Our flight was scheduled to leave Bozeman at 12:30pm on Monday with a 3 hour layover in Chicago and arriving in Portland at 10:30pm. My mom was flying in from Oregon at about the same time that night and we were planning to go to the hotel together and I had to be in the office the next morning. After a super smooth time through security in Bozeman (even with the breastmilk I was bringing and the stroller, etc.) we found out the flight to Chicago was delayed about an hour. Since we had a long layover I thought, no problem! As soon as we finally boarded the plane Cora fell soundly asleep until we arrived in Chicago. We were then hanging out at the gate for Portland...Cora was lying on a blanket with some toys dangling over her from the handle of the stroller...and my colleague Megan came up to us. She was on the same flight! We were sitting chatting when they announced suddenly, "The flight to Portland, Maine has been cancelled." I couldn't believe my ears. It was 7pm and there were definitely no other flights to Portland that night. I wanted to cry! Megan, Cora and I got in the extremely long line at Customer Service to see what the options were. It looked like they were rebooking most people on an 8am flight the next morning. They claimed it was "weather" that cancelled the flight and therefore weren't responsible for hotels or anything. Meanwhile, Cora was starting to get fussy and tired and then fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn while we were still in line. After we were finally booked on the 8am flight (Megan couldn't get booked on that one and was instead going to Boston later that night, so we had to part ways and I was on my own again) I had to sort out the hotel, which we had to take a ten minute shuttle to. I went to Baggage to see about getting my checked bags...Cora's pack n play and most of her stuff was in the checked suitcase, but they said it was going to be checked through to our flight in the morning. The gave me some extra diapers, I called the hotel to ask for a pack n play, then made our way over to the bus station to wait for the shuttle. The only thing I didn't have that I really wished I'd had was Cora's sleep sack for swaddling her to sleep. I attempted to swaddle her in the one blanket I'd brought for the flights, but she broke her arms out easily and woke up several times that night sucking on her hands. So when my alarm went off at 5am to catch the 6:20am shuttle back to the airport to go back through security and on another flight, I was, needless to say, quite tired. As I was sitting in the hotel breakfast area eating a quick bite before the shuttle to the airport an older man said to me, "Good job, Mom," and it really touched me to hear that so far from home and on my own with my baby. We finally made it to Portland at about 11am and to the hotel, where we met my mom, I changed and rushed to the office since I had already missed all the morning meetings. Whew! We had finally made it.
Cora stayed with my mom that afternoon and then all day Wednesday and Thursday while I worked. It was a super fun time with all my colleagues, as always. I brought Cora and my mom to the happy hour Tuesday evening where everyone oogled over Cora and marveled at how relaxed and calm a baby she was. My mom and I worked out a schedule of either pumping/bottle feeding Cora or she would bring her over to the office and I'd feed her directly, and it all worked out well! I felt like I was able to work well in the office during the day and also spend time with Cora in the evening and know that she was well taken care of. It couldn't have gone better.
With the time difference of 2 hours I tried to keep Cora on the same schedule...instead of beginning the bedtime routine at 8pm, I did it at 10pm, etc.. And so she slept later in the morning, I would get up and get ready and even get breakfast in the hotel before Cora's first feeding at about 8:30am, which was 6:30am in Montana. After a few days though she started to wake up earlier, like 7:30am, which I think was maybe because it was so light outside. All in all though, it worked out pretty well and Cora seemed happy.
Thursday afternoon was a surprise activity for our team and was scheduled from 1:30pm until 5pm and then we had a team dinner that evening. I really wanted to go, but was a little nervous leaving Cora for such a long time. It turned out that we were going on a Brewery Tour of Portland (4 breweries)! I had my mom feed Cora 2 bottles that afternoon and it was my first "pump and dump" experience. When I stopped in at the hotel room before dinner Cora was fast asleep. We had a very nice dinner out with awards for all team members and then I got back to the hotel around 9:30pm in time to put her to sleep with our bed time routine. 8 hours away from Cora was the longest to date!
After the few days in Portland and a couple days in Freeport with all of the extended Hadley family, we were back on our way to the airport for early flights at 7am. My mom was flying through Philadelphia and San Francisco to get back to Eugene, and Cora and I were scheduled to fly back through Chicago getting into Bozeman at about noon. I was so ready to be home and see Neil and spend the second half of Mother's Day together as a family! We easily got through security and said bye to my mom and went our seperate ways to our gates. We boarded on schedule and as soon as we got seated and settled Cora fell asleep, right on cue. A few minutes later came an announcement that they were having a problem with the door and were calling maintenance to check it out. A few more minutes later they announced that it was not a quick fix and we would be deplaning and working on any missed connections out of Chicago. Are you kidding me?! We were supposed to only have just over an hour in Chicago, so obviously we were going to miss that connection to Bozeman. Cora was still sound asleep in the Baby Bjorn as I was standing in a long line to be rebooked, so I called United on the phone to see what our options were. Apparently there were no more direct flights Chicago to Bozeman that day, so even if we continued and flew to Chicago, then we'd have to go through Denver to get to Bozeman, most likely not arriving home until the next day. I had wanted only 2 flights with Cora, instead of 3, but I just wanted to get home and was like, "Is there any option to get into Bozeman TODAY?!" They found a flight on Delta through Detroit and Salt Lake City getting into Bozeman at 11:15pm and that was our only option to get home that day. I took it.
Of course the flight to Detroit didn't leave until 12:30pm, so we had a few hours more to wait. Additionally, I had to go back out to the ticket counter to reclaim my bags with United and check them with Delta and then go back through security. Cora slept through most all of this (which would have been our flight to Chicago!) and she woke up to eat after we got settled back in the terminal. The flight to Detroit was uneventful and Cora slept. We landed there and discovered Cora had a huge poopy diaper that leaked on to her clothes a bit. Luckily I had packed an extra set of clothes in the carry on, so I changed her into those. I had some sushi dinner at my favorite little place in the Detroit airport, then we boarded for Salt Lake City. Cora and I were in a middle seat and this flight to Salt Lake was almost 4 hours long, which is longer than her normal naps on the shorter 2 hour flights. I was really pushing my luck by this point with her sleeping on the plane. I fed her and luckily she did sleep most of flight, but was cranky and let out some cries a few times. I even slept for an hour or so (having been up since 4am East Coast time/2am Montana time). When we got to Salt Lake City I changed Cora's diaper and of course she had a second big poopy diaper that again got the sides of her onsie wet a little. Well, I hadn't packed TWO extra outfits in the carry on. But I had packed her pajamas in the carry on suitcase and was planning to put her in her pjs before the flight to Bozeman anyways so that she would be in her pajamas when we got home so late. Oh, but I forgot that on the flight from Detroit to Salt Lake they ran out of overhead room for carry on bags and had checked my suitcase through to Bozeman..so I didn't have the pajamas anymore! Sorry Cora, you had to stay in your slightly poopy clothes until we got home. I definitely had not been planning to travel so long that day!
By that point my voice was starting to get hoarse and I could feel a cold coming on. The one really nice thing that happened that day was that the Delta gate agent in Salt Lake City kept the seat next to me on the flight to Bozeman open so I could put Cora in her carseat for the flight. He said that was his Mother's Day gift to me, which was really sweet, especially after such a long and exhausting day. Shortly before we boarded for the 9:53pm flight (after feeding Cora and quietly singing in her ear to mimick our bedtime routine) she fell asleep in her carseat. And having her in the carseat buckled into the seat next to me was SO nice after feeling so cramped all day. Neil met us at the airport with flowers and Mother's Day cards, all of our checked bags arrived, and Cora slept the whole way home. Thank goodness.
Even though Cora loved looking at the lights and people and stores, etc. in the airports, that was enough security lines, elevators, and airplane terminals for me for a while! At least we had a fun time in Maine and Cora met and smiled lots for all her new friends. And I got to spend my entire first Mother's Day with my beautiful daughter. :)
Arrival in Portland, Maine...finally!
Hanging out in the CIEE office...showing off Cora.
With Grandma Elee.
Snuggling in the hotel room...our home for a few days.
Brewery tour with the Employer Sales Team!
Strolling around in Freeport.
With a super smiley girl!
So tired, but such a good traveler!
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