We just got back from visiting my family. The trip was exhausting but wonderful. We stayed at my parents' house, and my brother and his entire crew drove in and stayed there as well, and it was so much fun to have all the cousins together. (I must say, though, that 11 people was a bit much to be staying in my parents 3-bedroom house, especially when it includes 5 kids ages 4 months through 11 years.) The last time LL saw any of these cousins, he was only 9 months old. This time, he was old enough to actually play with them, and he had such a good time. We also got to go to several of my favorite hangouts from when I was a kid, see a few of my oldest friends who are still in the area, and eat some food that I can't get where we currently live. (Oh frozen custard, how I have missed you! Why oh why is frozen custard only available in like three cities in the US? It is the most fabulous food on earth.)
LL has been talking for weeks about wanting to see the oldest cousin, B, who is 11, so we thought that he would spend the whole time trailing after him. Instead, he happily played with LiLi, who is also two. The middle cousin, age 7, spent the entire time playing with Kermit, which freed up the 11-year-old to play with S the entire time. (Have I mentioned how much all kids, especially the 8-12 set, love S? He's amazing.) With both my children happily occupied, I got to spend some quality time with my brother, which is very rare these days. I tried to soak up those chunks of time when no one was sitting on my lap or whining for a snack. Yay, vacation!
Now we're back to reality. Kermit's eating got worse while we were gone, and we've switched him to a new reflux medication in the hope that he'll start eating a normal amount. He ate well yesterday for the first time in a month, so we're hopeful. (No more breast feeding, though. The most he has nursed in the past week is for 30 seconds, and my milk supply is practically gone, so I think that our breast feeding time is really over. I made it 5 months this time, not even close to the year that I had hoped for.) We're so desperate to get calories into Kermit whenever he'll take them that we've been willing to offer him food whenever he asks. And he seems to prefer the majority of his milk between 10pm and 7am, which sucks. We can barely get an ounce into him at each meal during the day, then he gulps down 6 ounces at each feeding in the middle of the night. Once he seems truly better, we're going to have to do some behavior modification on that one.
LL was healthy the whole time we were gone, then immediately came down with another cold when we got back. Not too bad, but he's coughing a lot, which keeps waking him up at night, which of course requires me to get up at night and calm him down. Between LL's cold and Kermit's weird eating patterns, I haven't slept much since we got back.
Next up: I need to get a job. Kermit turned 5 months old yesterday (an update on him, and an update on LL, since it's been a few months since I devoted a post to him, will be coming as soon as I have the time to write them). I had planned to stay home with Kermit for 6 months, so... I should really try to find a job soon. I've enjoyed being home with him, but it is obvious to me that I would not be happy long-term as a SAHM. So, resume revisions this week, and sending out a few feelers to see where I am. Ugh, I hate looking for jobs.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Beep Beep!
I'm not sure how else to put this: LL loves transportation. In particular, he loves pointing out to us whenever he sees various forms of transportation. And when he points them out, we absolutely must verbally acknowledge them (by name) or else he just gets louder and more insistent. Airplanes (which must be called "jumbo jets"), trains, buses (anything bigger than a car), cars (which are identified mainly by an enthusiastic "vroom!" noise), bikes, and car horns ("beep beep!").
A typical drive home from daycare goes something like this:
LL: "Bus! Bus! Mama, look -- bus!"
Me: "Yep, that's a bus."
LL: "More buses! Mama, look -- more buses!"
Me: "Yep, there's another bus."
LL: "Oh, wow! Mama! Jumbo jet!"
Me: "Yes, I hear it, too. There's a jumbo jet outside."
I usually find it rather charming, since he hasn't been talking for very long and his little voice just tickles me.
This past weekend, however, we went out of town for a wedding. I'm not going to go into the details of two eight-hour flights less than 48 hours apart, while 28 weeks pregnant, with an energetic toddler in tow. The less said about that, the better. But, I will ask you to imagine the above described transportation-loving toddler, who has lived his entire two-year existence in the quiet suburbs, transplanted for two days to Manhattan.
Have you ever taken a cab through midtown Manhattan while needing to verbally acknowledge every single bus, taxi, and car horn? I don't know how his little body managed to keep up with everything that he needed to talk about. ("Bus! Bus! More buses! Beep beep! Beep beep! Oooh, vroom! Vroom! Vroom! More buses! Beep beep! Wow! More buses! Beep beep!") I hope that our various cab drivers were amused.
Whenever we were inside a building, out of sight of the multitude of buses and cars outside, LL could not stop talking about the fact that he had been on an actual jumbo jet. Two jumbo jets! And a choo choo train! (The "choo choo train" was in fact a monorail that took us between two airport terminals during a layover. But considering that LL was also positive that the luggage carrier on the tarmac was also a choo choo train, there was no use in us explaining such fine distinctions to him.)
S thinks that LL would be much happier living in a city, where he could see as many buses and trucks and cars as his little heart desires. I, however, am awfully glad that we rarely see more than a half dozen buses on our way home from daycare. I just don't think that I could take saying "Beep beep!" that many times every single day.
A typical drive home from daycare goes something like this:
LL: "Bus! Bus! Mama, look -- bus!"
Me: "Yep, that's a bus."
LL: "More buses! Mama, look -- more buses!"
Me: "Yep, there's another bus."
LL: "Oh, wow! Mama! Jumbo jet!"
Me: "Yes, I hear it, too. There's a jumbo jet outside."
I usually find it rather charming, since he hasn't been talking for very long and his little voice just tickles me.
This past weekend, however, we went out of town for a wedding. I'm not going to go into the details of two eight-hour flights less than 48 hours apart, while 28 weeks pregnant, with an energetic toddler in tow. The less said about that, the better. But, I will ask you to imagine the above described transportation-loving toddler, who has lived his entire two-year existence in the quiet suburbs, transplanted for two days to Manhattan.
Have you ever taken a cab through midtown Manhattan while needing to verbally acknowledge every single bus, taxi, and car horn? I don't know how his little body managed to keep up with everything that he needed to talk about. ("Bus! Bus! More buses! Beep beep! Beep beep! Oooh, vroom! Vroom! Vroom! More buses! Beep beep! Wow! More buses! Beep beep!") I hope that our various cab drivers were amused.
Whenever we were inside a building, out of sight of the multitude of buses and cars outside, LL could not stop talking about the fact that he had been on an actual jumbo jet. Two jumbo jets! And a choo choo train! (The "choo choo train" was in fact a monorail that took us between two airport terminals during a layover. But considering that LL was also positive that the luggage carrier on the tarmac was also a choo choo train, there was no use in us explaining such fine distinctions to him.)
S thinks that LL would be much happier living in a city, where he could see as many buses and trucks and cars as his little heart desires. I, however, am awfully glad that we rarely see more than a half dozen buses on our way home from daycare. I just don't think that I could take saying "Beep beep!" that many times every single day.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Mountains and Follicles and Passover, Oh My!
We are back from our long weekend away with friends, and it was fantastic. Just what I needed.
We had eight adults and four toddlers, and we rented a five-bedroom cabin in the mountains. LL loved having all the people around, and he loved sledding and playing outside in the snow. (For comparison: two of the other kids screamed bloody murder every time we went outside, and the third one took half an hour to get used to the weather every single time we went out. While the other children were fairly miserable in the cold weather and thin air, LL ran circles around them and kept trying to hand them snowballs. The other kids spent a lot of time inside the cabin.) One of my friends is hyper-organized, and thanks to all of her pre-planning, all of the logistics went smoothly. We all drove to the cabin more or less together, we stopped together for lunch, we stopped again to play at a park to give the kids a break, we checked into the cabin without a hitch, we each brought a small collection of groceries such that all of our meals were planned and ready to go... it was wonderful.
I was most worried about whether LL would sleep in the cabin, since he usually doesn't sleep well in a pack'n'play, but it actually wasn't too bad. He went to sleep well each night. He then woke up around 1am, and we just brought him into bed with us and he went back to sleep (after flopping around for a bit). In the past, whenever we've attempted to co-sleep, none of the three of us got much sleep. I don't know if all the heavy playing wore LL out, or if he's just older and more adaptable, but this weekend it wasn't so bad. And the cabin was a bit cold at night, so I actually appreciated the hot little body in footie pajamas that insisted on sleeping on top of me.
Best of all, since we were all staying in the same cabin, we weren't constantly needing to leave in order to get kids home to nap or eat or whatever. We all got some adults-only time each day during naptime, and again at night after the kiddos were all asleep. And we traded off subsets of adults playing with all the kids, so we each got a fair amount of time during the day to put our feet up, have a drink, and chat with other adults. Heavenly.
And now... back to reality. I had another follicle scan, which showed that my one and only little follicle had been reabsorbed back into my ovary. It didn't grow, it didn't shrink, it definitely didn't release an egg (if it had, the corpus luteum would have been visible on the ultrasound). Instead, it just faded away. Since I'm already at cycle day 20+, Dr. M gave me a progesterone shot to quickly end the cycle, so we can move on to the next one. We're going to try one more cycle with 200mg of clomid.
In the mean time, I need to turn my attention to more pressing matters. Like the fact that my entire family is arriving for Passover in less than two weeks, and I have done none of my normal pre-holiday prep. Passover seders for 30 people don't just plan themselves. Also, I'm theoretically graduating in less than 90 days, and my thesis isn't going to write itself.
We had eight adults and four toddlers, and we rented a five-bedroom cabin in the mountains. LL loved having all the people around, and he loved sledding and playing outside in the snow. (For comparison: two of the other kids screamed bloody murder every time we went outside, and the third one took half an hour to get used to the weather every single time we went out. While the other children were fairly miserable in the cold weather and thin air, LL ran circles around them and kept trying to hand them snowballs. The other kids spent a lot of time inside the cabin.) One of my friends is hyper-organized, and thanks to all of her pre-planning, all of the logistics went smoothly. We all drove to the cabin more or less together, we stopped together for lunch, we stopped again to play at a park to give the kids a break, we checked into the cabin without a hitch, we each brought a small collection of groceries such that all of our meals were planned and ready to go... it was wonderful.
I was most worried about whether LL would sleep in the cabin, since he usually doesn't sleep well in a pack'n'play, but it actually wasn't too bad. He went to sleep well each night. He then woke up around 1am, and we just brought him into bed with us and he went back to sleep (after flopping around for a bit). In the past, whenever we've attempted to co-sleep, none of the three of us got much sleep. I don't know if all the heavy playing wore LL out, or if he's just older and more adaptable, but this weekend it wasn't so bad. And the cabin was a bit cold at night, so I actually appreciated the hot little body in footie pajamas that insisted on sleeping on top of me.
Best of all, since we were all staying in the same cabin, we weren't constantly needing to leave in order to get kids home to nap or eat or whatever. We all got some adults-only time each day during naptime, and again at night after the kiddos were all asleep. And we traded off subsets of adults playing with all the kids, so we each got a fair amount of time during the day to put our feet up, have a drink, and chat with other adults. Heavenly.
And now... back to reality. I had another follicle scan, which showed that my one and only little follicle had been reabsorbed back into my ovary. It didn't grow, it didn't shrink, it definitely didn't release an egg (if it had, the corpus luteum would have been visible on the ultrasound). Instead, it just faded away. Since I'm already at cycle day 20+, Dr. M gave me a progesterone shot to quickly end the cycle, so we can move on to the next one. We're going to try one more cycle with 200mg of clomid.
In the mean time, I need to turn my attention to more pressing matters. Like the fact that my entire family is arriving for Passover in less than two weeks, and I have done none of my normal pre-holiday prep. Passover seders for 30 people don't just plan themselves. Also, I'm theoretically graduating in less than 90 days, and my thesis isn't going to write itself.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Trip Report
So much to catch up on! We're back from our trip, LL's aunt stayed with us for several days, LL is learning new things and showing new independence, and my advisor still sucks. But, one thing at a time, I think.
Our trip to Wisconsin went well, with the small exception of sleep. The flights were easy, the wedding was beautiful, visiting family was great, and LL was a champion napper during the day. But at night, LL would suddenly realize that he was not at home, and that when he fell asleep, he would be left alone in a room that was not his bedroom. Even worse, he would be not in his own crib. Each night, we struggled to get him to fall asleep, and he would then wake up a few hours later in a total panic. Inconsolable crying, which is highly unusual for him. We ended up letting him sleep in our bed with us. At home, even if we wanted LL to sleep in our bed, it wouldn't work. If he's in bed with us, he thinks that it's playtime. He would never go to sleep. But bizarrely, in Wisconsin, when we put him in bed with us, he gave us a sleepy smile, curled up with his blankie and immediately calmed down. I wish we slept well, too, but S and I spent each night terrified that we were going to smother LL, though he was very good at kicking us in self defense whenever we dared to get too close. He also learned how to pull my hair in his sleep. So much for Experiments in Co-Sleeping.
The highlight of the trip was visiting with my grandfather. My grandfather is 87 years old. He still works, he still lives independently, and he's still completely sharp. The week before we arrived in Wisconsin, he had finally sold his house and moved into a smaller apartment in a nearby retirement community. I told him that we would love to help him with his move while we were there -- LL is bad at packing, and he can't carry heavy things, but he certainly knows how to unpack a box like nobody's business! So, Grandpa set aside a few small boxes of non-fragile, non-choking-hazard items for LL to unpack. We sat LL on the floor next to the open boxes, and let LL have fun. He very carefully pulled each item out of the box, examined it, and set it down neatly on the floor around him. When he was done helping, we rewarded him by putting him into the now-empty box and dragging him around the room. Fun for everybody!
Unlike our college reunion trip, during which LL switched time zones on our very first day there, and miraculously switched back the day we returned, this trip has caused a lot more disruption. LL stayed on our home time zone after we arrived, so we decided to just go with it. On our last day there, he suddenly switched and woke up at his normal time, local time. Ummm, okay. Twenty four hours later we were at home again, and he had no idea what time it was. We've been back for over a week, and he's still confused. Fighting naps, looking exhausted way early, waking up at odd times, not sleeping through the night.... We have a very tired household right now.
Complicating our attempted return to a normal routine was the visit by S's sister right after we got back from the wedding. She was with us for four days, and we had a lovely time, but it means that LL was off his normal schedule for well over a week. This week was our time to adjust back to normal, and it's just not happening. For a while, I thought that the teething was further complicating things, but LL has cut way back on the incessant chewing, so I think that we're actually in a reprieve on that front. Now we've just got to get him sleeping through the night again before the teething starts back up, because holy cow I'm exhausted.
Happily, we have several weeks of relative calm ahead of us. Our house will be inundated with visitors in five weeks for LL's birthday (yes, he's turning one in just five weeks!) but until then, we should have a bit of normalcy. No trips, no visitors, no major disruptions. Lots of weekend activities, and a first birthday party to plan, but nothing that should interfere with getting LL back on schedule.
Our trip to Wisconsin went well, with the small exception of sleep. The flights were easy, the wedding was beautiful, visiting family was great, and LL was a champion napper during the day. But at night, LL would suddenly realize that he was not at home, and that when he fell asleep, he would be left alone in a room that was not his bedroom. Even worse, he would be not in his own crib. Each night, we struggled to get him to fall asleep, and he would then wake up a few hours later in a total panic. Inconsolable crying, which is highly unusual for him. We ended up letting him sleep in our bed with us. At home, even if we wanted LL to sleep in our bed, it wouldn't work. If he's in bed with us, he thinks that it's playtime. He would never go to sleep. But bizarrely, in Wisconsin, when we put him in bed with us, he gave us a sleepy smile, curled up with his blankie and immediately calmed down. I wish we slept well, too, but S and I spent each night terrified that we were going to smother LL, though he was very good at kicking us in self defense whenever we dared to get too close. He also learned how to pull my hair in his sleep. So much for Experiments in Co-Sleeping.
The highlight of the trip was visiting with my grandfather. My grandfather is 87 years old. He still works, he still lives independently, and he's still completely sharp. The week before we arrived in Wisconsin, he had finally sold his house and moved into a smaller apartment in a nearby retirement community. I told him that we would love to help him with his move while we were there -- LL is bad at packing, and he can't carry heavy things, but he certainly knows how to unpack a box like nobody's business! So, Grandpa set aside a few small boxes of non-fragile, non-choking-hazard items for LL to unpack. We sat LL on the floor next to the open boxes, and let LL have fun. He very carefully pulled each item out of the box, examined it, and set it down neatly on the floor around him. When he was done helping, we rewarded him by putting him into the now-empty box and dragging him around the room. Fun for everybody!
Unlike our college reunion trip, during which LL switched time zones on our very first day there, and miraculously switched back the day we returned, this trip has caused a lot more disruption. LL stayed on our home time zone after we arrived, so we decided to just go with it. On our last day there, he suddenly switched and woke up at his normal time, local time. Ummm, okay. Twenty four hours later we were at home again, and he had no idea what time it was. We've been back for over a week, and he's still confused. Fighting naps, looking exhausted way early, waking up at odd times, not sleeping through the night.... We have a very tired household right now.
Complicating our attempted return to a normal routine was the visit by S's sister right after we got back from the wedding. She was with us for four days, and we had a lovely time, but it means that LL was off his normal schedule for well over a week. This week was our time to adjust back to normal, and it's just not happening. For a while, I thought that the teething was further complicating things, but LL has cut way back on the incessant chewing, so I think that we're actually in a reprieve on that front. Now we've just got to get him sleeping through the night again before the teething starts back up, because holy cow I'm exhausted.
Happily, we have several weeks of relative calm ahead of us. Our house will be inundated with visitors in five weeks for LL's birthday (yes, he's turning one in just five weeks!) but until then, we should have a bit of normalcy. No trips, no visitors, no major disruptions. Lots of weekend activities, and a first birthday party to plan, but nothing that should interfere with getting LL back on schedule.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Land of Cheeseheads
Because, yes, we're gluttons for punishment, we're going to be out of town again this weekend. A friend of mine from high school is getting married in Wisconsin, so we're flying there for a long weekend, getting in lots of grandparent time as well. This is the fourth time LL will be flying somewhere, but for quite possibly the first time, I'm feeling very laid back about the trip. Possibly because our cross-country flights in June went so well that I'm feeling more confident (cocky?) about LL's ability to handle a plane ride at this age. Possibly because the flights are shorter than the ones in June. Possibly because I am so stressed out and pissed off about my school situation that I really need to get the hell out of Dodge for a while, and I'm willing to risk a flight with a cranky, teething not-quite-toddler if that's what it takes.
Also, barring a total meltdown from LL, my parents will be babysitting for two nights in a row, while S and I enjoy the wedding activities. LL was actually invited to the wedding, so if he doesn't want to be without us for too long, we'll be able to bring him along, then drop him off with my parents later in the evening while we enjoy the reception without him. But either way, it will be nice to be out with adults and cocktails, knowing that LL is safe with people who love him. As much as I would hate to be living back where I grew up, I have to acknowledge that it would be amazingly luxurious to have grandparents nearby to babysit on occasion.
After we return from the trip, we'll have one day (yes, just one day) to unpack, do laundry, shift back to our normal time zone, and get a little sleep before S's sister arrives to stay with us for several days. She hasn't seen LL since Thanksgiving (except over iChat; we make liberal use of video-conferencing to keep all of our far-away relatives apprised of LL's developments). Thankfully, unlike certain other relatives I could mention, S's sister is a wonderful house guest. She loves spending time with LL, but she also cooks and cleans and is amazingly helpful. Still, it's going to be a busy few weeks coming up.
Complicating things a bit is the fact that yes, LL is teething again. The last time we visited Wisconsin, in early January, LL started showing his first signs of teething while we were there. He didn't sprout his first teeth until mid-February, but the chewing and drooling and fussiness started in Wisconsin. Our next flying trip wasn't until June, and after showing no new teeth for almost four months, LL picked that trip to suddenly get another one (and five more shortly after returning home). Most babies get a bit of a breather between the initial eight teeth and the emergence of their first molars, which don't normally appear until around 14 months. So we had been looking forward to a few months of decreased chewing and fussiness. Instead, we only got a few weeks, because LL is obviously working on those molars now. I've heard from friends that the first molars are the worst of the 20 baby teeth, so it would have been nice if he'd waited until after our trip. Instead, he's been fussier this week than I've seen him in a long time. It's obvious that sucking on a bottle is painful, as he lunges for his milk, drinks half an ounce, then pulls away crying and sticking his fingers in his mouth. Poor little guy. We're trying to use a cup so that he doesn't have to suck to get milk, but the coordination isn't really there yet. Though, it is amusing to watch him try to gnaw on things waaaay back where the molars will be. A lot of his favorite teething toys don't comfortably reach that far back.
In other news: Brett Favre says he's really retired this time. Really. For good. Promise. Probably. I don't truly believe him yet (I've been burned before) but for now, it's just a lot of fun to watch him jerk around the Minnesota Vikings.
And, tying things together: we had LL's picture taken last week wearing his Packers jersey, sitting on a full-sized cheesehead, and holding his infant cheesehead in his lap. Yep, we're ready for football training camps to get started!
Also, barring a total meltdown from LL, my parents will be babysitting for two nights in a row, while S and I enjoy the wedding activities. LL was actually invited to the wedding, so if he doesn't want to be without us for too long, we'll be able to bring him along, then drop him off with my parents later in the evening while we enjoy the reception without him. But either way, it will be nice to be out with adults and cocktails, knowing that LL is safe with people who love him. As much as I would hate to be living back where I grew up, I have to acknowledge that it would be amazingly luxurious to have grandparents nearby to babysit on occasion.
After we return from the trip, we'll have one day (yes, just one day) to unpack, do laundry, shift back to our normal time zone, and get a little sleep before S's sister arrives to stay with us for several days. She hasn't seen LL since Thanksgiving (except over iChat; we make liberal use of video-conferencing to keep all of our far-away relatives apprised of LL's developments). Thankfully, unlike certain other relatives I could mention, S's sister is a wonderful house guest. She loves spending time with LL, but she also cooks and cleans and is amazingly helpful. Still, it's going to be a busy few weeks coming up.
Complicating things a bit is the fact that yes, LL is teething again. The last time we visited Wisconsin, in early January, LL started showing his first signs of teething while we were there. He didn't sprout his first teeth until mid-February, but the chewing and drooling and fussiness started in Wisconsin. Our next flying trip wasn't until June, and after showing no new teeth for almost four months, LL picked that trip to suddenly get another one (and five more shortly after returning home). Most babies get a bit of a breather between the initial eight teeth and the emergence of their first molars, which don't normally appear until around 14 months. So we had been looking forward to a few months of decreased chewing and fussiness. Instead, we only got a few weeks, because LL is obviously working on those molars now. I've heard from friends that the first molars are the worst of the 20 baby teeth, so it would have been nice if he'd waited until after our trip. Instead, he's been fussier this week than I've seen him in a long time. It's obvious that sucking on a bottle is painful, as he lunges for his milk, drinks half an ounce, then pulls away crying and sticking his fingers in his mouth. Poor little guy. We're trying to use a cup so that he doesn't have to suck to get milk, but the coordination isn't really there yet. Though, it is amusing to watch him try to gnaw on things waaaay back where the molars will be. A lot of his favorite teething toys don't comfortably reach that far back.
In other news: Brett Favre says he's really retired this time. Really. For good. Promise. Probably. I don't truly believe him yet (I've been burned before) but for now, it's just a lot of fun to watch him jerk around the Minnesota Vikings.
And, tying things together: we had LL's picture taken last week wearing his Packers jersey, sitting on a full-sized cheesehead, and holding his infant cheesehead in his lap. Yep, we're ready for football training camps to get started!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Impressive Performance
We are back from our cross-country trek with LL. Much to our delight, everything went amazingly well.
On the day we left, LL intuited that we were going to be traveling, and woke up on his own, at his normal wake-up time, but for our destination time zone (ie, three hours shifted from usual). We think that he might be an unusually gifted baby. Or he was teething. Whatever. We followed his cue, and did everything all day according to his normal schedule, but in the new time zone. He was thus perfectly timed to have a bottle during take-off, followed by a delightful morning nap on Daddy's lap, much to the relief of our fellow passengers. After waking up, he spent the next several hours with a range of exciting eight-month-old activities: eating an entire jar of bananas without flinging any of it onto our neighbors; having his diaper changed in a bathroom the size of a phone booth; ignoring most of the toys that we brought with us but happily playing for hours with a plastic cup given to him by one of the flight attendants; flirting non-stop with said flight attendant; reading the most mesmerizing baby book ever produced; and being held by me or S in the back galley of the plane, where there was a constant stream of strangers waiting in line for the bathroom, all of whom took turns playing peek-a-boo with him while they waited.
Flying out, we had a 45-minute delay on the ground, and 6 hours in the air, and LL cried for a grand total of 90 seconds while on the plane. Our flight home on Sunday was in the evening, and LL slept (in batches) for more than 3 hours, and never cried once. After we landed and waited to de-plane, the passengers sitting around us gave LL a round of applause, and declared that "he gave a truly impressive performance." Total success!
There were a lot of things I was nervous about for this trip. A quick recap of how we managed with each of my original concerns:
Pressure Changes: During take-off and landing, LL was fine with a mix of bottle-drinking and pacifier-sucking, so the pressure changes didn't bother him. On our trip home, he briefly stopped drinking and then pulled at his ear and whined a little, but he quickly took the bottle back and the problem was solved. Also, since he was recently sick and still occasionally congested, our pediatrician told us the correct dosing information for Children's Benadryl, even though it is no longer technically approved for infants. Airplane pressure changes when you're already congested are really painful, so this helped a lot, and we're grateful that our pediatrician suggested this.
Airplane Entertainment: Entertaining LL on the plane was, indeed, trickier than when he was 2-3 months old, but walking around with him helped a lot. Also, on our flight home, the guy sitting behind us played peek-a-boo with LL between the seats for 45 minutes straight while LL belly-laughed non-stop. It was hilarious. Also, in a true show of how things don't always turn out how you expect, I bought this toy for the plane, because it has a suction cup at the bottom that's meant to attach it to high chair trays, but I thought that it would be perfect to attach to an airplane tray table, too. It did, indeed, keep LL occupied for a good deal of the flight, but only because he continuously chewed on the suction cup. On the flight home, we just gave him the suction cup and left the toy part in the bag. Fun stuff.
Car Seats: We continue to stuff LL into his infant carrier, so we didn't have to deal with a convertible car seat. We also avoided taxis the whole weekend, though we have it on good authority that all modern taxis do have LATCH attachments. My friend M took us to and from the airport in her car, and for everything else, we walked or took the bus, leaving the car seat at M's place. As an aside: holy cow, LL loved taking public transit. So many people to look at! So many people to smile at! Young people, elderly people, students, workers, all manner of people from all walks of life... LL charmed them all. Each new person who got on, LL would grin and wave until he got them to smile back. Awesome.
Stroller: Before this trip, we didn't have a true stroller. We just used a stroller frame to hold the infant car seat. For this trip, we finally bought a stroller so that LL would be more comfortable sitting in it all day. Our requirements: it had to be light, since we would need to lug it on and off buses; it had to be comfortable both for sitting (LL) and pushing (us), since LL would be in it for long stretches; it had to be sturdy, since it would be jostled a lot at the airport; it had to recline and have a decent canopy, since LL would need to nap in it; and it couldn't be too expensive, since it was likely to get beaten up a bit in the luggage compartment of the plane. A storage basket and quick-and-easy fold were additional nice-to-haves. The comfort, recline, and canopy requirements ruled out most cheap umbrella strollers, and the weight and price requirements ruled out most full-featured strollers. We finally went with this Combi stroller (on sale) and we were beyond thrilled with it. It was tossed around planes and buses; it went up and down subway stairs; it went off-road on grassy hills; it went over cobblestones; it was rained on. LL loved sitting in it, and took two long naps in it. It met all of our requirements and then some. Fantastic.
Bottles: We packed enough bottles to last for a full day of eating. Bulky to pack, but light. It worked. We also bought one of those divided formula containers, where each compartments holds formula powder for one bottle. Extremely useful.
Time Change: We transitioned LL to the new time zone all at once, thanks to when he woke up on the day that we left. It worked fairly well. He took his two naps each day right on time, and we had no problem putting him down for bed each night. He was up a lot late at night (in the 1:00-6:00am range), but he was like that for several days before we left, too, so it was probably inevitable. Also, after months of unproductive teething, LL finally cut his first top tooth while we were gone (excellent timing, kiddo) which didn't help in the sleep department. How he transitions back to our normal time zone remains to be seen....
Overall, we were thrilled with the whole trip. Each day, LL took his morning nap at M's house, we were out of the house by 11am, and we returned around 6pm to feed him dinner and get him ready for bed. He did great being out all day, took an afternoon nap in his stroller, and loved being wheeled all over our college campus. He met our college friends for the first time, saw the dorm where S and I lived, and even met my old undergrad advisor, who is now Dean of one of the biggest institutes on campus but still took almost an hour out of her busy week to chat with us and to carry LL around. Each night, M stayed with LL at home and put him to bed while S and I went out, and even though he was with a babysitter, in a strange crib, in a strange room, after a long and exhausting day of being out in the world, he still did great. I cannot express how proud I am of him.
It was a bit surreal pushing a baby stroller around the old college campus, but that is probably just part of my denial that it has been 10 years since we graduated.
On the day we left, LL intuited that we were going to be traveling, and woke up on his own, at his normal wake-up time, but for our destination time zone (ie, three hours shifted from usual). We think that he might be an unusually gifted baby. Or he was teething. Whatever. We followed his cue, and did everything all day according to his normal schedule, but in the new time zone. He was thus perfectly timed to have a bottle during take-off, followed by a delightful morning nap on Daddy's lap, much to the relief of our fellow passengers. After waking up, he spent the next several hours with a range of exciting eight-month-old activities: eating an entire jar of bananas without flinging any of it onto our neighbors; having his diaper changed in a bathroom the size of a phone booth; ignoring most of the toys that we brought with us but happily playing for hours with a plastic cup given to him by one of the flight attendants; flirting non-stop with said flight attendant; reading the most mesmerizing baby book ever produced; and being held by me or S in the back galley of the plane, where there was a constant stream of strangers waiting in line for the bathroom, all of whom took turns playing peek-a-boo with him while they waited.
Flying out, we had a 45-minute delay on the ground, and 6 hours in the air, and LL cried for a grand total of 90 seconds while on the plane. Our flight home on Sunday was in the evening, and LL slept (in batches) for more than 3 hours, and never cried once. After we landed and waited to de-plane, the passengers sitting around us gave LL a round of applause, and declared that "he gave a truly impressive performance." Total success!
There were a lot of things I was nervous about for this trip. A quick recap of how we managed with each of my original concerns:
Pressure Changes: During take-off and landing, LL was fine with a mix of bottle-drinking and pacifier-sucking, so the pressure changes didn't bother him. On our trip home, he briefly stopped drinking and then pulled at his ear and whined a little, but he quickly took the bottle back and the problem was solved. Also, since he was recently sick and still occasionally congested, our pediatrician told us the correct dosing information for Children's Benadryl, even though it is no longer technically approved for infants. Airplane pressure changes when you're already congested are really painful, so this helped a lot, and we're grateful that our pediatrician suggested this.
Airplane Entertainment: Entertaining LL on the plane was, indeed, trickier than when he was 2-3 months old, but walking around with him helped a lot. Also, on our flight home, the guy sitting behind us played peek-a-boo with LL between the seats for 45 minutes straight while LL belly-laughed non-stop. It was hilarious. Also, in a true show of how things don't always turn out how you expect, I bought this toy for the plane, because it has a suction cup at the bottom that's meant to attach it to high chair trays, but I thought that it would be perfect to attach to an airplane tray table, too. It did, indeed, keep LL occupied for a good deal of the flight, but only because he continuously chewed on the suction cup. On the flight home, we just gave him the suction cup and left the toy part in the bag. Fun stuff.
Car Seats: We continue to stuff LL into his infant carrier, so we didn't have to deal with a convertible car seat. We also avoided taxis the whole weekend, though we have it on good authority that all modern taxis do have LATCH attachments. My friend M took us to and from the airport in her car, and for everything else, we walked or took the bus, leaving the car seat at M's place. As an aside: holy cow, LL loved taking public transit. So many people to look at! So many people to smile at! Young people, elderly people, students, workers, all manner of people from all walks of life... LL charmed them all. Each new person who got on, LL would grin and wave until he got them to smile back. Awesome.
Stroller: Before this trip, we didn't have a true stroller. We just used a stroller frame to hold the infant car seat. For this trip, we finally bought a stroller so that LL would be more comfortable sitting in it all day. Our requirements: it had to be light, since we would need to lug it on and off buses; it had to be comfortable both for sitting (LL) and pushing (us), since LL would be in it for long stretches; it had to be sturdy, since it would be jostled a lot at the airport; it had to recline and have a decent canopy, since LL would need to nap in it; and it couldn't be too expensive, since it was likely to get beaten up a bit in the luggage compartment of the plane. A storage basket and quick-and-easy fold were additional nice-to-haves. The comfort, recline, and canopy requirements ruled out most cheap umbrella strollers, and the weight and price requirements ruled out most full-featured strollers. We finally went with this Combi stroller (on sale) and we were beyond thrilled with it. It was tossed around planes and buses; it went up and down subway stairs; it went off-road on grassy hills; it went over cobblestones; it was rained on. LL loved sitting in it, and took two long naps in it. It met all of our requirements and then some. Fantastic.
Bottles: We packed enough bottles to last for a full day of eating. Bulky to pack, but light. It worked. We also bought one of those divided formula containers, where each compartments holds formula powder for one bottle. Extremely useful.
Time Change: We transitioned LL to the new time zone all at once, thanks to when he woke up on the day that we left. It worked fairly well. He took his two naps each day right on time, and we had no problem putting him down for bed each night. He was up a lot late at night (in the 1:00-6:00am range), but he was like that for several days before we left, too, so it was probably inevitable. Also, after months of unproductive teething, LL finally cut his first top tooth while we were gone (excellent timing, kiddo) which didn't help in the sleep department. How he transitions back to our normal time zone remains to be seen....
Overall, we were thrilled with the whole trip. Each day, LL took his morning nap at M's house, we were out of the house by 11am, and we returned around 6pm to feed him dinner and get him ready for bed. He did great being out all day, took an afternoon nap in his stroller, and loved being wheeled all over our college campus. He met our college friends for the first time, saw the dorm where S and I lived, and even met my old undergrad advisor, who is now Dean of one of the biggest institutes on campus but still took almost an hour out of her busy week to chat with us and to carry LL around. Each night, M stayed with LL at home and put him to bed while S and I went out, and even though he was with a babysitter, in a strange crib, in a strange room, after a long and exhausting day of being out in the world, he still did great. I cannot express how proud I am of him.
It was a bit surreal pushing a baby stroller around the old college campus, but that is probably just part of my denial that it has been 10 years since we graduated.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Infant Travel Issues
In early June (less than six weeks away!) we will be traveling cross-country for our college reunion. (Yes, S and I met in college. We actually met and became friends the very first week of freshman year. He asked me out early sophomore year, but I said no. Several months later, he asked again, and I caved in and said yes. Since we were friends for all of college, even before we were dating each other, we each know all of the other's college ex-boy/girlfriends. It's useful to have seen each other's dating history in person, because we both know that each other's past doesn't hold anyone at all interesting. For instance, S is totally confident that he's better than the guy I dated who's now an Ivy League law professor, since he remembers how that guy was kind of a jerk in college.)
Anyway, we'll be flying cross-country in a few weeks. The last time we traveled with LL was back in December, when he was roughly half as old as he is now. At that time, LL wasn't on much of a schedule yet, he was 100% breast fed, and he could sleep anywhere if we just popped him into a sling. We were staying with family, and we rarely left the house except to visit other family members, or for very short outings, by car, in between naps.
This trip is going to be very, very different. LL is older now, he's used to a set schedule of naps in his crib, and he's 100% bottle fed. While we do have a few friends in the area, we don't have any family members. We're going to be "out in the world" for much of the trip. The whole thing seems a lot more complicated.
We do have a few things working in our favor. One of my high school friends lives very close to my old campus, so we're staying with her, rather than in a hotel. And since she didn't go to college with us, and therefore won't be attending our reunion, she has agreed to babysit on a few of the evenings, so that S and I can go out with our college friends without needing to be home by LL's bedtime. She has also agreed to help us to round up some baby items (eg, a pack'n'play for LL to sleep in) so that we don't have to lug absolutely everything with us on the airplane. Still, there are several travel issues that I don't know to handle. Keep in mind that we're flying to a crowded major metro area, staying in a neighborhood that is a short commute away from the university, and spending our days mainly on a fairly urban (but wonderfully walkable) campus.
If anyone out there has experience with any of the above, I'd love to hear suggestions.
Anyway, we'll be flying cross-country in a few weeks. The last time we traveled with LL was back in December, when he was roughly half as old as he is now. At that time, LL wasn't on much of a schedule yet, he was 100% breast fed, and he could sleep anywhere if we just popped him into a sling. We were staying with family, and we rarely left the house except to visit other family members, or for very short outings, by car, in between naps.
This trip is going to be very, very different. LL is older now, he's used to a set schedule of naps in his crib, and he's 100% bottle fed. While we do have a few friends in the area, we don't have any family members. We're going to be "out in the world" for much of the trip. The whole thing seems a lot more complicated.
We do have a few things working in our favor. One of my high school friends lives very close to my old campus, so we're staying with her, rather than in a hotel. And since she didn't go to college with us, and therefore won't be attending our reunion, she has agreed to babysit on a few of the evenings, so that S and I can go out with our college friends without needing to be home by LL's bedtime. She has also agreed to help us to round up some baby items (eg, a pack'n'play for LL to sleep in) so that we don't have to lug absolutely everything with us on the airplane. Still, there are several travel issues that I don't know to handle. Keep in mind that we're flying to a crowded major metro area, staying in a neighborhood that is a short commute away from the university, and spending our days mainly on a fairly urban (but wonderfully walkable) campus.
- Last time we flew, LL nursed on take-off and landing, and slept the entire rest of the airplane ride. This time, none of that is likely to happen. We can make multiple bottles on the plane, but LL isn't really into the multiple-small-meals anymore, so I don't think that we'll be able to get him to eat during every pressure change. Does a pacifier work to relieve ear pressure, too? He also doesn't sleep as much anymore, and he gets antsy sitting on our laps for long stretches. How do you keep an 8-month-old from screaming on an airplane?
- How do you handle infant carseats and taxis? In my experience, lots of taxis don't have seat belts, and I've never looked for LATCH attachments.... How do you get a carseat secured in a taxi?
- If LL is in his infant car seat, then when we get where we're going, we can just put the carrier onto his stroller. But LL might have outgrown his infant seat by then. (He's getting really long.) But if he's in a convertible carseat instead, what do we do with it when we get out of the taxi? Lug it around the city all day?
- One possible carseat solution is to just leave the carseat behind and take public transportation everywhere, since this particular city has an excellent public transit system. But the city where we live right now has horrible public transit, so I've never navigated public transit with an infant, and I'm not sure what the protocol is. Am I correct in assuming that we can just hold LL on our laps on buses and subways? Any problem with lugging a stroller on public transit?
- LL is currently eating six bottles/day. We're hoping that he'll have dropped one of these by the time we go, but still... how many bottles do we pack? They're kind of bulky to put in a suitcase, no? But if we only bring a few, then we'll have to find somewhere to wash bottle parts during the day, when we're out of the house, and that seems awkward, too.
- Since LL started napping in his crib, we've never been "out" for an entire day. LL takes three naps/day, which keeps him happy and mellow. He's starting to occasionally skip his third nap, so he might have outgrown that one by the time we go, but we'll still want to make sure that he gets at least his two naps every day. What do we do to keep him on schedule? Stay home until both naps are done? Run out and back again between naps? Skip a nap and hope that he doesn't melt down too much? Cross our fingers that we'll get him to nap in his stroller, even though he's usually unwilling to nap if there's new stuff to see?
- We're facing a three-hour time change. LL is very very very used to his nap times and bedtimes. What do we do? I've seen a few suggestions, but I'm not sure if any of them work. Start transitioning him to the new time zone a few days before we leave? (Seems like it would be very tough.) Keep him up a lot that first day and try to transition him all at once? (Again, seems tough, because of the direction we're flying, and because of how very crabby he's likely to get.) Keep him on our home time zone, even though it will mean that he's waking and sleeping at odd times? This last one seems easiest, especially since we'll only be gone for four days, but I don't know if it works.
If anyone out there has experience with any of the above, I'd love to hear suggestions.
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