Leaving England

I already mentioned in my 3 month post about Gerrit that January was a whirlwind month. Since I had my hands full with Mr. G, Andrew dealt with nearly everything regarding our move. I’m glad he dealt with everything, because I was always feeling stressed with Gerrit’s sleeping & eating. Typical new mother, I’m sure!

When I had free time, I worked on a list on my phone of things I needed to pack. It helped a little when I actually had to pack up the suitcases. It was still difficult though, because Gerrit was not in the mood to cooperate! Andrew and I would trade off holding/entertaining him while I packed things up. I was basically running from room to room throwing things in any suitcase that had space. Not organized at all. Somehow we managed to get everything to base (in two trips) before I had to start getting our little guy ready for bed.

Things that I’m really glad I packed for Gerrit:

• Pack ‘n’ Play: We had started putting Gerrit to sleep in the Pack ‘n’ Play in our bedroom a few days before we moved into lodging on base. I wanted to bring it along (vs borrowing one) so that he would have some consistency when it came to sleeping.
• Activity Gym: This folded up fairly flat, so I was able to fit it into a suitcase. We haven’t used it much since getting to the US, but I used it daily while we stayed in lodging.
• Blooming Bath: I’m so glad we packed this! Andrew seemed surprised that I was taking it, but we’ve been in several different places since we left England, and they all at least have a kitchen sink. No matter what size the sink is, that flower fits in there. We can easily throw it in the dryer if we need to, and we can throw it in a plastic bag and stuff it a suitcase.
• Car seat/stroller combo: We got this combo at the last minute, because we didn’t want to deal with going through the airport without a stroller. We’re really thankful we did! Gerrit was mostly content to sit in his car seat being pushed in the stroller through the airport. And even when we took him out, we used the stroller to transport other bags. That being said, we’re not in love with the car seat. We have a Graco one that is currently in our vehicle being shipped from England, and we prefer that hands down. But it was still a good purchase for traveling.

Living in lodging was pretty nice. Since we were officially a family this time, we had a larger room than what we had when we stayed in lodging after arriving in England over 3 years ago. This time our room had a living area, a kitchen, a separate bedroom, and a washer and dryer in a closet. So convenient! It was nice to be able to use up my laundry detergent and some of my dryer sheets. I packed my recipe binder so that we could cook some meals which came in handy.

The night before we flew out of London was a little rough. I don’t know if Gerrit was just picking up on our stress levels, but he did not want to stay asleep that night. I think I finally got him down after midnight, but he was still restless. None of us got much sleep before we had to be up and waiting for the bus (at 4 in the morning). Thankfully, Gerrit slept in his car seat on the bus, so I was able to snooze for awhile myself.

Dealing with the airport itself was not that bad. The employees were friendly and helpful. Everyone wanted to see Gerrit and say hi. 🙂 Again, I’m really glad we had the stroller! It would have been fine to put Gerrit in the Moby Wrap, but it was much easier to just push him along. Gerrit stayed in a pretty good mood throughout the airport as well. I think he was pretty entertained by all the new sights and sounds.

We were one of the first to board the plane, so we were able to get situated without too much hassle. Again, I think Gerrit was distracted by all the new things to check out to be upset while people were boarding. We kept Gerrit in the car seat for take-off, and he did pretty well. In fact, at some point, he fell asleep. That was nice for me, since I got another nap in.

I did have to nurse several times on the flight, but it didn’t go too badly. It was more difficult when Gerrit was tired or irritable, because then he was thrashing around, making it a hassle to keep the nursing cover on. Not that I cared… I would have been fine nursing without anything. We were hoping Gerrit wouldn’t have any poopy diapers, but, of course, he had at least 4 of them! It was fairly easy to change him in the airplane bathroom, since they were all equipped with a pull down changing table.

I think the biggest surprise was how Gerrit reacted to the plane’s descent. I buckled him into his car seat again and had a few toys ready in case he started fussing. But when my ears started popping, he just began smiling and gurgling away! I have no idea if the pressure changes just didn’t bother him or what, but he seemed to enjoy that part of the plane ride.

Gerrit was fine going through the Chicago airport too. I carried him that time (we used the stroller to carry some bags), so maybe that helped. My sister, Amanda, was so excited to meet her little nephew! I think I got half a hug from her before she scooped him up. 🙂 By the time we got to her car, he was done though. He was so upset (way overdue for a nap), and it took awhile to get him settled. But I was very happy that he did so well with his first airplane ride… especially with it being over 8 hours long!