In June we were looking for flights so we could fly to Maine and spend time with my in-laws. As we were looking we were noticing that the flights were expensive. At least double from the last time we bought them to fly to Maine. Plus, we had to buy a third ticket now that our daughter is 2. We were looking for decent flying times, from Denver to Portland, Maine which means we have to go through a city. There is no direct flight from Denver to Portland, Maine. The decent times, leaving Denver in the morning and returning to Denver in the late afternoon, were super expensive. We are talking about 900+ dollars. Well, 3 tickets at that price would be too much money and we wouldn't have much to spend on vacation. So what do we do???? Well, we caved and went for a red-eye flight. We had to decide if we would be taking the red-eye at the beginning of the trip or the late night at the end which wouldn't put us home until 3am. Knowing I had to work the next day, pretty much nixed that option. So we opted for the red-eye at the beginning of the trip. This isn't Baby A's first Red-Eye. She took one a year ago. Did good but this time she is more alert, and a little person. We knew she wouldn't get much sleep and for a child who has schedules and routines, how would this effect her? I knew she would be fine but I have never seen her over tired b/c of her routines that I wasn't sure how the lack of night time sleep would effect her.
We wanted to make the day before we left as calm and normal as possible. We woke up on Monday morning, packed the car and drove 2 hours to my mom's house. She lives only about 30 min. from the Denver Airport. We spent the day there, putting Baby A to bed for nap time at her usual time, 1pm. She slept 2 1/2 hours. Yeah!!! We hung out and put her to bed at her normal 7:30 pm time. She crashed out. Good so far. At 9:30 we woke her up to head to the airport for our 1am flight. She was awake in the car and we told her to go to sleep again. And she did!!! Good for her! Once we got to the airport, she woke up. I thought once we got through security we would be able to find a quiet, dark corner to wait for the plane and get her back to sleep. No such luck. We tried, held her, rocked her, but she didn't sleep. Too much excitement going on. She was up,talking, looking at the planes, but not once showed any signs of anxiety, tiredness, crankiness, etc. Once we were on the plane and in the air, she finally fell asleep. She woke up about 20 min. before landing, looking at people, playing, looking out the window since the sun was up now that we were on the East Coast! One gal across the row from her was so impressed. She didn't make one, unhappy peep the whole time. We got off the plane, ate breakfast at 7:00 a.m. which was really 5 a.m. our time, and waited 3 hours for our next plane. Again, she was playing, watching all the people, and looking at the planes. Not once showing any sign of being over tired. Our next flight was only about 1 hour long but we thought getting 5 hours of sleep she would crash out. Not so fast. She had a ball. We got to Grammy's house and played it cool. We kept her schedule and switched her to Eastern Time, putting her down for her nap at 1pm and bedtime at 7:30pm. When she wasn't sleeping, she was riding her tricylce, swimming, playing with the dog, and happy as a clam.
We are still wondering what made her such a tropper? How come she didn't show signs of being tired? How come she never cried or was cranky? We don't know. We could only assume it is b/c she gets her 13 hours of sleep on a daily basis, is well rested, has consistency, and a schedule that we don't mess with. She probably wouldn't mind taking another red-eye flight.
As for me.....That is another story!
