don’t really understand how overtiredness works, but I can definitely say I don’t like it. Even a baby as easy as our son dislikes having his sleep messed with. I think we’re going to be planning future trips with his sleep schedule firmly in mind. Needless to say he went to bed at very close to his usual 7 tonight…

After we got up Riley got to hang out with cousin Erica. Here’s a shot:

Once we got up and going it was time for a trip to Two Lights State Park. The Maine coast is different than most of the other places I’ve been. The biggest difference: Rocks. Two Lights is one of the rockier sections of oceanfront that I’ve been to and one of the most beautiful. It is actually the first place on the Maine seacoast that Shelby ever took me to when we were first dating. Today was Riley’s first visit. We had a picnic lunch with Jon, Julie and Erica and then sat for a little while on the rocks down by the water. Here are some pictures:

It was a perfect day. A great day for Riley to be introduced to the Maine seacoast and it felt good for us to be back as well. Hopefully future trips will find us more rested… I’d rather go there tired and with a tired boy than go alone though. I’m enjoying this parenthood thing.

Jonathan