Frequent Flyer

Ian took a lot of flights in-utero... Chicago, Cincinnati (x4), Dayton, Louisville, Omaha, San Diego, & Hawaii, but he took his first "live" flight on March 14th to Omaha to visit Dede and Pops. John planned to be in Arizona for the Rockies Spring Training that weekend so it made sense for Ian and I to break away too, plus the icing on the cake is that we'd be there for my mom's birthday on March 16th!

Not going to lie, I was a little apprehensive about traveling alone and navigating the airport with all the crap you have to tote with a kid... carseat, carseat base, breast pump, etc. God bless Southwest because I knew I had to check everything if I had a chance of making it. I got advice on traveling with a newborn from a facebook group of new mom's and it definitely helped. Per their suggestions I decided to leave the stroller at home since I was going to be alone (breaking a stroller down at the end of the gate while holding an infant is just another thing to deal with) and strap the boy in the baby Bjorn to get through security and to the gate. I also ended up buying this carseat travel bag (per the suggestion of other mom's) so I could check the seat and base without worrying it was going to be destroyed.  Uncle Bacon was nice enough to take us to the airport and drop us right off at the door for curbside check-in so I was able to avoid lugging the bag and the carseat bag to check-in.

And we were off! Ian in the Bjorn we made our way through security. TSA does allow you to bring breast milk through - shocking, I know - so "Bessie" came prepared with enough to get us through a day just to make sure we had it covered. Go big or go home. Truthfully, I was preparing for the worst. He had fallen asleep in the Bjorn by the time I made it to the gate. I proceeded to grab a sandwich for lunch with him still strapped on me and for sure dropped crumbs all over him. Whoops. Minutes after finishing lunch we were boarding.  An old co-worker of mine gave me the advice that when you travel with children just make friends with the people seated around you by offering to buy them all a drink on the flight if the baby starts to wail. Genius. Thankfully, I didn't even have to go there. Little man did awesome. He continued to sleep for the first half of the flight and then when he woke up I was able to give him a bottle until we landed (another reason I think the traditional method of b'feeding not working out might be a blessing in disguise because I would not have liked being that person trying to nurse on a plane. Yeah, would have been super uncomfortable). The flight to Omaha is a quick hour... you're up and down which was perfect for our first flight. When we were getting off the plane the people in the row behind me said "Wow, I didn't even know there was a baby on this flight." Ah, I felt so successful.

My mom was able to meet us at baggage claim to get the bags. That was the hardest part - lugging all the stuff with baby in tow. Now my mom and I getting the car-seat in my mom's car was harder than the flight itself... pretty sure we would have gotten a fail from the fire department.

More to come on the visit with my parents... and our not ideal return to the airport.