Christmas in So Cal Intro
We decided to fly down to So Cal to celebrate Christmas with my family since tickets were about $100 cheaper per person to go now instead of at Christmas. Here's a list of things I've learned flying with an infant:
- An hour of time to get ready to leave the house is barely sufficient even if you've already packed everything but your toothbrush.
- Waking a baby multiple times at early hours in the morning will screw the sleep schedule up. She had woken up at 3 a.m. and refused to go back to sleep like she normally does. We were leaving at 5:30 so we all were running on 4 hours of sleep. She dozed off on the way to the airport but we had to wake her up to take her out of the car seat at the security checkpoint and then she woke up again when we landed. This caused her to be fussy the entire morning, sleep most of the afternoon/evening and then woke up every 3 hours at night. It was a very weird, very unfortunate adjustment.
- Don't forget important things like birth certificate and a change of everything for baby. I'm very glad I had both.
- Carry an extra pair of underwear for myself. Allie did wonderful on her first flight. I fed her right before takeoff and she fell asleep. Just when I was thinking about buckling her into her car seat again, she vomited all over me. And I don't mean a little spit up. It was projectile and soaked her outfit and mine. When I relayed this story to my mom, she reminded me that I did the same thing on my first flight 20-some years ago. Oh and of course on the flight back when Brian was holding her the whole time, she slept without vomiting everywhere.
- Always fly Southwest. I LOVE flying Southwest. They make my life so easy. They allow 2 checked bags per person FOR FREE and any items for an infant don't count. That means we were able to check 4 bags total, plus her car seat and a stroller if we had wanted to. Also, we hadn't purchased a ticket for her but because the flights weren't full we were able to bring her car seat on board with us and strap it into a seat instead of checking it at the gate. I will say it again... I LOVE flying Southwest!!!
- There is no easy way to maneuver through an airport with a baby. If you have them in a carrier, you'll have to remove it all going through security. If you leave them in a carseat, you'll be hauling it around, plus have to remove it all going through security. I'm sure you could finagle something maybe with an umbrella stroller but again... it's not easy. Brian and I were trying to imagine what it would be like if we had multiple kids. Trying to wrangle all the ones that can walk while holding the ones that can't.... sheesh. Can't wait!
