The Flight and the Arrival: The Good, The Bad, The Baby

Smooth. Everything went incredibly smooth... Until the last 3 hours of the trip and beyond!!

Okay we all know traveling with a baby can be difficult. You hear horror stories about little kids crying, having meltdowns about their tablets being taken away (or batteries dying), and keeping others awake. I am so incredibly THANKFUL to say that Baby G was NOT like that. On the plane she was chill, took her naps as usual, and enjoyed playing with her toys. Hubby and I took turns entertaining her and feeding her like the baby bird she is, until she fell asleep. The first stop in Dallas, TX before the long 9 hour flight worked out nicely to as it gave us a chance to eat, and Baby G got to run around at will. So far so good.

She also discovered her loved for escalators and would cry when we blocked her from getting too close. Elevators were another favorite past time, when this too had to come to an end, it was much easier to divert her attention from the doors. All I had to do was keep knocking on the elevators doors and say, "hello anyone home?...(no answer)...Oh, sorry sweetie, looks like no one's home right now", to which Baby G would reply "ding dong! ding dong!", urging me to keep trying. She didn't cry too bad after she was finally convinced that the doors wouldn't open for us (thank God no one came down the elevator at that time!). Lastly, she loved playing on the airport's large mosaic floor murals: twirling, dancing, laying on the floor, and getting up to do it all over again. Still good we thought, let's keep this going.

Alrighty, red eye flights are rough for me and hubby. Try as we might we CANNOT sleep or nap on flights at all. At the very best, we might nod off for a few precious minutes, but that's as good as it gets for us, even with the convertible teddy bear-neck pillow I bought for us to try out... You heard right, a neck-pillow that converts into a teddy bear! Needless to say who out of the three of us got the most use from it, it certainly wasn't the sleep-deprived parents! Now the MUST HAVE for any long international flights for a baby or toddler, is an inflatable foot rest/kids airplane bed. This thing was awesome for Baby G and she napped like nobody's business making her the most well-behaved baby on that flight (and I will brag about that until the cow's come home!). After the usual "eat, play, nurse" routine, our toddler had blessed us with a 3-hour nap, giving us time to read, watch an in-flight movie, eat dinner, and attempt to nap (spoiler, we rested at best).

And then her long-nap ended... early!

What should have been her usual 8 hour sleep cycle turned into only 3 hours, leaving us to entertain this wiggly toddler for the remaining 4 hours. It wasn't terrible and it wasn't traumatic, but it wasn't easy and was rocky at best. Handing her over to one parent, while the other tried to rest, was done in 30-45min increments for the remainder of the flight. It was during this time we pulled out the big guns and introduced puppy cartoons and Pete the Cat books on our tablet, every so often holding her focus for 10 min (another blessing Baby G had bestowed upon us, so we could BOTH rest at the same time).

When all hope seemed lost, lo and behold lights started turning on, people started waking, and the captain finally uttered the long awaited announcement, "flight crew, prepare for landing". Ah yes, sweeter words had never been spoken and salvation had finally arrived... we were in Paris. We were jet-lagged, cranky, and hungry, but dammit we made it! Even better? No one complained, and only showered Baby G with compliments for doing so well. I guess the saying is true(?), Parisians are baby-friendly.

Fast pass through the taxi ride, hauling and juggling our suitcases with a cranky toddler, and getting the keys to our apartment (cue in the old cigarette lady who clumsily let us into her away-friend's apartment; brought to you by AirBNB!!) , we finally made it safely(?) to our humble abode in the 18th arrondissment - Montmartre, Paris. Learning the layout of the land and our apartment, the advertisement held true and we could definitely see the Sacre-Coeur from our window. After submitting it on Google Maps, we discovered it was only a 15-20min walk from our place, which is amazing!... but we were too tired to care. We ate dinner and crashed hard at 7pm. Sleep first, excitement later.