I had gone back and forth several times on whether I should bring the stroller or not. Even the night before our flight, I was still weighing the options. Big, heavy stroller vs. the possibility that she'd be fussy in the Moby Wrap and sleep in the stroller instead. In the end, I was soooo glad we did not bring the stroller! I wrapped Regan up nice and snug in the wrap, and she slept all the way through security, the trek to the gate and through boarding. We didn't have to maneuver the stroller, a baby and all our bags through the Christmas crowds on the parking shuttle, the security line, the train or at the gate. My back didn't hurt a bit from carrying her, thanks to the Moby. They even let me wear her through the metal detectors. They just checked my hands with some kind of wipe, and we went right through. I was thrilled.
The plane rides were so much better than I feared. She fussed a bit on the first one, but the plane was full of babies so she blended right in to the chorus! Regan's Papa (Paul's dad) is great at getting her to relax and stop fussing, especially on an airplane. If anyone dirty-looked me, I didn't notice. And honestly, I'm not sure I would have cared much. It was Christmas, after all. For some reason, it seems people expect airplanes to be silent, more so than they expect on a bus or in most other public places. I wonder why that is. Anyway, I've decided that the things adults do on airplanes annoy me a lot more than the things babies do.
I tried to nurse Regan on the first plane ride, but she wasn't all that interested. On the way home, she barely made a peep, and she nursed quite well. We were in the very last row of the plane and I sat by the window, so there wasn't much for her to look at and I didn't have to use a cover (she hates those). It was a very early morning flight. It left at 6:30 a.m. and we got up at 3:30 a.m. I was worried she'd fuss because her sleep was interrupted, but she did great. She just slept in the Moby from the time we got to the airport through about half way through the flight. She did have a nice, big blow-out diaper though. Awesome. But I got her cleaned up and changed her clothes in the bathroom. No big deal, really.
The first evening at Grandma's house was a little rough. Regan was tired and hungry, but there was just so much new stuff to look at that she couldn't focus on eating. Even in the downstairs bedroom with the lights off, she had trouble. But when she did finally fall asleep, she slept for about 7 hours. (We just folded up some blankets on the floor and put pillows around them for her to sleep on.) She was pretty fussy during the days, probably because of all the people, activity, lights, noise, etc. She's used to a quiet, boring house where she has plenty of time to just chill out. Her naps were frequent and short throughout the trip. But she slept about 10 hours at night, nursing once after about 7 or 8 hours. I was impressed. Even at Aunt Donna's house on Christmas day, she napped fairly well.
Everyone was excited to hold her and play with her. She is so lucky to have so many people who love her. I tried not to stress about everyone wanting baby time, even if it might have made her a little fussy. They don't get to see her often, and it's good for Regan to be handled by different people. Hopefully everyone felt like they got their turn. And hopefully I didn't come across as too over-protective. I just tried to protect her sleep and some semblance of a pattern as much as I could. Anyway, it was more important to me that the family got to see her than to make sure she got all of her regular naps and things. And I think the trip was good for her. She had lots of new experiences, and I learned that she is more adaptable than I gave her credit for. Really, the only tough thing for me was having to retreat to a dark, quiet room every time she was hungry and sleepy (about every 2 hours). I'd hear all the fun going on upstairs, and I'd try to hurry Regan along so I could go play, which usually backfired.
Probably the biggest test of Regan's adaptability (and mommy and daddy's!) was yesterday, the day we came home. Like I said, we woke up at 3:30 a.m. That's 2:30 a.m. Colorado/Wyoming time. We made it to Denver by mid-morning only to get to our car and have it not start. Terrific. We were having some trouble with the accelerator on the way to the airport when we left, so we'd planned to have it towed to the nearest Midas when we got back anyway. But we didn't really expect it to be a major issue. Turned out, it needed a new starter (which didn't fix the accelerator problem, by the way.) Thank goodness that Paul's dad was there with his car. He was awesome. So we spent most of the day hanging around Midas and still had a two-hour drive home, where we needed to pick up our dog from the boarder. Paul drove home, God bless him. We just barely made it to be boarder by 5:30 p.m. before she closed. Then home, finally. Paul unpacked the car and the suitcases while I tried to nurse Regan to sleep. It took a little while because she was kind of wound up from everything. She finally went down for about 9 hours, nursed early in the morning and went back to sleep. So we all enjoyed a little sleeping in this morning.
All-in-all, it was a great trip. Tiring, but great. I learned a lot about myself, my husband and my daughter that gives me confidence that we make a good team. It pushed me beyond my comfort level, which is stressful, but it's how we grow. I'm starting to feel like we can do anything!
A little Christmas elf
Four generations
In line to see Santa. Regan could barely contain her excitement!
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