Back From Trip

Traveling for the first with a baby (an aggressive one at that) was definitely challenging. We were in Bandung for 4 days. The journey there was not so bad. The first hour of the flight was spent playing with a little bit of tantrum here and there, but for the next hour the baby was asleep until we touched down. We were lucky that there was an empty seat next to us because the extra space made the flight more comfortable. He didn't get any air pressure in his ears, thanks to breastfeeding during take off and being deep in slumber when landing.

The rest of the trip was a fast blur. It was raining almost every day, starting from noon till night so getting around was difficult. The baby refused to eat the banana, avocado and rice cereal that I brought along, so he ended up eating only Farley Rusk's. He didn't seem unsatisfied or hungry, though. So, yeah. Probably it was the change of surrounding. Anyway. When we went shopping, he was either ecstatic to see all the new faces (he can get a bit too friendly) or angry because he wanted to get down on the floor and crawl. Bedtime was not so bad. He's used to sleeping in his cot back home, so he had all the space to himself to roll around before falling asleep. Therefore sharing beds with his Ibu and Ayah on this trip was a bit frustrating for him due to the lack of space. But he complied, such a good boy.

The flight back to Malaysia was almost disastrous. Compare to the plane going to Bandung, this one was smaller. Leg space was so tight, and I'm only 155 cm tall short! The baby was screaming right before take off, fell asleep almost instantly during take off, woke up 30 minutes later and continued throwing tantrums for almost the rest of the flight. There was no empty seat this time around. A teenage boy sat next to us kept throwing irritated looks whenever the baby started screaming and stared whenever I was nursing. The husband was this close to poking the kid's eyes out. I had a nursing poncho on, but nursing an aggressive baby means having him grabbing everything from my hair to the poncho while lifting his legs up and twisting his body around. There were times when I happily took off the poncho and realized that I forgot to zip up my top, baring my brassiere for the whole world to see. So I don't know whether the teenage boy managed to catch a glimpse of that. It'll either make him very happy or very disturbed by the image.

I think the best tip for flying with a baby is to bring along some cute stickers. Yes, stickers. These stickers were our lifesavers! It kept the baby entertained for a good period of time. His other toys that I brought along was thrown on the floor every time I handed one to him.

He almost put a sticker on a man's head who was seating in front of us.

Though challenging and difficult, we couldn't be happier to have the baby along with us. At the end of the day, patience and a sense of humour made this whole trip possible.