Atlanta, GA

Month - Feb
Destination - Atlanta, GA
Travel Mode - Air

Duration - 2 hr 19 mins flight time+ 

Bit of background, this trip was a work trip for Jes. She had just come out of her four month maternity leave and jumped into this training in Atlanta. Now we begin with exhibits A and B below which sums up our overall feelings about this trip.

Exhibit B - Exhausted but pulling through

Exhibit A - Self Explanatory

For the longest time, we had been strategizing, reading, researching the best way one can fly with an infant. However, as Madhu later expressed, that was not what took a toll on her, she got exhausted by all the anticipation of what could possibly go wrong.

Our flight to Atlanta was in the afternoon from our local airport in White Plains (which thankfully had direct flight options). We had bought this ginormous suitcase thinking we will combine stuff and thereby reduce the number of bags for more mobility. It was a good idea until we stuffed that case with everything in our life. At the checkin gate we were 8.5 pounds overweight and had to pay 125$ to check in 58.5 pounds. Misfire #1.

Nio was doing just wonderful all this time. Feeding every 3 hours, napping every 2 hours was working like a charm. He is such a curious, observant, and social baby. So giddy!! Lol. Next we flipped out the breast milk which we carefully packed in a cooler and Jes was all ready, declaring to TSA agents, this is BREAST MILK, offending some very hard working, definitely not ill-willed TSA employees while defending her right to take as much BREAST MILK as she needed for her baby. Thankfully Jes was ready to apologize for over-stepping and graciously went in for the pat-down (by a def gay lady TSA agent) when it turned out that they were discussing the fact that their machine couldn't test the milk in the bags we brought it in. Meanwhile, Nio had pooped his heart out and was evidently leaking. He was very calm just wallowing in his poop and occasionally giving us a smile, charming the pants off anyone who looked directly at him. We needed an exit strategy but our bags were still being scanned and Jes was being patted down so there was more waiting. Finally we rushed to the restroom, a kind lady let us go ahead of her, clearly she saw us hassled. We took almost 15 mins in the bathroom, this should give you an idea of how much poop was cleaned and changing was done. Important piece of information, Jes nearly missed dropping her phone in the toilet, instead it hit the hard, cold concrete of Westchester airport bathroom, cracking her screen. Misfire #2. After peeing (us) and pooping (Nio) we gathered ourselves and moved the party to the gate., We were feeling euphoric that this would be the first time we could pre board a plane without paying extra, all because we had an infant and needed extra time. Hell yeah, we needed extra time, space and all the comfort in the world.

Flight announcement - "PRE"....

Us - Hi! 

Our seats turned out, were not that great, though Madhu is certain the person at the checkin counter thought she really took care of us. She gave us the seats right at the back, being a smaller plane the inability to move seats back and the intensity of the sound we could hear was not the best. Nio was just fine throughout except for few times when he had his moments of uneasiness and discomfort and displayed his vocal abilities to the max. The flight was stuck at the tarmac for a while so that seemed like forever. After touchdown in Atlanta we headed to the car rental, got in and drove to the hotel. Hyatt Regency. When we got there, it was crazy busy and hard to get anyone's attention. Madhu's patience was thinning and we were both exhausted. At the checkin they told us we have a queen bed and we had especially called more than a week back and asked for king. Parking was full so they told us we have to park a block away then walk back 5 mins. After minutes of going back and forth and talking to everyone who couldn't help, we just decided to deal with it the next day. When we reached the room, we were shocked by the size of it. It was a wedge shaped matchbox with a bathroom that had no doors and a frosty window separating the bedroom from the bathroom. Madhu was so disappointed and upset at the same time. Nio had to be fed and there were a million other things we had to tackle. Also at night the AC vent would make a large clunking sound, which scared the shit out of us. Nio was unfettered by it but next morning, it scared the shit out of him. We tried to make the best of it that night but it definitely made our first night less enjoyable. Next day,  Madhu suggested that we speak with Jes' co-worker who arranged the hotel and have her upgrade us to silent HVAC system...and they did and along came a king size bed too! What a relief. Madhu is very picky about hotel rooms specially the amount of space there is in it. We were so glad there was room to move around and Jes didn't have to take a shower and do her makeup by the dim light of a piggy nightlight to avoid waking the household.

Next morning, Madhu had a social - she was meeting her high school friend who now lived in Atlanta and she hadn't seen her in years. Something worth mentioning, Madhu went to school in India but most of her high school friends are all over in North America, she has some high school friend in every city :) not to mention, two of them live in NY very close to us. Weird but interesting fact. Anyway, back to the trip - Madhu was feeling very anxious as she would be venturing out with Nio all on her own and that too in a foreign city. With some help from Jes, she was on her way to Krog Street Market and once she got there and saw her friend, she felt her nerves relaxing a bit. Of course, being home brewers, a stop at the local brewery/bar was not to be missed. As they say, kids need to start early!!

Hop City Tasting Room

Hanging out among beer products

On the tail end, we learned about a snow storm coming to New York that may interfere with our flight. NOO! We were not ready to be stranded in Atlanta for another day for many reasons, among them finding another person to feed Einstein more meals for however long it took to get home. No thank you. So we jumped at the opportunity for an 8am flight. We got up at 4:30am(!!) and left the hotel at about 5:45am. By the time we got to the gate it was 7:35am and they were about to start boarding. Literally made it just in time to grab some small amount of food from the nearby cafe and get on the flight. We were off. Nio was a serious charmer on this flight as well, greeting every person who passed us by with a huge grin. Excellent, we thought, be as cute as possible now so all of these people are more likely to forgive your dinosaur sound effects later. Our seats were somehow in the Comfort+ section (THANK GOODNESS) making this flight more comfortable by leaps and bounds. It was also less noisy, leaving us to wonder what was wrong with the engine on the first flight. (hmmm...) Nio slept for most of the flight, eating on either end of it. Could not have been more perfect. Jes was thoroughly engorged and leaking all over her shirt by the time we boarded so there was that, but luckily she remembered her haakaa hand pump and could let her breast leak into that under her shirt as the flight took off.

Traveling with a baby is no light affair. There is still a lot to perfect in the way of pumping timings and our own eating schedules (waiting on delivery while starving is not optimal) as well as day time entertainment for mother and son. The days were long for everyone and the nights felt especially short for Jes, who had to get up and be at work at varying way-too-early times. The trip was full of firsts. First flight for baby, Madhu's first time being with Nio alone for long stretches, Jes being away from Nio for long stretches, and Jes not only being back at work but really in the thick of it! Being that we came back with no missing parts (save Madhu's favorite hat) and no divorce papers being served, we think it was a resounding success!