Flying Cross-Country with my Baby

Hello from Madison, Alabama! It feels so good to be home at my parent’s house. Today is recovery day because flying cross-country with a seven-month old alone is a blast! said no one ever.

I’m being dramatic; Hadley was actually very well behaved and got herself no more agitated than I did. 🙂

I had been nervous for weeks about yesterday’s trip because I knew our first of two legs would be a doozy – almost four hours of afternoon flying time from Tucson to Atlanta. Our flight was at 12:25 p.m., so my game plan was to eat a packed lunch on the way to airport, check my bag, go through security, take 10 minutes to give Hadley a bottle, put her in the Ergo baby carrier and walk around for a few minutes until she fell asleep (works every time!), board the plane with a sleeping baby (since it would be her normal nap time anyway), and then hopefully enjoy 1.5-2 hours of peace while she slept. Everything actually went exactly as planned except for one step.

She did not sleep for 1.5-2 hours. She slept for approximately 15 minutes and was awake before we were wheels up.

And she stayed up until we were wheels down in Atlanta, hence the aforementioned recovery time. For 4.5 hours (we sat on the plane for 45 minutes after we landed waiting for a gate), I bounced her, walked around with her, let her stand up while she used my legs as a trampoline, read to her one of her favorite books 109 times, prepared and feed her another bottle, attached her in the ergo two more times, took her out of the ergo two more times after unsuccessful nap attempts, yadda yadda yadda. Besides her babbling (which is my favorite noise in the world), she was really quiet.


completely over the top obsessed with individual air blowers 🙂

The only meltdown came when the flight attendant came on the loudspeaker to say that we still had a bit of a wait for a gate. I wanted to scream with you too, my girl.

For our 2.5 hour layover, we went to the USO’s children’s area so that she could crawl around (because she is officially crawling from one side of a room to another in 10 seconds now – not ready for this) and I could sit and eat some dinner. I’ve used the USO in so many airports for years, and I’m continually so thankful for it. The only adventure of our layover was trying to go to the bathroom while she was attached to me in the ergo. That was a blast, let me tell ya!

Our second flight to Huntsville was all of 40 minutes take off to touch down, and Hadley was fidgety but quiet. As long as she could stand up and bounce, she was happy. I was thankful for the sweet lady next to me who loved playing with her. An old high school friend Emily Henstock (now Emily Bradley) was also on my flight, so getting a chance to hug her and briefly catch up was a nice surprise. Hadley also thought she was so pretty and couldn’t stop smiling at her. 🙂

My mom had to work the overnight shift at the hospital last night, but my dad was there in the waiting area to greet us. He hadn’t seen us since before our move to Arizona, so he’s been more than ready for some time with Hadley.

Mom’s asleep, Hadley’s asleep, and I think I might just go join them for 30 minutes or so.

Hope you’re having a good week!