She also does NOT sleep in random places like some other toddlers you may see out there. Jane will only fall asleep in her crib if the room is totally dark and silent, or in the car seat when the car is on the freeway. Not in our arms or in the stroller... not on a plane, not on a train. Not in a tree or by the sea. She will not sleep just anywhere, she will not sleep at all, I swear! So I knew I would need to keep her entertained for the whole flight.
Turns out everything went fine. I made special toys that she had never seen before so she found those interesting, and was pretty happy to sit on Mom or Dad's lap most of the time. She did slip down the floor occasionally to see what was in the diaper bag, but there's wasn't much room for maneuvering:
The most useful thing we brought was probably the ipod, which I had loaded up beforehand with baby einstein movies and her favorite: Tangled. Jane LOVES Tangled and will sit quietly forever and watch it and giggle at that crazy horse. I think Jane only cried for about five minutes on the whole flight, which isn't bad for two hours.
I was also very impressed by the stunning view of Mount Hood as we passed it by. Luckily we were sitting on the left side of the plane!
Our flight was in the morning, so we got to our hotel around midday and got settled in while Jane took a short nap. We also went to a grocery store and got stocked up on some food for the week. After an early dinner we headed out to Multnomah falls, which is a short drive out of Portland, an even shorter hike, and a lovely view.
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| This was what I watched as we went back down the trail. Lots of stripes! |
The biggest thing we noticed about Portland right away was how green everything is. Beautiful! Because of the spray from the falls, this area was even greener if that's possible. Lush and mossy.
That was all we had time for our first day. Jane did great even after the flight and seemed totally excited to be in a new place and seeing new things. I think she's a traveler at heart!
4 comments:
This post has given me hope, Breanne. We are taking Collin on his first flight this weekend, and like Jane, he only sleeps in his crib, and is constantly on the go. I have been absolutely panicking about the flight, but now I feel a little better. We will load up the iPods with Sesame Street, and hopefully he will make it as well as Jane did!
Awesome, Taylor! Where are you headed? One piece of advice I have to give is: be careful with the bottles. All the sites I read said to give the baby a bottle on the ascent and descent, but since our flight was only two hours, that was TOO much milk! Jane actually threw up a little bit when we landed, she just had too much milk in her, poor thing.
If your flight is short, I'd say give a bottle for takeoff, and the on the descent just give him sips from a sippie cup - once every 20 seconds or so, and hopefully it won't be too much.
The other thing that helped for the take off was I waited to give Jane the bottle until we were literally hurtling down the runway! It's surprising how much time it takes to taxi and then sit on the runway, and they only really need to swallow when you're in the air.
Good luck with everything!
Those are such beautiful pictures! That beach looked awesome despite the wind.
Phynley's favorite movie is Tangled too. Can't get this kid to sit still for anything, but if it's tangled she is all about it :) glad the flight went smooth. Phyn doesn't sleep well in strange places either but will sleep in the car and stroller. Looks like you had fun!
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