Flying with a "Pre-toddler"

Flying with a baby is a pretty intimidating task for a new parent. Forest had his first transatlantic flight when he was only 4 months old and I was totally stressed beforehand. All my veteran mommy friends kept telling me that 4 months was a great age to travel with a baby because they weren’t mobile yet and that traveling would only get harder as they got older. In some ways, I can definitely see how it gets harder as they age, but in other ways it’s also easier. 

For one thing, as a 14 month old, Forest requires much less stuff than he did as a young baby. A few food pouches, a sippy cup and a tablet loaded with episodes of Mr. Rogers are about enough to survive with on a reasonably lengthed flight. Whereas, as a tiny baby his stuff took up nearly two carry-ons. However, now that he’s super energetic and mobile, it’s certainly more challenging to keep him entertained and confined. 

I seriously can’t complain about Forest’s traveling behavior. He’s an all-star. But even with the easiest toddler around, it’s still not exactly fun. On our trip home there was another 14 month old baby sitting caddy-corner to us and a girl around 2.5 years in the seat in front of us. The two 14 month olds were both angelic but the 2.5 month old had a total meltdown screaming the word NOOOOO! over and over for about 30 minutes. I wish I was exaggerating. 

I was tempted to judge, but then realized that as each day goes by, I have less and less control over my child. By the time he is 2.5 years old I am sure meltdowns will be inevitable and I can only pray that they won’t occur while we are trapped a plane. I’m told once they hit the age of 4 it becomes much easier. Only three more years….

Anyhoos, here the saga of our plane trip home and back:

Usually I would always advise to take a direct flight if you have the chance,  however, the only direct flight offered from SFO to MSY is the red eye and I could just see that going disastrously. We decided the lesser of two evils would be to fly during the day and connect in Houston. Our flight being at 2 pm allowed Forest to have his morning nap before heading to the airport.

We hired a driver to drop us off at the airport, which makes things a ton more convenient with a baby in tow. We bought Forest his own seat this time around just because he is gigantic and squirmy and our flight time was longer than 3 hours. We decided to bring his infant car seat rather than his convertible car seat simply because it was easier to tote around and he seems to sleep better in the infant one. He only has about one inch to go before he outgrows it completely so I think we will have to retire it now. 

We didn’t travel with a stroller simply because we were going to visit our parents who each have a stroller we can use while visiting. Going through security is always a bit stressful, but with a baby they usually let us go through the minimal security line so we don’t have to take anything out of our bags or take our shoes off or anything. Jonathan wore Forest in the ergo carrier which made for hands-free airport mobility. We opted to eat a big lunch before boarding the plane since we knew our layover in Houston would be too short to eat anything.  Luckily the SFO airport has plenty of high chairs so that worked out great. 

We also let Forest run around a bit before boarding to try to get some of his crazy energy out. Our plane was huge so it felt like an international flight. We all had our own tvs and our family had the entire middle row. We put Forest in the middle so that Jonathan and I both had an aisle seat. 

During takeoff we gave Forest a sippy cup of milk to help him clear his ears. I’m assuming it worked since he didn’t have any issues.  On the flight he took a decent nap while I got to actually watch a movie. Woohoo! Of course, all I did was watch the Disney movie Bears to see if it would be something that Forest would like. Oh, the sacrifices of parenthood:) 

The flight was going really well, but there was only one problem- we were landing 30 minutes late which would mean we would surely miss our connecting flight. As soon as we landed I called my parents to tell them the issue. They quickly discovered that our flight to New Orleans was also delayed a few minutes so we stood a chance of making it. 

We were really stressing as our plane took forever to de-board and we were at the back of the plane. We had to make it to a different terminal so we had quite the sprint ahead of us. Jon agreed that he’d take Forest in the Ergo and try to run ahead to stop the plane while I followed behind with all of our carry-on bags and the carseat. 

I was so worried that we would miss the last flight to New Orleans that night that I turned on the burners and ran my heart out. I balanced the car seat on my head like one of those tribal ladies in Africa and dashed for my life. I actually ended up passing Jonathan and Forest along the way. I thought I would have an asthma attack as I neared the gate but it was worth it because our flight hadn’t left yet. Apparently, they were trying to wait for us. Awwwww. Thanks United! 

However, I could see the perturbed faces of the other passengers as we boarded 20 minutes late and had a baby in tow. Fortunately, Forest was an absolute angel on the 45 minute flight so all was forgiven by the time we got to NOLA. We were pretty sure our bags wouldn’t make it on the plane with such a short connection, which was really unfortunate since I had offered to check my carry on back in SFO since the flight was full. Sure enough, they didn’t arrive but the United baggage claim attendant said that they should arrive on the next flight that night and would be delivered to us by the next day at lunch. 

Fortunately we were going to my parents’ house so we could borrow essentials from them, and we had carried a change of clothes and all of Forest’s nighttime essentials onto the plane with us. We kept expecting our bags the next day since the United tracking page told us they were out for delivery. By that night they still hadn’t arrived and I had to borrow clothes from my mom for a dinner out in Baton Rouge. The next morning we headed to Target to buy a few little things to tide us over, and good thing too because our bags didn’t arrive until that night. 

Thankfully, our trip back to San Francisco was much less eventful. My dad dropped us off at MSY around 7 AM (sniff, sniff). After an emotional goodbye we checked our bags and went through security. The security staff was a bit rude and told us we were holding up the line with all of our stuff, but I promise we were going as fast as we could. 

Because Forest had his own seat we took advantage of him having his own carry-on so we did have quite a few bags, but still, we were obviously going as quickly as possible with a baby in tow. Some people…. I know I used to be just as non-understanding before I had kiddos so I try to give rude people some grace, but it just added to the stress. Especially since they pulled Jon aside to do the hand swipe and then didn’t have anyone ready to swipe him so I was left to grab all 5 of our personal items/carry ons plus the car seat by  myself which led to some more sighing and foot tapping from the lady behind me. 

Sheesh people! I thought I remembered Louisiana people being friendly! I guess at 7 AM they are still a bit grouchy. Or maybe I was the grouchy one and took it a little too personally. Hmmmm…I guess that’s a possibility! 

Anyways, once the security madhouse was behind us we got something to eat before letting Forest run off some steam before boarding. He was having a ball pulling his carry-on around the airport and looked like a little miniature business man. 

So stinkin cute. 

However, after stalling the boarding process til the very last second (no sense in keeping him confined any longer than necessary) we had to take his carry on from him which elicited his worst tantrum ever. We got a few more dirty looks from passengers waiting to board and I was getting nervous about the 4.5 hour flight ahead of us. However, I had nothing to worry about. 

The flight took off right around Forest’s nap time and since he was tired from waking up early he blessed us with a 2 hour nap. A 2 hour nap! On a plane! If you know anything about Forest’s daytime sleeping habits than you know this is nothing short of a miracle. I actually read my kindle for so long that a little warning about resting my eyes popped up. I’d never seen that warning before because since birthing Forest I have never had 60 minutes straight to blissfully read a novel. It was awesome! 

By the time he woke up, we had about 1.5 hours left to entertain him. We brought small books and flashcards on board but also downloaded some Mr. Rogers episodes and Peekaboo apps to keep him entertained in his seat. He was easily cajoled into keeping quiet and still.  I mentioned earlier that there was a 14 month old girl sitting across from us. When we were getting off the plane a passenger told her grandma (who she was traveling with) that her granddaughter was the best baby on the plane. At that moment I got Forest out of his seat and kind of held him over my shoulder for a minute and the same passenger said ‘Oh, I didn’t even know there was a baby in that seat.’ Mmmmhmmmm, who’s the best baby on the plane now???? 

Just kidding. They were both all stars and I was super impressed that the baby girl managed to nap in her grandma’s lap while the aforementioned 2.5 year old threw her gargantuan hissy fit. No way would Forest have slept through that commotion!

There was no drama with our bags on this end and our driver was there waiting to help us with our bags and take us home. Forest fell asleep again on the ride home (seriously who is this kid???) which made it an all around easy journey. 

Unfortunately he struggled with jet lag for about 3 days where he was waking up at 5 and then not napping very well, but don’t worry, we got him back on schedule just in time for him to catch the flu and throw everything off track again…..