Travels

We went to Houston last weekend for Becket's first birthday party. When I say we I mean Kaelynn and I. Sean stayed home because he wanted to get some things done at home. He ended up being sick all weekend so he didn't get much done. It was probably good he didn't come with us and get everybody sick though. We had a wonderful time. I will post more about it with pictures soon. However I wanted to tell the story of our trip down there. It was one of the most miserable days of my life. I am not anxious to fly with Kaelynn anytime soon. She wasn't horrible but she didn't sleep much on the planes and she doesn't want to be held for hours. She would squirm around and get mad. I couldn't distract her with toys very much because she would throw them on the floor and it was too hard to pick them up on the plane. It made for some long flights. That wasn't the only problem.

I got to the airport in Bloomington and Sean dropped me off with my bags so I could get them checked. He then parked and brought Kaelynn in with the stroller. I though it was odd he was carrying her and pushing the stroller but I soon realized why. She had a blowout and he was trying to keep her stroller from getting dirty. Luckily I had brought two extra outfits so we got her changed and Sean helped me get through security. That went smoothly which was good. I was a little worried because I had a lot of things that you normally can't carry anymore. They are more flexible when you have a baby though. When I got to the gate I went ahead and gave Kaelynn her breakfast. She was eating it just fine and then suddenly she started throwing up. Luckily the pocket in the bib caught it all! So I had to get everything cleaned up. A half hour into our journey it wasn't looking good! The flight was supposed to leave at 10 so at 9:30 I gave Kaelynn some Benedryl. The doctor said to do that since she was recovering form an ear infection. The added benefit was that it might make her sleepy. Shortly after that they came on and said we were delayed a half hour. Then it turned into an hour delay. At that point everybody on my flight got in line to see the ticketing agent so they could check on connections. I didn't want to wait in line with Kaelynn so I was waiting for it to go down. We ended up boarding the plane before I got a chance to check on my connection. While I was waiting though Kaelynn got hungry and I had to give her her the bottle I was hoping to save for the plane and she fell asleep (that Benedryl worked - unfortunately we weren't on the plane). She woke up getting on the plane and didn't go back to sleep. After I got all comfortable in my seat the flight attendant came by and told me I had to switch seats because there were three oxygen masks on the other side of the plane. It would have been nice to know that before!!

Kaelynn did pretty good with the takeoff. On that flight she entertained herself mostly by standing on my lap and looking over the seats in front of us. There was a little girl watching a movie and apparently Kaelynn wanted to watch too. She was also nice and shared some of her toys with the people in front of us! I apologized and thanked them for being so patient with her! It was better to let her stand then to listen to her scream! Once we got to Atlanta they put us in a holding pattern so the flight was probably about a hour longer then it should. Maybe more - I had no idea what time it was because I don't wear a watch and rely on my cell phone which had to be turned off on the plane! Another problem I had was that I had hoped to not have to change Kaelynn on the plane. As out flight got longer and longer I could tell Kaelynn's diaper was completely full. She started leaking out and I knew I wasn't going to be able to wait till we landed. However they had the seat belt sign on and weren't letting people up. So I did something I never thought I would do - I changed her on my lap. She was actually pretty cooperative which was good. Luckily it was only wet!!

My flight to Houston was supposed to leave at 1:30 and we didn't land till about 3. However that flight had been delayed and I think took off right before we landed so I barely missed it. They sent me to a customer service place to see about getting on another flight. There were probably a hundred people there so I was in line for a long time. Kaelynn was fussing so it wasn't fun! They ended up putting me on a flight that was supposed to leave at 4:30. However it was delayed to 5:45. So I headed to my new gate which was an adventure. It was a long way to go and the elevator was broken so I had to get on the escalator which wasn't easy with Kaelynn and all my stuff. When I got there I got some food since I was starving. I hadn't eaten since breakfast at about 7 in the morning except for a granola bar and some cookies on the plane. I got Sbarro and the pizza ended up being burnt on the bottom. I didn't realize it till I was at my gate and didn't want to go back. I was just happy I had my coke because it tasted so good. Well that didn't last long because the strolled topped over and the coke spilled (Kaelynn wasn't in it at the time so she was fine!). So I lost my coke. It wasn't my day!

While sitting at the gate Kaelynn was actually pretty good. We sat on the floor because there weren't any seats but I was able to put some toys out and she could crawl around a little. I think she enjoyed the freedom after being stuck in my lap on the plane. The flight got delayed again till 6:50. We boarded around 6:30. I was so happy to be on our way. The pilot came on and told us that we were all ready to go except that they were waiting for them finish loading the bags. We ended up sitting there at the gate for close to an hour! It was a nightmare because Kaelynn was fussy the entire time. I was trying to save her bottle till takeoff. She did finally fall asleep when we pulled out of the gate thank goodness. They were got to get in line for takeoff. There were planes as far as the eye could see. It took probably 30 to 45 minutes. So by the time we took off we had been sitting on the plane for close to 2 hours! Like I said it wasn't my day! Luckily there weren't any other problems. Kaleynn work up shortly after takeoff and was awake the rest of the time but she wasn't too bad. We landed and had no trouble getting our bags. Alan was waiting for us to help. We got to his house at about 10 at night. I left my house at about 8:00 in the morning. That is a 14 hour trip with a baby. I told Alan I wasn't going home. I didn't want to ever get on a plane again!

Thank goodness the trip home went much smoother. I was only about an hour late which was great compared to the trip sown there. I still don't think I will be wanting to take Kaelynn on a plane anytime soon! As miserable as the day was at least we made it there safely. I kept telling myself that was the most important thing!