Bringing Up Bella Eveline

Keith and I were faced with the challenge of air travel early in Bella’s life.  Sadly, Bella’s paternal grandmother, Miriam, passed away in Pennsylvania last August when Bella was just 2.5 months old.  We didn’t have time to panic about traveling, as we bought our tickets an hour before the flight took off, since we had to get there quickly.  We bought Bella her own seat, because we didn’t know what it would be like to travel with her and also because we wanted the whole row of seats.  I didn’t want any potentially sick strangers sitting next to us and breathing their germs on the girl-Princess.  Yep, germaphobia runs rampant in my head at ALL times.  We got so lucky – she slept the entire flight – in her car seat.  Not a peep from her the entire 3 hours on the plane!  Hardly believable, right?

MY seat!

Fast forward to November.  Bella was almost 6 months old.  We flew to Pennsylvania for Turkey Day.  Once again, she was a trooper on the flight there.  She ate well, she stayed mostly quiet.  All good.  On the way back, however, she decided to POOP as soon as we took off.  Now, mind you, she doesn’t mind sitting around in a dirty diaper one bit.  But, there was no way to hide what had happened.  I think the whole plane could smell Bella, 36 rows back!  I did a reconnaissance mission to the bathroom.  Yuck.  Maybe Double Yuck.  What ARE people thinking that join the Mile High Club?  I didn’t even want to take my daughter’s pants off in there (on paper towels over the diaper pad), so surely you will never catch me taking mine off in there for any reason!  I decided it had to be quick.  No time for the germs to attach.  Bella and I were in and out of there in record time.  All fresh and clean again.  and LOTS of hand sanitizer.  Everywhere.

This past weekend we went to Nassau, Bahamas.  We decided for a 26 minute flight it would be a waste to purchase a ticket/seat for the Princess.  It was kind of cute having her on our laps – for the first 2 minutes. She’s in a very squirmy stage.  She wants to be sitting up on her own, not being held.  Good thing we brought lots of toys and know EVERY animal noise possible for Old MacDonald’s Farm!  Oh, and apparently altitude is what makes her poop – couldn’t be a coincidence!  This time, we were on our descent into Fort Lauderdale, so I wasn’t allowed to get up to change her.  That damn seatbelt sign!  Our friends 10 rows back said they even smelled her!  There was another baby on the flight, so I blamed it on her… Of course.  Bella had to wait until we could get to the “uber-clean” (insert sarcasm) airport bathroom to get her bottom cleaned this time.  Pretty much just as disgusting as in the air.

Next month the three of us head to Las Vegas.  Bella is getting lots of frequent flyer miles!  She is a real pro at the security pat-down by now too, since I don’t want to put her through the X-ray machine (I had a hamster once that lost all its hair after going through one, so I’m not taking the chance with the baby).  I guess for the next trip, we just need to stock up on more diapers.  And LOTS of hand sanitizer!