Christmas 2023

[garrett-sutton]

• Early planning
• Packing
• Traveling with baby

[garrett-sutton]

Packing:

• Grace did basically all of the work here
• we bought a shoe rack that hangs on the back of a door and stuffed all of Gwens stuff into it
• packed her stuff in a bag that we ended up checking.

All total on bags

1. Garrett carry on
2. Garrett backpack (personal item)
3. Grace carry on
4. Grace handbag (personal item)
5. Grace breast pump bag (assistive device)
6. Gwen diaper bag (I think also assistive device)
7. Gwen checked bag
8. Gwen stroller (gets gate checked)
9. Gwen car seat (used in her seat)

In our initial planning we intended to only have a carry on for Gwen, but after how big the bag ended up we checked it. Thank goodness for that because I'm not sure how we would have gotten it all in the plane. It's not so bad in the airport because you can stuff things in the bottom of the stroller.

[garrett-sutton]

MKE timeline

• Got to MKE by 7 am for our 10 AM flight
• Gwen ate before going through security
• got through security with no problems. We were able to use the priority lane
• MKE is a quiet airport from our experience so it wasn't too hard to also feed her before boarding

Flight to NY - JFK

• Gwen slept through takeoff and the first hour
• woke up and was fussy at about an hour in
• When Grace pulled her out of her seat, she had poop down her leg. This was her first blowout ever...
• Grace got her changed in the airplane restroom while I cleaned out the but on the seat
• She fed after getting cleaned up and that got finished during the decent

[garrett-sutton]

JFK to ATL

• arrived at JFK at 11 am for our 2 pm flight
• left Pawling at 9:15ish
• Grace fed Gwen from the floor in a semi quiet hallway ASAP
• based on asking some folks, it didn't seem like they had a mother's room. The other option was a family bathroom that we didn't bother to check out.
• getting through security was tough. Gwen was a bit fussy (we assume she was hot) and they didn't let us through the priority security line. I imagine we waited for approximately a half-hour ish to get through
• We did have a reasonable amount of time for everything here. I didn't necessarily feel like we were just sitting for a while but also didn't feel rushed. I was able to get some food for Grace and I while Grace took care of and changed Gwen
• Gwen wasn't really ready/didn't have a lot of the to eat prior to boarding. She was still fussy as we boarded. This is the hard part. We're trying to get all of the stuff off the stroller and into our arms. We didn't have the luxury of JetBlue needing to check some carry on bags through so that was a bit different from our initial trek from MKE. Gwen is a bit fussy. It's turns out that it probably hurts you as the parent more than everyone else when she's freaking. But also who cares. It's not like people's sideways looks are going to change literally anything about the situation.
• As soon as we got situated on the plane, Grace fed Gwen and eventually got her back in her seat before take off. She fell asleep soon after we got in the air.
• nice picture of her and sky line in the distance (it is in my WhatsApp)
• after Gwen got settled, she was perfect for the rest of the flight

[garrett-sutton]

Trip overview

• Dec 23 Saturday, fly from MKE to JFK. Go to Pawling
• Dec 24 - am Sunday mass for 4th Sunday of advent. Brunch at Aunt Sally. Run back to ils. Mass again at 4 pm for Christmas. Gwen slept through the entire mass. Aunt Sally and fam came over for dinner
• Dec 25 - nice slow day. Took a long time opening presents. Eggs Benedict at two in the afternoon. I got a run in. Prime rib for dinner. Gwen pretty happy on her first Christmas. Grace and I got to run together for the first time in many months.
• Dec 26 - breakfast with Grace's highschool friends. Grace and I got to run together again.
• Dec 27 - Evening at the walravens. Gwen was all the rave. Ate well and fell asleep in the car seat before we hit the road back to Pawling
• Dec 28 - ran with Reid and Grace. Gwen not being as agreeable. Struggled a bit through feeding.
• Dec 29 - Fly from JFK to ATL for Dan's wedding! Drive from ATL to Swainsboro Flat Creek Lodge
• Dec 30 - Wedding Day
• Dec 31 - Fly back out of ATL to MKE

Note Our initial plan for this was to just come home on December 29. We found out after booking the flights that Dan was having a wedding and decided to just reroute to ATL to be able to attend!

TODO

• details (if any) for last days of trip

[garrett-sutton]

ATL to Swainsboro

• Grace says don't let me have Gwen take a small child this far
• We talked about the challenge of feeding during these travels
• we stopped at Truetss Grill which I need to research more as to how they relate or just are Chick fil a