Traveling Alone with Baby

Adrielle's Apology recently alluded to the flight back from Utah, which was fairly good thanks to great airline staff, and strangers who wanted to hold a fussy baby. I was to the point where if the person looked nice, I let them have her. She was obviously bored with me because she cooed for complete strangers and smiled...grrrr... But whatever, I was happy she wasn't screaming and making the trip unpleasant and that people weren't telling me what to do (like on our departing flight -- well, the first attempt at our departing flight).

If you're wondering about the departing flight fiasco on Delta, here's a quick rundown:

• We boarded on time (5:30 PM), the pilot told us we would take off soon, and we headed down the tarmac.
• The pilot tells us there's a light that went on, they need to do a quick check, and we would still arrive on time in SLC.
• After an hour of waiting 5 more minutes, the interior of the plane was hot and stuffy, and Adi started to fuss.
• Adi starts to cry - it's hot and stuffy, she's crammed between unfriendly neighbors and we should have taken off a while ago.
• The passenger to my right tells me I need to change her diaper and that it's probably poopy.
• A lady behind me taps me on the shoulder.
• I have had it.
• I take Adi to the lavatory to get away from the passengers who know better than I what to do with my child.
• On the way to the lavatory, a flight attendant tells me we will be taking off shortly and I need to get back to my seat. I ignore him and go into the lavatory.
• I change a diaper that does not need to be changed while the flight attendant knocks on the lavatory door. Baby is still crying.
• I go to my seat expecting to take of any minute and we wait for another hour on the plane.
• We deplane.
• They tell us we won't be waiting long in the airport and we wait another 3 hours until no more flights can go out of DCA. They have us trapped.
• None of us have eaten, yet they served us "refreshments" which I came to understand was the ice water they were handing out on the plane. Nice, Delta.
• We wait longer.
• They start to rebook everyone, and do hotel vouchers. This takes several more hours.
• A lady with a baby is crying because she only brought enough formula to get her to her destination (Alaska), and she was running out. She has nowhere to buy formula. I give her what I brought.
• Kenz and I spend hours on the phone and in line to get rebooking figured out.
• I rebook for a special flight at 7:00 AM the next day.
• Kenz picks us up at around 11:30 PM.

The next morning:

• We wake up late, but it doesn't matter because my flight has been delayed an hour and a half.
• We wait in the airport while the same plane we were on yesterday is running tests.
• We consider rebooking on another airline.
• They tell us the plane is coming out of the hangar, and we will be boarding soon. (I've heard this one before. Ha. Ha.)
• We finally board and Kenz waits until I text her affirming the fact that we were actually taking off. I did not turn my cell phone off when they told us to.

The positives:

• The group of passengers bonded through the process and I believe we were all able to help and serve each other in one way or another.
• By the time the special flight took off, a lot of passengers had already bailed and everyone had a row of their own with several empty rows, too. It was great for Adi.

This baby had a great time.

Playing with the controls.

Trying to escape.

Sleeping.

Messing with our stuff.

And pretty much doing whatever she wanted.

It almost made the whole ordeal of the previous day worth it...almost.