Traveling one on one with an infant or toddler by oneself is challenging at times but quite manageable. However, traveling by oneself with two children (in this case a one month old and a two year old) is completely overwhelming and results in the sudden onset of psychosis and insanity!
Before Brendan was born Stephen and I made plans to travel east to visit family. The plan was for the four of us to fly to Florida together to visit Stephen's family for a week and then for Stephen to return home for work and for me and the boys to continue on to NH for a 10 day visit with my family. I realized that I would have lots more help with the boys in NH than at home where Stephen would be working. It also sounded wonderful to have 10 days with my family. I then figured I would fly back to Crescent City with the boys by myself. Fortunately my father offered to fly back with me which I thought was a wonderfully generous offer. Now, after flying here from Florida alone with these two munchkins I realize it's the most incredible thing EVER! Here's a brief synopsis of my trip from Florida to NH...
I'll start by saying that overall I felt the trip went reasonably well but I think I reached my limits on what I am humanly capable of doing (this is a lot for me to say... after all I've hiked to the summit of Mt. Kilamanjaro, completed a half-ironman and survived medical school and residency - how hard could it really be to travel by myself with two small children for 4.5 hours?).
I had booked Stephen's return flight and my flight for the same time so that he could help us get our luggage checked and on to security. We arrived at Orlando International Airport 2.5 hours before my flight and proceeded to haul our luggage into the terminal. I remember the days when I would travel with a small carry on. Oh how I miss those days! We had three suitcases, two car seats, two carry-on backpacks, Ian's Elmo bag and a stroller. Oh yeah - don't forget the two children (that was my mantra during the trip... "Don't forget the children... Don't forget the children.." We had a painfully long wait to check our baggage but avoided any meltdowns and headed on to security screening. Stephen's flight took off from a different terminal so at this point we said our goodbyes and I was on my own with the munchkins. The line moved quickly and with the help of some passengers and security agents we made it through screening unscathed. I was disappointed to learn however that the restrictions on traveling through security with an infant have changed since when Ian was born. Previously they would allow me to walk through the metal detector with Ian attached to my chest in my cloth wrap. However, now they have decided that terrorists must come in the form of mothers with very small infants on their chests because they required me to take him out of the wrap and either put the wrap through the metal detector or get a full body search. Really now! This level screening reminded me of the days immediately after September 11th when I flew to Washington, DC and they confiscated my tweezers. Really now, is a terrorist going to hold up a plane with a set of tweezers!?! Anyway, I digress.
Since we had more than an hour until our departure I planned to get Ian and myself some breakfast and nurse Brendan. This all went well and with full bellies we headed towards our gate. The flight was on time but we had quite some time to spare so we headed to the bathroom for diaper changes. This is when I made my cruital mistake... Ian was restless and didn't want to get back in his stroller so, knowing that he was going to buckled in his carseat for the next 2+ hours, I agreed that he could push the stroller back to the gate. I also felt badly for Brendan who had been stuck in the wrap on my chest for the past hour and a half so I didn't put him back in but just held him in my arms. So we headed out of the bathroom, Ian pushing his stroller erratically down the terminal as I tried to keep him from bashing in to unsuspecting travelers with my free hand. When we arrived at the gate I was dismayed to see that they had already started boarding the plane and that my boarding group had already been called. Usually I wouldn't have worried however this flight did not have assigned seats and I knew I needed to get two seats together in the front of the plane. So, with Ian pushing the stroller and Brendan in my arms we ran to the gate and headed down the jetway. At this point things started to melt down. Ian was racing ahead of me, bashing the stroller into other passengers. Brendan started to cry and I realized that my carefully laid plans to calmly wheel Ian in his stroller to the door of the plane with Brendan peacefully asleep in the wrap were thrown out the window. As we neared the door of the airplane I managed to get Brendan back in the wrap which made him cry louder and spit the binky high into the air before it landed on the ground. Next I went to fold Ian's stroller so it could be gate checked and ran into an unanticipated glitch. Ian didn't realize that he was going to have to part with his "super special airport stroller" in order to get on the plane. He proceeded to melt down, crying loudly and demanding that he have his stroller back. I had no option but to press on. So, with Brendan crying in my arms and Ian walking down the aisle screaming, "STROLLER! WANT STROLLER!" at the top of his lungs we found the first available seats and sat down.
Needless to say the passengers who had selected seats around me were slightly less than excited about my arrival. Most however were kind enough to look the other way and keep their annoyance to themselves. The woman who was sitting directly in front of me however was horrible. Before I even sat down she started huffing and puffing, loudly complaining about how horrible it was that she was sitting in front of me. She moaned and carried on to such a degree that I stood up and loudly informed her that she should look for another seat while she had the chance and she did! And, much to my delight, within minutes of her moving her seat (and probably less than five minutes from when we boarded the plane), both boys were quiet and happy and remained so for the entire 2.5 hours on the plane. Ha! I showed her - cranky old witch :)
We were scheduled to have a 25 minute layover in Baltimore. I knew this when I booked the flight but decided to go for it - knowing that there were several later flights to Manchester if I didn't make mine. However it meant that I had to break the most important rule of flying with children... NEVER feel like you are in a rush. I knew that we needed to get off the plane quickly and head to our next gate because the plane would likely already be mostly boarded. So when we touched down in Baltimore I gathered up the two kids, backpack, Elmo bag, Froggy blanket and reunited stroller and rushed down the jetway to the terminal. I had hoped that our next flight would be flying out of an adjacent gate but no such luck. It was in an entirely different terminal. So off we went, as fast as we could go. When we arrived at the next gate (which involved going down an elevator) I was relieved to see that the plane hadn't even arrived yet which meant - YEAH! I was going to get a chance to go to the bathroom. I looked around and was disgruntled to find the bathroom was at the top of the escalators. Argh! There was NO WAY I was going to let Ian out of the stroller again before boarding the plane so we headed back to the elevator and up we went to the bathroom. The disabled stall was occupied so I crammed myself, the stroller and all of our gear into a regular stall and finally had a chance to pee. Stephen had asked me before I left how I would go to the bathroom and I simply stated that I wouldn't go. Sounded simple enough however with nursing I find I develop an insatiable thirst - something akin to what it must feel like to be stranded in the midst of the Sahara desert for days without water. So I ended up drinking more than I had planned and actually did have to go pretty badly. So having time to go to the restroom was a huge relief!
We then headed back down the elevator to our gate and I sat down to breathe. As I was sitting there I started looking for my i-phone because I wanted to call my parents to inform them that I would make my second flight but... OH NO! My phone was gone. The last time I had seen it was before we landed on the previous flight. Now what? Not wanting to trudge back to the other terminal to look for it I asked the representative at the counter if she could call over to ask if an i-phone was found. She did so and, to my great relief, it had been found and I was welcome to go retrieve it. So, up the elevator we went again, over to Terminal B, retrieved my phone, back to Terminal A, down the elevator and back to our gate. And, lo and behold we were starting to board. This time I was prepared. Brendan was strapped to my chest and sound asleep, Ian was buckled in the stroller and had undergone extensive coaching on the previous flight about how he would leave his stroller at the door and be reunited with it once again when we landed in NH. We boarded the plane without incident and I let out a huge sigh of relief. One more hour until I met the reinforcements!
Thankfully this flight was also uneventful both boys were quiet and calm. The only thing to note was that Brendan was kind to wait until we were 10 minutes from touching down before going poo. I appreciated this because I had no way to change him during the flight. Unfortunately however, perhaps because he waited so long, it was rather voluminous and when I lifted him to deplane I had a large soiled area on my jeans. Fortunately my Mom was steps away so we wandered out to meet her - Ian walking beside me and Brendan suspended by his torso in front of me in an attempt to avoid further contamination! I didn't even stop to hug my Mom... I simply deposited Ian with her and headed immediately to the first bathroom I could find to decontaminate my little one and myself. Once we were cleaned up we headed to baggage claim where we retrieved our 18,000 pounds of luggage which we somehow managed to get to the car. One hour later we were in my parents home and I went to take a nap! I am so incredibly grateful that my father was going to fly back to Crescent City with us. Now I understand why families with young children keep their vacations close to home.
No comments:
Post a Comment