Well we're home from a very successful family vacation to Kentucky! Most of Bret's family lives there and we missed our annual trip last year due to the babies just coming home from the hospital. I was so excited to go and let most of them see the babies for the first time, but in all honesty I expected the worst. I was worried about the 14hour overnight drive with the babies, the new environment they would be in, having them sleep in something other than their cribs, scheduling..etc. To my surprise the babies were, for lack of better words, THE FREAKIN' BOMB! I seriously have to brag on how good they were, it was almost too good to be true. I kept asking Bret how we were blessed with such awesome little beings!
Bill & Anita (Bret's parents) left for Kentucky a few hours before we did and had more than enough room to take our 5-car choo choo wagon, the stroller and it's accessories, 4 pack and plays, 4 booster seats, a huge basket of toys, baby bedding, food, diapers and much much more. Without them, we would have had to rent one MEGA uhaul, so thank you Mamaw & Papaw! To make the looonng ride down their easier for the babies we turned their car seats forward facing to they would have a new new view on things AND stocked up on lots of videos that they could watch on the DVD player, again very new to the babies. They ended up sleeping 90% of the trip and didn't get out of their seats once. As we arrived I breathed a sigh of relief and thought to myself "ok we lucked out on the trip.... now for the hotel."
Forward Facin' & Kentucky Bound!!!
We had made reservations at a nearby hotel a couple of months ago and Bret told them "We need the BIGGEST room you have in the place, we're bringing 4 babies". I think I asked Bret a hundred times on the way there if he had warned them we had quadruplets! Like I said, expecting the worst. I had in the back of my mind that the hotel would be completely booked and we would have a small (average) sized room available to us or that their "big" room wasn't big at all. Again to my surprise the room was P E R F E C T! No joke, the babies had more room to roam inside that hotel room than they do here at home! We transformed the huge living area in a nursery with a wall lined with the 4 pack and plays for the babies to sleep in. The 2 beds in the room were around the corner in a whole little area of their own making us out of sight from the babies. The bathroom, good gosh, the bathroom was the size of a bedroom and easily stored our stroller and still had plenty of roaming room. It was great bathing the babies without having to squeeze between a toilet and tub! Although the babies were good, lets face it, there's 4 of them and they were LOUD. You could hear their cries and shrieks of laughter all the way down the hallway. I knew for sure if it was possible to be kicked out of a hotel for loud babies, it would happen to us, but it didn't, no complaints (that I know of!) or anything! Kylee had a rough night the first night, waking up every few hours, but by the second night they acted as if they were at home. They were happy in the pack-n-plays and went to sleep with no problem at all.... again I was shocked! The babies slept each day until 10ish am which was soo nice for Bret and I. Apparently the darkness of the hotel room = keep sleeping to them!
Each day was filled with family, fun and of course, food. The babies got to play with their cousins and meet the newest addition to the Cox family, Ella Rose! There were so many people around at all times, the help was wonderful! Aunt Karen was always the one ready and more than willing to feed the babies at each meal, giving Bret and I the chance to sit and eat ourselves. She was always one step ahead of me when it came to feeding them... I'd turn around and here she'd be comin' with a plate (or 3) of food! By the end of the week Brody would see her coming from a mile away and start snorting and drooling with excitement! She was just one among many who spoiled the babies while we were there, I can't imagine what it will be like as they get older!Throughout the week we had many visitors who have followed our blog from the beginning stop by to meet the babies in person. Thanks again to all of you for your support :]
The babies did so well with being in a new unscheduled world and adapted easily. They got to go swimming several times "floaty-free" thanks to all of the extra hands. As always, they enjoyed their choo choo wagon rides. I don't know what we would do without our choo choo, currently they are discontinued and when you do find one thet are very very expensive, but SOOO worth every penny. I know we put a ton of miles on ours over the past week riding through the feilds and across the creek day after day! Baxlyn learned a new word while we were there, "Heh-Looww"... imagine it in a sweet soft high pitched voice... oh my gosh so sweet! Korbin got to ride a 4 wheeler for the first time too! The babies also enjoyed hamming it up and entertaining everyone. Brody was happy to make anyone smile by doing his "nerd-snort" and Baxlyn has a new extremely-over-dramatic (but sweet) face she makes when you ask her to smile. By the last day we were there, Kylee had picked a cheeser face up herself! You'll see a few of Miss B's cheeser face in the slide show.... trust me, you can't miss it...
We said our long sad goodbyes Saturday night and headed home. As much as I missed our friends and family here, I could have easily stayed another week or two! The drive home went smoothly and Bret was a trooper driving 99.9% of the trip himself. Once home, he and the babies slept for 4 hours straight and I was able to clean, unpack, finish the laundry, & tidy the house. I was worried at how the trip would affect our daily schedule once we got home, but today everything is completely back to normal and we're in our normal routine!
To all you moms out there too afraid to take a road trip with your young kids for fear of...well everything I feared... DO IT! I was surprised in every way at how well they did. A few tips from me to you: 1) Be prepared and don't expect things to be perfect. 2) If they use it at home bring it. If you don't have room, bring a Mamaw & Papaw... just kidding. But really - we brought every blanket and lovey that the babies use at home, their night time lullaby projectors, their choo choo AND stroller...etc. It's worth the pain of loading it to make them feel more at home. *This includes a diaper genie. We didn't bring one and stayed in a hotel room that smelled like one big diaper all week... yum*. 3) Bring new things to keep them occupied in the car. DVD player if you can, light up toys, musical toys...etc. Use their plastic links to attach small toys to their car seat so you're not picking them every 32 seconds (this by the way, doesn't work with a Mickey). 4) Driving at night was the way to go for us so the babies would sleep. I was afraid doing this would completely wipe us out once we arrived, but it didn't. 5) If you have a baby and are able, formula feed. We took formula that way we wouldn't have to worry about having to go buy milk, keeping it cold, heating it up...etc. while in the hotel or on the road. This is what I found worked for us, this year and at this age. Next year may be a completely different story!
Between Jenn and I, I think we have nearly 1000 pictures from the trip! Here's just a few I put together for a slide show. Take time to watch, you'll enjoy I promise! I wasn't able to download music, so hum to yourself while you watch :]
Thanks again to everyone in Kentucky for having us and opening up your homes/arms/washer and dryer/fridge and everything else to us! We had a great time and can't wait to come back! Love you all!
7 head molds and 8 helmets later we said good bye to Cranial Technologies forever! All four were "diagnosed" with moderate to severe (severe being Brody) positional plagiocephaly in July of 09. Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin graduated out of their DOC bands back in November and yesterday was Brody's long awaited BIG day! Most babies wear their bands from 4-8weeks.... Brody sported his for nearly a year. Poor dude broke records with his and has worn it more than half of his life! Brody has a total of four molds that we were able to keep. It's amazing to hold and literally feel in your hands what his head WAS like and what it IS like today - huge difference!
When Brody grew out of his last helmet we questioned whether or not to do another. His head surely needed it, but the question was is his head still moldable enough for the helmet to help. We thought the helmet could only help and it was (thank God) covered 100% by insurance so we went for it - helmet number 5. Just weeks after he got the new band we went on our vacation to Kentucky. While there we spent A LOT of time outside in the blistering heat therefore Brody didn't wear the DOC band. Once we got home we put it on him and within minutes he had figured out how to take the dang thing off. After many attempts at making him wear it we came to the conclusion that it was time to throw in the towel... Brody's DOC days were over.
and a view from the top!
Thanks to all of the staff and therapists for taking such good care of our babies over the past year! We GREATLY appreciate everything you did for us! 
