In the months leading up to our first flight with the babe, my husband let all sorts of awful scenarios fill his head: Evie screaming her head off the entire way from Chicago to Mexico; us making our way through security while drawing death-ray stares from the child-free fliers behind us.
“Mostly,” he says, “my fears revolved around us being ‘that couple.’ I mean, we had a two-week discussion about whether to drive to the airport or strap our daughter’s car seat into a cab.” Breaking character, I remained relatively unworried: I just thought, “We’ll do what we need to do to get through the flight: We can always strap a bag of puffs to her mouth and let her watch an in-flight The Office if she gets fussy.”
As it turns out, Evie, at the time 10.5 months old, was a dream passenger, and is now on her way to become a miniature frequent flier. We planned our flight to correspond with her morning nap, I nursed her while taking off to keep her ears pressurized and she fell asleep just as The Odd Life of Timothy Green started playing. A notoriously light nap sleeper, she even made it through the pilot’s extremely loud and incredibly close greeting, which bordered on filibuster in its length. Dan and I were oh-so-pleased with ourselves as we settled in for the movie… until I made the embarrassingly rookie mistake of cracking open my ice-cold Diet Sierra Mist and woke Evie up 45 minutes into the flight. We hadn’t even passed over Kentucky and I was already in the dog house with my husband.
Keep reading over at The Bump…
So glad everything went smoothly for you! It’s been 7 years since I had to do the baby-travel thing and I had forgotten just how many accoutrements a baby needs until I agreed to babysit my neighbor’s adorable 11 month old daughter. They brought over her high chair, a big diaper bag, another bag for toys, and a ride on toy – and that was just to go next door!! I can’t imagine making a big trip like the one you made – I’m exhausted just reading about it!
Hey Leslie – the linky no worky for me?
Flying with my kids under the age of 2 was awesome – they always passed out as soon as we were in the air. After that…they want to be awake, see what’s going on, and DO stuff. Ugh. This might explain why my kids are such good car kids. Plane tickets are so dang expensive and is so dang much to haul kids it’s worth it to just drive. 13 hours to Chicago! Buckle up! (Hoping to come over a couple times this year. We must find a way to get together!)
And I can’t type… it is so dang much work to haul kids through the airport it’s worth it to just drive…
*sigh* Is it Friday yet?
Hi
Glad your travelling with your little one went well. I didn’t no what to expect when I read the title. You see so many toddlers on planes having a nightmare of a travel and the parents wishing they wear anywhere but there. Great to here you have a born traveller.
Great post lee
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