First tantrum in the car

Lauren had her first real car tantrum tonight. Not to say she's never cried in the car before, but the other times it was when she was much younger and I was able to pull over and feed her and it was understandable then because she was eating so frequently. Tonight I drove a friend to the airport. Because Ryan had fallen asleep and Lauren was not tired, I decided to take her. Going to was mostly okay. She likes the motion of the car and we were usually moving. She fussed and cried a little bit when we were almost there, but putting the pacifier in her mouth calmed her down.

I dropped off the friend, and we then proceeded to sit in 30 minutes of stopped traffic exiting the airport. It was so frustrating because Lauren was SCREAMING at the top of her lungs and nothing was moving, no way to pull over and help her. I tried singing all of her favorite songs and that would calm her at first, then she'd remember that she was hungry. I didn't figure out that was the problem until I noticed she'd get more furious a few seconds after I put the pacifier in her mouth. She'd suck at it eagerly and then spit it out with a vengeance. The half hour of stopped traffic was pure hell.

Finally we were able to get on the freeway, which was moving full speed. I got off at the southernmost exit where I knew my way around, pulled into a well-lit parking lot, snatched her out of her seat and nursed her. She was INSTANTLY calmed. She pulled off after a minute or so, flashed me a big smile, and went back at the business of completely draining any milk she could get. Then I strapped her back in, she fell asleep, and is still sleeping upstairs now as I write this.