We spent Cora's first Fourth of July on her first airplane ride! We were flying to Seattle so we could go on Cora's first cruise to Alaska with my entire family! I was incredibly nervous leading up to it since I had no idea how she would handle it. I did lots of research on how to handle baby's first plane ride and the general advice was to make sure she nurses during take off and landing. I had made sure to book us seats next to the window and towards the back of the plane to try to have more privacy. Cora hates nursing under a nursing blanket and I don't mind nursing in the open, but Adam is not as cool with it. Let me say though, although I don't mind nursing in the open, that does not mean that I actually do it! I do really see it as just feeding my baby, but I do understand that it makes some people uncomfortable. So when I am out and about and need to feed Cora I do it in a nursing room if available or in the car. I was hoping that we would be seated next to a mom in the aisle seat in hopes that she would be more understanding about me nursing and about Cora possibly being fussy during the trip. Of course though, we were seated next to a man. Adam thought that he looked kind of annoyed when we sat down with Cora, but I did not get that vibe. At the end of the trip he told us that he has his own young child, so he did empathize with us! Anyway, I was nervous about nursing Cora at the right time during take off and about how she would handle nursing under the blanket. Instead of me wearing the blanket, Adam ended up just holding it up to shield us and we took off without incident! The flight to Seattle is long, a whopping 4 hours! I bought a new book for Cora to look at and we made sure to bring the iPad loaded with Sesame Street, but she still got fussy on board. She never really cried for a long amount of time, just short outbursts that were loud (at least they were loud to us) with some complaining moans and groans. She did nap a couple times on the flight, including on the way down. For the most part, I would say her first flight was a success!
Us on the plane!
However, there was one BIG event on the plane. Cora had a HUGE blow out! People who get queasy when reading about bowel movements may want to skip this paragraph. Cora had been holding her poops to the point where she would only go once a week when she usually goes up to 4 times a day. Now this only happened for 2 weeks, but you can imagine how large her diapers would be! On the day of the flight, she hadn't pooped in 5 days. I just knew that she would end up going on the plane! She was fussing and I can't even remember what we were doing to try and entertain her, but I heard her fart. Then I thought, maybe it's not just a fart, and it wasn't! Adam took her to the plane bathroom as quickly as he could, but of course there was a line to get in. Some of the people in line offered to let him go first, but he politely declined. He had actually changed one of her wet diapers in there earlier in the flight, so he knew there was a small pull down table to change her on. As everyone knows though, airplane bathrooms are super small to begin with. Adam is 6'4", so the bathroom is especially small for him. (Now would be a good time to point out the obvious: it probably would have been easier for me to go in and change her myself. Luckily for me, Adam is a wonderful, fantastic husband and did it for me since he knew I would panic!) So there was poor, extremely tall Adam, hunkered down in the tiny bathroom trying to change her diaper and keep everything clean and sanitized. At 7 months old though, Cora is a very movable baby when we change her diaper so Adam had quite the challenge! Her poop ended up getting on her clothes and everywhere else, so Adam had to change her outfit too. The extra outfit that was in the baby bag was a cute blue and white polka dot onesie with some pink flowers that look like pins on the left side. When he came back to the seat, I immediately noticed that it was on backwards due to the lack of the flowers on the front! Adam was so flustered in the bathroom that he didn't even notice it was backwards! We were the last ones to get off the plane and Adam made sure to tell the flight attendants that he cleaned up as much as he could in the bathroom, but that they might want to do some extra sanitation in there!
Cora sleeping during the landing - notice how there are no flowers showing on her onesie; Cora on the taxi ride to the hotel - notice the flowers now that we turned her onesie around!
Our first night in Seattle was alone. My parents and a couple of my siblings were also supposed to get in on the 4th of July, but they did not make their flight and wouldn't get there until the following day. We were pretty tired by the time we checked in to the hotel but we wanted to at least get a good dinner. Pike's Place wasn't too far from our hotel so we decided to walk down there to eat at Steelhead Diner. We brought a little umbrella stroller for Cora to ride in. She was tired too and must have felt really comfortable in the stroller because she just kicked back and put a leg up the whole ride there. So many people walking by us commented on how cute she was and how she was relaxing.
Yes, LOTS of polka dots
After dinner, we made a quick stop at Target to get diapers and baby wipes for the cruise and then headed back to the hotel. I put Cora to bed and then Adam and I tried to stay up to see if we could see the fireworks show from our room. The show wasn't going to start until after 10:00 though, which was already midnight our time! I couldn't make it and went to bed. Apparently I didn't miss much though because Adam said we had an obstructed view of the fireworks show. Maybe next year Cora can see her first firework show!
The next morning my sister, Kharmene, and her husband, Jonathan, arrived in Seattle. They are vegan so we joined them for an early lunch at a vegan restaurant. I think they feel bad sometimes when we go with them to a vegan restaurant, but honestly Adam and I enjoy vegan cuisine! If you have never tried vegan food I highly recommend it. As long as you go into it realizing that a "cheezeburger" is not going to taste like a real cheeseburger, you will be fine! We stopped in to a little cupcake/ice cream shop on the way back. Kharmene was excited to see that they had vegan cupcakes available! By the time we got settled back in to the hotel, my parents, Khristina, and Khristian arrived! We walked around for a bit before having dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. I gave Cora some squash to eat and she loved it! She almost seemed hyper. She just kept babbling, very excitedly and loudly! They did not have dessert there so we went to a boba tea place, which unfortunately had just OK boba tea, and which I unfortunately spilled all over the front of my shirt! Cora was starting to get cranky anyway, so we booked it back to the hotel and turned in for the night.
Cora enjoying her squash!
Saturday was cruise embarkation day! My poor Mom and Dad thought they didn't check in for the cruise so they were worried they wouldn't be able to get on the cruise. They tried logging on to their cruise account and it said there were no reservations, so of course they worried even more. I tried logging on to my cruise account and it said the same thing, but I knew we did check in. In the end, everything was OK, they just did not print out their edocs. We were all relieved when we got through registration! Here is the obligatory picture you have to take on your way to the boat.
Please note that there are so many of us that we spilled over the back drop! Actually the photographer should have done a better job haha but oh well!
I love going on cruises. It is so convenient for our family because our normal routine when we are together is go out to eat and then go back home to rest and to think about where we're going to eat next. It's so nice for us on the cruise ship since food and bed are so close by each other! I have only ever gone on a Carnival Cruise, so it was fun switching things up and going on Norwegian Cruise Lines. Our rooms were already ready once we boarded, which was nice. On the Carnival cruises we've had to wait before getting into the room. Cora was ready for her nap as soon as we got on the boat, so I had to stay behind in the cabin with her while everyone else got to go to lunch and explore the boat. This was a recurring theme for the whole trip, but I didn't mind. I got to really flex my brain muscle and play tons of Sudoku, haha. Adam was a sweet heart and brought food back to me in the cabin and had lunch with me there. The mandatory evacuation drill was much easier than Carnival's. We just had to meet at our muster station, which was one of the main dining rooms, and they showed us how to put on our life jackets. And that was it! Carnival's is probably better and safer since they go more in depth, but it was nice not having to stand outside in cramped lines. We had dinner with our large group at 5:30, and then it was back to the room for Cora and me!
Cora already conked out at the end of dinner
Day 2 of the cruise was just a day at sea. We took advantage of our convenient set up of going to eat and then back to the cabin to rest that day! A few of us (me NOT included) went the healthy route and got a good work out in. I was hoping to take advantage of the ship's Guppies classes geared towards babies but Cora was ready to eat and nap by then. We actually never made it to any of the classes the whole week! We spent a lot of time that day and throughout the week in my parents' cabin. The rest of us had interior cabins but my parents got a room across from us with a nice balcony. It was definitely nice to be able to just cross the hallway when we were ready for some sunlight!
Adam and Cora on the tiniest couch ever in my parents' cabin
It was formal night that evening and our group had arranged to take a picture altogether. It is rare for my whole family to be in the same place so my mom wanted to make sure we took a nice family picture too. We decided on a color palette of blues, greys, and purples so we wouldn't be too matchy-matchy.
My family getting our own little family picture. Cora had shoes on at one point, but hated them so much we just decided to take them off!
On request of my mother, I brought a headband with a flower for Cora to wear. I am pretty neutral about headbands on babies. I don't think they are necessary, but I'm not totally against them either. I think they can be nice for special occasions, but really I prefer Cora without a headband. I feel like you can fully appreciate her beauty without a headband to distract ;) However, I really wish I had chosen a different headband! She looks cute, but I don't love it. Oh well. At least it was soft and it didn't bother her.
On second thought, she looks pretty stinking cute with it!
She ended up spitting up and then wanting to eat and nap while Adam and I were getting our own pictures together so we went back to our cabin. I was bummed that we were going to miss dinner with the whole group. She ended up only sleeping half an hour though so after a costume change for Cora we were able to join everyone!
Our whole group picture! Did I mention there were 32 of us? I'm impressed the photographer got both babies to look at the camera at the same time!
Day 3 of the cruise was a stop in Ketchikan, Alaska. It was a rainy day so Cora got to try out her new rain coat. My family purchased an excursion to go to the Misty Fjords on a boat. Adam made sure to do tons of research on the excursions available and chose ones that would be Cora-friendly. This one was great. The first level of the boat was all inside, where of course Cora and I stayed the whole time, and the second level was open air, which I did not venture up on to once. I think everyone fell asleep at least once on the ride since it was kind of long, but the trip was really nice. We got to learn a lot about Ketchikan culture, see some beautiful nature, and they gave us free food! Who doesn't like that? Once we got back to the town we had a very quick lunch with some of my dad's cousins that happened to live in the city. It was REALLY quick, but it was nice to meet them.
Cora and I enjoying being warm and dry on the inside of the boat.
My brother and Adam taking pictures of the scenery on the top of the boat.
That night my siblings and I decided to try one of the extra pay restaurants on the boat, Chin Chin, an Asian restaurant. The food was great and it was nice being in a different setting than the big dining room. Then as usual it was off to the cabin for Cora and me!
I think I'll stop here and finish the rest of the cruise in my next post. Here's a glimpse of what's to come:
:)
