Blake's first flight

On Friday, August 10, Blake and I embarked on our first trip together. We were headed to Florida for a two week visit (1 week by ourselves with Chris joining us for the second week) and were starting our trip in Ft. Lauderdale for Tiffanie's engagement party. I had spent the early part of the week packing for this adventure and on Friday afternoon Chris drove Blake, myself and our 2 suitcases, 2 carry-ons, stroller and carseat to the Denver airport.

Waiting on our flight

We parked the car and went in to check in. Well we were quickly informed that our flight would not be leaving at 5:30 pm as planned but 7:10 pm. Not fun, but easy enough to adjust to. All I had to do was feed Blake at 5 so that she would be hungry for take off, as she would need to be eating or sucking on a paci during ascent to avoid her ears hurting her. So we grabbed some food, walked around and called Marissa (who was picking us up at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale) to let her know we wouldn't be in at 11 pm but 1 am.

Right before we were called to board Blake decided she wanted to sleep. Unfortunately I knew boarding would wake her up and I was a bit nervous she would want to nurse right away or just plain be unhappy. True to my suspicions the second we sat down Blake wanted to eat. Hoping everyone would board quickly and we would be airborne while she was still nursing I went ahead and fed her. Once again my plans were foiled. The gentleman sitting behind me just happened to be an airline mechanic and just happened to be sitting in view of the wing and just happened to notice the smallest of small latches lifted a fraction of an inch. Well according to him the plane would not fly to 100% of its capability with the latch up so an on duty mechanic had to be called to check the latch, close the latch and sign off some paperwork before we could go. 

So in true flying for the first time with a baby fashion, Blake finished eating and got mad before take off. In hindsight I think she was exhausted, hot and uncomfortable but at the moment in the too hot, full plane when she started screaming I could think of nothing else to do but keep trying to feed her, which just made her more mad and for the longest 5-10 minutes (felt like 2 hours) of my life I bounced up and down in my seat with my screaming baby praying she would stop soon. And being the angel that she is she fell asleep before we even got on the runway. 

After what felt like forever the mechanic was done and we were on our way (now with an estimated arrival of 1:40 am) and my sweet sweet baby slept the entire time. As we began our descent into Ft. Lauderdale I tried to wake Blake up to eat so once again her ears would equalize with the change in pressure. She started eating but very half heartedly which made me nervous for the drive to the hotel. Well it didn't even take that long for her to lose it once again the moment we got off the plane. Fortunately I had a bottle to feed her in case this exact thing happened, only problem was I couldn't feed her a bottle and push the stroller to baggage claim. But before I could get to flustered, human decency redeemed itself and a sweet lady offered to push the stroller to baggage claim for me and once there I was able to hand Blake off to Marissa (who had been waiting in the cell phone lot for almost an hour). 

We made it to the hotel and to bed around 3 am and got a few hours of sleep before our 7:30 am wake up call to start the day! All in all not the worst traveling with a 2 month old experience of all time, actually I would do it again in a heartbeat.