Anna watching Bear Snores On in Frankfurt airport.
Anna sleeping from Frankfurt to Denver; she fell asleep just after take-off.
Sarah sleeping in the bassinet.
The girls did amazingly well on our trip. Anna had a few moments where she didn't want to listen to reason but they were just that: moments. And, thankfully, they were few and far between. I don't know how I would have done it if my my wasn't there though. She pretty much took care of Anna and I took care of Sarah.
It started out Monday night: we put the kids to bed as usual (Sarah around 6:30 and Anna by 7:30). Anna had a pretty major meltdown at bedtime that made me extra nervous for our trip. We woke both girls up at 9:30 and we were in the cars (Craig hired a driver to take all of our stuff since we and our luggage wouldn't all fit in the Korando) and on the way to the airport before 10 PM.
My mom and I juggled the bags through the first security checkpoint (before the ticket counters) and again through the second (after the ticket counters). We were lucky enough to skip the long lines and go through the "ladies only" line at passport control. We were also let into the gate area after not too long. There we waited for the bus to take us to our plane.
There was a minor incident getting on the bus as the gate agent told us we could leave Anna in her stroller to get on the bus but I couldn't help my mom lift the stroller onto the bus (I had Sarah in the sling) so I asked a man to help my mom. Three men zoomed in and lifted Anna's stroller onto the bus and she freaked out. She was absolutely terrified and I again worried that this was going to be a rough trip.
We ended up with a row to ourselves. We put the armrest up in the middle two seats and Anna was able to sleep lying down. I held Sarah with my arm resting on the Boppy. (I did originally have the bulkhead with bassinet reserved but the other woman in that row had two kids and one apparently had bronchitis so I didn't want to sit with them—the mom wasn't particularly interested in soothing her child, either so we had to listen to a lot of whining and coughing from the poor kid before he fell asleep.) Anna fell asleep maybe three hours into the flight and we had to wake her up when we were getting close to Frankfurt.
We had a seven-hour layover in Frankfurt and we were lucky to find three seats together to camp out in right away. We were near the bathrooms and restaurants but we were also right on the busy pathway so I had an annoying time with nursing (I don't care to nurse in public anyway and this was just too many people, too noisy, etc.). At any rate, Sarah did sleep most of the time and was a super easy traveler as I don't think she complained at all the entire trip.
On our flight from Frankfurt to Denver, I had the bassinet again and a 12-year-old boy sat next to me. My mom & Anna had the seats behind me. My mom held Sarah on take-off and I sat next to Anna. Anna fell asleep shortly after take-off and then my mom & I switched places. The seat in the bulkhead row on the side of the aircraft were super narrow (because the trays come out of the arm of the seat there) and the only way I could nurse Sarah was to sit sideways a bit. But, once the bassinet was installed she would have been bumping her head on the bassinet, so we went downstairs to the bathroom each time she had to eat (besides the fact that I didn't really want to breastfeed next to a 12-year-old boy anyway). The bassinet was an arm-saver though!
I bought Anna a special seat belt for the plane so we wouldn't have to lug her carseat around the airports but Anna didn't really like it so my mom wanted me to sit next to her for the landing because Anna wouldn't listen to her about wearing the seatbelt. After we switched and about ten minutes before we landed in Denver, Anna threw up all over. I asked the flight attendant if I had time to change her and I did. So I got Anna cleaned up and wiped off the seatbelt, threw Elmo in a plastic bag (he was soaked), and we put a few clean blankets on Anna's seat and she was back in the seatbelt before we landed.
We waited what felt like an eternity to get our luggage (six checked items including carseats) and then met my dad on the other side of customs. Finally, we were on our way to my parents house! I gave Anna a bath and put her to bed at 6:30 PM and Sarah was in bed by 7 PM. Anna slept until 4:00 AM and Sarah was up three times after 7 instead of her usual one time.
