Epic Weekend Part 1: Cross Country Travel with Twins

It’s wedding season, people. One of my most favorite times of year. I really, really love weddings. I’m going to be that 90 year old woman who still dances to every song at my grandson’s wedding reception after having one too many glasses of champagne. We have a few friends getting married this summer, and what better way to kick off the season with a wedding in Philadelphia?

One of our best friends in the entire world got married this past weekend in Philly. Patrick was in the wedding and there was no way we were going to miss it. This guy, as I said, is not only one of our best friends, but he is one of our oldest friends too. He’s 101 years old. Just kidding. Ha, but in all seriousness, we’ve both know him since we were kids. I even share a birthday with him and our parents met in lamaze (sp??) class. So, needless to say, we weren’t going to miss it, no matter how daunting a cross country trip with 5 1/2 month old twins seemed.

I decided to make this a 3 part post about the weekend so that you’re not bored to tears by the end of one VERY long post. So, here’s the first installment: the trip across the country.

Last Wednesday, we started packing, and by that, I mean we did about 1,000 loads of laundry, because that’s what you do when you need a million outfits for your kids and a few things for yourself. We had teeny-tiny kids clothes all over the darn place. I need another laundry basket. Lesson learned. My mom and mother in law where here Wednesday night to help us get ready. Our grand plan was to have them feed the kiddos before bedtime and Patrick and I would spend that time packing our own stuff. And then, Rylan started screaming. And would NOT stop. I cuddled him, nursed him, tried bottle feeding, swaddling, shhushing, rocking, walking, swaying, crying back at him, stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight. And that’s what he did, he fought me all the way to exhaustion, thank goodness. But then of course I had to pack with both babies sleeping in our room and sneak around trying not to wake them. Luckily, my sneaking skills are pretty fine tuned and I was able to finish packing.

So. Much. Stuff.

We were able to fit all the kids stuff in one bag and Patrick and I shared a bag. My mother-in-law traveled with us and graciously offered up some space in her bag. In retrospect, I think I would have just filled the kids bag with bibs and burpcloths. Who needs clothes anyway?

So, the morning of our trip, last Thursday, I aimed to be at the airport at 7:30. Our flight was at 8:55 and I thought that would give us plenty of time. The Albuquerque airport is typically a ghost town. I wanted to leave the house by 7:00, even though the airport is only 7 minutes away. I figured it would take us a while to unload and all that jazz. Well, we didn’t leave the house until 7:3o and got to the airport about 8:00. The line at the Southwest ticket desk was epically long. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it that bad, not in Albuquerque anyway. So, we got in line with our stuff:

• Suitcase for kids
• Suitcase for us
• Suitcase for mother-in-law
• Diaper bag
• Backpack
• Purse
• Breastpump
• Snap-n-go double stroller
• 2 carseats
• 2 carseat bases
• 2 Ergo baby packs

So, just a few things.

We checked in and headed to security. Luckily, our flight out of Albuquerque was delayed a bit, or we wouldn’t have made it.

TSA in Albuquerque was fantastic. They put us in a priority lane, so we didn’t have to wait with the rif raf. They helped us get all our items onto the conveyor belt and into the scanning machine. They even gave us baggies for ice for our breastmilk! Moms, here are a few things to know if you have to travel with infants:

• TSA does not have restrictions on volume of bottles or number of bottles of breastmilk or formula you can travel with
• Put all bottles in an easy to access gallon bag, you can repack in ice after security (we had ours in our backpack and then repacked in the pump bag that has a little cooler compartment)
• Any bottle 3oz. or over will be tested with a litmus test (they just wave the little paper over the top of the bottle, they do not stick it in the milk)
• If you carry a baby through the x-ray machine, they will swab your hand for explosive materials after you go through
• Put the carseats on the conveyor belt upside down

So, we made it through the security line with relative ease, and the TSA agent who swabbed my hands was mom to twin girls, so she understood what we were going through.

When we finally got to our gate, it was just about time to board. Patrick and his mom ran off and got us some food and I stayed with the kiddos and the brother of the groom and his wife who traveled with us (thank goodness!). Luckily, the guy at the door to the jetway saw that I had the stroller and told me I had to get the proper tags for it if I wanted to check it at the gate. So…off to the ticket counter at the gate where we received the tags to check the stroller, carseats, and bases all the way to Philly (no, we did not purchase seats for our children on the flight, therefore, did not need the carseats, we are cheap, and poor, and the kids were fine). I put Neala in the pack, where she immediately fell asleep, and we handed Rylan off to our friends so they could family board with us. We cooked up a whole scheme that if anyone asked, our friend Dawn was my sister. No one asked…oh well, we were prepared with our water tight lie.

I’m terrible at taking selfies, but this is me and Neala, just after boarding the flight. She was already asleep.

The kids were awesome on our 3 hour flight to Chicago. Neala slept the entire way and Rylan woke up enough to eat and then settled right in. And then we got to Chicago Midway, and airport I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Seriously. It was terrible. I’m pretty sure there are only about 3 chairs in the whole place. It was so crowded that the guy who got off the plane behind me actually tripped on the foot of someone waiting for the next flight as he was getting off the plane. I missed the whole thing but apparently he went all the way down and it was a big yardsale of stuff flying everywhere. Poor dude.

Neala totally sacked out on the plane. This went on for a solid 3 hours.

Patrick holding a little sleeping doll on the plane. Oh, wait, that’s our son.

Lucky us, our 2 hour layover turned into a 6 hour layover when our flight was delayed by 3 hours due to weather in Philly. So, we got to spend our afternoon in the lovely (as described above) Chicago Midway airport. We avoided near catastrophe when we started heating up Neala’s bottle and realized that we had left our entire bag of nipples and extra pacifiers on the flight. Patrick was able to run back to the gate and retrieve them before the plan took of for its next destination!

Rylan, clearly really enjoying our layover in Chicago.

 

Of course, while we were at Midway, I had to pump. I asked some nice wheelchair pushing employees if there was a place that I could discreetly set up…the bathroom was their suggestion. And, there really wasn’t a better place. So, off I went to the handicapped stall of the bathroom where I set up the breastpump and hung out for 15 minutes. It felt disgusting and it’s a bit appalling to me that there really isn’t a better place for women who need to pump. One more reason to hate Midway.

TMI? Too bad. This is what it looks like to pump in an airport bathroom.

Another tragic moment happened when I really just wanted the worlds most boring drink: a decaf, soy latte. I walked for about 3 miles (ok, maybe just 2) to find a coffee shop in Midway, only to find that they didn’t have soy milk. Awesome.

Again, the kids were awesome. Thank goodness! About 3 hours into our stay at Midway, a nice lady offered us her seat and so did the man next to her. Then, all of a sudden, we felt like celebrities. People just started walking up to us and talking to us about twins. One guy was the father of 4 boys and then had twin girls (6 kids, yikes!). Another guy had twins, there were identical twins waiting to board our flight (we ended up sitting right behind them)…it was crazy, people were just coming out of the woodwork. It did make the time pass a little faster and was really quite entertaining.

The adoring masses at Midway.

When we finally arrived in Philly, it was drizzling a bit but cleared up just long enough for us to stand in the taxi line and stay dry. We loaded up into a minivan cab and headed for the hotel. About 3 minutes into our cab ride, when our cabbie created his own turn lane, I was so very thankful that we decided to bring our carseats and bases. The kids thought the cab ride was hilarious and laughed the entire way to the hotel while Patrick white knuckled it in the front seat and I did the same in the back.

We were more than happy to make it to our hotel, where we were able to enjoy the extremely loud music from a high school prom booming from one of the ballrooms into the lobby as we checked in. The kids also thought that was hilarious. We were all happy to be there, with all our stuff, even if we were 3 hours late.

So there you have it, chapter one. I’ll tell you all about the wedding next, and then our trip home.