Oh, people. You can SO take a 10-week-old from D.C. to San Diego. I hope I’m not jinxing myself on the flight back by writing this, but Suzianne was her usual, happy self the entire way. My baby may not sleep at night, but she can ROCK a cross-country flight, yo.
You’ve already heard about how easy our pass through airport security was; here’s how the rest of the day went:
But first, let me explain that the amazing Granny Sue Sue flew all the way across the country to accompany me *back* across the country to visit her. Yes, she did. So, when you see pictures of her with us, even though we’re going to visit her, that’s why.
At the airport:
Because I’m just slightly anal-retentive, I made Granny Sue Sue go with me to the airport like 13 hours before our flight left. Okay, really just four hours before. But still, it was WAY to early. Since we breezed through security, we had three hours to kill at the airport. We quickly found the pub. Suzianne snoozed the whole time, even with the random old school rap blasting in the background:
After hamburgers, we attempted to find a “private” part of the terminal so I could breastfeed. WIth the aid of my rockin’ Hooter Hider (thanks, Aly!) I did so with minimal awkwardness, except for the random two people who came over and sat by us (see photo):
Which leads us to this important announcement:
Dear Jet Set People of Earth:
When a woman goes out of her way to find a secluded part of the terminal and is CLEARLY feeding her infant with her boobs, don’t then sit next to her. It’s weird. And you then lose the right to give her rude looks, BECAUSE YOU CAME OVER HERE.
Safe travels!
Team Newman
They didn’t stay long, and Suzianne was a happy/drunken camper:
It was around this time that my left boob started throbbing. All day, the bottom half of it had been warm, firm and quite painful to even the slightest touch. I thought maybe I had bruised it pumping. You know, because you can push on parts of your boob to get more milk to flow. But it kept getting worst throughout the day. A quick Google told me it likely was a plugged milk duct. But we had a plane to catch…
The Plane:
We checked our stroller and car seat gate-side; the United flight crew was very nice and accommodating. Since Suzianne is an infant, I just held her in my lap:
Before takeoff, we asked the flight attendant if we could store the breast milk in a fridge somewhere. Within minutes, four bottles of it were sitting pretty in the drink cart.
It was also fun to watch all the people walk onto the plane with content gazes until they realized an infant was sitting near them. They’d glare at her with uncertainty and resentment, while Suzianne gave them the bobble head stare that read equal parts amusement and apathy.
She was all “Just chill, ya’ll. I got this.”
On takeoff, we swaddled her up for her nap and gave her a pacifier to suck on. As we ascended, my ears popped like crazy; Suzianne laid there and never made a peep.
During the five hour flight, we kept her on her normal eating, playing and napping schedule. We were so lucky it happened to work out that she either needed to nap or nurse on take off and landing.
In no time, both Suzie’s were snoozing:
Which left me awake with a horrible movie to watch and a throbbing boob to hold. After a few hours, I couldn’t take the pain anymore and asked the flight attendant if she had anything warm I could hold on my boob.
She didn’t hesitate and said she’d return in a minute with a hot water bottle. About five minutes later, she handed me a large bottle of boiling Aqua Fina wrapped in a towel. The heat was a huge relief; if only mentally. But my boob still hurt.
A little later, we had an in-seat diaper change:
Some in-flight nursing (during the decent):
And before you know it, we were in San Diego!
The time difference:
Since Suzianne hasn’t yet found a night sleeping schedule that involves much actual sleeping, I decided to just follow her internal clock, rather than make her adjust to pacific time. Last night, she actually slept very well; sleeping in three 2 hour and 45 minute intervals. That translates into 2.5 hours of sleep at a time for me, which is awesome.
Also last night, I kept a hot compress on my boob for about 30 minutes. And this morning, after our early morning nursing, Suzianne unplugged the duct! I feel like a new momma.
Conclusion:
Take your baby to California! As several of you told me, this is the easiest flight I’ll ever take with her because she’s so little. And it’s true! You can do this! Of course, I’ll be doing this alone on my way back to D.C., so we’ll see if my story changes any on Friday!
