Baby Takes Flight
No more red-eyes, ever.
Our New York-San Diego flights were the exact reverse of expectations. I dreaded the flight out--with Fiona discovering the joys of movement, 6 hours in an airplane cabin that she would want to explore on hands and knees but couldn't seemed like a recipe for disaster. But it was an early morning flight, so we had to wake her up at 5am (about 2 hours before her usual wake-up time), and as a result Fiona was so exhausted she wound up giving us a couple of hours of sleep. Distracting the baby for 3 hours instead of 6 proved to be entirely doable.
The flight back, on the other hand, seemed like it would be a breeze. A 10pm takeoff would be right in the middle of the night for Fiona. Who knows--maybe she'd sleep through boarding, takeoff, even the cab ride home.
Instead, we were confronted with the downside to having a relentlessly curious baby. Fiona had a nap from 7pm to 8pm before we left for the airport, and instead of treating that as a night's sleep interrupted, she acted as if a single hour's nap were all she needed to recharge for several more hours of play.
At the airport, Fiona did some eye rubbing, but mainly enjoyed looking at all the other passengers, specifically a young boy (five or six years old) who Andrea tagged as Fiona's first crush.
Once in the air, Fiona fought sleep enough that Daddy decided to try walking the aisle with her to soothe her down. Big mistake: Fiona was so fascinated by all the sleeping passengers that she refused to lay her head down.
We did (or Andrea did) finally get her down for a few hours, and, of course, Fiona needed some extra naptime the next day. But from now on, we're not going to make the mistake of assuming that red-eye=guaranteed sleep for the lil' 'un.
Our New York-San Diego flights were the exact reverse of expectations. I dreaded the flight out--with Fiona discovering the joys of movement, 6 hours in an airplane cabin that she would want to explore on hands and knees but couldn't seemed like a recipe for disaster. But it was an early morning flight, so we had to wake her up at 5am (about 2 hours before her usual wake-up time), and as a result Fiona was so exhausted she wound up giving us a couple of hours of sleep. Distracting the baby for 3 hours instead of 6 proved to be entirely doable.
The flight back, on the other hand, seemed like it would be a breeze. A 10pm takeoff would be right in the middle of the night for Fiona. Who knows--maybe she'd sleep through boarding, takeoff, even the cab ride home.
Instead, we were confronted with the downside to having a relentlessly curious baby. Fiona had a nap from 7pm to 8pm before we left for the airport, and instead of treating that as a night's sleep interrupted, she acted as if a single hour's nap were all she needed to recharge for several more hours of play.
At the airport, Fiona did some eye rubbing, but mainly enjoyed looking at all the other passengers, specifically a young boy (five or six years old) who Andrea tagged as Fiona's first crush.
Once in the air, Fiona fought sleep enough that Daddy decided to try walking the aisle with her to soothe her down. Big mistake: Fiona was so fascinated by all the sleeping passengers that she refused to lay her head down.
We did (or Andrea did) finally get her down for a few hours, and, of course, Fiona needed some extra naptime the next day. But from now on, we're not going to make the mistake of assuming that red-eye=guaranteed sleep for the lil' 'un.
posted by BWC at
11:26 AM
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