Traveling with the wee one

May 06, 2014

Things have been busy since arriving in California. Since many of them had not yet seen the baby, it’s been a near constant parade of friends, family, and neighbors through my parents’ house since last Wednesday. It was great to see my older brother and introduce Maya to her only (so far!) cousin, my niece Shayna. We’ve had some quality pool time, during which I simply marveled at how different California looks once you’ve spent a bad winter in Michigan. Part of that is because California got some late rains, so things are far greener and flowerier than they usually are in early May (although browning quickly). But the rest of it is a perspective thing - it now looks like my parents live in a tropical resort!

Mostly, though, I’ve spent my time trying to manage Maya’s sleep, which has been...bad. I was worried about the time change, but in the end, I don’t think that’s the issue. She goes to sleep fine for both naps and evening bedtime - and at reasonable times - but she’s having trouble staying asleep. This further frustrates me because we had been doing WONDERFULLY for two weeks before coming out here, with her waking far less and getting herself back to sleep when she did wake up (at a non-feeding interval). I don’t know whether it’s a combination of her hating the pack and play, our bedroom being too light in the day (doesn’t explain the nighttime awakenings), missing her daddy, overstimulation, blah blah blah. But whatever it is, it’s bad. I thought that by a week, she would be adjusted, but she’s not. So I’m a zombie again, relying solely on coffee to (barely) survive and being unable to form complete sentences. And I was hoping to write a paper while I was out here, ha!

Anyway, the reason that I mention it is that husband and I are trying to plan a field season for September, either in Australia (someplace easy near a town, not the middle of nowhere like we usually do) or southern Arizona. Maya’s a pretty good traveler in general, so I was in favor of it before taking this trip - now I’m not so sure. If it takes all of my resources to manage her and I’m getting zero sleep, then I will come back from the fieldwork positively destroyed (while trying to manage her transition to daycare). Hmmmm...this is going to require more thought before commitment.

Other than that, I just wanted to share an account of our journey out here. First off, can I get shout out for the awesomeness of flight attendants? Although they are often overlooked and undervalued, I was so, so impressed with how much help they were to a mom flying alone with a young baby - and how encouraging and supportive! Anyway, overall, Maya did pretty well (although it definitely would have been easier with husband!). The air pressure changes were fine on her ears (even without nursing during takeoff/landing, which proved impossible to time properly), she had no complete meltdowns, and she only pooped once while actually on a plane, which turned out fine because both rear bathrooms had toilet malfunctions and thus were *only* available for diaper changing :) However, she was fussy and didn’t sleep much, thus requiring a lot of active management and nursing until my nipples were raw. The only weird thing that happened was when there was one (and only one) open seat on my second flight and the flight attendant came up to the (VERY large) man in the seat next to me and said, “Sir, it’s our policy to try to give a little extra room to nursing moms when we can. There’s an empty seat up in the front of the plane, can I interest you in moving up?” And the dude was like (emphatically), “NO.” Taken aback, the flight attendant tried again. “Sir, I’m sure it would be great for your seatmate to have a little extra room to juggle her baby, and you’ll be able to get off the plane faster. Are you sure you don’t want to move up?” His response: “Do I have to? Like, can you make me?” To which she responded, “No, no, it’s voluntary.” And again he went (emphatically!), “NO.” Which then totally creeped me out - who *wants* to be that close to open boob and squirmy baby??? Already, he was super spilled over into my seat (on a very small regional jet) and I couldn’t even nurse her well with her head against the window, how was I going to nurse both sides if meltdown occurred? He ended up being a nice guy when we chatted for a bit, and his explanation was that he’s the oldest of 8 kids and has kids himself so he’s zero affected by fussy babies or nursing, but still! Weird.

For the rest of the week, we’re looking forward to husband joining us (yay, tomorrow night!) and doing some serious birdwatching in some of our favorite places. Husband and I are also doing DATE NIGHT at a fancy restaurant while Grandma and Grandpa babysit, yay! Then, our first Mother’s Day, what fun :)

Here are a few more photos! Try to ignore the drool rash, we're working on it.