They say it's good to take a child on an airplane early, so they aren't as afraid to fly later in life. I'm a little nervous to fly, usually only on the first flight, but I would like our son to feel more comfortable with it.
The process started more than two months ago, when we booked the flights. A baby flies very inexpensively (without a seat) on Swiss, but you still have to pay the airport taxes and fees. Swiss charged something like $60, but airport taxes and fees come out to something like $700. I think the only reason Swiss charged us was because we reserved a bassinet that mounts to the wall, which also guarantees us the seats in the front row that have extra leg room. He gets one checked bag that we used for mostly our stuff, so that was a plus.
Exactly six weeks before the trip we went to the post office to get him a passport. I know it was exactly six weeks because we chose not to expedite the passport and hope that it would come on time. They give you the option to change the shipping method along the way if it's not going fast enough too; you can track its progress online, and if it's not going to get to you it can be overnighted for some fee. His passport came at about 3 1/2 to 4 weeks so we didn't need to. We both had to be there with him at the post office and I'm sure we both had to show our IDs, and we needed a copy of his birth certificate that would be sent in with the form to get his passport. If you need the birth certificate for anything else before the passport comes make sure you have an extra copy! The woman at the post office had a white blanket that she put behind him in the car seat for his picture. It was lucky she could find the blanket, it would be a good thing to bring on your own in case they don't have it there. And their blanket was filthy. She took his picture about eight times, because she would say cutesy things to get him to look then stop to look in the camera and he would look away. She got a picture consistent with the quality of most grown ups' ID pictures (his tongue was out a little), and the process was underway.
Flying over was perfect. We thought, if only he could take a nap up until boarding, and wake up hungry just as the plane is beginning to ascend. To help him deal with the change in pressure as the plane ascends the pediatrician told us we should be feeding him during takeoff. It went exactly as planned, although we did allow him to squirm and complain a bit as the plane was taxiing. I was worried that he would finish the bottle and not want to eat anymore and hurt himself during takeoff. I don't know if it is possible for it to get to the point where he starts rupturing things in his ear drum or sinuses, but I didn't want it to get anywhere close. I could have given into my wife's pleading and let her feed him when we started taxiing but I wanted to wait until they rev up the engines to take off to start feeding him. He drank the bottle while we yawned away and he never felt any discomfort.
We had the bassinet attachment, which went right on the wall between business class and economy where we sat. I thought it was funny that the people one row in front paid and extra thousand dollars to sit so close to where there could be a screaming baby, but I think they give them noise canceling headphones so they're fine. Well taken care of, in fact. You can't use the bassinet when the seat belt sign is on, and we didn't want to either. There was only one time it came on during the flight over, and no one came to make us take him out, but we thought it best to follow the rule. He was sleeping peacefully and we didn't want to possibly wake him up, but we didn't want to tempt fate by leaving him in the bassinet. Fortunately, he slept right up until landing.
Landing was more difficult, because he wasn't hungry really. He associates the pacifier with being put down for a nap, and didn't want to take a nap, so was very opposed to taking it. He would fuss and start to cry and take it for a moment, then spit it right out. Then I'm sure the pressure would build until he began to fuss again, and finally he would take the pacifier again. Overall it wasn't bad, you just have to pay complete attention to the child and expect them to squirm all over the place and make a little noise. Compared to the older kids on the plane he was no problem at all. It was the 1-year-olds that did most of the screaming on the plane.
Jet lag wasn't an issue going over, but it really became a problem when we returned home. I always find it easier to travel to Europe, while my father-in-law (who lives there) says he finds it easier to come to the United States. I always thought it was easier to travel to Europe because the flight is about 6 hours and the time difference is also 6 hours. The Boston to Zurich flight leaves at 9:40pm, you sleep a little on the plane, and when you wake up it is mid morning in Zurich, around 10am. It's somewhat disruptive but if you can get as much sleep as you can on the plane you can adjust quickly. At least I usually do. When you travel west, it's almost like lost time. The flight from Zurich to Boston leaves at 5:40pm or so, and you arrive back in Boston at 7pm after 8 hours in the air. You might get a nap in on the plane but it's almost time to go to sleep again when you arrive in the US. The other factor is there's an excitement when you go someplace different; you have something to look forward to when you arrive. Coming home means going back to work, cleaning the apartment, paying bills, and returning to the daily grind. The motivation to return to normal isn't as exciting as seeing new sights. I don't think these necessarily factor into a baby's internal timing, but something has made it much more difficult to come back. He's been waking up really early in the morning, as we all were during the vacation, but we've been trying to keep him up at night and taking him out in the sun as much as we can to reinforce the local time. I've wanted nothing more than to go to bed early myself but we've forced ourselves to take afternoon and evening walks with him. It's not something they recommend, but we've been sleeping with him in the bed too, because he'll often sleep more if we're there with him. It's supposed to be very dangerous because of the obvious risks of falling out or rolling over him, but I honestly feel that there's an awareness that we have when he's in the bed that doesn't allow us to completely fall asleep out of fear. People with extreme jobs and very tiring shifts may not experience this when they come off a 24-hour shift, but I don't sleep 100% when I know he's there. And people have been co-sleeping with their children for longer than recorded human history, so it can be made to work. I'm getting worried that he'll get used to it and we'll have a child that won't sleep without going to his parents' bed, but he's still young enough that we can still avoid this.
Taking our baby to Europe was amazing, and I hope that by taking him on the airplane so young he'll be an easy traveler throughout his life. We'll see how things go next year or next flight, whichever comes first.
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