Never ... flying ... again ...

After a couple of days this title seems a tad dramatic, but there was one hour on the plane (a.k.a. the witching hour) where Lance and I vowed never, EVER, to fly with kids again!

The day hadn't started out too well, with me waking up with a sore throat and a dripping nose. I had planned to visit 2 friends in the morning before packing but I went to bed instead and slept for 3 whole glorious hours.

We picked the girls up from daycare about 3pm - Kara knew something was up, most likely because they had a farewell party for her at lunchtime (with lots and lots of cake - this kid was wired!). Kara was wondering why everyone was hugging her and saying 'I'm going to miss you Kara' - I think she thought it was her birthday! But we got Kara excited about catching an aeroplane so things were looking OK.

Re the plane, the PLAN (there's always a plan isn't there!) was that Sophie would feed at takeoff which was ~6:15pm ... which is EXACTLY the same time she feeds at home. I might add that she has fed at night and drifted off to sleep at ~6-6:30pm for 7 straight months. So I took it for granted that Sophie would just feed, go to sleep in my arms, I would be in heaven, and Lance would deal with Kara who no doubt would simply hate being tethered to the one spot for 6 hours.

Problem is that Sophie didn't feed! Refused outright to feed in fact!! And I had not even considered the possibility of needing a Plan B. I tried nursing, I tried a bottle, Lance tried a bottle ... nothing was working. Sophie was obviously getting tired - in fact it reminded me (oddly enough) of contractions - Sophie would arch and throw her head back every 5 minutes for about 30 seconds each time.

And who would have guessed that it would be Kara who would sit up properly in her seat and busy herself with her blankets and 'special baby'!

But then the 2nd hour came - and Sophie's 'contractions' were down to 3 minutes apart. Kara, whose mood is often connected to Sophie's state of mind, then started acting up too. Kara was getting beyond tired herself (both girls go to bed religiously at 6-6:30pm). We made the mistake of trying to get her to sleep and Kara responded by acting out ... loudly. So every 3 minutes Sophie would cry and Kara would act out.

(I've heard you are meant to buy the people in the next row a drink, kind of as an apology for your kids I guess .... but I would have had to buy drinks for about 5 rows in each direction! Our 2 were the only kids on the entire flight, so everyone knew who the noise makers were.)

Sophie would be mostly calm if I walked around, but my arms were falling off by the 3rd hour! Finally, finally she fell asleep 3.5 hours after takeoff - (it was quite funny as the last 2 rows of the plane actually had a betting pool started on how long she would stay awake for - the consensus was that she would fall asleep 20-30 mintues before landing!). And miraculously, as soon as Sophie fell asleep, Kara instantly calmed down and sat in her seat again and hardly said boo for the remainder of the flight. I have no idea how she did so well and she has NEVER, EVER stayed up 'til after midnight before - heck, I don't think Kara has ever been awake past 8pm!

So, it is now Saturday and both girls are already on Pacific time. I can't believe how well Kara has been with missing so much sleep but she has truly been a gem throughout this move. The only negative at the moment is that Sophie has taken to waking at 4am (last time zone adjustment I guess) which is a little more than I can cope with right now. Just another phase I'm sure.

Kara got to see her new house today. We closed on the house on Friday but our belongings don't arrive until Thursday so we are staying with good friends until then. Kara had an absolute blast running through the new house - there are so many rooms and so many doors, drawers, closets and 'special secret compartments' that she was in heaven. (There is even a laundry shute to the basement - although I'm paranoid that Sophie will be coaxed into it by Kara!). It was music to our ears when we heard Kara running through the house singing "I'm home, I'm home!"

So it's all going to work out! (More about the new house in another post).