SunshineBound: Hurricane Matthew and Related Shenanigans

Unless you've been living under a rock the past week, you know that Florida got nailed by Hurricane Matthew a few days ago.

Eric came back into town last Tuesday, and man, I have never been so happy to see him. My mom was a huge help, and I would have died without her while Eric was gone. Like, I may have actually died from sleep deprivation or jumping out a window or something. I severely underestimated how difficult it would be to take care of a grumpy newborn with issues, a giant dog, and myself, all alone for six days, on top of being upset and depressed that I wasn't in the Jerz with my friends and family. Even with my mom here, I started to feel very overwhelmed and lonely, and jealous of Eric, if I'm being honest. He was able to go be there for our friends. He got to see everyone. He got a break from taking care of Atlas (although I know he missed him and worried about him), and he got FIVE WHOLE NIGHTS OF UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP, without changing diapers or staring at a newborn to make sure he wasn't choking on his own vomit.

I was really glad to see him on Tuesday night.

The whole time he was gone, I had been keeping up on Hurricane Matthew and giving him updates about it, which he seemed to just blow off. But Tuesday morning, it seemed like the forecasters were pretty positive we were going to get slammed. I told Eric he needed to get gas on the way home from the airport, even if it was 11pm, and give me a list of things he thought we needed. When he got home and watched the local news with us, which was all about the hurricane and how to prepare, I think he finally understood it was going to be bad.

My mom and I had gone out that day to get a bunch of food and water. I managed to snag the last cases of water at Publix. I may have cut off another lady to get to it. I may have used my stroller as a weapon while zooming up and down the aisles. Whatever, no shame. When you're out with your newborn who shouldn't be around a lot of people yet in an insanely crowded supermarket, you get ruthless.

So, we were pretty prepared. But our house doesn't have shutters (in Florida, most of the homes have hurricane shutters), and with Eric gone and me having to take care of Atlas, there was no way for me to get plywood and bolt it over our huge sliding glass doors. We were lucky Ben and Kristin said we could bring our whole little family there, including Nym and my mom, whose flight home got cancelled.

Let me tell you, it is pretty terrifying when you have a Category 4 storm heading your way, your house doesn't have protection, and you have a new baby. We moved everything that was on our patio inside and put all our most valuable things inside my bedroom closet. It seemed to be the safest place away from wind and possible water damage, in the event that the house flooded or the windows broke. I had resigned myself to the fact that I may lose everything, including my home. But as long as we were all safe, that's all that mattered.

We went to Kristin's early on Thursday morning with a ton of food, water, clothes, baby supplies, and games of course. Even though we were at the home of good friends who also have a young kid, it was super stressful taking Atlas for his first overnight stay somewhere, especially when I had to prepare as though we might be there for days if our house was damaged or lost power.

In the end, everything was fine. We managed to survive a hurricane cooped up with a toddler and a newborn. We managed to survive the hurricane, period. We hung out, ate junk food, watched Chloe interact with Atlas, and played Dominion. Everyone slept through the storm, even though it was pretty loud and scary. Their house didn't even lose power. The next day, the only damage we saw was debris everywhere and downed trees. Our neighborhood had lost power for a bit, but besides that, all was well. Central and northern Florida were not so lucky unfortunately, but I am really grateful the storm decided to skip over us and make landfall elsewhere. I think our house would've been fucked otherwise.

Now, my mom is gone, and Eric and I are going to finally get settled in to life with a baby, all by ourselves. No plans for family to visit anytime soon, and no plans for business trips for Eric in the near future. We started off by taking Atlas out to lunch for the first time. It was the first beautiful, somewhat-cooler day (85 degrees is cool by South Florida standards, okay?!), so we sat outside at a very uncrowded Yard House. He slept for half the time, but as soon as our food came out (of COURSE...), he woke up. I survived feeding him in public while enjoying a delicious lunch and a pint of Funky Buddha Sweet Potato Casserole beer. It couldn't have gone any better!

Happy boy! His head looks so big here hahahaha

Little squishface

Doing some intense hurricane prep at Publix

Atlas has yet to learn how to nap on his own. In my desperation, I bought a secondhand vibrating bouncer. Finally, FINALLY, he will sleep for just a few minutes somewhere other than my chest. And when he's awake, he will let me put him in there for a bit and look at the toy bar that goes on top!

Waiting for Daddy to get home from the airport.

He's home!

Smiling at Daddy

This was my room when I first moved to Florida and was a hobo in Kristin's house. Now, I feed my baby in here. Who woulda thought?

So tired he fell asleep while I was changing him.

Taking Nym out before the wind really picked up.

Chloe says to Eric: "No work! No work!" Lollllll

Chloe was so good with Atlas. She helped me change his diaper, held his hand, said "It's okay baby!" when he cried, and gave him lots of hugs and kisses.