no photos of the worst trip ever....

We jump on with most of our stuff and haul it up into the shuttle and this whole time, John and Rachel have already been getting updates from the students, who’s made it, who’s not through security yet, how long things are taking etc, and the professors are still not at the airport.  We finally arrive at a tram station and I’m trying to haul the carry on, the stroller and the diaper bag off the shuttle and get hung up with the things behind me, so I feel the fall coming for some time before I actually hit the ground and am able to take it pretty easy when I fall, but it must have looked spectacular because Oscar started screaming, John and Rachel are very concerned and the driver jumps out to help me too….I really  thought with the reactions that I must have broken something, but I honestly only had a little abrasion on my palm and elbow and that wasn’t even bleeding, so I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about, but I didn’t get a view of the fall from the outside, so the day is just getting better.  We miss the tram because of my fall and have to wait for the next one and on the video screens they’re encouraging you to post to Instagram with the hashtag flyohare.  Well, by the end of this day, I’m ready to post with the hashtag don’tflyohare.  We get to the international terminal and it’s a mess.  The doors open into the security line, so you’re weaving in and out to check in and then have to return to get into this madness that is they’re security line that is so ridiculous, we don’t even let the woman at the desk try to seat us together on the London to Rome leg because we’re worried about making it through and getting to the plane.  British Airways is on lackadaisical time here too as it would take FOREVER for everyone to check in and they have only two people working the line.  And to check in me, John and Oscar takes a lot longer and Rachel is through the student that was behind us is through and now we have to keep Oscar entertained and happy for 2 hours while we stand in line to be patted down because I’m bringing closed containers of baby formula in.  (Well, except for the one that I broke in the fall) This is a thorough pat down too and she made it clear that she was going to touch my breasts, crotch and all that in order to then test the gloves that she patted me down with for any residues that would indicate something besides formula in the formula bottles that are sealed!!!!  What the F!?!?!?!   We did not have any problem on the flight to New Orleans like this and all of his packages of food and snacks are ignored for the one thing most parents of babies would need….milk….This was the most awful time checking in for a flight that I have ever had and if I didn’t have to get across that thing called the ocean for this trip, I wouldn’t do it. It’s making me rethink plans to fly domestically later in the year, because it’s not worth the headache or the hassle.  We finally get to the gate, get some food, get on the plane and promptly sit on the runway for one hour while the rest of the people on the plane get through security.  And because we’re now out of line, we wait even longer to take off.  Now, I know that I had 7 hours on this flight in order to handle a baby…..I was prepared for that.  I wasn’t prepared for not being able to change him, put him in his pajamas and get him into the bassinet thing for sleep until 11:30 at night when he is now overly tired and doesn’t want to sleep.  He is just looking at everything in the plane from his perch in this bassinet and not going to sleep.  He finally nods off after a couple of hours on the plane already and then we hit turbulence.  And when there is turbulence, you have to unstrap him and take him down again.  Which wakes him up.  Then we get him to sleep again and back in the bassinet and they  wake him up to bring us our food at 12:30 at night.  Who the hell wants airplane food now?!?!!?! And thanks for waking up my baby to do it.  So, we have an awake baby who is very unhappy because he was woken up with a jolt and doesn’t know where the hell he is.  So, after a lot of shushing, a lot of rocking, he and I are just playing on the floor space between us and the bulkhead while John sleeps.  Because while I have to take care of the kid, I don’t have to teach 20 students when we finally touch down in Rome.  So, Oscar and I play in a rough sort of way, because what he really wants is to sleep and he can’t seem to do that.  So, he’s mainly angry and throwing things at me or shoving things under the seat because he’s cranky and out of sorts.  He finally goes to sleep in my arms and he does sleep the last 3 hours of the trip, but I don’t because I’m afraid that he won’t if I move.  So, I’m constantly trying to readjust my legs, my grip and keep things smooth while losing feeling in every extremity because of 30 lbs of dead weight.  It was the worse flight of my life and the best part is that they somehow made up no time in the air, so we land at Heathrow an hour late and have to go through international security again because our flight is to Italy.  British Airways did nothing to help us make our connection and that’s with 23 of their passengers making it from one late flight to an on time one.  We hurry everyone through where they are mad at us because they expect things that the US doesn’t in plastic bags and I didn’t have them in it.  So, we get looked at hard again with all the baby stuff and then finally make it to the plane as it is boarding.  This is now the tenth hour that Oscar has spent unable to run around and he’s not happy about it.  But once we are strapped into the new plane and daddy is behind us to play peekaboo with, he falls asleep again in my arms for the entire flight to Rome.  This was great because he needed the sleep, but awful again for me because I had to ask John if he had ever heard of a woman losing a limb from numbness and holding a sleeping child.  I figured that I could be the first…..And if you’re wondering while John didn’t get him for the flight to Rome, I had the bulkhead seat, the extension seat belt and he was asleep before I could pass him off.  But John was nice enough to save all my snacks and feed me slowly from the seat behind me so that I could eat something on this flight.  Still no sleep though….