Flight Canceled: Stranded in Chicago (with a baby)

Sayer, our son, was five months old the first time he boarded a plane. We were bound for Ohio to visit family and friends for Christmas. Were we nervous? Yes. But flying is a neccessity when your closest relatives live thousands of miles away. Travel has simply become part of our lifestyle.

As it turns out, all of our worrying was for nothing. Sayer slept from the moment the plane took off to the moment it landed. And since it was a red eye flight, most people didn't even know we had a child with us.

Fast forward three months, and it's a different story. Again, we were flying across the country and our now squirmy eight month old would simply not sit still on the flight. I can't tell you how many times he dropped his binky and the polite passenger behind me had to pick it up. If I wasn't so paranoid about people judging my parenting skills, I probably would have ordered multiple glasses of wine to help me cope with the situation. After all, we were sitting in first class, and the wine was free.

That was my experience flying with my son. One good. One bad.

So, you can imagine my hesitation when I was forced to travel alone with my son. What? My husband isn't going be on the return flight to help? This can't be a good idea, right? I had heard of parents purposely traveling separately. You know, just in case one plane goes down, at least the child would still have a living parent. But that wasn't the case here. There was no motive. This was pure stupidity... or at least I thought.

Our adventure began the moment we arrived at the Cleveland airport. The plan was to travel from Cleveland to Chicago, and Chicago to San Diego.

First, let's review my "cargo".

1. Large suitcase (my clothes and my son's clothes)
2. Small suitcase (all my electronic devices)
3. Stroller
4. Diaper Bag
5. Baby

Needless to say, I was not about to carry everything into the airport by myself... so my dad helped me to the check-in counter. Then, the not-so-nice attendant tried to charge me $100 because my large suitcase was a few pounds over the 50lb weight limit. You've got to be kidding me. The frazzled look on my face and the kid hanging from my body didn't seem to phase him or inspire him to cut me a break. No pity cards accepted here.

And so, I aired my dirty laundry... literally. I opened my large suitcase and dirty laundry went everywhere. I grabbed what I could, threw it in a bag and send it off with my dad to be mailed back to San Diego. Annoying, frustrating and embarrassing... yes, but it wasn't the end of the world.

With my large suitcase checked, I said goodbye to my dad and headed toward security with baby, diaper bag, stroller and small suitcase in tow.

By now, you're probably wondering why I didn't check my small suitcase. Simple. My electronics contain my entire life in digital form. I would not be able to work remotely without them. I practically hogtie the suitcase to my body because it contains about $3,000-$5,000 worth of equipment- a nice payday for someone with sticky fingers.

Considering the amount of gadgets, wires and other curious objects in the suitcase, it always steals the spotlight at security checkpoints. After fifteen minutes (no joke) of poking and prodding, we finally made it through security. I mean, seriously. The only dangerous item on me was a 11-month-old baby who was tired of waiting as his baby food was swiped for hazardous material. And, at this point, the only thing I wanted to smuggle onto the plane was a flask.

Thankfully, our flight from Cleveland to Chicago was great. Sayer slept the entire time.

I'm not sure if you've ever been to the Chicago, O'Hare airport, but it's huge. And we were forced to take every form of transportation possible to arrive at our gate. After checking my stroller at the gate, the attendant hopped on the loud speaker and made an announcement. Apparently, our plane was having some mechanical issues. It wasn't working properly.

I know the feeling.

We waited for three hours as they tried to fix our plane, but to no avail. My flight from Chicago to San Diego was officially canceled just short of midnight.

Great. We're stranded in Chicago.

I called my husband. Then, I grabbed my iPhone to document the adventure.

Our "Son in the Sun" Baby Shower!

When we first learned we were having a boy... I immediately started thinking about possible themes for our baby showers. We knew we wanted something sports-oriented, so we chose an All-Star theme for our Ohio baby shower. We also wanted to celebrate the sun, surf and the sand with our California family and friends.

The phrase "Fun in the Sun" is a bit overused, so I adjusted it and came up with "Son in the Sun". You can do fun things like that when your parents name you after weather patterns :)

Our California baby shower was held two weeks before my due date... yeah, no pressure there. Fortunately, everything turned out perfectly and Sayer decided to hold off on his grand entrance into the world.

Thanks to everyone who made the day so special! We're so excited that our son will be growing up around such wonderful people. To view more photos, click here.

Our "Baby Band"

It was bound to happen. One minute my feet and ankles looked completely normal, and then the next minute I look down and realize my feet now closely resemble that of a hobbit... minus the hair :)

I guess this is what happens when you hit your third trimester. I was expecting to get bigger, but I didn't realize that "bigger" would also include feet, ankles, hands and fingers... at least, not yet. After all, I still have a two more months to go!

The fact that I can no longer fit in my favorite pair of stiletto heels really doesn't bother me. In fact, I prefer going footloose and fancy free in my flip flops. However, my world was literally turned upside down the day I realized I could no longer wear my wedding ring.

I'm not usually a big jewelry person... but my wedding/engagement ring is my most prized material possession. I absolutely love it. It's a family heirloom piece with diamonds from my husband's grandmother's wedding ring. It's a symbol of two families coming together as one, and it means everything to me. So, when it didn't fit over my chubby little fingers, I was depressed, to say the least. And the idea of not wearing a wedding ring at all while I'm waddling about in public, simply was NOT an option.

That's when we bought our "baby band". As far as I know, the concept is original.

We went to the jewelry store and bought a plain, silver wedding band (at least one size bigger). On the inside, we engraved the words "Our Baby Band" and the year, 2010. The plan is to wear the band during each pregnancy and continue to add the year each baby is born.

I just love the idea.

The "All-Star" Baby Shower!

Ahhh... the sound of swinging bats and fly balls! Players run the bases in hopes of crossing that magical place known as "home plate" and all seems rights with the world.

Growing up, baseball played a huge role in my life. My dad has always loved the sport, in fact, at one point he had dreams of becoming a major league player. And if he couldn't play on the field, he was definitely going to take his daughter to as many games as possible. It was a family event. So, when Ryan and I learned we were having boy, having his baby shower at a baseball stadium seemed like a perfect fit.

And it was....

The Akron Aeros are the minor league baseball team for The Cleveland Indians, the team I grew up watching. And since Akron borders our hometown, the stadium was in a great location for all our guests. We had about 65 of our closest friends and family come to wish Baby Sayer well. It was really great seeing everyone and sharing some great stories. You know, when you live so far away, these trips back home really seem like mini-reunions, and it's so sad when the party ends.

But, at least we have the memories right? (click here for photos)

Thanks to all our friends and family who made this event so special. We had an amazing time and I felt so blessed to have shared it with all of you!

Our Baby Registry

This has been an interesting experience.

It may be practical, but the whole process of creating a list of items you want people to buy for you seems a bit self-centered and egotistical. Am I right? I've always felt a little uncomfortable with it. But it's a neccessity... unless you really want your great-aunt Gladys crocheting a crazy-colored baby's blanket for you.

The key for new parents is knowing what you really need, as opposed to just throwing a bunch of random items on the list. Because it's very easy to get caught up in the moment. Especially when all you have to do is go around the store zapping bar codes with your cool, little gadget zapper. Think about it. Do you really need 10 different bibs declaring how wonderful grandma is? I didn't think so.

And so, the challenge was set before me... how to create a quality gift registry reflecting our baby's needs, our space limitations and the budgets of friends and family trying to survive in a depressed economy.

On your mark, get set, go....

I started with the basics. I contacted friends who had already been through this before. Anyone who's caring for a newborn is going to be your best resource for learning about those "must have" items. Any items my friends told me they couldn't live without, I put on the list.

Next, I scheduled an appointment with a baby registry representative at Babies "R" Us. And I made sure this representative had a newborn at home, so I could pick her brain about the items she included on her registry. I think seeing and physically touching the items on your registry is an important step in this whole process. Sometimes these items look great online, but seeing them in person is a whole different story.

As a new parent, what surprised me the most was all the different options I had to choose from. If you know the gender of your baby and you have a theme for your baby's room, you'll probably save a lot of time. Otherwise, you may want to invest in rogaine, because you're bound to pull your hair out.

It took me 10 minutes to decide if I wanted baby towels with blue trucks or blue dinosaurs. And another 15 minutes to figure out which type of pacifier my child may or may not want to use. Oh, and the fact that every baby is different also complicates matters. So, if you're like me, and you plan to have all your babies at once, you can't assume the second baby will like the bottle you bought for the first baby. Everything is trial and error, every time.

Man, I'm seriously exhausted just thinking about it. Kudos to you new moms out there.

The experts say you should have five registry items for every person on your baby shower guest list. When you combine the number of people attending both of my showers, there's about 100 guests. According to their formula, I should have more than 500 items on my list. Instead, I have 56.

Fortunately, their formula is somewhat flawed. If a person purchases five items from your list, odds are they're going to be inexpensive items. Expensive items require two or more people to purchase a gift together, so that helps reduce the total amount of items on your list. However, I would try to break up the items as much as possible. I think it's easier for your guests.

Another factor to consider is how many registries your guests have to chose from. I have two: Babies "R" Us and Viacord, a registry for donating money toward our child's cord blood banking. I purposely limited the amount of items on my Babies "R" Us registry, hopefully encouraging more people to donate to the other account.

So, those are a few tips I picked during the course of my registry experience, which is far from over. If any new moms out there have additional tips to offer, I'm all ears.

Pass the advice or pass the rogaine, either one will do.