Baby M has never been the best sleeper. The first four months of her life were grindingly slow on account of it. I enjoyed them but it sure was rough. For everyone.
Our June trip to Reno, NV was a test run of sorts for our big international move. We left BWI at 6 or 7 in the morning. This necessitated a 3 am wake up call and an hour drive to Baltimore. You'd think she'd sleep on that flight. Nope. She slept for maybe 20 minutes on that first flight to Salt Lake. It was painful. I hadn't slept myself the night before - packing, packing, all the packing. I kept dozing off and being awoken by Baby M wriggling out of my lap. Over and over. Luckily we were seated next to a little girl flying as an unaccompanied minor who thought Maggie was a hoot. The flight from Salt Lake to Reno was a dream. She slept pretty much from wheels up to wheels down. Sadly it's a short flight - think barely time for the drinks service. On the way home, we flew to Salt Lake again and it was dinner time so everyone was awake. Short flight so not a big deal. Next we flew back to Baltimore. The girls slept. I thought we were golden. No such luck - Baby M woke up halfway through and just couldn't get comfy. After showing a distinct preference during her first year for sleeping while held by, or curled around me she is OVER IT. She wants to sleep laying flat and when you are a lap infant, that's not a thing you can do. She kept digging her toes into the poor girl sitting next to me while trying to stretch out. Luckily she was quiet and willing to sit in my lap. Some of the time at least. I didn't think it was too bad but I figured it couldn't get too much worse either. Wrong.
Our flight from DC took us through Frankfurt. When the government flies you everyone gets a seat. I was hoping that this would be the magic ticket - Maggie would have her own seat so she'd sleep in her car seat. In hindsight I have no idea why I thought this would work. We had just finished a road trip to Syracuse, NY which proved (again) that Maggie just isn't a fan of sleeping in her car seat. I'm talking screaming bloody murder for over an hour during a driving rainstorm. Wild times man. Luckily the trip to NY was totally worth it.
The flight to Frankfurt was, how to say it? The worst flight of my life. We were on a plane with a 3-3-3 layout and we had the stage left three and one across the aisle. We had Jo at the window, me in the middle, Baby M on the aisle and Adam across the aisle. Before we took off, a nice flight attendant informed us that car seats are a no-go on the aisle. What to do? Luckily Adam was sitting next to two empty seats so we traded Jo over to the middle one next to him and put Baby M at the window next to me. We effectively now had 6 seats. Score. Even better, Maggie went to sleep. In her car seat. However, 40 minutes later she was awake and would not go back to sleep for more than 7 or eight minutes at a time. It's an 8 hour flight folks. It started at 10pm. She was like worst snooze button of my life. By the time we got close to the end of our flight, I literally couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I sat her down on the floor in front of me and blocked the aisle. Then I kept jolting awake thinking she had made it into the aisle and off down the plane. It was brutal. I can't wait until she's interested enough in a screen/movie to make travel reasonable again. The countdown is on. Nemo will save us all.
(Frankfurt to Riyadh was a cakewalk by comparison and I have no idea what was different about it. Nonplussed folks. Totally nonplussed)
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