The Adventures of Izzymonster: Vacation Time!

Over Dallas

This trip back to California was our first long distance trip ever with Izzy, and our first plane trip with her as well.   It was… an experience.   Like I said before, the flight to California was wonderful.   I couldn’t have asked for an easier flight.   Although, while the flight’s staff began their landing procedures, I started to think about our trip back to Raleigh.   Would we be as lucky when we traveled back home?   We tried to anticipate every possible need Izzy would have on the plane, while keeping in mind what security would allow us to take on board.

We had two bottles ready with measured out formula and a container with an extra formula in case we needed it.   We had little baby biscuits and toys and cereal and baby food and diapers and two pairs of clothing and I forget what else.   Oh, blankets… lots of blankets.   So, as we flew towards LAX, Izzy sat in her car seat which was tied down to her very own seat next to Mommy – we arrived at the airport early enough to get on an earlier flight that wasn’t completely full.   Anyway, so even though we were pretty stocked up and prepared, we didn’t hit one crisis on the plane.   Izzy was able to come out of her seat to play, then get back in to take a nap.   It was actually a great time!

We were worried about how she would do overall, but we were also worried how we would do with the cloth diapers.   Cloth diapers are great when we’re at home and don’t have to worry about them until the can is full.   On the plane, though, we felt a little worried about changing them.   It actually went pretty well.   She didn’t poo while in the air (she actually didn’t poo for most of the trip in California, but that’s another story).   Ciri did have to change one diaper in the plane, but it was just number-one.   One tip while changing a baby’s diaper in the cabin lavatory: if you drop something while you have the changing table pulled out, you’re doomed.

At RDU

Now.   The trip back. It starts with the drive to the airport.   Ciri suddenly gets motion sickness and pukes all over her mom’s BMW.   It was pretty bad.   Next, we get some pissy ticket agent that was having a pretty rough day.   Finally, we get on the plane and within minutes, Ciri is down for the count.   She was complaining about her head hurting and as soon as we sit down, she fell asleep.   Luckily, Izzy was pretty much fed and clean, so we got along pretty well without mom.     Ciri woke up towards the end of the flight, still feeling pretty bad but managed to stay awake the rest of the night.

We packed all the same stuff again, food, toys, clothing, blankets, everything.   Towards the end of the flight she started getting tired and cranky.   We arrived in Dallas changed her diaper and headed to our next flight.   The worse flight of our entire journey.   Izzy was fussy and tired.   I tried to get her to sleep but it was difficult without her car seat.   Finally, within the last hour of the flight, we got her to fall asleep.   On our way home Izzy finally got her car seat back and was awake while we grabbed our luggage and made our way to the car.   But as soon as the car started moving, she fell asleep again.

Ciriana and I both agree that our kid is a trooper.   She didn’t fuss for the majority of the flights, and she still wasn’t too bad on the last flight.   All she wanted was her crib and her blanky.   All of our preparing couldn’t prepare for that and I made sure to apologize to our fellow travelers on the plane.   They mostly smiled and said that Izzy wasn’t that bad at all.   Whew.

It was great fun traveling with the baby, even with that last flight.   I think that there wasn’t anything we could have done differently to make Izzy more comfortable, save purchasing a separate seat for her.   The real test will be our next visit, most likely we’ll have two kids by then!