cheesygarcia.com

Mar 30

butch and i went to babies ‘r us yesterday to shop for some of matt’s stuff. we bought him a fisher-price rainforest open-top cradle swing to help him with his daytime naps. he seems to enjoy it, although i think he is too curious with all that’s going on for him to be able to really fall asleep. he has slept while on the swing a few times, although only in half an hour blocks.

now if only i had this while i was still in canberra, it would’ve saved matt and i a lot of grief during the day!

Mar 28

my baby the jetsetter

so we finally arrived in LA at 10.20 this morning. the canberra-sydney flight was uneventful, matt just slept all throughout. the sydney-la flight however, was a bit more difficult. i have to give matt some credit though, i was expecting the worst but he was quite well behaved (aka sleeping) in the second half of the trip. the most annoying thing was actually getting a vegan meal i did not order

i am so lucky that kirsten and garrett (?) from texas gave me a hand during those times when i had to eat and go to the loo. i guess travelling alone with a little baby brings out everyone’s helpful side.

some things i have learned from this trip:

try to bring only one hand carry luggage - the usual diaper bag probably isn’t big enough to carry all the stuff you need, so use the biggest bag allowed for hand carry luggage. a wheelie bag is probably good too, especially if you are on your own.
have a small pouch with all the essentials - since you will have to put your hand carry luggage in the overhead locker, it is best to have a small pouch with everything you need for a diaper change.
take out all the stuff you need and put it in the pocket in front of your seat - i put matt’s bottle, formula, bib, dummy and muslin wrap in the pocket
use a muslin wrap as a curtain for the bassinet so that baby is not distracted by people passing by - i personally did not do this (i didn’t have to cos matt hardly used the bassinet) but the couple who sat next to me did this for their baby. hopefully next time we fly he’s going to sleep in the bassinet.
order a vegetarian meal when booking the flight - i did not do this myself but somehow still ended up with a vegetarian meal. however this worked in my favour cos i got to eat first and kirsten held matt while i was eating.
fill in the paperwork as soon as you get a chance - i did this when matt slept in the bassinet for 5 minutes. i knew i was going to have to hold him while he slept so filling in the paperwork before landing really helped me become (and feel) more organised

if i didn’t book a bassinet for matt, i would’ve rather sat in an aisle seat in “normal rows”, at least i can lift the armrest to make more room for breastfeeding. it was really awkward trying to breastfeed matt cos the armrest was fixed.

although matt’s first flying experience wasn’t as difficult as i imagined it would be, i’m not in a hurry to fly again

Mar 26

ergobaby carrier

i went over to the bubs shop at fyshwick this morning to buy the ergobaby carrier and infant insert. i was originally going to take the baby bjorn to the airport but i realised how fussy it is to take on and off. plus i put matt in it yesterday to do a sort of dry run but he just hated it!

anyway so i tried the ergo today and he wasn’t too happy at first but after a few minutes he fell asleep (and still sleeping!)… my only concern is that he looks a bit squished so i’m not sure if i’ve put him in correctly. but i suppose if he’s sleeping soundly then that means he’s comfy, otherwise i’m pretty sure he’d let me know about it!

here’s matt looking a bit nalugi after being put inside the ergo: