Riley’s first flight (or, our first time flying with a baby…)

We’re taking Riley on her first real trip: a two wedding, two weekend tour of Washington, DC and then New Orleans. Mom dropped us off at the airport and at first it seemed like everything would be smooth and easy with Riley sleeping in her stroller. Things started to go down hill when security made us take her out of the carrier to put it through the x-ray (despite my protests that you should never wake a sleeping baby). She held it together for boarding, but then completely lost it when the engines turned on… screaming louder and higher then she ever has before. Luckily she settled down and fell asleep with the pinky finger just in time for take off so there was no trouble with her ears. She was on edge for most of the flight though, and I ended up hanging out in the back with the flight attendents most of the way. For some reason the experience made me feel very emotional about our little family, as though it were some great hardship we were overcoming together. And it was a big moment when I realized I didn’t care about all the other passengers, I just wanted my baby to be happy…