First flight

I am so behind on things! Saturday morning Delanah experienced her first flight! The day started out with a twist...I was calm and Dave was stressed! Delanah was happy as a clam in the Ergo and actually fell asleep before we boarded :) Security was funny. I didn't have to take her out of the pack, but I was questioned about any food I might have had for her. I was questioned several times, each question getting more detailed...apparently they don't get many breastfeeding moms coming through because he couldn't believe I didn't have a bottle, formula or jar of food for her. Honestly "sir" (I swear he was like 22), I know what you're asking me, but no matter how many times you ask it, the answer is still no! I don't have any food! Geez! We must have been a sight walking through the airport. Delanah in her Ergo, my new Ergo backpack hooked on while I pushed a stroller that contained a camera in the bottom storage and a bag in the seat and Dave with his computer bag and holding our sandwiches....I wish I would have taken a pic! Our $10 travel stroller was a great buy and worked well for luggage moving through the airport (we did use the stroller in LAX for Delanah), but it is too short for Dave to push so it was all me!
On the plane Delanah was heck bent on trying to touch everything, and I was heck bent on her not! I slipped her into her baby b'air vest (which I connect to my seat belt so she is strapped in as well) and before we pulled away from the gate she was hungry so I slipped on my cover and nursed her. She nurse herself to sleep before we took off so I forced her paci in her mouth as we were barreling down the runway. Seriously, she was clamping her mouth shut so I couldn't gently put it in, this was shoved in! I just wanted to make sure the pressure changes didn't bother her. I also managed to slip the loop of her vest through my belt before we took off. You see, in other countries babies are allowed to be strapped in with their vest for take of and landing, the FAA though apparently feels that it's not okay to secure babies in while barreling down the asphalt. Well, when is the last time you've seen someone ask a mom to remove her nursing cover and baby so a lap can get looked at? Devious, yes, but my baby was secured!
She slept for an hour, yay!, but I was sitting awkwardly and my bum was falling asleep so I shifted and she woke up. Then it was a game of her trying (an succeeding) to touch all parts of the germ infested plane and mom and dad trying to disinfect her hands before they went into her mouth...fun game! She talked for a little bit, played with some toys and then eased her mommas mind and decided to demonstrate that she wasn't constipated from the sweet potato :) It was many minutes of toots and some foosh and me praying that we were going to land soon so I wouldn't have to try changing her in the airplane bathroom! She got hungry very soon after that, and then the seat belt sign came on again...thank goodness! With the sign on I had some guilt alleviated about not getting up to change her. I mean, who am I to go against the rules! Oh wait...the vest thing....well, who am I to go against the seat belt sign?! Landing went well and Dave ran block for us so we could safely leave our row without bags raining down. No one mentioned how good she was :(, but there was an 11 month old traveling with just his mom a few rows up that let out periodic screams so I think everyone was focusing on him. I spoke with the mom in Denver (it's a new thing I do, I am drawn towards other moms and strike up conversations), I'm just glad they had a good flight, must be hard to do this alone!
Delanah and I rushed to the loo in the terminal and oh my foosh!!!!! She decimated her little g, got a little bit on her onesie and there was almost no place for me to touch without getting poop on me. Sigh!!!! She felt better though! Down in baggage claim Dave changed her while I got to use the loo and all was good! You know, that's a perk of traveling with a child that hadn't occurred to me...it takes so long to get down to baggage claim that by the time you get there, your bags have already arrived! No waiting around for us!
We survived our first flight! I WAY over packed, but this was one of the reasons we took this trip, to figure out how to do things on the flights. There are some things I'd like to refine for the trip home, but I think we have a good idea on how to make things work :)