Traveling with Baby

The Millers continued their Christmas festivities with a trip north to visit Matt's family. We flew up on the morning of Christmas Eve. Of course I was nervous; we were flying for the first time with a five-month-old. Fortunately, it's a short flight. But we never dreamed we would be so lucky. I'm sure all of that luck is going to come back to bite me in the rear the next time we fly. But, at least this time, Ben's a great flyer.

We got to the airport and breezed through baggage check and security (When does that ever happen? And on Christmas Eve? Sad, sad economy....). Speaking of security, did you know there's a special family line? We'd never seen or heard of it before last week. Is it like the thestrals, where you can only see it if you have kids? At any rate, it's a great idea. That way the people behind you aren't all pissed because they have to wait behind whining kids who don't want to take their Buzz Lightyear shoes off, or people with an infant who have to collapse the stroller and try to get it through the x-ray bomb scanner. Well, after said stroller was declared explosive free, we had to get the bottle of breastmilk scanned to make sure it wasn't a bomb (it wasn't). So then we went to the terminal, had breakfast, played on the floor, and generally entertained the passengers of Southwest (who you know were thinking to themselves two things: "Ooooh, cute baby" and "Frick, I have to fly with a baby"). Well, lucky them (and us), Ben conked out while I was carrying him on the plane and slept until we started decending, at which point I gave him a bottle and he cheerfully aquiesced to the rest of the day's travels. This brings me to my first "Travel with Baby" tip:

Do: wear your baby out before you board the plane so he's ready for his nap.
Don't: let the judgmental, freaked out glares of your fellow passengers bother you. They have been or someday will be there.


When we landed it was pouring rain. So Matt went to get the rental car while I retrieved the luggage (all four bags--we used to be able to travel with two!). When Matt arrived with the car, I got two strapping young pimply lads to help me lug the suitcases outside. Now, we purchased Ben a seat on the plane and brought his carseat. But, because we cannot have a first flight go too well, we left the base in the car of my friend who took us to their airport. So, to be safe, we decided to use the car rental company's carseat (or at least a base). The main issue with this was that their car seats were from something like 1982. After seeing the rickity, base-free seat in the back, we decided to go back to the car rental place and see if we could get a base or a more stable seat. On the way there, we realized that our carseat was nowhere in the car. So we got a new carseat (circa 1987) from Enterprise and went back to the terminal to see if ours was still on the curb (which, thankfully, it was). So...

Do: Buy a seat for your baby and bring the carseat.
Don't: Leave the base in your friend's car and the seat on the sidewalk.

At last we get on the freeway (remember it's pouring rain and Christmas Eve) and begin the hour-long drive to Matt's brother's house where we are staying. Ben, thankfully, slept for most of the soggy trip. Unfortunately, however, he awoke around 2:30 and did not nap again for the rest of the day. This began a rather painful cycle of a couple of 30 minutes naps a day and hours of fussiness and crying that is still continuing today.

To be continued....