Hi. I'm 32 years old and married to my best friend. We just had our first baby, Gray. We really, really love him. This blog has been the escape for my feelings, questions, excitement, fears and the joy I felt in my ten months as a pregnant lady.

Now I'm a mom....who knows what's next.

2 notes

In addition to the things I learned on our trip out, here are my takeaways from our return flights.

• If your child is under 12, they don’t have to remove their shoes to go through security.
• According to a flight attendant, they should always hand you an infant life vest before departure. Of our four flights, this only happened twice (you can ask for it).
• Always, always change your little one’s diaper in the airport, before take-off. Changing a diaper mid-flight in that tiny, smelly plane bathroom is horrible for both of you.
• Pack more snacks and books/activities then you think you’ll need. If it’s not a sleeping flight (which you can never count on even if it is over naptime/bedtime), I guarantee you’ll need them.
• Time the treats. We didn’t pull out anything until we’d taken off (because he was so entertained by everything happening on the runway), and then it was just one activity/treat at a time. Book…toy…snack…etc.
• Give your kiddo something to eat for departure and take-off to keep their little jaws working and ears happy.
• Fill up your sippy cup before getting on the plane, because inevitably your child will be SO THIRSTY the moment you can’t get up to get water during takeoff. We also asked the flight attendant to fill up his sippy cup with water before landing, so that it’d be full for the layover.
• Speaking of, there’s only one thing to do during layovers. Run. Treat each layover like bootcamp where you’re sole purpose is to tire your kiddo out. Gray ran up and down the moving walks, through terminals, pushing his stroller (sorry, Chicago!) or just sprinting. We took turns running after him, giving him the chance to just run and explore.

With all that said, we’re happy not to be getting on another plane for a little while! That was our last flight, most likely, where he’ll be on our laps which will also save the circulation in my legs but also mean much pricier airfare next time around and more to learn about how you keep a toddler in his own seat.