I realized the other day that I never shared one of my more recent adventures. I traveled with Wiggles to a conference where I presented a paper. The trip up was uneventful - standard plane ride and the baby was pretty well behaved. He didn't sleep at all mind you. Not in the airport. Not on the plane. But we made it and no one gave me the stink eye that I saw and he eventually got a nap at the hotel.
The next few days, again, uneventful. Finally, comes the morning to head back home. We get dropped off at the airport with just enough time for me to grab some lunch and find a quiet corner to eat it. I appeased Wiggles by feeding him puffs between feeding myself my food. We were both fed and happy, hit the restroom one last time for me and a diaper change for the baby, and hit our gate about 10 minutes before boarding should start. I was feeling AWESOME. It was definitely too good to last.
Around the time our flight was scheduled to depart we finally get an announcement in the gate to sit back down...there's a mechanical problem and it'll be at least 15 more minutes. The short version of this story is that ultimately the plane was determined to have a bigger problem and wouldn't be leaving for at least 7 more hours. Now. At this point I'd been in the airport for roughly 2 hours and had timed the flight to coincide with Wiggles' nursing schedule. So I'm nursing the little guy when this announcement is made and everyone rushes to the customer service kiosk to get on the next flight out. Maybe other mothers are superwomen...but I can't just pack up mid-breastfeeding and find my way to the line that fast.
Oh the despair as I looked at that line and contemplated another 7 hours in the airport followed by a roughly 3 hour flight.
Ultimately...that's what happened.
Wiggles and I got the great fun of spending 10 hours in the airport, followed by a 3 hour flight before getting home that day. You know what though? My son is a Trooper. He was so good the whole day. Again, he didn't really sleep mind you. He did manage 3 20 minute naps throughout the entirety of the 13 hour adventure...which is certainly not enough and he was definitely deliriously tired when we finally made it home. But - we made it. And it was definitely a bonding experience.
Even if the anxiety from the whole event caused me to cancel a planned trip for the month following. Mr. Random, Wiggles and I were supposed to fly back home to visit some folks and attend a wedding and I was seriously losing sleep with anxiety at the idea. I mean - it went fine enough, but it is definitely NOT an experience I want to repeat. And definitely not so soon.
I did get comped a $300 credit for my troubles. It didn't seem like enough then. It still doesn't now. I feel the anxiety coming back just reliving the day, so that's all I'm going to say about that!
That is ROUGH no matter how much they paid you! Wow. YOU sound like a trooper too :)
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