Travelling Baby

At 6 months, Jonathan has flown to Germany to see his Oma and Opa – his German grandparents – from daddy's side.

We packed and bundled everything as compactly as possible and took off to the airport in a cheerful mood. After all, this trip was only possible due to bonus tickets and I had to only take 3 days off work! Our happiness was slightly damped when we discovered on the plane that we forgot Jonathan's special cuddly pal, a furry donkey doll that he seemed to prefer when going to bed.

El-Al, our chosen flying company, had unfortunately not blocked a proper seat with a crib for us, despite the fact that we booked a baby ticket in advance and so we found ourselves sitting in a place where there is plenty of room for your legs (yoohoo!) but unfortunately no crib option and a clear instruction that putting the baby on the floor was not safe/ insured and not allowed. The idea of holding Jonathan, who is an active baby, 4 hours straight brought me into a sweat! But Jonathan's smiles seemed to insure that there were plenty of passengers ready to help, and get a "trip" – holding the cute baby and receiving in return his smiles and laughter and also the gratitude of his tired parents.

About half way, a nice passenger who happened to be a father to a 4 and 7 year old kids experienced enlightment! His place was next to ours and had the installment for a crib in front of it – so why was he sitting there and not us? Well, the stewardess on the ground designated the places a bit stupidly (actually it is clear to me that they want to fill up the plane, but the place should have been reserved since we had ordered and paid for a baby ticket – I learned that on the way back). And so we also asked the lady next to him to switch and thus two hours into the trip we could at last enjoy the crib and Jonathan got some sleep too.

Our adventures did not end there. We landed early and at first thought no one had come to pick us up. We waited an hour and then fortunately did locate my husband's parents, so we did not have to take the train after all. To top it all off, the car got stuck on the road and we had about 30 minutes break, so Jonathan had his first taste of German grass in a resting spot on the highway from Frankfurt to Dusseldorf.

Despite the fact that we were on the road eventually 13 hours (from 6 am to 7 pm) and Jonathan had to sleep in mommy's arms (takeoff), in a strange elliptic contraption (the airplane crib), in his stroller (waiting for granddad to bring the car from the distanced parking) and in a new car seat (the maxi cozy that a friend lent us for the week in Germany) Jonathan hardly cried and we got safely to our destination, exhausted but happy.

His new experiences just kept on coming! His bed was a portable baby pen with a super soft mattress, nothing like the big and hard one he is used to at home – I think he liked it, cuddly... The next day he also rode the tram for the first time and met about 20 new people (daddy's friends who all came together to a BBQ in honor of Jonathan…).

His two cousins, aunt and grandparents all also wanted to play with him, hug and kiss him and so he was a little cramped with new faces for the first two days. Then things started to take on a natural, if new, rhythm. A three hour afternoon nap is something you never see Jonathan do at home, but he probably needed it to digest all the new things and faces. Who says vacation is a time for rest?

On his last day in Germany, I wanted to take him to town with me to show off to some friends but his grandma was just not ready to give him up! She had been showing him off to all her friends and in return mommy and daddy got some time off and extra sleep… and on this last day, she wanted him all to herself! I couldn't bring myself to take the boy away from her…

The flight back was surprisingly simple – mommy and Jonathan alone worked out just fine! This time we had a crib place straight away (the ground stewardess explained that the computer has "blocked" the seats near the crib installment so no one but a person with a baby ticket could get them, and that was me…and this was so although Jonathan's name was not on the passenger list, just mommy's). Jonathan had to sleep out the take off again on mommy's arms but as soon as the belt signs were turned off the nice stewardess Susannah quickly set up the crib and the sleeping Jonathan was laid in it and spend the most of the next three hours sleeping (did I already mention his new rhythm?). Landing was accompanied with wails, but then the pressure change hurts babies so this was to be accepted. I also think that by then Jonathan had also had enough of mommy's lap – on which he was located the previous 30 minutes.

We landed safely (despite all of mommy's night mare like thoughts about airplane crashes… thoughts that struck me for the first time in my life when taking off and landing – could this have happened because I am now no longer responsible only for myself?). I put Jonathan in a carrier on my chest, so I had a free hand for the stroller (containing his on board bag) and another free hand for the suitcase which was retrieved quickly after the long line at the passport control. Pushing the stroller in one hand and the case in the other, with the baby on my chest, "super mama" was on the move! The car was waiting in the parking lot (6 days parking is a bit more expensive than a taxi one way and definitely worth it when you need to travel there and back with a baby).

After 10 hours on the road we were home! The absolute happiness Jonathan displayed when seeing his own bed again was soooooo cute and absolutely worth it even though it totally woke him up (he was asleep on the drive home) and disturbed his sleeping - costing me two precious hours of sleep. Seeing "Moriko" the donkey was a happy reunion, but since the German adventure Jonathan has two new cuddly friends to hug at night and he does not seem to have a clear preference any more – we shall see what happened after a while back home.

As my husband is planned to stay a week longer than Jonathan and me, I decided to spend the weekend at my parents' so I would not be alone with Jonathan and could get help in caring for him. And so, we were on road again the next morning to my parents' and poor Jonathan had yet again to get used to a new sleeping place. A visit to my sister also meant he had to take an afternoon nap in a totally strange house, I also saw it for the first time.

When we got back home, Jonathan had to get used to his own bed at home and getting him to sleep was a bit difficult. Granma came Saturday to be with mommy but still there are 4 nights to go alone! Wish me luck!