A little while ago I wrote about the fact that my baby was going to experience his first plane trip. I had a lot of anticipation regarding how he would do, but I was confident he would do great considering my older two kids have always been great at flying.
The flight out there was pretty uneventful. We left on time, I had to wrestle baby a little bit because he is in that grabby, crawly, “I need to move!” stage. So, it was hard having him as a lap baby for two and a half hours. However, I did take my older son’s carseat and put the baby in it at one point so I wouldn’t have to hold him. That helped a ton. We arrived at our destination and I was thrilled.
However, when the flight home came around, it was a different story. We flew in the evening as opposed to the morning flight before. Maybe this was the problem. It was time for a nap, and my baby just wanted to sleep. He is at a stage where falling asleep in my arms is hard to do, especially when there are a million things to look at on the plane! Especially all the faces!! He is a smiley kid, and he lives to make eye contact with someone and flash that beautiful smile. But, when he is tired, it is hard to get him to settle down if there are people he could smile at. Thus you see my problem. It was awful.
Our flight got delayed by 30 minutes. He was not happy. I tried bouncing, distracting, standing up and rocking, pacifier, no pacifier, bottle, you name it. He just wanted to sleep, but was too distracted to do so. Finally we took off, and he started crying. Loudly. I tried desperately to get him to be quiet, but it was near impossible. Adding to my stress, my other two kids constantly needed something. Oh, how I wish my husband had been with me. Or, Nanny in the clouds!!
He finally fell asleep after wrestling him for about an hour. He slept for a few minutes when my three year old announced he had just had an accident in his pants. I laid baby down in the seat and put my six year old in charge while I raced him to the bathroom. Luckily, I came back and he was still sleeping. When I picked him up again, he slept for a few more minutes and then woke up. But, at least he woke up happy! He played and and was content the rest of the flight, and we finally made it home.
All in all, I guess it wasn’t that bad, but I don’t know if I will be flying with all three kids any time soon. I think my baby did pretty good considering the circumstances, but I sure am glad that is all over! Next time I fly with my baby, I will definitely be taking a friend, husband, or someone with me to help!