gal > oh dear - what time was your flight? where did you fly to? maybe he was over-stimulated or hungry? the poop could also be uncomfortable..?
i prepared for the flight like i was preparing for war. i had an artillery of toys, sticker books, colouring pages, crayons, pens, balls, and my iphone was loaded with tonnes of music! i was also ready to surrender my no-tv policy and let her have the inflight entertainment channel if it came to that..
the flight to tokyo was a 6am flight so i knew we had one up on this as it's a red-eye flight. she was woken up at 2am and this for a baby who needs 10-12hrs solid sleep at a go....for days before the trip, we showed her planes (tampines got lots) flying past, gave her a model aircraft etc. so when we finally showed her the big real plane - she was super happy. we had also managed to resolve her super-tantrums (rem she was going thru' a super unmanageable phase?) and she is now ms super-good girl....happy to take instructions (hope it lasts!) so the flight was manageable cos she got into her car seat (we brought it on the flight, booked a seat for her as well) and remained there quietly thru'out. She slept for abt 4 out of the 6hr flight, woke up to eat and that was it. We didn't even need much of the toys or anything - she just played with her cutlery, looked out of the window, browsed the inflight mags and magic, we landed.
the flight back home was the nightmare. first the flight was delayed by 3hrs. scheduled to take off at 5pm, we took off near 9pm. dinner was served near 10pm. narita airport was such that after immigration clearance, there's hardly any food choices so she went hungry all the way! she was so hungry, she ate up all her portion plus mine! and she was one grumpy toddler..so this was when my arsenal of toys came in. had to play with her - but they switched off the cabin lights right after meal time...so we had to play in the dark. why? cos the delay was caused by the inflight entertainment consoles which control the reading light - and that prb was not fixed by the time we left...to add to the dismay, her tray hinge gave way and water spilled all over my nursing shawl, pants and shoes..we also had to change her poop once onboard...arrived in SG 2am, completely KO-ed...and so was little girl. that's why i am so very happy to be home!
in summary, here's my share of "tips":
1) try to create enthusiasm for plane trips..
2) prepare an arsenal of toys, and i mean, an arsenal
3) if possible, secure a seat for the babe and bring along the car seat (I think Dre was sitting in something she was comfortable/familiar with = can sleep)
4) try to travel with an airline that u have frequent flier privileges for priority check-in with biz class/first boarding etc.