Travelling with a baby

I think I googled "travel with baby" a million times in the weeks leading up to our Christmas trip. Nothing can really prepare you for what to expect. I at least had my diaper bag packed appropriately. Maddie did pretty well for a first-time air passenger.

What we weren't prepared for was the time change adjustment for Madelyn. Or, I should say, lack thereof. On a normal Pensacola day, Maddie wakes up at 6:30am, which works well for us. Occasionally, she sleeps in until 7am. Portland is 2 hours behind Pensacola. We figured that after a day of travel, Madelyn would be tired enough that she could transition to west coast time within a day or so. We were so wrong...like clockwork, Madelyn piped up that she was ready to start her day at 4:30am! This happened the entire week. What's funny is that even her regular BMs were on Pensacola time. Here we were, bleary-eyed Mommy and Daddy, holding her over the potty at 5am while the rest of the house was still asleep.

We're also not used to sleeping in the same room as her. Surprisingly, I think she was able to sleep through Aaron's snoring without much problem. However, she was waking in the middle of the night when she usually doesn't, so perhaps something went bump or snore in the night during a sleep phase transition. We didn't realize how loud she is when she sleeps until she was right there in the pack'n'play at the foot of our bed. Every toss, turn, and sigh would stir us. It was exhausting. We fought the urge to go pee in the middle of the night for fear that we were on "predator watch" and she'd wake up screaming angry.

Later this week I'll be flying solo (literally) with Maddie down to Clearwater. Aaron will drive ahead of us and us girls will fly down to join him at his mom's. I'm not looking forward do flying alone with a baby, but I know it can be done.

I mentioned in a previous post that the flight from DFW to Portland was pretty rough for the little tyke. The plane ride coming back wasn't as bad. She slept for a good chunk of time of the 4-hour flight, and then only threw a little 20-minute fit on the hour-long DFW to Pensacola leg. You wouldn't have known she was fussy, though, since there was a 2 year old throwing a tantrum in the row ahead of us, with his weary parents trying to juggle him and another baby about the same age as Maddie. Upon landing, the mother of the 2 year old turned to us and said, "When your baby turns 2, you'll probably start wanting to have another baby. Let me tell you, DON'T DO IT." We all laughed as her husband tried to muffle his screams with a blanket over his head. Ah, parenthood. :)