Home Again

A few notes on my previous rant on flying with a baby. We flew home from Hawaii -- three plane rides this time: Kona to Honolulu, Honolulu to LAX, LAX to Salt Lake. Caleb did great on two out of three flights. We woke up at 3:30 a.m. because that's when Caleb thought we needed to be awake. An hour or so later we left for the airport. (Oh, funny thing -- if you're running late to catch a plane, don't try passing a cop on a two-lane road in the middle of nowhere. Especially if the cop is going the speed limit.) We check in, put our bags through the agricultural inspection, then have to go through security. I can't remember if I mentioned this before. But to go through security, you have to take your sleeping baby out of his carseat and run the carseat through the x-ray machine, while you walk through with your baby. After that, it's all down hill.

It was on our third flight that I heard another baby crying. She was probably two months or so and flying with her daddy, who didn't seem to know how to calm her down. Caleb, on the other hand, was fast asleep in my arms. I looked down at him, marveling at what a good baby he is. A part of me wanted to offer to take the little girl from her daddy and put her to sleep too.

A short time later, however, Caleb was awake and screaming. The pressure on the plane was so bad, I thought my head was going to explode. And this was just flying, not even descending. A kind woman sitting in front of us turned to Brandon, who was trying in vain to get the baby to go back to sleep, and told us not to worry, she'd been there before and knew what it was like. Still, Caleb spent most of that flight nursing. I guess that's what I get for judging.

I'm just glad that we're home again and don't have to get on another plane anytime soon. In fact, I'm even rethinking whether we really want to go to Cancun for our anniversary (in March) because I hated flying that much. And not just because it's hard with a baby, but because the cabin pressure was too much for even me to handle.