Traveling with Baby!

So this past week I embarked on my first trip solo with Jack.  We set off to my visit my grandmother and grandfather and introduce Jack to his cousins and great aunts and great uncles. I was terrified to be perfectly frank. 

Being me I procrastinated until Sunday to start looking for tips etc, and to pack.  Did I mention that Sunday was my fourth 10 hour shift in a row? Yep add on to that Jack was sent home from daycare on Thursday with his another cold/fever and you have a mommy on the verge of a breakdown.

Luckily one of my coworkers and friends was working in the stepdown unit with me and she has traveled much farther with her young children, to Canada.  So I picked up some handy tips from her and was feeling pretty good again.  Then I googled traveling with infant and got a little scared.  The information out there ranged from the extreme of don’t do it ever to travel and be proud, babied cry etc.  I went home from work, and finished packing by about 10pm and got ready to get up at 4 am.

So up I got getting ready and the car packed before waking up Jack.  I got him dressed and we told Daddy bye and headed off.  Our trip got off to less than a stellar start with a minor traffic accident on the way to the airport.  I was shaken but neither of us were hurt and I believed the car to be driveable.  So I get unloaded at the airport.  I manage to juggle the luggage, the carryons, the stroller, the carseat, and the baby.  Still shaken I attempt to maneuver my way into the airport by myself.  I get part of the way there and lose the luggage for like the fifth time.  A nice stranger came up to me and said he would help me get my bags to the counter.  I could not thank him again.  He said no problem, he and his wife had traveled with an infant before.  I thought to myself, man this trip is looking up!  Then as I was checking in as people passed me I started to hear people say things such as God hope he’s not on our flight. I was like really?  He’s still asleep in his carseat.  I tried to ignore it but after hearing it close to 2 dozen times I got a little paranoid I mean up to this point he hadn’t even let a peep out yet.

Then the travel gods smiled on me.  There was another mom traveling solo with a 5 month old little boy.  Forget that he was twice the size of Jack I was just excited that I wasn’t a pariah alone.  We ended up sharing a three seat.  The flight attendant said well if someone wants to sit here one of you will have to move.  I asked him if he really thought someone would want to sit with us and he laughingly said no.

Jack did pretty good sleeping until landing in Houston.  I never thought I would regret the fact that Jack didn’t take a pacifier.  Then came the landing in Houston where I couldn’t get him to swallow or suck enough to pop his ears.  All of a sudden here was the baby that everyone worried about having.  He was miserable, screaming and carrying on.  Then all of a sudden you could tell his ears had popped and he let out the hugest smile. The mom sitting next to me said that even though there were bumps that she would consider my first trip a success.  Her praise made me feel so much better about embarking on the journey alone. 

There would be more ups and downs on the trip but no matter what I knew that it would be ok.  Some people would always prejudge moms traveling with babies, and some people would always be there with an encouraging word.