France and Switzerland 2015 Day 0 – Preparations and flying

Preparations for the trip on the weekend before the flight, something different if we were travelling by ourselves, which normally took just the time on the day itself. With baby K and his own 29″ luggage full of baby stuff, we had no other choice.

The main concern was with the 12hr non-stop flight to Zurich. That meant a few meals to be taken on the plane and we had to prepare not only for the quantity but also think about the pumping, the cleaning and the sterilising.

In order to have that all done, we purchased quite a bit of accessories meant for travelling. Things like sterilising bags with tablets from Innosense, quick clean wipes from Medela and Steribottle as the disposable milk bottles were purchased. Unfortunately baby K cannot adapt to the quick flow of the disposable bottles and we had to bring the usual ones.

What filled the rest of the luggage was diapers, sterilising pills, wet tissues, his clothes including some cold wear, towels, inflatable tub with pump, hip seat, milk powder, toys. The checklist on the babycenter was actually pretty comprehensive.

Scheduling the feeding times and preparations for the quantities was equally important and missing a meal could be catastrophic, knowing how loud baby K could be when he is hungry. The contingency was of course milk powder, which had to be tested for acceptance at least once.

The flight was at 120am and that meant some travel had to overlap the usual sleeping hours for baby K. Just before leaving, he took a quick nap in the sarong.

Some crankiness kicked in when he awoke from the power nap but became better the longer he awoke. The trip to the airport was was smooth sailing lest a little surprisingly heavy traffic on the roads.

T3 was kinda quiet without too much of a crowd and baby K looked as hyped about the trip as his wanderlust parents. The check in was done as soon as we arrived and we cleaned up baby K a bit since he crapped quite a load. Had to have my parents bring back the stained socks and PJs and changed over a new set. Had some Toast box before parents took some photos with baby K (as they will miss him dearly for the 2 weeks away) before going through immigrations.

Wife went to the nursing room to pump while I brought baby K some milk and TV. He was particularly interested and amazingly he was still full of energy even though it was way past his bedtime.

As we walked to the gate, we realized that the waiting room was near empty and we were actually one of the last to board the plane. We hastened our steps to go through the quiet walkway to the plane and as we got to our seats, I had to put all the carry-ons in the overhead compartment. As it was quite a rush to get ready, there were many attempts to get stuff from the bags before settling down, such as getting the milk bottle, the swaddle, the neck pillows, switching off the electronic devices in the bags. My camera bag was placed underneath my leg together with our passports because there weren’t any seats in front of us to place that, since we were sitting at the bassinet mounting seats.

After the plane climbed to cruising altitude, the stewardess came to install the bassinet and we have baby K a bottle before putting him into the bassinet. He took the usual while to fall asleep, with a little carry time from mommy.

Bassinet wasn’t a great idea for journeys filled with turbulence because every time the seat belt sign was on, the baby have to be carried by mommy, which could wake babies.

We ate the supper while baby K snoozed and as the plane rode through the turbulence, baby K slept soundly in mommy’s arms, who has also fallen asleep.

4hrs into the flight, baby K awoke from hunger. Warmed up some milk with the help of the stewardess and baby K went back to sleep in the bassinet, satisfied. Wife had to express milk while I dozed off.

Off and on, babies start to cry for a bit but all in all, not much of an episode. Halfway mark, we brought some of the accessories to the toilet to clean up and sterilized. Steward recommended that I go to the gallery instead. He even offered to wash down the parts with hot water. Using the wipes and the sterilising bag, I went back to my seat where baby K was awakened, hungry again. Warmed up the same way and he dozed off.

As we headed past the 7th hour mark, where it was the usual time that baby K wakes up while in Singapore, it was then a little more unmanageable as he was cranky being sleepy, hungry and with a full diaper at the same time. It didn’t last too long though I had to shake him to sleep many times while standing up.

At times that I was free of baby K, I would be found at the gallery busy cleaning, steaming and sterilising the accessories, followed by drying and assembly back at my seat. Once I was caught by the manager for working on it by myself which he then proceeded to tell the staff to do it for me – that was awkward.

12hrs past much faster than expected, we were practically busy most of the time, a nice surprise for us. But it was also the great service and a mostly turbulence free flight that made the flight to Zurich better than expectations.