We’re back from San Diego and I can’t say I’m happy about it.
You know that feeling of relief that sometimes follows a great vacation, when you arrive on your doorstep?
I’m not feeling that at all.
We left sunny California and landed in dreary Chicago and I already want to go back immediately. All-in-all, we had a fantastic trip – the flight home, however, was not so awesome.
You see, there was a screaming baby on the plane that just couldn’t be calmed down – for 4 hours. And the screaming baby was Clara. She didn’t yell continuously the entire time (thank goodness), but she was definitely fussy for the duration of the ride.
The only thing worse than having a screaming baby on a plane is when you’re the parents of that screaming baby – and I’m assuming it’s probably even worse to be that screaming baby, but Clara seems to be recovering quite well, so maybe she wasn’t fazed. Of course, she slept during the cab ride home and is now happily playing with her toys, oblivious to the headaches she caused her parents (and possibly those passengers sitting near us).
I have no advice on what to do with a fussy baby on an airplane, I’m fairly certain the only thing you can do is pray for patience and repeat some sort of calming mantra in your mind. I did neither of those things, but I should have.
Thankfully, Clara has been perfect on the other 5 (long) flights she’s been on, so this was a new experience for us. Today, unfortunately, she was teething and getting over a cold and she had skipped her morning nap and she was basically a mess. A mess that was stuck on her parents’ laps on an airplane when she would have rather been crawling around.
I nursed Clara. We played games. We fed her snacks. Tim walked her up and down the aisle and changed her diaper. We begged her to take a nap. We attempted to distract her. Nothing worked – she just wasn’t comfortable. My normally very happy, laid-back baby was just plain annoyed and Tim and I were drained after 4 hours of attempting to get her to sit peacefully. When she wasn’t crying, she was climbing all over us. Unlike the other passengers, we couldn’t put on headphones and try to tune her out. I couldn’t even put my tray table down to keep a drink & snacks on. Forget about reading or working on my computer… it was a long freakin’ flight. (I was tempted to order a drink, but I was fairly certain other people would have definitely been judging the mom ordering cocktails while her baby screamed next to her.)
So I urge you, if there’s a crying baby on the next airplane you’re on, be understanding – one day it might be your turn!
Sometimes being a parent is tough, and today was one of those times.
