Of course, we didn't pack anything up until the night before and then found it challenging to pack light with a baby. Ha! I think we did well though. We had one big suitcase, a backpack for Nolan, our laptops, and of course the carseat and stroller. We just had to check the big suitcase and carseat. Luckily, all checked luggage made it everywhere just fine.
Nolan's night schedule has been hit and miss lately. Overwhelmingly, he's just been getting up once somewhere between 3am-5am and going back to sleep until about 8am. However, last week we had some regression and he was getting up about twice a night again. Not sure what that was about.
The morning we were leaving, he woke up at like exactly the wrong time - 4am. By the time I'd changed him and fed him, I didn't really have time to go back to sleep when we were getting up at 5:00 in attempt to try to leave the house by 6:00. So, I was just up at 4 o'clock for the day.
We left the house at like 6:05 too! I was impressed - we tend to be more late nowadays.
We arrived at the airport at about 7:55 and with our flight not leaving until 9:30, we both felt this would be plenty of time. False.
The curbside bag check took forever. Then, security took forever. I was hoping to get to nurse Nolan before we got on the plane, but there was no time.
We had even checked-in with early-bird check-in and was in the A boarding group, but didn't even arrive to our gate until the B group was already boarding.
Super stressful.
So, Nolan was already a little cranky, and I know the kid had to be hungry.
Nonetheless, he surprised us. He whimpered out a little whine twice on the departing flight. When we landed in Dallas, the surrounding passengers complimented at how well he'd done.
Very first plane ride for Nolan
About to take off
I was just relieved he did fine and it didn't seem to bother him.
Our Aunt Ivy picked us up from the airport and shortly after that we were at our cousin Jessica's place where we'd be for the weekend.
I was pretty excited that we didn't have a busy schedule and the plan was basically just to relax and hang out and get to enjoy the company of family that we don't see that often while they got to meet Nolan.
We were super bummed that his other set of grandparents couldn't make it due to illnesses. Though, I am extra grateful that they didn't come and risk exposing Nolan to something contagious.
Nolan hanging out with some of his aunts:
Aunt Ellen
Aunt Tracey
Aunt Ivy
Aunt Kathie
Aunt Vicki
Saturday was so hot. It was a sticky, humid, heavy heat. I do not believe the temperature was only 83 degrees. We went to this beautiful flower/garden/park place (I can't remember the name). They had beautiful flower arrangements. But, it was pretty miserable to be outdoors. My baby thought so too. He did okay for about 10 minutes, then he started whining. Well, that quickly escalated into full blown crying fit. I felt so bad for him. I know he was hot, and when he got upset he was just making himself more hot. We tried as much as we could. We tried staying in the shade, I stripped off his shorts, we patted him down with a cool wet cloth, I tried to feed him. Nothing. He was so uncomfortable. I started feeling like a bad mom, because I'm pretty certain he actually got legitimate heat exhaustion. He started to get some heat hives, and his little face was red and blotchy and a little swollen. That's when Aunt Ivy offered up to take us back to her car and sit in the a/c. We quickly agreed.
Nolan's eyes were real red and puffy and his little lips were too. It was breaking my heart.
As soon as we were in the cool though, he calmed right down. But he still wouldn't eat, and his skin was pale, clammy, and cool to the touch.
He was dozing on and off, but mainly just real calm sitting on my lap in the car. It didn't that long before the rest of our crew was finished and we were back off to Jessica's house.
Before he was upset
I think we all pretty much feel like Nolan at this point
Hot, upset, baby... but hey look at this pretty tree
Daddy's trying to help him cool off and calm down
The rest of the day was spent hanging out and eating food. We hung out down by the little pool for a bit, but we hadn't brought swimming suits :/
Cory and Uncle Tim trying to figure out some wordplay game
When Aunt Kathie arrived, her puppies loved Nolan! And Nolan was pretty entertained by them too. It was definitely a change from the complete denial that Aiko's still in.
Puppy love
She got him pretty good right on the mouth, which was hilarious because Nolan loves to try to get anything near his mouth in his mouth... so he opened up real wide for that slobbery kiss :/
Our weekend crew
Cousins! (Jessica, Anthony, Me, Cory, Nolan)
Lots of picture taking going on ;)
Our last day there was full of good-byes, as Aunt Tracey and Aunt Ellen left out in the morning for their drives back home, and then after lunch as we headed to the airport with Aunt Vicki and Uncle Tim.
Nolan did about as well on the return flight, except for he did do his "eagle scream" once (as Uncle Tim labeled it). Then, poor baby, about 20 minutes before landing he scratched the crap out of his face. He must've caught the inner corner of his eye and scratched downward just below it too. It even bled! He screamed real good about that. Which was just terrible, because here he'd made through about the whole flight and then only gets hysterical because he'd scratched himself. Poor baby.
Also, that return flight was about the most uncomfortable I've been on a plane. My sinuses were kind of shot though so that might've had something to do with it. But, when we started descending towards St. Louis, the head pressure was intense for me. I had this splitting headache all around my forehead and on top of my head. It freaked me out, because it'd never happened to me before. That was also the exact moment Nolan screamed too. So, might've just been something with the descend that messed with us a bit :(
But this is what he did for most of the flight :)
I had an absolute blast hanging out and catching up with that side of the family. They are full of truly fun personalities. We had a blast. I hope we start making more visits out to see them now so Nolan can know and love them too :)
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