It’s been a week since we flew back home. We are now recovered enough from that flight to talk about it. It was that bad. But first, the good news!

Nora had an amazing flight out to Atlanta. It was the best flight I think we could have had. We got to sit in first class! It. Was. Awesome.

And a long story that I’ll try to condense down. Josh wanted to cash in our frequent flyer miles for a ticket and it worked out that we could only use it for a first class seat. Josh figured we could send me and Nora up there and he could convince one of the coach fliers to trade seats with me.

I found my first class seat and it was already time to taxi and for take off, so I made small talk with the man who turned out to be incredibly kind and sweet to Nora. He called her a future beauty queen and complimented her hand eye coordination. (I took his word for it.)

The moment the seat belt sign was off, he told me that he wanted to switch seats with Josh so we could sit together. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He packed up his stuff- including a Bible- and went to find Josh. We wrote a note to him to let him know how much we appreciated his kindness. His whole attitude was so humble and he was such a servant.

So we both got to sit in huge, comfortable seats with plenty of leg room. The flight attendants are so attentive up there. And you have leg AND feet rests! It’s incredible. Nora got to watch cartoons on her own little tv. Granted, she was distracted after 5 seconds, but still. Cool stuff.

We landed in Atlanta so relaxed. Nora did great! She slept about half the time and played with her toys the rest of the time. She was tired, but it was easy enough to find ways to keep her occupied.

We had a great, great week in Atlanta/Florida. We’ll have to post pictures from the trip soon. It was so much fun!

Then it was time to fly home. It was a night flight, leaving at 9:30 pm. First we had to drive over 6 hours from Florida to the airport. Nora barely napped in the car at all. I repeat- she barely napped at all. That meant there were two possible outcomes- she’d pass out on the plan from exhaustion or she’d be too exhausted to sleep at all and scream for hours.

Guess which one it was?
It was awful. Nora, who is almost always a very laid back baby, was screaming like a banshee before the plane had even reached cruising altitude. We couldn’t get up, so we just had to try to distract her. It didn’t work.

Finally, the seatbelt sign clicked off and we jumped up to walk with her. For the next hour, Josh and I took turns keeping her just calm enough that she was whimpering with only occasional screaming. But she was getting more and more exhausted until she hit a breaking point where she was simply inconsolable. That’s when Josh hid in the lavatory.

An hour later, I went and traded with him. Horrified that he had been in a lavatory, but at the same time, glad that something worked to muffle her cries. But I wasn’t going in there.

After trying to keep her quiet in the tiny flight attendants’ area, I gave in and also went to sit on the toilet in the airplane lavatory.

Now. Those of you who know about my….germ and general nastiness aversion, you’ll appreciate the things I did. Things that would NEVER be in the realm of acceptable in the ‘real world.’ But this was survival. Not only did I sit on the toilet lid- ew- but I actually rested my head against the wall. Against. The. Nasty. Tiny. Bathroom. Wall. Something about that small space did calm Nora down so it was worth it. I suppose. But yuck. On a normal trip to that room, I try to avoid touching anything. This trip, when the scratchy airplane blanket (that I also avoid on the average flight) fell off Nora and touched the toilet, I just picked it up and wrapped it right back around her. Earlier, I was standing right near the airplane door, where every single person on the last flight walked out and every single person on this flight walked in. And I dropped the pacifier. The one object that offered a few breaks from the screams. I dropped it. And picked it right back up and stuck it in her mouth without even wiping it on my jeans. Germs, schmerms, we had to stop the insanity.

She finally started to dose off, so I made a break for it and ran down the aisle as she started waking up. My goal was to get to Josh so she could suck on his pinky finger. That was the only way she would calm down. By the time I made it to him, she was starting back up with the kind of screams that start with the long inhale.

Miraculously, Josh was able to get his finger in and she calmed down and finally went to sleep.

( Interesting side story- At one point, the guy sitting on the window seat had to go to the restroom. Not wanting to wake the finally sleeping baby, he somehow scaled the wall, found a grip, swung over Josh and Nora, and landed in the aisle. He was a ninja, that’s the only explanation. There is no way a non-ninja could have done it. Nora didn’t even stir. And then he did it again on the way back. I stared at him with my mouth open. Okay, fine, I also gave him a thumbs up. I was that impressed.)

Nora slept the last 2 hours of the 5 hour flight.
People came up afterwards to tell us how sorry they felt for us and how they had been there, too. We, my friends, were those people with that baby.

But.
It is totally worth it. She’s our sweet girl. Though she was beyond exhausted that night. I think God was ministering to my heart during the worst of it because I thought how grateful we are to have our Nora, even when she’s hysterical. And that’s such a true thought, it had to come from God.

However, we will never be flying at night again.