Traveling is borderline torture now. This time we had a short travel time because a new route from Chicago to Helsinki opened this month. We flew three hours to Chicago and about 8.5 hours to Helsinki. Our lay over was three hours, which was perfect for Saku get to walk around and we ate some food. It's nice to travel with dad since he spoils us and we got to eat good, yet ridiculously overpriced, food at the airport rather than just surviving on the airplane food.
Our day started at 04:45 on Tuesday morning. We had to move stuff between our five suitcases to avoid fees for "heavy bags" and the American Airlines agent tried to make me pay for an extra bag since I had one for each kid. I stood my ground and he "did a favor" to me and didn't charge us. We managed to get through security without big problems and both of the kids did a great job on the first flight. I had Eerika and Saku was with Dad and Paula. They sat in the very last row and since I couldn't hear Saku at all during the flight, I could tell that he was happy and doing well.
The long flight really did go well except when it was nap time and Saku had a hard time falling asleep and for the last 45 minutes of the flight. Saku kept tellling me "Saku pois"(Saku away), which meant that he wanted to leave the airplane and he sure wasn't the only one at that point. During the last 20 minutes, both of the kids just had had enough and freaked out. I was holding Saku since he can get little more obnoxious than Eerika and I ended up talking to Eerika in a crazy, sickeningly sweet "baby" voice for the remaining of the flight because it would keep her from crying. I'm not sure if it was more annoying to listening to her cry or my baby talk. But honestly, I didn't care at that point, which says a lot since I am very conscious of those kind of things and try to please people.
I didn't even attempt to watch a movie and ended up holding one of the kids most of the flight.I was exhausted even though the travel time hadn't been too bad. I wish I was rich and could fly first class and hire a flight nanny:)
For the next two days in Finland, I would sleep about 2-3 hours because the kids had such a hard time adjusting. My emails to Troy were something along these lines "I might be one huge mess when you get here if I don't get any sleep". The first night, the kids kept waking each other up with their crying and we ended up watching Finding Nemo at 3 am. Last night dad gave Eerika and me a blessing around 4 am and she slept well for the rest of the night but then I couldn't fall asleep.
So as of right now, I'm surviving on three hour naps and dreaming of some good night time sleep.
Yet it really is so worth it to be here and experience Finland with my kids. And I am so blessed to have dad and Paula who flew to U.S so they could fly to Finland with me. And dad slept with Saku last night and entertained him for an hour in the middle of the night so I could sleep.Of course I didn't but that's not the point:) And Anna has hung out with us each day and I am loving her company.
It's 8:32 pm and I'm going to go to sleep.
Saku checking out our suitcases before we packed them up.
-- Post From My iPad
4 comments:
Good luck adjusting! I really feel for you and I hope they are sleeping better ASAP.
We're not going to visit the US this year and honestly, the time difference adjustment HELL is one of the reasons. It is that bad.
So the outlook is not so bleak, I should add that when your kids are older, the plane flight at least is not so bad. Miriam is old enough to be interested in the movies and Magdalena even watched a couple this last time when she was barely two. So it will get better.
Bridget, I was hoping that you would comment because I know you have been through this. All of this would be easier if Troy was with me. It's hard to be the only parent even when people are willing to help out.
At least I'm with family and I'm in my comfort zone, I don't know how you do this in all these different countries.
Help from parents is so valuable! I keep thinking I need to write down the things I appreciate my parents and in-laws doing so I'll remember what to do when I'm a grandma. I especially appreciate it when they jump in and help because I usually won't ask for it unless things get really bad. It sounds like your dad and Paula have been amazing.
I can't imagine adjusting to such a big time change. When we went to Maine I felt like the first three or four days were just spent recovering and that was only a three-hour difference. I'm glad you get to stay for a long time.
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