On the plane

We took Liem for his first plane trip on Christmas eve - we flew to Melbourne to visit Khiem's parents.... First thing to note: prams and strollers have to be checked in as special baggage now. I was told that we would be able to use the pram right up to the gate but this is no longer true. Little Liem is quite heavy to carry around but we managed it (at least Khiem did). On the plane, Liem was a bit fussy...we requested a bassinet but when we put him in it, he just cried so we had to take him out. Khiem then held Liem in his arms, sang and rocked him to sleep! You should have seen my jaw dropped when he fell asleep (Liem is usually Mr Wriggly in my arms!) So that all went very well.

On the way back though, Liem was Mr Fussy all the way. No rocking, singing or pony rides would calm him down. There was no screaming but it was a close thing. Lots of crying, kicking, wriggling. "Why did we have to have the worst baby on the plane?" There was another baby on the other side of the plane who was happily sitting in her bassinet quietly playing games. Finally, Khiem got Liem calm enough by sitting Liem up with his body leaning forward, his head facing up and patting his back. It looked like the world's most uncomfortable position but it worked. And guess what? Liem fell asleep! And he had to stay in that position because when we moved him to a lying down position to make it more comfortable, he woke up and started fussing again. So back to the funny position and back to sleep again! Unfortunately, we were landing at the time so Liem didn't get much more than a 10 minute nap.

People have been asking me whether we are going to Malaysia this year. Before this trip, I was saying, "No, he's still too young, the trip to Malaysia is too long, he can cry for a really long time and I can't take it. We'll see how he does on the trip to Melbourne." Now when people ask me the same question, I say, "NO WAY! YOU MAD, AH?"