Meltdown

I think that I've been taking Luke for granted a bit, as far as his behavior. I've gotten used to just being able to nurse him and then plop him in the car seat and run errands while he sleeps the whole way through them. So I assumed that the same thing would happen today. So very much not what happened.

He had a nice morning with some feedings and playtime. Then he took a nap for almost an hour in his swing. When he woke up, I nursed him. He seemed like he was going to fall asleep again, so I got him ready to go and into the car seat he went. Into the car and we were off to Hobby Lobby. No sooner was I on the major road toward the store then Luke started crying. And I'm not talking about just a little crying. He was screaming crying. It was heart wrenching but there was not a good place for me to stop so I drove on to the shopping center and pulled over as soon as I got into the parking lot. I jumped into the back seat and took Luke out of his car seat. He seemed to calm down a little but was still upset. I checked to see if any part of his clothing might be bothering him, checked his diaper, looked for anything else that might be wrong but couldn't find anything. So although he had just eaten before we left the house, I nursed him again. That calmed him (perhaps he really was still hungry. I have noticed just in the past couple of days that he has been eating more at one sitting so I might have stopped too quickly before we left the house.).

So we went to Hobby Lobby and he fell asleep while I was shopping. Ah, my perfect errand-running baby was back. After HL, I went to another store in the same shopping center. As I was checking out, Luke started to wake up, but he didn't seem like he was upset. So I got him in the car and planned to run another errand. Instead, we ended up just going straight home, and we couldn't get there fast enough (no, I did not drive recklessly or anything; it just seemed like we got behind the slow cars and hit every light) because Luke started his screaming crying again. What is going on?? I thought perhaps he might be a little too warm because I was feeling a bit warm in the car, so I cranked up the air conditioning (so strange to do that when there is snow on the ground!). That seemed to help a little but he was still upset.

So I pulled into the garage, got Luke out, left the packages in the car, and rushed into the house. I got him out of the car seat and just held him and bounced him. He finally calmed down, and we sat down and I nursed him again. Now he's back in his swing and it looks like he's taking his afternoon nap. But I'm prepared to feed him as soon as he shows signs of waking up as it seems like he is just ravenous today and I don't want another one of those crying episodes because it just really is heart breaking to hear him so upset.