Day 63...traveling with the best baby ever!

Mar 23

It's bitter sweet today. Leaving mom's house...a bit of mixed emotions. I'm just so glad I got to come down here. This was such a good trip, but I'm SO ready to be coming home.

Mom had me pick out some fabric last night, and this morning she got up early and busted out a nursing cover for me....she called it a "hooter hider"... ha! That's funny. But it's really cool. It's great because I can see what Martyn is doing when he's nursing, and I can easily get him on the boob, with out showing them to anyone else.

My mom is so cool! She just made that hooter hider real quick, and it was just right. She totally took care of me and Martyn for the last two weeks, and fed us really well. I realized while I've been here, I need to get back to eating well. I feel so good since I've been eating so well. Fresh veggies from the garden every day, good , healthy meals and serving sizes, tasty snacks, that are not super sugary...mom even treated me to some raw milk (yum!) from her favorite grocery store Henrys (which is like a cross between New Seasons and Trader Joes).

I helped Jack move his planter boxes this morning after I finished packing. It was just beautiful outside, sunny and warm. No wonder Jack loves the garden so much, it's great being out there first thing in the morning. I'm glad he's able to get out there and work the garden. He enjoys it so much, and gets offended if any animals mess with his baby. This morning at breakfast, Jack came in and was just livid, because the birds had eaten his strawberry. He said "that bird ate my choice strawberry! It was a big beautiful strawberry and I was really looking forward to picking it today, and that bird just ate it!"

Mom and I were kind of chuckling about that and Jack says to mom, "It's not funny Norma, I'm really upset about it." That made it a lot harder not to laugh, because he said so seriously, and meant it so seriously. Not that we were laughing because of his plight, but it was just kind of funny to be so mad over a strawberry...Mom always says, it's better to laugh about things like that, then cry.

Mom took us to the air port and I felt strange leaving. I was just starting to feel at home...kind of. It's all familiar but it's not home anymore and hasn't been for a long time. Mom dropped me off at the curb, I got a luggage trolley and loaded it all up, with the baby in the car seat and all. I had already checked in on line, but I still had to wait in line to check my bags, and get Martyn's boarding pass. The line was all the way out to the door, but moving pretty quickly. Southwest Airlines has it down man! They were pretty fast and very efficient, and friendly.

I got us all checked in and through security, and then to the gate. My plane was delayed about an hour and half so we had some time to hang out in the gate. Luckily, the San Diego Airport has free wifi, and I had my computer with me so I could entertain myself for a bit. Martyn needed entertainment however, so I put my computer away and played with him, and nursed him while we waited.

We got on the plane, about a third of the way back, so not too far. I was kind of hungry because I hadn't eaten lunch before I left. I sat next too an older Mexican couple, who I'm pretty sure didn't speak English. My plane was to stop over in San Jose, before heading on to Portland. We took off and when we reached 10,000 feet I ordered a Ginger Ale, because my stomach was feeling sick. I had gobbled my honey roasted peanuts down. It's a short flight, only an hour and 20 minutes. Martyn filled his diaper just before they brought my drink out, so I was digging around in my bag to get a diaper and get out a diaper and wipes. I got them out just as my drink arrived, and someone exited the nearest bathroom at the front of the plane. I asked the couple if they would hold my drink, and the woman took it kind of tentatively... I was really thirsty and looking forward to that Ginger Ale. I took Martyn to the bathroom and changed him, and felt the plane slow down. It was already near time to land!

When I got back to my seat, the lady had drank my drink...oh well, I thought, I'll just get something to eat in San Jose.

Now because my flight had so been delayed, there was hardly any lay over in San Jose (I don't know what I was thinking) and I didn't have time to get off the plane...only enough time really to move to the second row of the plane so I could get off first.

As people started boarding, no one was picking the two open seats next to me...I was in the isle row on the left side of the plane. nearly the whole flight boarded (it felt like, it was actually more like half) before an Indian lady with a baby who looked as young as Martyn finally made eyes at the open window seat, and then made eye contact with me. I was kind of glad for another travelling mom, and when she asked if the seat was open, I gladly got up for her to move in. The rest of the flight boarded, and no one filled the open middle seat....which turns out was really good because neither of us knew that you can only have four people in a row of seats, so if the flight had been full and someone had filled that middle seat, one of us moms would have had to move.

The Indian lady's baby was a three month old baby girl, and that was her first flight. She was doing a tester flight to Portland to visit her husband who was a medical student (at OHSU I'm assuming) and flew up to Portland from the San Jose when ever he was on call....the tester flight was because they were planning a trip to India soon and she wanted to see how her baby would do. She was super cute! (The baby I mean) I've always had an affinity for Indian babies...I think they are just beautiful people, and they produce the cutest kids.

I told the lady this was Martyn's second time flying and he did great on the first flight. She said everyone she had talked to said to give the baby a pacifier at take off and landing so the pressure wouldn't bother her ears. I told her to just breast feed her baby, I would be. She looked at me for a second, as if I had just slapped her across the face and I added, "I have a cover"...She kind of stammered a second then said "she doesn't really do that a lot....uh...." I think I offended her, ha! It didn't occur to me that she may not have even been breast feeding her baby at all....and then I said "or give her a bottle?" She looked a little surprised, but then decided that was a good idea and started right in on fixing a bottle for her baby.

By the time the plane took off, I was feeling like I was going to pass out. It was about 5:30 pm and I hadn't eaten anything besides an oat grain bar in San Diego, since breakfast....I was very weak, and feeling sick. Martyn nursed for about ten minutes and fell asleep...he slept the whole flight. I was very glad to get my (second) Ginger Ale. It's not a long flight, about an hour and 45 minutes.

Finally about the last ten or fifteen minutes I was feeling ok enough to talk to the Indian lady some more. I told her her baby did really well for her first flight. When we landed I was so ready to get off that plane! It had been a fine flight too, I just was done with traveling. I gathered up my bag and the bobby, and the baby...I still had the hooter hider around my neck, and bolted off the plane as fast as I could. Martyn was still totally sleeping, and I had a good hold of him, just not all my other stuff. I was at the far end of the airport, and used two of the moving sidewalks until I came to a restaurant that had a really tall table and chairs parked kind of out in the open. I stopped there to re-jigger my stuff and the baby, and to call Eli. For whatever reason, I was expecting him to not be there yet, or be planning to meet me at the baggage claim. I had let him know my flight was delayed from San Diego, and he had said he would go on the flight tracker and find out exactly when to expect me.

It was so good to hear his voice, and know that I would be seeing him in no more than a half hour at most. I asked him if he was at the airport and he said he was. I got my stuff all reset and was about to get the baby and I told him I would meet him at the baggage claim...he said "oh, well I'm at the security check waiting for you..." I said ok I'll be right there, and hung up the phone and grabbed Martyn. If I could have ran with out waking the baby, and possibly peeing my pants, I would have.

It felt amazing to come around the corner at the security check point, and see Eli waiting in the crowd of people...exactly where I last saw him when I left. I nearly cried! I went straight to him, kissed him and handed Martyn off right away because I had to pee and there was a bathroom right there. He was so happy to see us both, I could just see that all over him.

After I went to the bathroom, I came back and took Martyn for a diaper change, and then we headed down to baggage. My bags were coming around right as we got there...I had had to borrow an extra suit case from my mom because my cousin Wendy gave me a breast pump and a bunch of baby clothes, and my mom made a quilt for him, all of which would not fit into my bag.

Eli held fast to that baby....I wasn't about to ask for him back again. I collected the two bags and the car seat, handed the duffel bag to Eli, and took the diaper bag and wheeled bag and car seat and set out for the car. He had parked near the elevator, what a sweetie! We left the airport and went straight to Shari's across the freeway because I was starving. It was raining.

I was home.

While I was on the plane, and miserable, I realized the days of me whining about feeling sick, are over. If I have the baby to take care of and I feel sick, too bad...he is more important. Plain and simple. Oddly, that thought was kind of comforting to me.

I also was blessed to have been traveling with the best baby ever. He was just wonderful the whole trip, he couldn't have been better.

What an awesome baby I have!