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July 2012 Moms
zyas
member
We made it. Here's our flight recap
zyas
member
After a long day flying yesterday we made it in one piece.
For those of you interested, here's how it all went down:
We were out the door by 6am as we knew we'd hit traffic and road work. Yep, sure did. Took almost 2 hours to make it to the airport when it normally takes around an hour. Spent about 30 minutes with the airline agent as they could not locate Ava's ticket, even though I called a couple weeks ago and they added her to mine. She was showing on there but a ticket hadn't been created and it caused huge chaos. Finally got that sorted out but by the time we got through security and walked like a mile through O'Hare to our gate, they were already boarding. Crap!!! I had most of our stuff in my backpack but I thought I'd have time to transfer what I needed for the flight into my big purse so I could put that under the seat in front of us and store my backpack in the overhead bin. I had to quickly pull stuff out of the backpack and throw it in my purse while we were in line, so I didn't get all the toys & snacks I brought for Ava put in my purse in time. Plus I still had her in the Ergo and I was hoping to let her run around while we were waiting to board. Not a chance.
I gate checked our stroller and as I was walking on the plane they made an announcement that the plane was full and everyone from now on would have to gate check their carry ons as the overhead bins were all full already. LOVELY. I took my backpack anyway as my laptop was in there and there's no way I'm checking it with my laptop in it. My seat was in the very last row on the aisle. Fabulous. But actually it worked out quite well despite my initial disgust. I had to balance Ava, and all our stuff while trying to get my laptop out then trying to fit it into my big purse with everything else. The flight attendant managed to stuff my backpack under my chair since there was no one behind and my chair stuck out a bit into the aisle so there was room to shove it under. Nice. I had to stuff the ergo under there too but it kept falling out so the guy across the aisle from me put it under his chair.
The plane was really nice and new and had individual tvs but of course they charge to watch stuff. Of course I paid the $7.99 for the direct TV which got us a bunch of movies and various channels. I was hoping maybe Ava would be interested in kids stuff. She was for like a minute. So that was a big waste.
Another waste was the $14 I spent at the Cafe Brioche kiosk on the way to our gate. I bought a bottle of water and a chicken chiabatta sandwich cause it had nice grilled pieces of chicken an slices of cheese which I thought Ava would enjoy and keep busy with on the plane. She loves the cheese but started throwing the pieces of bun.
Some things that were a hit were the Munchkin flashcards: https://www.amazon.com/Munchkin-75602-Traveling-Flash-Cards/dp/B001FBFIF0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380636630&sr=8-1&keywords=munchkin+flashcards and I bought some stickers at the dollar store which kept her busy for a bit. I started sticking them onto her arms and legs and she had fun pulling them off. Until she started sticking them to the lady sitting next to us. Luckily the couple sitting with us were super nice and told me they had 3 grandsons so they were talking to Ava and playing with her a lot throughout the flight.
However, we had gone through the sandwich, a cereal bar, some goldfish crackers and a yogurt smoothie pouch, the flashcards, stickers, the TV and a book and we hadn't even left the ground yet. I thought I was going to lose my mind.
She was for the most part very good. No screaming which was awesome. But she was restless and did not want to sit on my lap for over 4 hours. She constantly did the back arching, legs and arms flailing and planking. When I could, I just let her stand in the aisle beside my seat and she was quite happy there. We also walked a lot in the back galley of the plane since we were right there and spent time standing in the hallway between the bathrooms. What seemed like forever to me was in fact only like 10 minutes. The flight attendants were awesome and they played with her for a bit in the back.
When we were getting ready to leave the plane, I was strapping her back onto me in the ergo and trying to get all our stuff organized and all the people in the back were telling me how good she was for the flight. I was thankful for that and a bit surprised as I was exhausted by entertaining her for all those hours. Plus she kept throwing stuff into the aisle, she threw goldfish at a couple people, kept kicking the seat in front of us, and she whacked the lady beside us a bunch of times with various things. Everyone was so nice though.
We then had to pick up our luggage and haul it through customs and to the connecting flight area. That was fun. I had my huge suitcase, the stroller and our carseat which was in its original box. I managed to balance the box on the stroller and push it that way while pulling the suitcase. Then through another security and a long walk to our gate. This time I stopped at starbucks as I was so tired and needed a perk. I put it in the cup holder on the stroller but we hit a bump coming out of the elevator and I spilled it all over. Didn't matter as by the time we got to our gate we only had 10 minutes until boarding so I had to drink quickly as since it was really hot, I ended up throwing half of it away anyway.
I let Ava walk around while we waited to board and then she screamed bloody murder when I put her back in the Ergo. As we're standing in line and I'm trying to quiet her down, I tried my best trick - an animal cracker. She took it and stopped crying but ate it quickly and started gagging and coughing. So I now have mushed animal cracker all over my shirt and she's screaming again. As I'm trying to hand the agent our passports. Ugh. Everyone standing around me is looking REALLY worried right now that we are getting on the same flight as them.
This is a really small plane too as the flight itself is only 13 minutes. Thank God for that. We had a window seat this time so I had to cram my backpack under the seat and it was too big for the tiny overhead bin. Another passenger helped me put my purse in the bin. We were sitting next to this really nice old english lady who reminded me of my late grandma. We talked the whole time and Ava was very happy (despite being tired since she had now been awake for almost 10 hours). She looked out the window and stood up on my lap and waved at everyone on the plane.
And that was it, then we arrived and my parents picked us up. We were SO tired, but Ava stayed up until almost 9pm. She would not go to sleep no matter what I tried. I ended up bringing her downstairs and had her sit with me while we were watching TV and she fell asleep in my lap. That's never happened before. Poor kid was going on 17 hours straight of being awake.
This morning though she woke up at her regular time and was in a great mood. Sorry this was so long!!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: We made it. Here's our flight recap
Married: 5/21/05 **~** Emery Aylin 6/30/12
BFP#1-11/5/10- Surgery for ectopic pregnancy 11/15/10 BFP#2-11/1/11 Due 7/8/12 Born 6/30/12
Oops we did it again... BFP 03/23/14 Due 12/6/14 Nora Born 11/23/14
Married: 5/21/05 **~** Emery Aylin 6/30/12
BFP#1-11/5/10- Surgery for ectopic pregnancy 11/15/10 BFP#2-11/1/11 Due 7/8/12 Born 6/30/12
Oops we did it again... BFP 03/23/14 Due 12/6/14 Nora Born 11/23/14
Our trip would be a lot shorter than yours, obviously.
It sounds like it was exhausting, but I couldn't help laughing a little at Ava throwing crackers at people. Thank goodness for patient people!
Might have to check out those flash cards now...
Married: 5/21/05 **~** Emery Aylin 6/30/12
BFP#1-11/5/10- Surgery for ectopic pregnancy 11/15/10 BFP#2-11/1/11 Due 7/8/12 Born 6/30/12
Oops we did it again... BFP 03/23/14 Due 12/6/14 Nora Born 11/23/14