We're back from Dorothy's first cross-country tour! (Sorry, no commemorative T-shirts yet). Pictures should be up soon....
On Saturday, May 1, Dorothy made her first plane flight, from Boston to Chicago. She did very well, sleeping for much of the flight. I fed her during the ascent and descent so that the swallowing would pop her ears, and she pretty much didn't cry during the flight. Tom and I each had an opportunity to change a diaper in a tiny airplane lavatory, an experience we both probably could have done without (unfortunately, it was not to be our last such experience, or even the most cramped diaper change of the trip).
We were astonished at how much our luggage volume increased with the addition of one tiny person. We checked two big suitcases, one of which was completely filled with Dorothy's things, and one of which had clothes for the three of us. We then carried on a small backpack with our stuff, our big backpack-style diaper bag, a camera/camcorder bag, and Dorothy in her car seat. In addition, we gate-checked the stroller that goes with the car seat.
When we got to Chicago, we headed for baggage claim to get our stuff. Halfway there, we were paged back to the gate - they had brought the stroller to us there. (In Boston, they had told us that we would pick it up at baggage claim). Since I had Dorothy comfortably in her Maya Wrap for walking through the airport, we ended up using the stroller as a luggage cart for all the other carryon items.
Tom's good friend Tom Egan (the best man from our wedding, and my stand-in when I couldn't go to our baby shower) picked us up in Chicago, and we had lunch together. After seeing how much time Dorothy spends sucking on our fingers, he gave her a new nickname: "Small-Mouth Bass." This rapidly mutated into "Guppy," and we used both throughout the trip.
Tom E. took us to visit with his parents for a while, and then we headed out to Beecher, IL, to stay with Grandma Chris and Grandpa Tom. By the time we got there, poor Dorothy was exhausted, but with so many new places, people, and experiences, she couldn't bring herself to go to sleep. She finally settled down when I put her in the sling again, and was able to sleep by pressing her face into my chest so she couldn't see anything unfamiliar. I ate dinner that night one-handed, holding her in the sling and bouncing on an exercise ball.
To be continued...
Posted by Elizabeth Nugent at May 12, 2004 09:50 PM