Travellin' Bean

Well, Bean is gearing up for her very first airplane trip (Breckenridge, CO, via Denver); I am biting my nails wondering if I'm going to be one of those despised parents of the screaming babies...Bean can usually be calmed down by nursing, and I think that's really the best way to keep her ears clear (and thus hopefully not causing pain).

Fortunately this is only a two and a half hour flight, and it's right around her usual nap time (or so I'd like to believe), so maybe I'll get really lucky and be able to nurse her to sleep and then have a quiet baby until the Rockies. The hardest thing is reading all these "tips" for travelling with infants and children--half of them make you feel like a totally crappy parent for not buying an extra seat for the carseat. I understand the safety factor, but the seats were reserved before I could really decide about this.

We are actually flying business/first, which means no potential middle seat to commandeer, but I'm hoping that this particular midday flight might be soooo empty that we'll have an empty seat somewhere in our row. Realistically? I know that's not going to happen. Sigh. I'm not a good flyer at the best of times, and I have to admit this trip is stressing me out, but what can I do? Apart from abusing the Vicodin I kept from my stay in the maternity ward, ha ha.

It's interesting about the car seat/safety issue, though---some friends of ours flew with their 3-month-old to the East Coast and apparently their last leg into Buffalo was unbelieveably turbulent (and the mother is an aeronautical/aerospace engineer, so believe me, it was BAD), and it was the only leg on which they didn't have the car seat. The baby was held by his mother in that tucked-over crash position, and she said that was really the only way she felt comfortable hanging on to him, but that if she had had the car seat, she would have worried about his head getting slammed back and forth. It bears thinking about, honestly.
At any rate, on the other end will be grandparents, so I can hand Bean off and stagger to the nearest bar for a stiff drink. Stay tuned as to whether this trip is a Huzzah or a non-Huzzah.