First Flight Jitters

I am going to be honest with our experience (really my own personal anxiety) with our little sailor's first plane ride when he was 4 months old.  My husband's oldest niece was graduating from high school and we decided to make the trip from IL to GA for the momentous occasion.  I did probably what most new moms do- read a ton of articles to prepare for upcoming flight and trip.  Lesson learned- take each moment, first-time experience, etc as it comes.  I never admitted this to my husband before, but he was right. 

When we were expecting baby D I signed us up for EVERY birth prep, nursing, you name it class that was offered in our area.  The first and last class we attended was an informational session about SIDS.  Ok, yes, I know SIDS is real and very serious, but my anxiety was through the roof and I think that was the last night I ever slept a full night's sleep.  (You can read more about SIDS here:  http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/sids.html)  From that night on, my husband suggested "we wing it" and by that he meant take every moment of labor, delivery, and first-time parenting moments by the seat of our parents.  I figured, what the heck; it was time for me to break away from my need to plan everything out in advance. 

With the exception of an emergency C-section, we were 2 extremely lucky first-time parents.  Everything seemed to go seamless and chaos-free.  So I am not sure why I decided to try and plan the perfect first flight for D.  This little guy is just like daddy; a go-with-the-flow kinda boy!

I planned everything from when to nurse him before leaving the house to how many pumped bottles we would need to extra clothes to where to eat at the airport to how to respond to gawkers on-board if I needed to nurse the little sailor; if it could be planned, it was planned.  The one aspect of flying that made me most anxious was ear pain D could experience, so it prompted me to plan a little more so we wouldn't disturb any other travelers. 

The moment we boarded and found our seats, I nervously asked the flight attendants to pass out pre-packaged baggies I made the night before to everyone in-flight.  She agreeably took the bag and started handing out disposable earplugs and a poem to accompany them as my husband fed our pleasant first-time flyer.  Before the plane backed out, baby D was snoring on my shoulder, but most importantly, each passenger was prepared for any ear-piecing screams, but I was still anticipating the screaming baby with us. 

Dressed for his first flight and representing daddy, he slept peacefully 2+ hours until we landed in Georgia.  As we exited the plane, several travelers thanked my husband for his service and expressed their appreciation of the on-board (but unnecessary) goody bag.  My over-planning fell by the wayside, thankfully, but I forgot to enjoy our first flight!  My husband's "wing-it" attitude won again!   

Picture on bottom right by:  Erin Hodge Photography.