Tips for a long flight with a ten-month old

We had a great flight and both Mandy and Michael did well. Here are some things we learned about keeping Michael happy during the flight. Some we did, some we wish we would have done.

If you do a lap ticket:

1. Rather than booking three seats in a row, book in a row that has one more seat than you need. Take the aisle and/or window seats and leave one middle seat empty. This makes it less likely that someone else will fill it and more likely that the flight attendants will move them to another open seat. If the plane is completely full, they will be happy to switch with you to put your family together in a row anyway. We didn't do this and it made it more difficult to move the person who filled that seat.

2. Be persistent in asking multiple flight attendants to move the person who ends up sitting near you. The third attendant took action and found an open aisle seat for the person who sat next to us.

Other ideas:

3. Take an airline blanket and cover the seat the baby will sit in and tuck it into the magazine rack in the seat in front of you. Stretch the blanket onto parents' laps on both sides and into those magazine racks. You end up with a nice play area for the baby and toys don't keep falling onto the floor. (Sheila's genius idea)

4. Ask for the individual entree covers for your food and use the napkins to dry out your drink cups after you're done with them. They make wonderful toys. The airline magazines are also nice for mutilating and looking through them.

5. Pack at least two extra sets of every clothing item the baby will need. The inevitable diaper blowouts and cleaning them up in a tiny bathroom are dangerous. I actually managed to get some on his sock! Which brings me to another tip: take the socks off before changing the diaper.

6. Stack a few carryon items in front of the baby's seat, add a few airline pillows, and you have a small crib. Tuck another blanket behind the headrest wings and the tray table in front and you have a nice cover for the crib that protects some from other lights in the plane.

7. Bring some post-it note pads for the baby to tear off and stick in places. (An idea we got from another adoptive parent but we ended up not finding any.)

It's great to be home again and have some space to spread out as a family. We really enjoy our friends, family and community and have missed all of you.

John