The Ups and Downs of Travelling With a 3-Month-Old by Lisa R.

So we made it, and with only a few hiccups. To start, I got a new cellphone the other day, and you're supposed to let the battery fully drain before charging it, and sure enough, it just about fully drained yesterday on my way to Calgary. The low-battery warning chime kept chiming, and I would prefer to have a cellphone available to me while on the highway. And it did come in handy yesterday on the highway, but not for an emergency reason. Ryan was doing a job near Airdrie, and he was finished at about the time we'd be driving by Airdrie, so he called and Ty and I met him for a few minutes so he could give each of us a kiss good-bye. Sweet, I know!

Back to our journey. I had decided to park in the parkade at the airport for convenience sake, but when I got there, the parkade was full (parking at the Calgary airport from Christmas through spring break is a nightmare!) so I had to park in the overflow parking behind the parkade. This was not ideal because I then had to walk through the overflow parking lot, through the parkade, across to the terminal, and all the way to the other end of the terminal where the West Jet counter is, with a 17-pound baby strapped to me in a Baby Bjorn and while carrying a diaper bag and pulling a suitcase which West Jet promptly labelled "heavy". When I finally got to the West Jet counter, the guy asks me to put my "heavy" suitcase on the scale, while he can clearly see I have this baby, who is now getting a little antsy, strapped to my body and I'm juggling a diaper bag and fumbling around for our boarding pass and ID. I just looked at him and said, "Could you not do that?" He obliged.

Then when I got to security with Ty still strapped to me and still fumbling with my boarding pass and diaper bag, the security guard said to me, "Would you be able to take off your belt?" I just stared at him. "No", was my answer, and I proceeded to walk through the metal detector without setting it off. Honestly, people, can you not give a mom a break?

After making my way to the gate, I was happy that the mother's room at Gate D was not occupied. The Calgary airport has this room with a sink, a long counter for changing your baby, and a rocking chair that is completely private, so I parked myself in there and fed and changed Ty and took my time until I was less flustered. I came out of there feeling refreshed and holding a happy baby, no longer confined to the Baby Bjorn.

When we boarded, Ty was getting a little fussy since it was naptime, and the plane was completely full so chances were pretty good that Ty was going to disturb someone. So once again, I was starting to feel a little panicky and flustered, but Ty took the bottle then promptly fell asleep. You know you've done well when numerous passengers at the end of your flight tell you what a good baby you have.

After my Mom picked us up at the Kelowna airport and we drove to Penticton, Ty made a little bit of strange but I think he was just tired from such a long day. Grandma had bought him and Sophie a Fisher Price newborn to toddler rocking chair that has all of these toys attached to and hanging from it, and he's taken to that quite well, and this morning he was quite a happy little guy and wasn't making strange anymore.

Tonight we're looking forward to having Dick and Harlene over for supper (they haven't met Ty yet) and tomorrow night Uncle Blair (AKA "Gruncle" ~ a combination of the words "great uncle") and his girlfriend are coming over for pizza, and we'll be getting together with Karen Bond at some point and probably a few other visitors. Then we have to do the whole drive/airport/drive thing all over again, but that's next week. For now, we're just going to enjoy our visit!