Lessons learned & a proud moment

Here's our proud moment: 1st vacation with Oliver that involved a flight across the country and we cloth diapered the whole time :-) I wasn't sure I'd want to deal with that with a flight and somebody else's house. But, we made it work. It was no extra effort at all.

On to lessons learned:

• Bottle or food on take-off and landing. Wake up the baby if he/she's asleep. I didn't do this and he woke up crying on our landing in the last flight.
• A few new toys. I got 3 new things for him and brought them out 1 by 1. Each was good for a good half hour and then I put them away and took them out on our way back and it was all new to him again.
• Take the window seat next time. On the first flight, we took the aisle and the middle seat, and I had to put my leg up to stop Oli form crawling to the guy sitting in the window seat. On the way back, we had the window seat and he was fascinated with looking out the window, banging on it etc.
• Don't drag the stroller for a 3-4 day vacation where we are going to a wedding and related functions. My cousins took him for a walk one day but otherwise we never even took the stroller out of the car. So, really evaluate what you'll be doing on vacation before dragging another piece of equipment.
• The Ergo carrier was AWESOME! At BWI, they even let me carry him in it through the metal detector. At OAK, I had to take him out and send the carrier through the x-ray machine but it was still worth it to have it. He was in it while we waited in line to board; I wore him on my hip and he just looked around at people the whole time.
• My kid sleeps better on vacation than when we get back home. So, be prepared for a few days adjusting back to normal schedule after every vacation. I was happy he did so well on vacation, I wasn't prepared for the sleep regression we are going through now.
• If there's a washing machine available, don't over pack for the baby. I took 3 times the number of clothes I needed for him.