Hey all :), welcome to my blog post this week! Yea, the last time I did this was about 3 weeks ago. I have had a few posts since I started this, so before you come for me to say : “Girl, why didn’t you give us something to read for some weeks now?”, ask yourself, have you read all the ones I’ve put out there yet?😂
On a serious note though, I just thought blogging about something every week may not feasible if I want be putting out good content. There should be time to reflect and recharge. Don’t you think?
Anyway, let’s get right into today’s blog post. I got another opportunity to travel alone with my toddler this weekend. It was a totally different experience from the time I travelled with her at 8 months. As a result, I thought it will be great to compare both experiences.
First of all, let me say traveling alone with an infant isn’t a joke. Not sure how people make it look so easy, but it’s not. Around April/May of 2019, our child was 8 months at the time and I was interested in taking a trip to Atlanta to see some of my family friends. My husband had to travel for work and wasn’t going to be available to look after her, so I decided to take her with me. He drove us to the airport and the journey started.
At that age, I could still use a baby carrier wrap for her. I had a back pack that was literally her diaper bag. In that bag, I had Diapers, Desitin cream to prevent diaper rash, Feeding bottles, Formula and Gerber Cereals. I made sure my box was checked in so I won’t have deal with any hand luggage. All I wanted to have on me was my child and the Diaper bag. Passing through security, I had to go through the usual procedures: taking off my shoes, taking out the things in the diaper bag especially because they had to examine the formula to be sure it is what I say it is. Lol!
Getting on the plane required another level of patience. Infants get cranky for various reasons. It could be that they are hungry, they want to sleep or they just want to have the freedom of crawling anywhere they want to without being restricted. Of course, if the reason is because they are hungry, that’s a problem that can be fixed on a flight. If wanting to sleep is the reason, one can also try to fix that on the plane. I say ‘try’ because, the baby may need to you to stand up and move around. The baby may be used to having to sleep while you sit on a rocking chair. These are things that can be difficult to do on an air flight. If the reason is that they just want the freedom to crawl anywhere and generally just be active, that’s also difficult to handle on a flight. So basically, you are stuck with doing what you can with what you have. The good thing though is almost everyone, if not all understand exactly what you are going through. So when the baby is crying loud and you are thinking of how you can control the situation so she doesn’t disturb other passengers, most people will let you know they understand it’s not easy. Fortunately for me, I got that understanding and support from those that were sitting close to me. Times she cried and I was sure it wasn’t hunger, I had to get up a couple of times and walk down the aisle to soothe her. It worked for the most part. We just had to take one plane so it wasn’t that stressful.
Fast forward to this weekend, my baby girl is all grown! I decided I wanted to visit my Brother and his family in Philadelphia and take her with me. I considered taking a stroller this time around because I obviously can’t be carrying her like I did in my previous trip. Also I wanted to ensure I won’t be chasing her around the airport just incase she thinks we are at the airport for some fun and games. I changed my mind about the stroller and decided we can do without it. Glad it worked out. She was more excited than me to get into the first plane that took us from Kirksville (where I live) to St. Louis. In fact she slept throughout the flight! Something I still find difficult to do! Lol! Like how do people sleep on a plane that’s up in the air😂 with turbulence every once in while??? That first flight was about an hour. We then took another plane from St. Louis to Philadelphia. We had about an hour and a half lay over. I had to keep my toddler engaged while we wait. Took her to a restaurant where we both sat and ate. We also used that to relax while we were waiting to board our next flight.
It was almost time to board the next plane, so we had to leave the restaurant and head on to the gate. We got to the gate and had to wait a little to start boarding. Through this next flight, she was fully awake but just chatty. There was no crankiness. I kept her mouth busy with cookies, milk and water. It was a smooth flight and I’m grateful to God we arrived safely.
One thing I’ve learnt is that with kids, it really gets easier as they grow older and more independent. I’m definitely looking forward to more trips with my baby girl!❤️❤️❤️
I hope you all have a great week!
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