Sunday, April 30, 2006
Where's My Bedtime???
29-APRIL-2006:
Today is the day we flew to London. We woke up at 5am and reached the airport at 6:30am. By 9am, we were on our way to London. There was a slight commotion in the plane. Initially, there were 3 babies sitting on our row, including Dominic. Since there were only 5 oxygen masks but 7 of us (3 babies + 4 adults) in that row, the air stewardess requested me to move to another seat ... one which was not on the front row, which means Dominic won't get a bassinet to sleep in. I refused to move since I paid RM900+ for Dominic's ticket. I said I wasn't going to carry him in my arms throughout the entire flight which was about 14 hours! In the end, they asked the lady and the baby next to us move and the seat next to us was empty, which was nice. :-) However, there was still another baby next to us who made quite a lot of noise throughout the entire journey. Dominic took the flight pretty well. He was sleepy most of the time, but the other baby crying and screaming made it difficult for him to get good rest.
It was day time and sunny throughout the entire journey and the passengers occupying the window seats did not care to pull down the flaps. By the time we touched down at London Heathrow airport and reached home, it was already 6pm London time, i.e. 2am Malaysia time. Yet, Dominic has not gone to bed. He was extremely cranky and tired. He was screaming all the way during check out and wanted to be cuddled. I was carrying a knapsack on my back and a shoulder bag containing Dominic's essentials. Plus Dominic refused to be seated in his stroller. So imagine me carrying him in one hand and pushing the stroller with the other ... it wasn't easy at all. As soon as we reached home, Dominic fell asleep immediately. For the next few days, he slept at 6pm and woke up at 4am ... until we gradually adjusted his bed time.
Picture 1: Dominic slept in a bassinet in the plane. The pacifier proved to be invaluable. It saved me from having to cuddle and rock Dominic to sleep. And the plane was noisy ... the pacifier helped him keep his eyes shut and rest even though he wasn't really asleep.
Picture 2: It took us forever to check out at the immigration. The Heathrow airport was crowded with people. The photos below show people lining up in front of the lifts to goto the car park. The lesson that I learned was that if you do not force your way in, you'll never get into the lift.
