The Flight....

I feel that I am ready to talk about the day now.... enough time has passed and I am ready to reface the experience :)

Now that we are living in Rio the trip to the airport really isn't a big deal. Like all major cities we had to plan around rush hour and debated getting to the airport early or risk being late. We opted on the side of caution and left our house around 545 pm for my 9pm flight. We arrived at the airport and checked Nate in for his flight to Salvador, he had a work trip and planned it around our flight, and then he escorted me to the international terminal to help me check in with Belle. In Brazil when flying alone with a Brazilian child, Belle, you have to carry a signed notarized document from the absent parent stating that it's ok for the child to leave the country. Nate wanted to be there just in case there were any problems.

Check-in went great. Belle just seemed to be excited and looking around everywhere and everything. Despite it being past her bedtime she didn't fuss too much.... as long as I was walking her with the stroller. Security was great and super helpful and immigration was a breeze. All of our documentation was in order and no problems at all.

Boarding went great and Belle even smiled the entire time. We sat in the two seats next to the window and the plane wasn't really that full (thankfully). Shortly after take off the crying began. Of course anyone who has ever flown with an infant will tell you to nurse, give a bottle, or even give a pacifier to help ease the pain of the altitude and pressure changes. Unfortunately what I later found out was that when an infant has an ear infection they don't want to do any of that because it makes their ears hurt more.

After 30 min of straight screaming she finally passed out on my shoulder and I was able to lay her down on her tummy in her seat. I thought to myself now that she is out the hard part is over and I will eat dinner and watch a movie and stay awake to make sure she doesn't roll off the seat onto the floor.

You can't really see her that well but she looked so peaceful!
At this point in the flight I truly was optomistic that things would be great.

Then after about 1.5hrs, I am guessing because my romantic comedy wasn't over yet, Belle started to stir and try to roll. I figured she was just shifting positions so I let her manuver the best she could but to her best efforts she failed. The screaming began once again. I quickly picked her up and tried to nurse back to sleep but she screamed even louder when I tried. I searched for the emergency pacifier I had in my bag and kept her up right rocking her while I tried to get her to take it. I just kept thinking that she needed to suck so her ears would pop. She refused my efforts to calm her.

At this point all the stares from the other passengers trying to sleep began. Belle is full on arching, kicking, pulling my hair, throwing herself around in my arms bawling. I stand up and just sway and rock with her in the asle but do I risk walking and waking the entire plane or just my area? Luckily she stopped crying while she started down at the awake passengers and started squawking at them to look at her.

Great. I thought to myself. She is messing with me!!

I end up walking her to the back of the plane to ask the flight attendents if they have any children's benadryl on hand that I can give her since Brazil doensn't sell any. Unfortunately they didn't have anything but they played with her a little and offered their support. I gave her some of the infant's ibuprofen that I had packed just in case of a moment like this.

Only 7 more hours of flight left.

She starts yawning again so I take her back to the seat to try and nurse her again. She finally accepts it and starts to fall asleep. THANK YOU! Then BAMM. Screaming starts again! What in the world???

The guy behind me adibly says, "for the love of god would she just falls asleep already." At this point I am soooo frustrated becuase nothing I do is working. She finally falls asleep in my arms and I do not dare move her. I vow to hold her the entire flight if it kills me.

The silence lasts for maybe 45 min and then the screaming starts again.... this time a flight attendent comes over to facilitate the problem. I am sure that some complaints were being said. I started to cry because I am just so absolutely over whelmed. (Actually every time I get to this part of the story I cry again and tryping it out is no different. Tears really are coming down my face.)

She stays quiet for awhile but eventually I have to stand up and rock her to make her fall asleep standing up. This time I lay her back down in the seat on her tummy. It's 4 am at this point and we have 3 hrs left in the flight. She sleep until 6ish and then wakes up but I pick her up and hold her and she crashes again until we are about to land.

I am one of the first ones off the flight but one of the last to go through immigration because I have to wait on my stroller.

Then my bag was one of the last off the belt. By now other international flights are landing and the security line is backed up soooo far. She breezed through without incident and seemed to be in better spirits.

We make a B-line to our next gate where I let her crawl all over the nasty carpeted airport floor. At this point I could care less what she did as long as she was happy and I couldn't hold her anymore. I catch stares from everyone in the terminal but I could have walked around naked and not cared as long as she was smiling.

Thankfully the next flight was only 1 and 7 min.... yes I know the exact time. She slept for about 45 min of it all but didn't cry when she woke up so I count that as a win!

My parents met me at the airport and we had breakfest together and I finally thought that she would get some rest. WRONG.

Make a long story just a little less long I made a dr.'s appointment for the next morning becasue obviously something else is going on. Ear infection!!! Yea!!! Things will get better for both of us :)

This will be her fourth day on antibiotics and she is feeling great and back to her normal self. Crawling everywhere and loving life. Her appetite is back and so is her sleep!

Now we plan on enjoying the great weather, family, and friends.

Tchau,
Sara