Flying alone with a 7.5 month old

I can now add “going to the bathroom on an airplane while simultaneously holding a baby” onto my mom-resume.  🙂

This past Thanksgiving, I flew out to Chicago with Karis to spend time with my family. Sam wasn’t able to come with me, so I was pretty anxious about traveling by myself.  There was so much Sam did the last time we traveled, it was hard to imagine doing everything by myself.

It ended up working out really well, however, and there were many things I was thankful for on the flights…

Alaska Airline lady:  We arrived at John Wayne airport in the morning. Sam parked so he could help us check in. I had one suitcase as well as the infant carrier/car seat to check in.  Last time we had taken the stroller and carrier through security and checked it right before boarding, but to reduce the amount of luggage I had to deal with, we just took the infant carrier this time and checked it in before security.  You can check it i for free.

We wanted to get a plastic bag to wrap the carrier in so it wouldn’t get dirty. When we asked, however, American Airlines said that they didn’t have the plastic bags anymore but that I could buy it from a different airline.  So I walked over to Alaska Airlines, asking a lady if there was a plastic bag I could buy. She said they had them but that travelers were supposed to get it only from their own airlines… but then she changed her mind and said, “Ah why not, I’ll give ya one.”

That was cool! Here’s the carrier with the plastic bag in it that the security peeps would package and tape up.

Trailing Sam:  Sam walked us all the way up to the security checkpoint.  And then it was goodbye. I just had the diaper bag and the ergo to put through security and I was carrying Karis.

One of the TSA guys told me that next time I could keep Karis in the ergo to walk through, which I noted to do on the flight back. Once we were through we turned back to say bye to Sam who was standing, watching and waving.

I started walking towards my gate with Karis, which was on the other end of the airport. But as I looked to my right, Sam was walking with us from the other side. Every once in a while, there would be a wall but then it would open up so you could see across… and there was Sam! So we walked the length of the airport “together,” waving to Daddy here and there until we reached our gate. 🙂

Hip Mom:  As soon as I got on the plane, a hip looking mom who was already seated with her three elementary/middle school-age kids greeted me. She asked how old Karis was and then pointed over to her daughter. “There’s your babysitter,” she said. “If you ever need to go to the bathroom, just let us know.”

That was so nice because that was one of my biggest fears. How did people traveling alone with kids go to the bathroom if they had an emergency?

I thanked her and the hip mom said, “No worries. It’s the mom code. I’ve traveled a lot with these three kids, so I know.”

“Wow, three kids!” I said.

“Well, 4, actually, if you count my husband.”

Haha.

Canadians:  When booking my flight, there were only middle seats available, so I was hoping that I would sit next to someone who wouldn’t mind switching seats with me so I could have the window. I ended up sitting next to a dad of a 3 year old and 11 month old, and a young grandma who was flying to visit her grandkids.

And they were both Canadian! At one point, when I was sort of dozing off with Karis, I heard them chatting about hockey. They seemed very happy to run into another fellow Canadian. They were very friendly and understanding of Karis when she went into their space. Ohhhh Canada….

One of the first things the grandma said was that she would be more than happy to hold Karis if I ever had to go to the bathroom. How cool, I thought. Two people addressed my fear before we even took off!

Naps:  Karis was pretty sleepy during take-off but couldn’t/wouldn’t fall asleep on my lap. That was the only time she was starting to get fussy, although thankfully she never cried. As soon as the seatbelt sign was off, I got up and rocked her to sleep. And she slept for 1.5 hrs, which was great and even gave me a chance to doze off a little.

Conquering fears: When I got up to rock her, I ended up stepping into the bathroom because the flight attendants were trying to pass by with their drink cart. When I got into the bathroom, however, I felt the urge. 🙂 I contemplated going back to the grandma to ask her to hold Karis, but in that moment, I was like – eh! and just went to the bathroom while holding Karis in one hand. And… it was totally not bad. Haha. It was quite easy actually! So much for my fear. (I did have the Grandma hold Karis later on in the flight while I went to the bathroom again.)

Traveling Breast Friend: I knew I would need to feed Karis during the flight so I bought a traveling breast friend nursing pillow. Here’s what it looked like out of the package.

You needed to blow it up and I was a bit skeptical at first how easy and convenient it would be – especially since my lung capacity is pretty weak. 

But it was genuinely really easy – I was surprised how quickly it inflated – maybe 11-12 breaths and it was done. Even more surprising was how quickly it deflated! Very convenient for traveling.

Here it is with the cover.

I used it on the plane, although it was a bit tricky blowing it up, while holding Karis, and then trying to put it around my waist and put Karis on top of it.  Good thing the dad sitting next to me was so cool with me bumping into his personal space and also with Karis resting her feet on his arms while nursing.

Ipad: To help me entertain Karis in a cramped airplane space, I used the Ipad to show her home videos and the Nick Jr. Kid’s TV show “Yo Gabba Gabba” that I bought off of itunes.  It was definitely a lifesaver for the flight back home to Cali when she was much more squirmy for the last hour of the flight. But there were only certain videos or parts of videos that held her attention.  For instance, she only really liked the first one minute introduction to Yo Gabba Gabba before she would lose interest and start to get squirmy. So I played the beginning over and over again. Basically this was stuck in my head after the flight for a long time: “Yo gabba gabba, yo gabba gabba, yo gabba gabba.. yeah!!!!!”

Flight back home: My dad dropped me off at the airport and he was holding Karis and standing by his car, while I ran to the outside check in to check in my suitcase and carrier. But the traffic woman told my dad to come to where I was and that she would watch his car. That was very cool because they seemed pretty strict about making sure there was no curbside waiting.

Here’s our car with the lady!

Here’s Dad standing under heated lamps, while I checked in my stuff.

Then when I got in, the security line was long.

But then I got pulled out by another working who said I could go to the “family line” which basically had no waiting!

So all in all – very successful flying trip and lots of things to be thankful for!

Karis was never cried and took 1.5 hr naps on both flights. But it definitely was A LOT of work, especially on the flight back home. Karis fell asleep in the ergo while I was boarding the plane, so she was awake for more of the time during the actual flight.  During the last hour and a half of the flight – she was such a squirmy worm, spinning round and round in my arms. I went back and forth from trying to entertain her with toys, and then switching to the ipad, and going to the bathroom to do “mirror-time” etc.

You definitely have to be on your a-game when traveling alone with an infant and can’t relax… but…I would do it again at the drop of a hat. It was so worth it to see and spend time with my family. I am so happy and thankful I was able to go.

Hope you all had a happy thanksgiving! When I get a chance, I’ll post about the actual trip!

Why we will baby proof the house soon

So no crawling yet…but Sam and I will need to do some serious baby proofing around the house soon.

For the past few weeks, Karis has been working on her crawling position. During tummy time, instead of just pushing up on her arms and rolling around, she’s started to stick her little booty up in the air for a wobbly few seconds.

She’s also quite good at sitting up on her own and somehow gravitates to wires and electric cords around the house.

And despite the cloth diaper booty and the chunky thighs, she remains quite flexible.

She rolls and squirms a lot. Even during bath time.

This is what she does when we try to change her diaper. There’s been a lot of “Karis… eeeek! Ahhhh!.. no! stay!” when trying to change a very sticky, poopy diaper.

Sometimes I wonder if she secretly crawls when we’re not looking, because somehow she ends up all over the place with her rolling, stretching and spinning. And toys are no match for her now.

She sees.

She grabs.

She conquers.

Let’s keep it up here for now.

She frequently tries to stand up by climbing up as far as she can on couches, table legs, laundry racks…Video #1

Her fine motor skills seem to be developing quite well. She notices the small things and try to touch and pick at them.

And touch and feel books have been very fun. I didn’t think wee babies would really get it, but they do! She actually touches and feels them! Video #2:

I don’t think she really knows what clapping is yet, but she likes to do it. Watch her take turns clapping with daddy. Video #3:

She still doesn’t have any teeth! But she still likes to gnaw on things.

Here she is with her teething toy that vibrates if you bite down on the star corners. Video #4

She hasn’t stuck her legs through the crib walls again because we’ve put a blanket there.

In the mornings right after she wakes up, I sometimes crawl in and peek through the crib sides. She observes…and then when I reach her…

she always gives me the best morning smile!

So conclusion? We need to baby proof! Plus, she will be spending more time at home since this Friday was our last day at daycare. But more on that on another time. 🙂

Our little, hairless, rapidly developing, cutie pie!

Steak, lobster and cheesecake – Karis begins solid foods

Steak, lobster and cheesecake … has not yet made it to Karis’ dinner menu yet… but she has been eating solids for the past month.  At 6 months, our pediatrician said that we could begin solids, starting with rice cereal, then green veggies, orange veggies, and then fruit – waiting 3-4 days after each new food to make sure that there’s no allergic reaction.

I researched online and found that you really didn’t have to start with rice cereal (which is a pretty popular way to start as it is easy to digest, generally not likely to trigger an allergic reaction, and provides the iron that babies start to need around this age). And it really didn’t seem to matter whether or not you followed the green-orange veggie to fruit sequence, but we just went this route anyway.

First the rice cereal.

It was very, very light flaky and powdery.  We mixed with breast milk to make a very soupy mush.

I think a part of me was expecting Karis to LOVE solid foods – I mean she’s been exclusively living off of breast milk for 6 months. How has she survived on just milk from me? Isn’t she starving for some deliciously, tasty real food?

But she wasn’t. 🙂 The very first time we gave her rice cereal, she was cautiously curious as the spoon was going into her mouth…

and then she…cringed…. like – wut – is – this??

And that’s the same face she’d make every time we tried something new.

She did pretty well with rice cereal, but sometimes she would get tired of having to eat from a spoon and check out after a few bites, leaning back and shouting/whining – No mas!

It was also initially challenging because she would love to grab the spoon. And this little girl gots her some serious grip. Once she latched on, it was really hard to pry off her wee fingers from the spoon, and food would end up all over the place.

Even if she didn’t grab the spoon, food would still pretty much end up everywhere because either her tongue would get in the way or she’d huff and puff and the food would splatter off the spoon (we made things initially very watery). We’d only really get in a few small baby bites here and there for practice.

She definitely eats the best when we distract her with music or toys or parental silliness (I admit there have been some oppa gangnam style dancing)… or when someone models how to be spoon-fed, like the newly engaged Yale and Sonya. 🙂

Here she is watching a home video on the ipad. You can tell by the glazed look in her eyes.  The beginnings of dinner and a movie!

But things have been improving. Tonight, she was gobbling up her food! (menu: carrots and oatmeal). It was just me and Karis but I didn’t have to put on a show. She was actually leaning forward with her mouth open to eat. And she’s learned not to grab the spoon too much.

So far, here is what we’ve given her, in order:  rice cereal, green peas, green beans, sweet potato, winter squash, oatmeal, avocados, and carrots.  Out of these she likes the green beans, sweet potato and carrots the best, after rice and oatmeal cereal since that’s mixed with a lot with breast milk, and breast milk is still her all-time fav. 🙂

We’ve been pureeing our own baby food with the Baby Bullet we got as a baby shower gift.

Here’s the routine…

I usually boil the food.

Stick it in the blender with some water.

And voila! Pureed baby food. Very easy peas.

Speaking of peas, for any new parents, the peas were initially hard to eat because the shells don’t puree all the way very well. Karis would spit out some of the bits and pieces of the shell as she was trying to mush the food around in her mouth. So maybe not the best food to start off with. I read the same thing can happen with green beans, but I blanched them in cold water after boiling them and they seemed to puree well.

For the sweet potato and winter squash (not quite sure what kind of squash this is), I would pop it in the oven for an hour, then spoon out the insides into the blender…water…blend… done!

 

The magic bullet system comes with trays to freeze leftover food, but I also ordered a food ice tray from amazon that’s been working really well to freeze one-ounce servings of the food.

I freeze them in here…

Then I can pop them out into a ziplock bag after they are frozen, and bring down at night whatever food I want to feed Karis the next day.  Very convenient.

So there you have it. The world of solid food has begun.

Oh! There’s just one more thing… Solid food = real human poop!!

Since we’re still cloth diapering, I was a bit scared for this new stage in life. Since breastmilk poop is completely water soluable, washing diapers have been very easy so far since you truly don’t have to do anything to the diapers – you can just toss everything into the wash and it all comes out clean.

No more, now that solids have come into the mix. To prepare, I got some disposable liners.

And these have been working pretty well! You can just toss the liner and poop into the toilet and for the most part keeps the diaper very clean.

We also tried buying and installing a diaper spray. It’s supposed to easily attach to your toilet and you can spray the diaper over the toilet to get out those messy, mushy poops.

But it didn’t fit our toilet so we had to return it. Instead we got a shower head spray thing. I’ve tried it a couple times but the pressure isn’t that strong so it’s not THAT great. But I think it’ll come in handy here and there.

Also, tried out a different diaper detergent, Rockin’ Green. Pretty good. Plus, the bag is full of awesomeness. 🙂

So.. cloth diapering has still been a go even with real poop! 🙂

Til next time, happy eating!