The 10 hours flight wasn’t as bad as we imagine it to be. The seats were separated into columns of 3. On the flight to Singapore, I was assigned a seat alone where the bassinet was, while Andrew and my parents took the 3 seats behind me. Another kiwi couple was seated next to us with their one year old toddler girl.
At 5 month plus, Karen wasn’t crawling yet and all she wanted was to be carried. I kept her close, pat her to sleep in my arms and the bassinet was mainly use to hold all her stuffs. I doubt she spent more than 2 hours in that bassinet. However, I won’t be able to do without it, it was really handy having her bibs, toys, and bottles within arm reach inside the bassinet.
It was also fortunate that Karen was distracted by the toddler next to us. She would spend her time in the plane just observing what the one year old was up to. The tod’s parent however wasn’t having an easy time. There was one time when their kid burst into tears refusing to nap even though she was exhausted. Her dad cuddled her in his arm in the seat next to me and Karen. While the toddler was waving her arms around screaming, Karen reaches out and touched her hand. The tod immediately stopped crying and tries to touch Karen’s hand. They keep fingering each other which were really sweet to see. All the fingering and hand touching calms the tod down and she eventually fell asleep. By then Karen starts fussing a little and I immediately walk her around the cabin which promptly sets her sleeping too.
About the toddler , her dad and mom are both New Zealander and she’s born oversea. They brought her back to NZ for a visit and were on the way back to England. On the other hand, Karen’s born in NZ and was on the way to visit Singapore. Talk about irony.
Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/
