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December 23, 2010

Florida Fun - Part I - Traveling with an Infant!

We are back from our trip to visit my family in Florida!  We had a blast!

I have so much to recap and don't want to miss anything so I am going to so this in two parts. 

Part I - Traveling with a baby.
Part II - Visiting with Family & Disney

Kate and I flew out bright and early on Monday morning (December 15).  I was super stressed about flying.  I am a very seasoned traveller - I'm talking more than 100 flights a year when I was in the height of my business travel.  But, all I know is business travel - take off the suit coat, take off the pumps, slip on the socks as to not walk thru security barefoot, pull out the laptop, throw everything on the belt, and be done with security in minutes.  I was terrified by a stroller, computer, baby, carry on, etc.  I planned, replanned, and planned some more to attempted to make this trip easy.

I was worried for nothing - everything was fine.  Security wasn't crowded yet since my flight was so early.  A lovely man volunteered to lift all of my bags an stroller on to the x-ray belt since I was wearing Kate.  And TSA let me wear Kate through the scanner thing in her Ergo.  Super easy.

The only snafu was that TSA did not tighten my bottle tops after testing the water.  It was no big deal since I was only carrying water to mix bottles but I was so worried about all of the breastfeeding moms out there that may have lost hard earned, pumped milk.  I literally texted every one of my breastfeeding friends that I knew would be traveling to let them know about what happened. 

We had time to spare after security and I grabbed a coffee while Kate gave out smiles to just about everyone.  She is usually stingy with her pretty grins so I'm guessing she is super smart and knew she needed to start buttering up the other passengers so they wouldn't be grumbling about flying with a baby.


While I was sipping my latte, pushing Kate up and down Terminal C at IAH, we saw several interesting things.  I lost count after seeing 17 super tacky Christmas sweaters.  We also saw several kids having total meltdowns - seeing this made me pray that Kate would continue to be well behaved.  But, nothing beat the bride in her full wedding get up - wedding dress, heels, rhinestone jewelry, tiara - yep, full get up - at 7am on a Monday morning.  Her groom was in jeans and a polo so I know she had time to change.

Who does that?  And how pissed would you be if you had to share a row with wedding dress bride? 

I think a white tank with Bride across the chest would have let everyone know you were just married...

We had no problems boarding (I bought the travel bag for my Vista - best purchase as it allowed me to wheel my folded stroller down the jet way to gate check).  Kate feel asleep after having a bottle during take off and slept until she needed another bottle during landing!  My sister met us at the airport and we made our way back to my mom's house!!

Our flight back was a bit more exciting.  Alex was with us which was nice. 

Kate had her first celeb encounter while checking in at the Continental Elite desk in Orlando.
That would be Kevin Jonas and his wife Danielle - thanks to a quick google search "which Jonas is married" for letting me to know which one he was.  He called Kate beautiful!  Too bad she isn't 13 or I would be up for mom of the year!

We had a harder time keeping her occupied while waiting to take off.  She was hungry but we were prolonging her bottle which just made her mad.  The only thing that kept her happy was her new mermaid toy from her Lala.

As soon as we gave her a bottle, she went straight to sleep.  She woke up right before landing and gave me this face:
That would be her, I'm filling my diaper with a surprise face.  Except, for the first time ever, she exploded out of her diaper.  She was covered in poop.  And then entire front of the plane smelled like my child's dirty diaper.  I couldn't get up to change her since we were landing so, I wrapped a blanket around her and hoped she wouldn't leaked through the blanket as well.

I had quite the time trying to change her in an airport bathroom.  I did manage to get that onesie filled with poop off without getting said poop in her hair.  I felt like super mom.

So, my lessons learned:
*Check you bottle caps
*Bring your stroller if you baby doesn't let to be held/ in a carrier all the time.  Strolling Kate around the airport kept her calm.
*Pack toys. I had a soft book, her mermaid, and a rattle toy.
* You will not have time to do things like read a book on your Kindle.  I wish I would have left it at home.
* Wait until the last minute to started feeding baby for take off/ landing.  I started too soon with our first take off and had to force a paci on her after she was done and we were still climbing.
*Dont' freak when your kid poops everywhere.

Overall, it was much easier than I expected!

6 comments:

Jennifer said...

I'm happy to hear that she did so well. I also found that strangers are very willing to help when you're traveling with a cute baby. I'm surprised the security people did anything with your bottles besides test them. When I flew they made me open and close the bottles myself. I absolutely love the pictures! She's such a cutie!

Lindsey B said...

I was trying to get everything together again and the TSA guy asked if I minded if he opened the bottles. It seems easier at the time - and I didn't think he wouldn't close them tightly.

I will be doing it myself from here on out!

kim said...

I give you props for traveling with her like that! I am way too chicken! I am even afraid to drive to Palm Springs in a few days to an unbabyproofed house.

A style blog said...

alright, I totally can't stop laughing. I don't know what's funnier your photo with a Jonas brother or Kate's poopy face. Love it. She's looking adorable! She's put on more weight too no?

Kristi said...

Love all of your encounters at the airport...too funny! Glad you made it through security ok! We are traveling w/ our twins for 1st time(by plane) in the spring & I have no clue how to prepare:)

Megan and David said...

I'm glad your travels were successful! Sounds like Kate is going to be a great little traveler, which is very important to me!! : )

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