You just have to spend some time laughing so you don't resort to a full on breakdown of sorts!
This was our Thursday night and Friday experience on our way home from Idaho!
It wasn't all bad, but really, it's not easy traveling with a baby by yourself, on a standby ticket. We had lots of awesome help and encouragement. It wasn't the people that made it hard. It was the situation.
We left Thursday morning for a nine hour drive to Vegas. That went really well. We changed my new york flight to boston to be sure I got on. I got on in a seat on the second row, in an even more space seat! It helped a lot. This flight was over six hours! Kamden slept pretty much the entire flight, which is good. But, don't forget that meant I didn't sleep because I was holding him, in my arms, in not so comfortable positions, in an airplane seat for over six hours, without getting up to move, stretch my legs, or pee, in fear of waking up my exhausted little boy.
We got to Boston, didn't have a ticket to get through another security gate (weird airport), went to the ticket counter, found out the lady only changed my flight to land in Boston, not connect to Dulles, waited for a way nice lady to get it figured out, ran with bags, a stroller, and my tickets to the security gate, waited for ten minutes I didn't have for people to check baby formula, medicine, and other things, check the stroller, break the stroller temporarily, and haul me through. I put a baby who just had a blowout, who hasn't been changed in six hours (he was sleeping), very carefully into the stroller, walked very fast through the terminal, and was the last person to board the plane they had been holding for me. I buckled myself in, made a bottle (not an easy task in this setting), and hoped nobody could smell my stinky baby. Waited to take off, heaved a sigh of relief when I could undo my seatbelt to change my very wet, dirty baby, and went into a very small, unclean, restroom, with a liquid of some type in all the corners of the floor, and changed and wiped every last inch of my baby.
At this point I looked in the mirror (big mistake), accepted the mess before me, vowed not to look in a mirror again until the day was over, and took my seat for the remainder of the flight.
Luckily, this flight was only about an hour, so I endured, got off the flight, melted into my husband's arms, filed a lost baggage claim for baggage that didn't even exist in the system, and finally walked outside, promising myself all the way, not to go back into an airport, unless absolutely necessary.
We went to the Air and Space Museum with friends visiting from Idaho (who witnessed me and my child a complete mess), realized Kamden had another DIRTY diaper, convinced Nathan to change it. We waited outside for a very long time, sent Brett in to check on them, found out he had another blowout, there were no wipes left, and he didn't have an extra outfit. Nathan salvaged his pants and wrapped the top of him in his sweater, sticking him in the stroller.
We finished in the museum, took the picture below In the car, and went to I hop to eat some much wanted food. Dropped our friends off at an airport (didn't go in just as I vowed I wouldn't), slept on the way home, walked inside, and collapsed after being awake for almost a full 48 hours of terror with no sleep.
I laughed a lot that day! A whole lot!
*Sidenote: Nonetheless, I am beyond grateful for the people who sacrificed the time, money, and effort to get me to Idaho and back. It was still worth it!
(Please forgive the typos and bad layout. I did this on my phone so I wouldn't forget to record it later on.)
This was our Thursday night and Friday experience on our way home from Idaho!
It wasn't all bad, but really, it's not easy traveling with a baby by yourself, on a standby ticket. We had lots of awesome help and encouragement. It wasn't the people that made it hard. It was the situation.
We left Thursday morning for a nine hour drive to Vegas. That went really well. We changed my new york flight to boston to be sure I got on. I got on in a seat on the second row, in an even more space seat! It helped a lot. This flight was over six hours! Kamden slept pretty much the entire flight, which is good. But, don't forget that meant I didn't sleep because I was holding him, in my arms, in not so comfortable positions, in an airplane seat for over six hours, without getting up to move, stretch my legs, or pee, in fear of waking up my exhausted little boy.
We got to Boston, didn't have a ticket to get through another security gate (weird airport), went to the ticket counter, found out the lady only changed my flight to land in Boston, not connect to Dulles, waited for a way nice lady to get it figured out, ran with bags, a stroller, and my tickets to the security gate, waited for ten minutes I didn't have for people to check baby formula, medicine, and other things, check the stroller, break the stroller temporarily, and haul me through. I put a baby who just had a blowout, who hasn't been changed in six hours (he was sleeping), very carefully into the stroller, walked very fast through the terminal, and was the last person to board the plane they had been holding for me. I buckled myself in, made a bottle (not an easy task in this setting), and hoped nobody could smell my stinky baby. Waited to take off, heaved a sigh of relief when I could undo my seatbelt to change my very wet, dirty baby, and went into a very small, unclean, restroom, with a liquid of some type in all the corners of the floor, and changed and wiped every last inch of my baby.
At this point I looked in the mirror (big mistake), accepted the mess before me, vowed not to look in a mirror again until the day was over, and took my seat for the remainder of the flight.
Luckily, this flight was only about an hour, so I endured, got off the flight, melted into my husband's arms, filed a lost baggage claim for baggage that didn't even exist in the system, and finally walked outside, promising myself all the way, not to go back into an airport, unless absolutely necessary.
We went to the Air and Space Museum with friends visiting from Idaho (who witnessed me and my child a complete mess), realized Kamden had another DIRTY diaper, convinced Nathan to change it. We waited outside for a very long time, sent Brett in to check on them, found out he had another blowout, there were no wipes left, and he didn't have an extra outfit. Nathan salvaged his pants and wrapped the top of him in his sweater, sticking him in the stroller.
We finished in the museum, took the picture below In the car, and went to I hop to eat some much wanted food. Dropped our friends off at an airport (didn't go in just as I vowed I wouldn't), slept on the way home, walked inside, and collapsed after being awake for almost a full 48 hours of terror with no sleep.
I laughed a lot that day! A whole lot!
*Sidenote: Nonetheless, I am beyond grateful for the people who sacrificed the time, money, and effort to get me to Idaho and back. It was still worth it!
(Please forgive the typos and bad layout. I did this on my phone so I wouldn't forget to record it later on.)
Sharon! You are a TROOPER! Holy cow...seriously, I would have died somewhere between the 9 hr. drive to Vegas and the run to the second flight :)
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