The Airport

Before Nathaniel: 2 carry on pieces of luggage and a large purse.
After Nathaniel: 3 checked pieces of luggage, a diaper bag, a purse, a camera bag, a carseat, a stroller, a stroller bag and a carseat bag... oh and Nathaniel

Needless to say, I was more anxious than usual for this flight. Will he cry for 3.5 hrs? Will I? Will Kevin and I yell at each other out of frustration 100 times? Would we put Nate through the security machine in a bucket by accident? Will I have to change a poopy diaper midflight in a tiny bathroom with a squiggly kid? Do I have enough toys, food, burp rags, diapers etc to make through the airport part of this trip? Will we sit next to grumpy mcgee on the plane and I'll feel nervous the whole time? How am I going to sit with a baby on my lap for 3.5 hrs. (Nathaniel hasn't sit still for more than 5 minutes on any given day) How many foreign (and domestic) germs will he pick up at the airport GERMS GERMS GERMS? How are we possibly going to carry all of this stuff through the airport and not hurt ourselves (or someone else)? I guess that is where being a young whipper snapper might help. Will I want to kill Kevin every other 5 minutes? I bring this up twice because I think it is super easy to get mad at your partner when things get awkward and uncomfortable. What if they lose our luggage do I have enough back up to keep the baby from a complete meltdown for a few hours? After all of this anxiety we should just wait to travel on an airplane until he is in high school :o)

Our first strategic move was to buy tickets that had us departing about when Nate has his last bottle of the day and then goes to sleep. We were hopeful that the bottle sucking would help with his ears and that the sound of the plane would put him to sleep the whole time. The downside of this strategy is that you don't get into Phoenix until 11:30pm, but we figured once we got on the road he'd fall to sleep again (hopefully anyway). This plan of course depended on the airline being on time. If the plane started running late Plan B would have to happen (BTW, there was NO Plan B). We also bought Nonstop - a connection wasn't even an option I considered.

So, it was A-day (airport day). After a night of packing, what felt like pretty much EVERYTHING in our house, we loaded ourselves into the car. Our first obstacle was getting us and all of our crap actually up to the check in counter. We decided to pull up to the curbside check in and see if Kevin could run out and check us in so we could leave our suitcases. If this works it would definitely make it easier to get from the economy lot to the airport. Success. He just had to run back to the car and get my license and I had to wave to the guy and we were checked in. There was one add'l step. We had to show them Nathaniel's birth certificate so that he could have a lap seat ticket with me.

Ok, A-day continues (Oh actually this brings back memories.... I forgot there was an A-day at the University of Arizona... I think I made it to the final group of gals to be the freshman A-day queen, but didn't win... I was so young) Ok, back to the new A-day. We were headed to the economy lot. We got all of our stuff out, didn't forget Nathaniel and managed to get it all on the shuttle without to much of a hassle. Basically I took Nate in his carseat while Kevin loaded everything. We decided to feed him his bottle before we went through security just in case it took awhile since it was close to his eating time anyway. We were calm and collected. Nate however was very distracted by the people and only ate so so. Off we went to the dreaded security line. We must have had 10 buckets, plus the carseat and stroller. We actually went through pretty well and somewhat quickly. It was a little funny to watch Kevin move in super speed getting everything folded and up on the belt. I had Nate and just watched.  The only debacle was his favorite chew toy, the giraffe, fell to the floor and then was just put willy nilly on the belt Yucko!

Next, we headed to eat and feed Nate solids.  I went to buy us sandwiches while Kevin entertained the now pretty hyper boy.  Upon my return I noticed all of his toys on the dirty airport table.  Kevin said it is fine. I said, that is why I bought disposable eating mats.  I guess he survived ….. barely ;)

We then headed to the crowded gate area for some more waiting and entertaining of the little guy.  We found out that the flight was full so we wouldn’t be able to use the carseat in an extra seat for Nate L We proceeded to get gate check tags for the stroller and carseat.  Now we were carrying everything, no more strolling stuff around because the stroller and carseat were in bags.  We didn’t want to be rushed shoving stuff into the bags as we boarded so we did it a little early.  One of us would just walk around with Nate while the other sat with ALL of our stuff.

Nathaniel met someone as we were waiting. It was this cute little 9 month old baby that kept reaching over the seat to grab his hand.  I didn’t even notice them there at first.  So the two babies just stared at each other for a bit.  It was cute.  Nathaniel doesn’t see too many kids (that is a subject for another blog) so it was good for him. 

Now it is time to board.  We get on.  We spend about a minute deciding on window/middle or aisle/middle.  We decided on window/middle seat so that if Nate sleeps and the person sitting in our row needed to use the restroom he wouldn’t be woken up.  We figured we’d rather bother them then us be bothered.  We were off, I made the bottle and then we sat on the runway a bit… a bit longer… eckk … he is getting hungry, but I wanted him to drink on the ascent.  Finally, in the air and we gave him his bottle.  He sucked it down, his ears didn’t seem to hurt.  I put on his special vest we bought him.  It is a vest that attaches him to you in case there are turbulence.  He fell asleep.  He pretty much slept the whole time until the descent into Phoenix.  YAY.  A VERY low stress flight YAY.

Now, getting to the rental car with all of our stuff at 11:30pm would hopefully go smooth.  We managed to get to the shuttle bus somehow… dragging 3 suitcases along with everything else.  We got a luggage cart at the car rental place, which made it a bit easier.  I sat there with Nate for what felt like forever while Kevin got the car.  We got our car, put in the carseat and off we went. 

Next up, a 4 hour drive to Bullhead City, AZ.  Nathaniel fell asleep pretty much as soon as we were on the road YAY.  Besides my splitting headache, hunger and sleepiness we made it.  Kevin did most of the driving.  We figured it was easier just to get there rather than unpack somewhere for a few hours then reload and drive in the morning.  Plus, we got more time with my mom in the morning.  It helps that both Kevin and I are night owls. 

Well, that is our A-Day #1.  If you found it a bit boring …. I’m GLAD… that means nothing to crazy happened!!

A-Day #2 went pretty much the same… except that Phoenix Sky Harbor airport is so much bigger so it took a little extra patience and lugging around stuff.  We did manage to get an extra seat on the plane ride home.  This luxury came with a bit of last minute excitement as our plane kept waiting for late passengers from other flights.  We saw all the extra seats being taken.  We were afraid they'd ask us to put him on our lap because they ran out of extra seats.  They kept delaying and more people kept getting on... we were like shut that door.  No more people :) Finally, they shut the door - this meant Nate got to sit in his carseat for sure.  It felt so much safer and we had a little bit more room.  Once again he drank his bottle on the ascent and fell asleep pretty much the whole time. 

I was trying to think about what I’d do differently to make the trip smoother next time.  We could probably buy a smaller stroller (the $20 umbrella kind) I could leave a few bibs, outfits etc behind to free up some space.  I’d combine my purse and diaper bag (or maybe bring a small roller suitcase/backpack to hold that stuff instead).  I would STILL bring the disposable bibs, placemats, changing table pad and Clorox wipes since they really helped at the airport.  I’d probably spend the $4 immediately on the luggage cart.  Overall, I think it went about as well as possible (mostly due to Nate being a happy boy) and (Kevin lugging more than he probably should have with his bad back). 

It went so well (stressful, but well) maybe I’ll try it myself next time if Kevin has to work, but with considerably less stuff of course ;) 

I wonder if Kevin would describe this whole thing differently hhhhmmm???

Nathaniel on the Plane