Nov 27, 2006

Nightmare on Eva Air

We are back in LA now. Two weeks had gone by too quickly that I hardly remember leaving LA. And now I am back. But I couldn't forget the flight itself from LAX to KUL. It was a nightmare. Our flight left LAX at 11pm. Brandon usual sleeping time that time was 10pm. It was past his bedtime and he got all fussy in the plane. Then the nightmare began.

I had already not been sleeping the night before since I had to pack for THREE people. I and Hubby didn't get to sleep during the flight to KUL. Brandon was very fussy when he was tired and he wasn't able to sleep in the tight and small bassinet, or even on our arms. He has not been trained to sleep on our arm before as we put him to sleep either on a stroller or the swing or in the car seat. He prefers to be able to move and roll freely before he falls asleep himself for night time. Unfortunately, he couldn't do the latter so he was really upset and crying all the time. I felt really bad as the cabin was really full and the other passengers were really looking at my way. I knew it wasn't the air pressure problem in his ears as when he was awake, he was all happy, smiling and playing. Brandon had several napping times on the flight but each was merely 30 minutes. The moment he fell to zzz, I quickly closed my eyes and when I was about to go to my own dreamland, baby would start crying and it woke me up because I need to soothe him quickly to reduce the distraction in the cabin. Boy, it was tough. Imagine we had to go through the routine for 14.5 hours flight from LAX to TPE and then another 4.5 hrs flight from TPE to KUL with 5 hours transit time at TPE. We were really afraid about our flight going back to LA after our arrival (fortunately, it wasn't as bad as this). Luckily I wasn't travelling by myself as planned earlier, luckily my Hubby was with me. So we took turns to calm the baby. Even that, I was really stressed out as I didn't have enough rest. I couldn't imagine how I am going to handle the baby alone in the flight myself.

Even changing diaper was a two persons job. The lavatory changing table was too small/short. We had to use it only once because Brandon did his BIG BUSINESS and we had to place him down to clean him up. It was a nightmare in the lavatory. He was crying and kicking the wall and his head kept knocking on the cabinets. Luckily, he only did his business once during the whole flight. For the rest of the diaper change, we did it on our seats. He didn't even let us lay him down to change. so we ended up changing him while he was standing. This gave me an idea that I purchased the Huggies pull ups from Tesco to use for our return flight to LA.

Here are some pictures I took during our flight to KUL.

Daddy and Brandon in front of the duty free shops at LAX

Brandon sleeping on the very tiny bassinet on flight BR0015 from LAX to TPE

Daddy and Brandon at TPE airport waiting for the flight to KUL

Brandon sitting in another bassinet in flight BR0227 from TPE to KUL

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

aiyo the bassinet is so small..of cos not comfy at all..

Claudia See-Yen Wallace said...

Claudia had her first flight back to Adelaide when she was 4 months old.
We were fortunate that she is very co-oporative on both flights, being only 4 months old she slept most of the time. It was not all easy as we had some trouble to secure a bassinet even though we had a booking confirmation (MAS). The story is on that flight to Adelaide there were 4 babies and finally the steward managed to persuade other passenger to switch seats with us which enabled us to use the bassinet holder.

As for this coming trip, I might have to feed her some cough syrup before the flight as she is 15 months old now. Walking everywhere, touching everything and screaming whenever she likes...I really don't want to imagine. This time round my mum is coming too. So there are 3 adults who can take turns to take care of her, wish me luck.

By the way, this is a early greeting from the Wallace family...

"Merry Christmas & Happy New Year"

Anonymous said...

I completely know how you guys felt! Belle was fussy all the way to HKG. Damn susah hor?

Anonymous said...

hey!!! Glad that you guys back home safe and in 1 piece!!!!

Whylah???? The 3 of us have the same fate??? Vien, you and myself...

I went with a sick baby and back with 2!!! Lagi teruk case!!! Fussy baby is still better than sick and fussy baby.... :P

Mommibee says HI from Sydney said...

welcome back :) the flight was indeed tough for u with such an active baby. glad it all worked out in the end. brandon looked so cute as always. i must say, brandon is so good boy, trained not to sleep in ur arms. mine is quite the opposite.

eiko-chan said...

My, the bassinets REALLY small o(=.=")o...

Missed you guys, especially my nephew, hahaha =P!
Come back soon whenever possible and convenient ok?

Loves, kimchi-yee-eee~!

wHOisBaBy said...

sasha: yup, definitely not comfortable for my baby. really too small.

jess: merry christmas & happy new year to you and your family too. and good luck for your coming up trip to aussie. at least 3 adults will be there to take turns caring for claudia.

vien: yalor, so susah travelling with baby. i scare already, guess we will not be taking any flight for a while. both hubby and i were to tired after the long flight to KL.

angeleyes: yea, the three of us who travelled to and from the same continents. i am very glad now that i am home. =)

g: yup, wasn't trained to sleep on arms until we got to kl where brandon had to sleep on our arms during car drives to go kaikai, and longer drive to penang.

eiko: miss you all too. *sob* *sob* ... dunno when we will go back again.

1+2mom said...

Poor mummy got a fussy baby in the flight. Luckily my kids all can sleep every where we go, you must train brandon more :)

wHOisBaBy said...

1+2mom: yea must train him more, hopefully we can have the opportunity to do so.

f said...

Reading this got me so nervous about our trip coming up and looking like a long hour flight yoo, my son going to be 1 year old by that time. Please give some suggestions what most important to bring on the plan with a toddler and alone without hubby? I'm frighten.