May 12, 2015
Selah June and I set out this morning together on what is sure to be the first of many adventures together. After our experience on the way out to Oklahoma, I was pretty much a nervous wreck about how this whole trip home was going to down. I couldn’t fathom getting myself, her stuff, my stuff, her, separate liquids, laptop out, shoes off, tickets out, etc. without Jeremy there to assist. We limited everything down to the diaper bag and the carrier. That was it. I had just enough food to get her home. I had just enough toiletries to do my makeup and brush my teeth. We were about to make traveling light history.
Going through the airport both ways, they made me go through the metal detector rather than the full-body scanner. They ran her bottles through some kind of test, and then sent us on our way. I wore slip on shoes and no belt, which helped a great deal in the reassembly.
The only tricky thing was getting in and out of the carrier. A flight attendant helped me unclip the top buckle on the first leg, and then by the second leg I had it down to where I could do it myself.
Our flight from OKC to Dallas was a breeze. She slept some, and it was really quick. We found our gate easily and had time to spare. I scoped out an open area on the floor, and we spread our stuff out to get in some playtime. There were a couple other babies waiting as well. SJ had fund watching the other kids squirm and wallow, eat and crawl, and just generally be over the airport. As I was trying to convince SJ that she did like mangoes out of a pouch, a young woman leaned up against the wall timidly asked, “Is it scary having a baby?”
That’s not really the question people ask. You often get: “How old?” Or “Is she crawling yet?” But that’s the first time anyone has asked something so personal. “Absolutely!” I responded.
Before SJ, I traveled all the time. Everyone had enough to worry about with me roaming airports trying to pay attention enough to find gates on my own and feed my face something other than peanuts. Add a baby to the mix…. and, well, that IS a terrifying prospect. She was newly married and was reporting for active duty in Fort Walton Beach at Eglin. Her family was pressuring her and her husband to start having kids, but she had enough sense to know that it was a game-changer.
She had been stranded in the airport for a few days because of the bad weather that had been through Dallas over the weekend. I imaging the stress and lack of sleep had worn down her inhibitions, and she was just being honest and straight-up inquisitive.
I don’t even really remember what I told her…. I think I said that it is very scary, but then you tap into some Mom skill set that you didn’t even know you had. After that, everything gets better. I know I told her that they’re durable little critters. After the first few months, you stop feeling like you’re going to break them every time you touch them. And then there’s the joy and happiness that they bring into your life. It’s worth every last one of those fears.
The second flight was delayed, and it was a little more difficult than the first one. I had just enough milk to get us home. (And she didn’t care for the mangoes in a pouch.)
We made it home safe and sound. First plane trip…. check!