We made it! Each of us in one piece! I'd give the whole trip about a B/B+. Which frankly, is better than we expected, since we expected the worst. The first flight from Philadelphia to Zurich was only about 7 hours, and Griffin slept well in his carseat for the first 4 hours. We had 3 bulkhead seats and his carseat fit well in between us. But after he woke up with 3 hours to go, it was all about entertaining him, especially when he normally sleeps 12 hours at that time. By the time we arrived in Zurich, he was zoned out but unable to pass out for some reason. Luckily, the Zurich airport has a fantastic family center on the top floor, completed with changing tables, high chairs, play areas, private bathrooms, and cubbies where you can leave some of your carry on luggage when you go out to get something to eat. Since we had a 5 hour layover, it came in handy. We finally got Griffin to sleep for about an hour by trading off walking him along the length of the 3rd floor of the airport in the stroller. This nap gave him just enough refueling to last until we boarded our second flight to Bangkok, which would be an 11 hour trip. When we boarded the plane however, they told us we couldn't bring the car seat on with us!!! Part of the problem was that we didn't have a bulkhead seat this time, and the carseat wouldn't have fit. At first I panicked and thought it was a major catastrophe, but then we realized Griffin could just crash out in the empty seat and be fine. (see photos!). Over the 11 hour trip, he slept maybe 2-3 times for several hours each, as did I. The only downside was that when he was awake, he was cranky, and for the first time ever, only wanted Mommy. Poor Steve! Anyway, we made it. It's the first time I've flown that long and not watched one single movie, but I suppose those days are over for a while.
When we arrived in Bangkok, it was early in the morning Bangkok time, but 11 hours behind for us, so evening-time by our clocks. Griffin managed to stay awake until we arrived at our friends house where we are staying for a few days, and then I put him down for a nap. Luckily, this was exactly the same time as his normal naptime at home (in Thailand's time zone). For the rest of the day we followed his normal schedule and he adapted really quite well, as smiley as ever! He went to bed a bit early but close to his normal time. Unfortunately, he woke up by 9pm and was up with steve (I went to bed!) until close to 11. Then he woke up again at 1am or so, and we let him cry a while until it was clear he wasn't going back to sleep. So I got up and played with him until about 3am, when he crashed until about 7am. Not bad- could have been worse!! We're trying to get him exposed to as much natural light as possible today to ease things, and hopefully tonight he'll make it through more of the night in one stretch. Fingers crossed!
When he woke up from his morning nap today, we took a little outing to the market in Bangkok nearby. Then we took the water taxi back, before coming home to have lunch and put him down for his afternoon nap. He LOVED being out and about, even though it was really warm out, and all the Thais stopped to talk to him! Thai's LOVE babies. Especially chubby "farang" (foreign) babies. Griffin really liked the water taxi too- once we got going, even though it was loud, he just started laughing!
We expect to be in Bangkok through Sunday and will head to Phuket then, about an hour flight, and get settled there for the next two months. Can't wait to be on the beach!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STEVE! His birthday was yesterday when we arrived- thanks to my mom for packing up some of his favorite fudge brownies for his birthday for the trip- they were great!!
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