Firsts

Today, for the first time, I ordered food for Jordyn in a restaurant. Granted, we were in a diner-type place, and it was a lone scrambled egg, and I'm not sure how much of it actually made it into her mouth, considering how much was on the floor, in the pocket of her bib, and still on the plate... but still. It was a milestone moment.

And... Jordyn's first airplane ride is coming up in May. There's a conference I wanted to go to for work, but I'm just not ready to leave Jordyn for 3-4 nights and be so far away (we're going to Denver). My mom agreed to come so that Jordyn could come, too (otherwise I wasn't going to go). They won't go to the conference itself, of course, but I'll be able to see Jordyn in the mornings and evenings and in between things each day. This may be the craziest thing I've ever done - book a trip involving two longish plane flights with a 9-month-old (and my mother) when I could've gone alone and had some "me" time. My parents would've gladly had Jordyn stay with them while I went to the conference by myself, but while I'm sure at some point in the future I'll be ready to do something like that, I'm just not ready yet. Not to mention that whatever teeny-tiny milk supply I may still be holding on to by then would surely disappear completely if I wasn't with Jordyn at all for so long. And this way I don't have to bother schlepping a pump across most of the country.

Sooooo... Now that the trip is all booked, I'm starting to freak out. A likely newly-mobile 9-month-old on a plane? For 4-ish hours each way (I did purposely book nonstop flights)? WTF was I thinking? How am I possibly going to keep her quiet, still, occupied, and happy? She's such a busy baby, into everything. And she'll likely be crawling by the time we leave, since she's so close to doing it now. And, this trip involves a 2-hour time change. I'm toying with the idea of not even bothering to change Jordyn's time, but that would mean she'd be up at 5 (or, if she keeps up with what she's doing lately, 4) in the morning! Ugh. Maybe I just won't really change my time, either. I mean, since we're all sharing a hotel room, and this would mean Jordyn going to sleep around 6pm, what am I going to do at night? I might as well go to sleep early, too! And packing... OMG. What if I forget something important? I think I'm going to start a packing list for Jordyn-related things now. Do I have to bring a carseat? What are my options here... Bring a carseat, try to find a car service that provides them, or wear her in the taxi, sans carseat (legal in Massachusetts, not sure if it is in Colorado, and not my favorite option, so don't worry, I'm not leaning towards it!)? Any others? We're not renting a car, so it's just to get from the airport to the hotel and back again. Hmmm.

Any suggestions for making this trip as easy as possible? I know a few for the plane, like bring a few new toys, have her suck on something for takeoff and landing, gate check a stroller... What else?