New York, New York

We survived...barely.  We made the big trip to NYC with Hannah last week and it was quite an adventure.  We flew out on Tuesday afternoon and came home on Sunday.  Hannah seemed to have a lot of fun (LOTS of smiles!) but I came home exhausted.  I need a vacation from my vacation! 

For the first 3 nights we stayed in a hotel in the city (The Hilton Manhattan East, which I highly recommend!)  The 3 of us were in one room (a small room!) and Hannah did not sleep well.  She woke several times each night (several nights it was every hour).  I couldn't let her cry it out because we were in a hotel with people all around us, and I swear she knew it!  So the only thing that would calm her down and put her back to sleep was to feed her.  UGH!  After spending weeks weaning her off the night feedings at home, we were back to square one.  There was even one night where I fed her 4 times...FOUR!  Needless to say, I was tired!  And don't even get me started on the napping situation.  We were lucky if she would even take one nap per day.  But despite the lack of sleep, she was surprisingly happy and loved the big city!  It was very cold and she wasn't a fan of getting all bundled up before heading out, but once we were moving, she loved it.  We were amazed at how much we didn't do while in the city.  We knew we wouldn't be able to do all the things we normally do, but we had no idea just how hard it would be to do anything.  Literally all we saw while we were there was Toys R Us, FAO, and Times Square....that's it!  We didn't see the window displays at Macy's or even the big tree at Rockefeller!  Awful, I know, but there really wasn't any time with Hannah.  By the time we got her ready to go out into the cold, took the train down to Rockefeller (the subway is definitely NOT baby friendly) and started heading toward all the sights, it was time to feed her and then head back to the hotel for a nap.  Yikes. 

For the last 2 nights of our trip we stayed in White Plains in a two bedroom suite with Brian's dad.  It was so much better!  Hannah still slept horribly, but at least we didn't have to hide out in the bathroom while she fell asleep.  We actually had a living room to watch tv in and didn't have to go to bed at 9pm.  However, I will say that one of the highlights of the trip was eating dessert in the hallway of the NYC hotel and playing cards while Hannah slept.  On the last day of vacation Hannah got to meet her Great Grandma Vaccaro, which was definitely the best part of the trip.  It was so wonderful to see Brian's family and made all the sleepless nights worth it.  But by this point in the trip you could tell that the lack of sleep was catching up with Hannah and she wasn't quite as happy as she normally is. 

We were all thrilled to head home on Sunday and sleep in our own beds!  Funny that when we arrived in Atlanta there were snow flurries, while that morning in NY they were having a warm front.  Go figure.

Traveling always makes me appreciate being home even more.