Flying with an Infant

When Eva was four months old, I flew with her to Kentucky. Little did I know that that experience was going to be the easiest time I’d have flying with a baby. It even started off with a blowout before we got onto the plane. Washing her dirty pants in the airport bathroom sink was a breeze compared to trying to entertain a squirmy, always-on-the-go, ten month old.

I didn’t give Eva a second nap the day we flew to Kentucky because I hoped it would help her sleep on the plane. She’d get drowsy, but then pop back up and ready to play some more. I’d get frustrated because I knew she was sleepy so I’d try to force her to lay down in my arms, but that would just lead to her throwing a fit and me hiding the tears from the people next to me.

There were a couple good things though about the flight that really did help. I paid the extra $40 to be in a row with extra leg room. It was brilliant because she sat in front of me a lot of the time and played. Also, there was no one in the middle seat so we had extra room and I could use the middle seat tray to hold my drink. At the end of the flight though, I was worn out, had a headache and was considering never coming back to Utah because I never wanted to fly again.

But obviously that wasn’t an option. The day of my flight back to Salt Lake, I decided to have Eva sleep as much as possible before the flight and to not even try to have her take a nap on the plane. I filled my carryon with lots of toys and distractions for Eva, snacks, and we played for the entire 3.5 hours. There were no tears and so I wasn’t an emotional wreck at the end of the flight.

We are flying to Texas this week. Wish us luck and pray that I have enough energy to keep this baby of mine entertained on the flight!