Flying to Mexico with a Toddler

Early-early before the trip started

Leo and I are in Mexico visiting family (awesome, right?).  The trip down wasn't too bad - although the only thing I have to compare it to is the last trip when I was alone and we both had the stomach flu - so I figured it couldn't get much worse.  This time we are healthy and we've got Abi on our team.  We came armed with a long list of distractions (snacks, crayons, new small toys, playdough, books, songs, and even a couple episodes of Sesame Street in Spanish loaded on the iphone) and used every last one.  He didn't love spending six hours on the plane, but between the bag of goodies, Abi, and walking up and down the aisle - he survived.

He slept through most of the first short and early flight.  The second longer one was a little more trying.  The four hours felt like an eternity - but overall he was a real trooper.  The crayons and playdough were the biggest hit - and he was so excited to have unlimited "special" snacks like dried fruit and puffs. Surprisingly the TV episodes didn't hold his attention, but I think perhaps we waited too long and he was done sitting still by that point. 


The one low spot of the trip is that, for the first time in his life, he wore a disposable diaper.  As we were boarding the plane the flight attendant told us that there was no room for carry-ons in the overhead bins so we needed to check our bag.  So, at the door of the airplane, I hurriedly got out the essentials and stuffed them in a plastic bag that would fit under the seat in front of us.  And of course I forgot to grab a diaper.  It was a four hour flight - and normally four hours in a diaper, while not ideal, wouldn't be impossible.  I had just changed him before boarding.  It should have been fine.  But I guess I was pushing the water pretty hard (it's so easy to get dehydrated in the air!) and he soaked right through his diaper.

Oh, I felt like the worst mom ever.  I stripped him down and wiped him off and took off my sweater and wrapped it around his naked bum in a makeshift diaper - but I knew it wouldn't hold, so I swallowed my cloth pride and asked another mom on the flight for a spare diaper.  And just like that, with a Dora the Explorer pull-up, my poor baby no longer has a gold star bum. :(

My poor baby's bottom

Once we landed it was nap time and things started to unravel a bit.  He had a bit of a meltdown as we were trying to collect our suitcases and get through customs - but once we got him back into a cloth diaper and he was able to nurse and fall asleep he was happy again and ready to spend some time with family that he hasn't seen since February.

The roughest part of the trip

I guess that doesn't sound that great - but I was happy enough with how it went.  I was braced for much worse.