As I said in the first post, it takes about 24 hours total to make the trip from Ohio to Singapore if you include layovers and such. About 21 hours of that is time in the air. A few hours from Dayton to Atlanta, 13 hours from Atlanta to Narita (Tokyo) and then 7 more hours from Tokyo to Singapore. So yes, many were not in envy of us boarding a flight that long with a 13 month old baby. Once again, ITW took awesome care of us on our trip and put us in business class, which has the seats that completely lay down. Booyah!! :) Well that's just great if you don't have a baby with you, but where will Adriana sleep? If she isn't safely sleeping somewhere, I won't sleep and I am not sharing my little pod with her for fear I would roll on her. So awesome, they even had a solution to that, they have baby bassinets for the plane. So, I was like, okay....but she is 13 months old, she will climb out of a bassinet. Their answer, she is restrained. So, we were all set, we have lay down seats, she has a bassinet, we will sleep! Awesome! So this was the plan anyways....
Our flight from Dayton to Atlanta was uneventful, ON TIME, smooth like any other domestic flight, except it was my first time in first class, which was nice. Once we got to Atlanta all seemed well with our flight to Tokyo and we confirmed the bassinet would be available (for the 3rd time). Then started a big snowball: The flight was delayed due to "mechanical problems". My thought was, well take your time because if you are going to fly me and my family across the Pacific, I want all mechanical problems resolved. I was at first concerned about missing our connection in Tokyo to Singapore, however we were told the same jet was taking us on to Singapore, so no need to worry about missing a connection. Well that all changed, as they decided at the last minute to fine another jet to connect us, so the one in Tokyo could leave on time for Singapore. So we were delayed over 3 hours, missed our connection to Singapore AND when we boarded the flight to Tokyo, we found out THERE IS NO BASSINET in business class seating. WHAT? How could an agent tell us so when the flights are booked and then multiple agents confirm with us the day of the flight that there is a bassinet when there isn't? So to say the least, things got off on a pretty rough start. Plus Mark and I were both ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED from the packing and shipping of our things the previous few days. I was understandably upset at this point, but really in someways numb to it as well because I was so tired. Little did I know, God had his hand in all of this, as it all turned out just fine, read on.
So when we boarded the jet for Tokyo, yes we received bad news about the bassinet, but we were also SUPER impressed with our seats (and beds!). Some of you have had the pleasure of flying this way before, but for those who haven't.....We seriously had our own little pod on the plan with a little table inbetween us. The seats layed down flat operated by remote, we had our own TV/computer that flipped out when we wanted it (everyone has this on international flights regardless of seat), we were also given a little "hospitality" kit with slippers, a sleeping mask, ear plugs, toothbrush/paste, etc. along with a pillow and a heavy blanket (not one of those cheapy thin airline blankets). Also, the food was soooo good, not yucky airline food! I mean it wasn't like a four or five star restaurant but you got a menu and it was actually pretty good! I seriously did not know what to do with myself. Thank you ITW!! :) :) :) I planned on getting some pictures of the set up on our third leg of the trip after I got some sleep, but turns out we did not get the same set up on the last flight. Due to the shifting of flights, we got put on a whole other airline (more on that later). But here is one shot I did get before we took off. Mark is taking this picture from his seat and you can see a part of the little table between us. You can also get a better idea if you take a look at the lady behind me (there is an aisle between us). I will get more pics when we fly home at Christmas, because we get to do this all over again, and again. :)
Here are a few pics I found off the internet, picture describes it so much better than words....
So how did Adriana do? We went into it expecting the worst, but hoping we would be pleasantly surprised and we were. She truly is a little angel and she did so good. Especially when you think about the fact we had no way of explaining to her what was happening and everything was new to her. Since we didn't have the bassinet, Mark and I decided to take turns sleeping and holding Adriana. Turns out, I really did not get much sleep, but I was VERY comfortable. Getting her to go to sleep was a bit of a challenge as she is used to going to sleep on her own, in her crib. I tried to hold her while she slept, but she just wasn't comfortable. She is used to being able to spread out and roll around in her crib like a big girl until she is comfy. But I knew even if I couldn't sleep, I knew she HAD to get some sleep for all of our sanity, so I managed to make her a nice comfy bed on the floor in front of me. If I didn't lay back my bed, there was a small area at my feet that was protected by walls for her to safely lay down. I made a comfy bed out of some blankets and she was out. :) I didn't sleep, so I could keep an eye on her, but again we were all much happier if the baby could get some sleep.
Thirteen hours later we landed in Tokyo and obviously had to get a hotel room as we missed our flight to Singapore. Everyone was so very helpful, friendly and very attentive to Adriana's needs. They set us up with some food, a crib and some baby bath supplies. While most would be frustrated to have to stay over due to a missed flight, it was quite a blessing to stop and rest, especially for Adriana.
With the flight delay we also had to switch from Delta Airlines to Japan Airlines and wow was I impressed with Japan Airlines. I had heard Asian airlines were more customer focused than airlines from American and Japan proved this. I felt like I was eating in a restaurant with the food service they provided. They also were super awesome with Adriana. She got a children "welcome kit" with baby friendly snacks, little games, etc. They served her first before others (probably to keep her quiet, LOL) and were overall just awesome. A downside to the switch in airlines, is we didn't have the lay down seats, but the seats were still super awesome and reclined back almost to flat with lots of space. Another perk to this was we finally got the bassinet!!! :)
Turns out, I still wasn't comfortable enough to go to sleep while she was in there, but at least I could lay her down and we could have our own space. Again Mark and I took turns sleeping while the other kept an eye on her. She also didn't sleep as long in this as she did on the floor during the other flight, go figure! Here we are snuggling on the flight from Tokyo to Singapore. At this point, she is like "Mom, what is going on? Can we go home now?"
And she's out again! :) This time in Mommy's arms! :)
Through all this Adriana actually got very clingy to me and as long as I was in sight or holding her, she was happy. I loved this because she was in that "Miss Independent" stage at 13 months and I was missing cuddle time!!! It felt so good to hold her and tell her everything was ok and see her relax. She was attached to me before the move, but before the move as long as I was in sight she was good. Now she wants to sit on my lap, sleep with me, give hugs and I am loving every minute of it!
So we finally landed in Singapore the evening of May 10th, just in time for dinner. Another perk of the flight delay we didn't realize at the time was because a 24 hour trip turned into a 47 hour trip, by the time we arrived in Singapore poor Adriana had no idea what time it was. This helped us to easily flip her schedule within a week or so of arriving. Previously I thought it would take a month after talking to other mothers, but Adriana was so very tired by the time we arrived in Singapore the evening of May 10th, that all we had to do was give her dinner, keep her up for an hour or so, lay her down at 8 and boom she was out for hours, even though to her it was actually day time. When we first arrived she would wake up at midnight and 5am Singapore time thinking it was time to eat as it was lunch and dinner time at home, but after a week or so she stopped this and was back to sleeping 11-12 hours at night.
Here is shot from our hotel room the night we arrived:
Beautiful downtown Singapore. Thanks for the awesome view ITW!
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