Spud’s first flight

December 22, 2010

Spud’s first flight

I don’t know how many times I have bitched about getting on the plane and having to sit next to a bawling baby (ies) for the entire flight. Not only would I bitch about it, I would also give the mega evil, evil eyes to the parents in question. In my mind, I questioned the parents for having the audacity to bring their too young to travel and annoyingly precious babies on board the plane. In fact, I would not think twice giving these parents a piece of my mind if they cannot shut their wailing babies up. Wailing babies in the plane riled me up. Big time. Silver Bullet shared the same sentiments.

That was before I became a mom.

That was before we experienced parenthood and travelling with a baby ourselves.

And now, it was us who received the evil, evil eyes from fellow passengers on the plane when we travelled to and from Singapore recently. If.looks.could.kill.

I swear, seeing those exasperated expressions was enough for me to want to come up front and publicly apologise to everyone for the inconvenience we were about to (and) cause(d) them. You have no idea how bad I felt! I am now on the other side of the fence and I wished the ground would open up and swallow me in as soon as Spud became inconsolable.

While Spud did fall asleep the moment we cleared Thai immigration, we continued to be hopeful that Spud would sleep in her very first plane trip whilst in the air. After all, don’t they always say that the sound of the engine tend to soothe most babies?

We know by now that Spud is no “most babies”. Soothing it was not and Spud did not do too well in the plane. On both journeys, she created a ruckus almost throughout the entire flight time, refusing to nap; managing only about half an hour on the way back to Bangkok. Both Silver Bullet and I had to take turns to not only have our meals but to also rock her in our arms within the small spaces in the aisle we could find to calm her down. Her temper tantrums worsened as the flight descended, mainly attributing to the fact that her ears must have hurt loads from the pressure. Poor kiddo!

In truth, there was really nothing we could do. She refused to feed and would not get out of her crying fit no matter how much we tried to calm her down. We could only feel sorry – both for her and fellow passengers. (We found out later that there was some kind soul who felt sorry for us!) Good thing is, all three of us survived the flight.

So. I take back all the dagger eyes and nasty comments I ever made about parents travelling with a wailing baby. I did not know any better than. There must certainly be valid reasons as why parents have to travel with a young baby. Most of the time, I reckon it is something which they just have to do – whatever their reasons may be. Perhaps, it is not so much about feeling sorry for the parents per se, but rather, more for the helpless babies.

And, if you happen to see us and Spud on a plane next to you next time, please do be gentle with us. Know that we have been and will try our best to keep our baby quiet to the very best of our ability so you (as well as us) will have a pleasant flight ahead.

Trust me. We also want some peace and quiet no more than you do.

Here is one picture just for the record: Spud’s first stamp on her passport!