Although my in-laws live in Hong Kong, as much as they wanted to see ET, they thought we were losing our minds.
It was 90th birthday party for my grandmother from mom's side in China, I wanted to go, and I wanted to take ET to see his great grandmother the very first time.
We decided to go, no matter what others said.
I started to get anxiety attack 2 weeks prior to the trip: Did I pack everything? Should I take water? What if... x1000000
All the anxiety attack syndromes were gone once I boarded the plane!
Here's my packing list for the carry on:
1) One extra set clothes for ET and us, that's 3 sets!
2) Powdered formula, I had a dispenser that can carry 3 meals (about 7oz per meal). And I used breast milk storage bags to pack a few more, just in case. Since I stopped breast feeding a month prior to our trip, this is a bit hard to calculate how much formula I had to packed, thus, I packed a lot more than I should.
3) 2 jars of baby food, although airline has prepared for us, I prefer certain brand.
4) 2 clean bottles
5) 6 diapers
6) wipes, travel size, like 25 pieces or so.
7) Vaseline, travel size
8) Feeding spoon
9) 2 bibs for feeding, and 2 for teething
10) aden and anais blanket to keep warm, I don't want to use airline provided
11) security blanket
12) Thermal bottle, since we need hot water for formula, it's easier to have some hot water in hand
13) strawcup for water
13) a bunch of toys
We had a diaper bag plus a small carry on, and stroller!
We took Cathay Pacific, they have direct flight to HK, and flight time is about 15 hours 30 minutes. Since we booked red eye, it worked out perfectly with ET's sleeping schedule.
However, drawback of booking with Cathay is, we are not grantee with bulk seating. In fact, we were lucky to have someone switched with us on the way to HK, and the person refused to switch seat with us on the way back to NY.
JFK terminal 7's security was easy on us, who process were very smooth. We folded the stroller and put on the x-ray, and I picked up ET to walk thru the metal detector door without any issue.
We pushed the stroller all the way to the gate, and flight attendant at the gate helped us to cover the stroller with huge plastic bag.
This was our seat with the fall off board, which the flight attendant would come and install the bassinet once we were in air.
According to Cathay Pacific's website, bassinets are free for baby under 12kg in weight, and 6 months.
ET was about 11kg, but he's always tall, the bassinet was too small, it wasn't very comfortable for him to sleep in. As you can see, he couldn't straighten his feet.
Also, another problem with bassinet, whenever the buckle up light was on, we were asked to take him out, and then buckle him on me with safety belt extension!!! It was hard, and would wake him up easily. He was really tired, didn't care too much, and kept sleeping.
The first round, he probably slept like 9 hours!
Got up, ate and play, then nap another 2 hours.
It was a smooth ride, even other passengers and attendants would come up and looked at him in the bassinet said, he's such a good baby!
We were also very lucky that he didn't have issue with the air pressure, didn't seem to be bothered at all on the take off and landing :)
This was gift from the airline: 2 diapers and two diaper cream.
Anyway, on the way back, from HK to New York, it was an upside down story.
We took the 9am flight, and of course, ET was done with jetlag, and was fully charged in the morning.
The person who sat next to the bulk seat refused to exchange seat with hubby. BTW, the seat we had on both flight, were aisle side, same row.
This gentleman had to take out his laptop and worked at times, and it was not a fun ride for him since ET kept moving around, reached over, and grabbed his stuff. There was so much a mom can do in this situation, and ET was a strong baby...
He was napped 2 hours and play another 2 hours, all the way for 16 hours flight.
Hubby had to take him and walk to the back of the plane at times. The flight attendants liked ET so much, they were willing to hold him and played with him!
Even after we landed, and saw the attendants again in luggage pick up, the ladies would come by and say bye bye.
Over all, it was a good experience. If I had to change one thing, I would probably book the return flight at a later time, instead of morning.
Flying with 8 months old was not that hard for us, the best advise I'll say is to book around their sleeping schedule as close as possible.
Good luck travelling!
No comments:
Post a Comment