Our First Trans-Continental Travelling Adventure

The day after Christmas Megan and I went over the river and through the woods to Grandma Kathy's house. The river we went over was the Mississippi and we didn't go through the woods so much as over them...and the mountains and the prairies for that matter.

We flew from Madison to Dallas to Phoenix. Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive about travelling across the country on a plane with an 8 month old. I feel like I planned and planned and perhaps over planned. But with Todd needing to stay in Madison for work, I thought I'd be better off over preparing than under preparing. There aren't a whole lot of adjustments you can make on a plane when it's just you and the baby!

We started out really well in the airport. We arrived with plenty of time and hung out with Todd until it was time to go through security to board the plane. It was really hard to walk away from Todd, knowing that we wouldn't see him for 5 days...and dreading what might lie ahead on the plane despite all my planning and happy thoughts.

The first plane was one with two seats on one side of the aisle and one seat on the other. They assigned me to the window seat on the two-seat side. The woman that was seated next to me was probably a few years older than me and was headed to Vail for her first time skiing on "real mountains." While she didn't have any children of her own, it sounded like she was pretty involved with her nieces and nephews and instantly took a liking to Megan.

I was really lucky to be seated next to someone so understanding, because Megan didn't take very well to flying. She started out okay, but before long she was crying harder than I've seen her cry in a really long time. She didn't want to eat. She didn't want her nuk. She didn't want to play. She didn't want to sleep. She didn't want to be held...now that was really a problem. I cycled through all the possible ways to calm her down over and over, but it only seemed to upset her more. Finally she just fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion.

It was a fitful sleep and every time I shifted my arm she'd wake up and fuss. Luckily she slept that way for about 40 minutes. When she woke up, the screaming resumed until she suddenly made a horrible face, turned a shade of purple, and then made a big stink. That must have been her problem all along because after I changed her diaper in the tiny lavatory, she was much better for the last 20 minutes of the flight.

As we sat at DFW waiting for our connection, I felt exhaustion and dread. What if the second flight went just as poorly?

She was exceptionally charming while we waited. I fed her two bottles, cereal and baby food. Everyone was coming over to tell me how cute and well-behaved she was. (We'll just see what you say when we land in Phoenix, was what I was thinking!)

We were in the last group to board the plane. There was no preboarding and the flight was totally full. As I was headed to my seat, my would-be seat mate jumped up and flagged down a flight attendant. After a hushed conversation that involved a lot of pointing at me, the flight attendant approached the young woman seated in front of me and asked if she'd switch seats with the man who was supposed to sit next to me. She had no problem sitting next to us and was also very taken with Megan.

Luckily flight #2 was much less eventful. Megan played for a while, but slept for most of the flight. She didn't get antsy until we were just about to land, and even then she didn't really cry. There were several other babies on the flight who had cried on and off through nearly the whole trip, so Megan seemed really well-behaved compared to them!

After we landed, I thanked the young woman profusely for being such an understanding seatmate and we headed out of the gate to go find Grandma Kathy.

I am writing this from Arizona and we're headed home tomorrow. I'm a little nervous, but I think now that Megan's an experienced traveller, our trip home will be great...I hope! :)

The Christmas Letter 2006

Holiday greetings from the Milewski family!

Needless to say, EVERYTHING has changed for us over the past year.

We started the year busy with preparations. We took all the necessary childbirth and parenting classes. After the baby showers, we put together all the baby stuff and washed all the tiny clothes. As my belly got bigger and bigger, we were glad to be busy with school and hockey so that the wait was more bearable.

The Badgers decided to make life a little more interesting by making it to the National Championship game--one week before the baby's due date! The tournament was in Milwaukee (which was better than Albany, Boston or any of the other recent Frozen Four locations) and Todd had his cell phone out on the press table and a back-up plan for coverage of the game just in case. Luckily, the baby cooperated and stayed put and made her daddy's life just a little easier.

I worked until our due date, then started leave so I wouldn't have to be on my feet so much. I'll leave you to read the whole story about the labor and delivery in my other blog posts. :)

Megan was born in the early morning hours of April 22. We were able to spend a lot of time with her in the early months. It was the hockey off-season so Todd was home often. My maternity leave happened to work out so that I didn't have to go back to work until the end of the summer. We had a very fun summer doing lots of things as a family. My cousin Marissa even stayed with us for a few weeks to help out.

Megan amazes us every day with her abilities and personality. She is very smart and, of course, adorable. (Of course, I'm probably biased!) She sleeps through the night and is a very good eater. She sits up well and sings and babbles. Her latest thing is dancing. She loves music and when she hears a song she really likes, she starts to wiggle and "clap" with a giant smile on her face. She likes all of the foods we've offered her so far.

Todd's back on the Badger hockey beat once again, although he's a little less busy than years past. He is not writing the column for USCHO anymore. I think he sometimes misses it, but I think the opportunity to spend time each morning with Megan before he takes her to the sitter's is well worth it! He really likes the "daddy time."

I'm still teaching 2nd and 3rd grade bilingual, but I've scaled back on the extra things I was doing at school so that I have more time with my family. I also have a teaching partner this year. This has posed some challenges, but all-in-all, it's been much better for the students and me than being isolated.

While every aspect of our lives has been changed since the baby was born, they've all changed for the better. We're looking forward to a very special holiday season...and as with everything else, it's all about Megan! :)

Baby Therapy

It amazes me how different people act when they get a baby in their arms. The first person I saw a change in, of course, was Todd. He's gotten so much more tolerant of yucky stuff. Diapers are one thing, but he manages to put on a happy face when he's feeding her the baby food even though it looks and sometimes smells gross to him. That and he's a total mush when it comes to Megan. Not that he wasn't a mush before, but to see him mush on someone else, rather than being the recipient of the mush, is something else.

Then there's the grandparents. Megan's the first grandchild for all of them. My dad, for instance, tried to pull off his gruff, kids-fear-me act, but the last time we were visiting, all it took was her to grab his nose and he couldn't help but coo to her and get playful. Nana and Grandpa Jim just delight in her, too. Jim makes endless faces and noises for her and they both love to get right down on the floor with her. My mom has made 4 cross country trips to see her in the first 7 months of her life.

Whenever I take her to school, countless people ask to hold her and cuddle her. My principal is usually in constant motion, but if he sees the baby at school, he's got to take a break to hold her. Others use her for "baby therapy." That concept started when she was a newborn and I was home on maternity leave. Things got stressful at school and each day after school one or another of my friends was at our house to snuggle with the baby. They always left feeling better and more relaxed.

Maybe Megan will be some sort of a counselor when she grows up. :)