We're Ba-Ack!

We're back! Oh wait, I didn't mention we were leaving! A few weeks ago, Joel had a class approved for his job and the class happened to be in San Diego. After talking about it a lot, we decided for Ruthie and I tag along and make it our first family vacation! I have to be honest, I was nervous about flying with a baby. I talked to some of my friends who had flown with babies and they all had the same response, it wouldn't be near as bad as I was imagining it being.

Thank the Lord, they were right.

I have lots to blog about the trip, so I'll just try and go in order.

I had lists upon lists about what to pack in which carry on, which back pack, etc. It actually worked out great. I hope this helps any of you flying with a baby. We borrowed my sisters stroller (which was a lifesaver in the airport), I had my Mom's small backpack, the diaper bag, and the boppy. Joel had a backpack and pushed the stroller and Ruthie was in the baby bjorn. We piled everything in the stroller to get through the airport. One nice thing was I didn't have to take the baby out of the baby bjorn through security (although they told me that was changing soon).

We had 2 flights, one was an hour (and left at 5:30am), and the other was 4 1/2 hours. I nursed her on take off or she had a paci.

Uh oh.

Nah, just kidding. This lasted about 2 seconds and then she was an ANGEL! She was happy, slept a bunch, only had to be changed once and played with her toys.

Side note about airplane bathrooms-as horrible as they are for adults to use, they have a really big changing table in them. I was really pleasantly surprised! I didn't want to hang out there or anything, but it was a lot better than I imagined (again). It would be scary if there was turbulence at all, but thankfully there wasn't!

Here is what made the flights great:
-flying early in the morning. Ruthie always sleeps the best in the morning. We need to keep our flights leaving really early.
-Having our plastic bags packed (with liquids) before we got to the airport. It kept me from scrambling to get it ready (and being frazzled about it)
-the boppy. Its so much easier to hold her sleeping in and feed her in
-the stroller
-pre-boarding the plane. Getting on when they allow families to pre-board made a HUGE difference. We didn't feel the rush and were able to be settled. We missed the pre-board on our last (short) flight home and it made a difference.
-baby bjorn
-an angel baby and great husband who makes everything easier.

I packed for Ruthie for the flight, a few toys, 2 pacis, 4 diapers, a change of clothes. I had her in footed jammies for two reasons, one- we left our house at 3:30am and I didn't want to wake her anymore than I had to, and two-I didn't want any part of her touching anything on the plane that it didn't have to. It was great.

We arrived in San Diego by noon, and were to our hotel by 1pm. I was worried about her and the time change, but she pretty muched stayed on EST, so we had fun mornings at 4am :-)!

And that is how we got there! We had a great time there and did all sorts of fun stuff I'll have up shortly!