More details on flying

A friend on Facebook asked if we had any tips after our long plane ride, so I thought I would elaborate a little on that.

First of all, my dad requested a bulkhead row for us, which turned out to be a great thing. We didn't end up getting our baby to sleep in the bassinet that came along with it, but we did use the bassinet to store all of our stuff! More importantly, we got lots of extra leg room in the bulkhead row, which saved us from worrying about the kids incessantly kicking the seats in front of them.

Finally, we had a three and one seating arrangement, with Sacha and the big kids in the three seats and me and our lap baby in the one seat across the aisle. We seriously lucked out in that there were some extra seats on the plane and that the guy behind us offered to switch rows so that the baby and I would have more space. We happily said yes to that one!

I did a lot of research on international travel with kids before we left, and one of the most valuable tips was to bring plenty of food. We devoted a whole backpack to food, including granola bars, sandwiches, and chewy candy to help with kids' ears on the way up and down. As we were on our long, long, looooong descent into Paris, Mateo and I had an extremely satisfying little candy party in celebration! It helped his ears and gave us both a little extra energy.

I think my last piece of helpful advice is just to roll with things. We had some long periods on the plane where none of the kids were asleep and all were extremely tired and it seemed like we would be stuck in plane hell for the rest of our lives! However, that, like all things, eventually came to an end, and we did eventually make it.

It helped to just take things one minute at a time and not try to think beyond that. I have been trying to remember that same lesson in the last few days, as we have been dealing with jet lag and wakeful kids at all hours of the night. I try to remember that this, too, shall pass, and that everyone has to succumb to sleep at some point, even if it is at 3 am!.

I'm sure there are many other things I'm forgetting, but those are the things that come to mind about what helped get us through.

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