Tips for traveling with an infant

1) Don't do it.

Just kidding. Sort of. Our trip to CA was fine. Patrick did great on the way out there. He stuck to out MI time pretty good. It was nice for me because I could put him to bed pretty early and still have some of the evening to visit and relax. However when he was up at 5am for the day, that was a little rough! I opted out of a lot of excursions my mom and aunt took. It's just too hard to be gone all day with a baby. Worrying about when/where he'll eat, will he get enough sleep, be comfortable enough etc. The list goes on. I did venture out to my grandmas apartment one day. And we did go shopping one day. Other than that I basically hung out at my aunts house with him. The trip home was an entirely different story however. We left Thursday at 9 am from my aunts house. We had a shuttle come get us because we didn't rent a car. Got to the airport around 10 and went right through security. The line was short and we didn't want to risk it by waiting. Our flight left at 11:50 but I would rather go through security in an organized fashion rather than try to rush! Everyone is super helpful when you have a baby though. Makes it a little less stressful!!! We get back to the gate to find out our flight is delayed to 1:45. UGH. So we wait. Then they decide we can board at 12:45. So we load up our stuff and get on. Patrick is crying and we're just trying to get to our seats. I nurse him and he goes right to sleep. The pilot says we're leaving at 1:10. At 1:10 he says we're delayed an hour. At 2:00 he says we're delayed another hour. At 2:30 they tell us we can get off the plane if we want. Then they change their mind. At 3:00 they tell us we have to get off the plane. So we load up again and get off. At 3:15 they re-board. We get settled and push back from the gate (wahoo!) Only to end up on the runway for another few minutes while they figure out what the weight of the plane is. We finally take off around 3:45. We're supposed to get in around 7:00PT/9:00CT which means we'll have missed our flight. And of course there are no other flights out of Minneapolis to Kalamazoo that night. But the agent told us that most flights have been delayed due to the weather and so maybe ours was too. We get land and de-plane. They have printed boarding passes for flights on Friday because of course our flight has left already. It actually left on time. The next flight we can get on is 7:50 on Friday night. So my mom talks to a very nice gate agent and he re-books us on a 7am flight to Midway. At least then we can rent a car and get home! So by the time this is all done it;s 10. Patrick is hungry again and so are we. We found a restaurant in the airport that has decided to stay open later than normal because of all the delays! So nice!! I go feed Patrick in the family room (a wonderful room for nursing mothers!!) and my mom got us a table. He fell asleep and we got some food. There's no hotel attached to the airport so the gate agent suggested we sleep in the family room since we'd have to be back at the airport by 6 (and could also avoid going through security again!) So we did. They offer small mattresses to passengers so we got a few of those and hunkered down in the family room with a few other people. Of course I couldn't sleep. Worried about my baby and our stuff and not sleeping on a real bed made for a long night!! Finally 6am rolled around and we headed for the gate. Got on the plane and took off for Midway. My wonderful husband met us there and took us home. I was worried about either of us driving since we basically got no sleep. We walked in the door at home sometime after noon ET (9am PT), 24 hours after we'd left my aunts. The.longest.day.ever!!! But I must say, Patrick did really good. He hardly cried and put up with everything so well. I couldn't ask for a better baby!!! It made it a little easier on all of us!!

Despite the travel issues, the trip was fun and I enjoyed visiting with my aunt and grandma. I can say, however that I don't know if we'll be traveling again anytime soon!! I think I'll enjoy home for now!!