It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but before Elias goes and turns four months (already!) on us, I wanted to post a few more thoughts about our trip west. Traveling with a baby was both hellish (flight there) and not nearly as bad as I feared (flight back). I think the key is to either fly during the day so that your baby is not insanely overtired and cranky when you arrive (and then spend the next two hours navigating baggage claim and rental cars) or when you're pretty certain he or she is likely to sleep. On the way there we took an early evening flight but, San Diego being 3000 miles or so and three hours behind Boston, it was about 11 o'clock east coast time when we got in, nearly 1 a.m. by the time we got to our hotel. There was a point about halfway through the non-stop flight when Elias seemed like he might fall asleep...and then another baby a seat ahead of us screamed at the top of his lungs. It seemed there was no turning back after that point, despite our best efforts, until about a half hour before the plane landed. On the way home we decided to take our chances with a red-eye flight, the only non-stop option from San Diego to Boston, thinking that might be the lesser of two evils (the other option, of course, being at least one layover somewhere in the middle of the country). Elias nursed about an hour before we boarded and instead of putting him on my shoulder for the standard 20 to 30 minutes of upright time, when he was done eating I let him stay there on the Boppy pillow asleep and protected from the sights and sounds of the airport by my nursing cover. He fussed a bit getting on the plane but fell right back asleep, and stayed that way for the entire five hour flight, even through some fairly intense turbulence somewhere over the midwest.
Otherwise the trip was a mix of good and not so good stretches. As I think I mentioned before, it was pretty clear that Elias got something that didn't exactly agree with his system a couple of times during the weekend, resulting in a public display of projectile vomiting in the Horton Plaza Nordstrom's, where we'd gone to utilize the cushy chairs in their ladies' room. Eating out on this elimination diet was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I feel for people with food allergies, that's for sure. On the other hand, Elias seemed to nap and go down for the night effortlessly, falling asleep in our arms, or immediately after nursing (his sleep patterns have completely fallen apart since our return but I'll save that for another post).
Keeping him occupied throughout the day was easier than I thought it would be. It was occasionally tricky being on my own in the hotel room when Neal was otherwise occupied with wedding related activities, without any hands-free options other than the center of the massive king-sized bed and the slim chance that Elias would suddenly find the strength to roll himself over multiple times toward the edge in the couple of minutes I was around the corner in the bathroom. Our floor time took place on said bed and several naps were enjoyed in the car seat on the go. Nursing in public went better than I thought it would, I think mainly because I brought the Boppy pillow along.
During our last day there, with a tux rental to return and a lot of time to kill, we stopped by the North County mall in Escondido, home of the nicest family restrooms I've ever seen. Usually a "family restroom" is just a bigger bathroom with a changing table. But these amenities - rightly called a "lounge" - were nicer than our set-up at home. The family lounge there consists of an open area with several chairs, a few tables and a t.v. (I think there might have been some toddler-appropriate diversions as well), a few private nooks with curtains (like changing rooms for nursing), a room with these sort of carved out changing areas, each one next to a wipes warmer (with wipes!) and a sink. It's so nice to be able to wash your hands after a diaper change without figuring out how to juggle the baby, wipes case, changing pad, etc. It's nice to be able to wash your hands before you pick up your baby, even if your stoller is on hand (I tend to take only what I need to the bathroom, however). They even had a bathroom with two toilets and sinks - one setup for the parent and a smaller version for the kid. Honestly, that lounge was so nice, I would have been content to stay at the mall the entire day, not leaving until we had to return our car before our red-eye home.
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