Because I Said So
My life as a Mom

This past weekend, I travelled with baby and husband in tow to Cincinnati for my grandfather’s funeral. Funerals being what they are, we had only about 12 hours to book the tickets, pack, and head to the airport. Having never flown with a baby before, it was a steep learning curve.

We were fortunate in a couple of ways - one, my father handled all the hotel and car rental arrangements so all we really had to do was get there. He even got the hotel to set up a portable crib in our room. And two, at 6-months old, our little Pickle is both young and small enough to be a lap-baby, meaning we didn’t have to buy him a ticket or worry about bringing a carseat on the plane for him to ride in.

In Cincinnati, we rented a carseat from a company called Baby’s Away, which will deliver a carseat to your car rental agency and place it in the car for you before you pick up your car. (They won’t install it, but since rentals are all new cars, installing a carseat with LATCH takes all of twelve seconds.)

We made the decision to use disposable diapers for the trip, since we didn’t know what the laundry situation was going to be at the hotel, which meant a last-minute trip to the drug store to buy diapers and wipes. If I’d had more time to plan, I could have ordered from Babies Travel Lite and had the diapers waiting when we got there, but ah well, maybe next time!

Things we remembered:

-baby
-diapers
-wipes
-changing pad
-clothes
-baby food

Things we forgot:

-bibs
-baby spoon
-nursing bra*

(*On the plane, I was wearing one of my nursing tanks, which are extremely comfortable to travel in because they don’t have an underwire and, if you wear another shirt on top of them, let you nurse in public without flashing everyone. But for everyday wear, and especially somewhere moderately dressy like, say, a funeral, I need an underwire. Which I forgot to pack. Thank goodness for local friends who know where the Target is.)

The flight out was a nightmare. We were delayed three hours, but instead of telling us “We’re going to be delayed three hours,” the gate agents kept telling us “We’re going to be boarding in just a few minutes!” So I never thought I had time to feed or change the little Pickle, leading to a very cranky baby by the time we boarded. He did fall asleep in my arms at one point and was put down to nap on my coat on the floor, only to have me wake up him about 20 minutes later when we finally boarded for real. At that point he had skipped lunch (solids, I mean - he was still nursing all day) and so was very cranky on the plane until he fell asleep for about another hour. He probably would have slept for longer but my butt and both arms started to get numb and I had to shift in my seat or lose all feeling in my limbs forever.

Note to self: when taking a flight longer than 90 minutes, buy a seat for the baby.

The 3-hour delay meant that by the time we got to the hotel, it was already way past Pickle’s bedtime - normally 6:30-7pm, and we were there close to 8. And neither DH nor I had eaten dinner, so instead of trying to put him to bed with the lights on, we let him play in the portable crib for about another hour while we ordered room service and ate (figuring that in case he had an overtired meltdown, at least it wouldn’t be in the restaurant). By the time we were ready for lights-out, it was past 9, and by the time we got him to sleep, it was close to 10. Yikes!

And because it was so hot and dry in the hotel room that even though he fell asleep pretty quickly (he was soooooooo tired!), he woke up about every 90 minutes for the rest of the night. The longest period of continuous sleep I got was when I finally brought him into bed with me around 5 and just let him nurse while I slept until 7. The All Night Mom Buffet continued throughout the entire trip - there’s just no way to convince a breastfeeding baby that young that the boobies are unavailable when they’re sleeping in the same room. (Babies can smell their mother’s milk up to something like 20 feet away.)

It should also be noted at this point that Pickle did not poop once the entire trip. (Mommy Scout Badge #2351: The point when you realize that you’re talking about poop out loud in mixed company as casually as if you were discussing the weather.) He finally pooped this morning and from DH’s account of it, the poor guy was fairly traumatized by the 3+ days of buildup. I’m selfishly glad I wasn’t there for the cleanup.

Things we learned:

The Pickle is a remarkeably good travel baby, as long as his basic needs are met. He loves looking out the airplane windows, and as long as you’re willing to make silly noises and faces for the duration of the flight, he will be sufficiently entertained and not melt down. He will also happily nurse during both takeoff and landing, thus ensuring a minimum of ear-popping.

In company, he is the World’s Biggest Flirt, batting his eyes and grinning and making happy screechy noises at anyone who comes near, which was a wonderful distraction for everyone during 3 very sad days. There’s nothing quite like a solemn memorial service being routinely interrupted by the sounds of a baby laughing in the next room to lift everyone’s spirits.

We’ll find out this afternoon if the past 4 days of completely random nap scheduling affected him at daycare. I suspect based on past evidence that they will look at me like I’m crazy and tell me he’s a very good sleeper if I ask.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.