Traveling Alone with an Infant

3 days, 

4 flights, 

18 hours at airports, 

10 hours flying, 

2 times through customs, 

and 24 hours spent traveling.  

Alone.  With an infant.  

Here are some high-lights and low-lights of the whole experience:

High-lights:
-Toby proved himself to be an incredibly easy and flexible travelor.  He slept in my infant carrier, was entertained in a carrier, slept on floors, benches and airplane seats.  He played on the floor, with bags, earphones, and napkins.  He slept through customs and security and stayed content while his mommy dragged baggage carts, luggage and ran around airports.
-3 of my 4 flights I had an empty seat beside me!  The one flight I didn't- I had a very understanding father of 2 boys beside me who helped me get things out of my backpack and zipped it up for me!
-Many people were helpful including a security person who bumped me to the head of a long line, the lady who took my suitcase off the belt, and the elderly lady who comforted me while I bawled my head off in the line up at air canada in Indianaplis (story to follow)
-I got to visit a good friend Andrea in Toronto who helped make the 7 hour layover in Toronto not so bad, and visited with family I rarely see at my Grandmother's memorial
-learning how to pee while holding Toby (it's a serious accomplishment) and while he was strapped to me and asleep.
-having some special one-on-one Toby and mommy time
-having people often tell me how great of a baby Toby is (and how cute!)
-thankfully being only on the fringes of the crazy tornado weather in Indianapolis
-having Toby sleep through most of my longest flight- I got to watch a movie even!
-having a very loud, screaming toddler sitting directly behind me for our longest flight- then I didn't feel bad at all whenever Toby cried because their child was Much. Louder!

Low lights:
-not being able to eat, for hours or pee, for hours.  or remove toby from my carrier.  for hours.
-flight delays due to snow in Ottawa
-taxiing forever while we waited for flights to take off in Toronto (spent longer taxiing than actually flying to Indiana)
-the steward who wanted me to hold Toby for the whole flight even though I had an empty seat beside me (seriously?!)
-having to strip down every time through security.  It's amazingly difficult to remove shoes and a belt with a child strapped to you.
-having to pick up my luggage, go through customs, get my bags re-tagged and go through security again both times I flew through Toronto.  So. Much. Work.
-sore shoulders and back from carrying Toby for days
-Toby isn't as good at falling asleep on his own anymore cause he's so used to being carried!
-sweating, dehydrated, hungry, sore from carrying....always feel so yucky after flying all day!
-and the worst experience of it all:  arrived in Indianapolis airport at the beginning of my long journey home and they said their air canada computers were not working.  So, they took forever to write me hand-written boarding cards and luggage tags.  I went to security, stood in another long line and then was told that they hadn't been informed of a computer malfunction and made me stand aside and wait for 'clearance' for my hand-written boarding card.  Stood there.  And stood there.  And stood there.  20 minutes later he said I had to go all the way back to the ticket agent and get another boarding card.  Stomped and stormed my way back there, stood in line again and was told there was nothing they could do.  (What?!)  Waited.  And waited.  Cried, fell apart, had a mini-meltdown thinking about being stuck in Indiana and with a 12 hour travel day ahead of me, little sleep behind me and all the emotions of my grandmother's memorial the day before clouding my mind.  It was a rough time.  Eventually they figured it out and 2 hours after this whole process began I was through security and waiting for my gate with a Starbucks in hand.  Yucky.

The best part:
Spending time with family, coming home to my wonderful husband and son, having the ability to travel to Indiana for the memorial at all, and learning that I can take care of a child by myself and travel [It's a lot of work but it is POSSIBLE].

I'm thinking: no travel for awhile.  Had such a great visit in Ontario and was glad to share in the memorial service for my Grandmother but I'm looking forward to having a routine and being at home again.