First flight

Tomorrow we leave for Cape Town. Our first travel and flight with C, and it's a 12 hour flight!
I haven't even finished packing...I totally underestimated the work that goes into packing for travel with a baby!
I'm usually super organised, but once we got her blood results back, I booked the flight for the following week - not nearly enough time to prepare!

I am very excited to introduce her to her cousin (5 weeks apart in age) and the rest of the family.
A few things make me nervous though...

Will she be ok on the plane?
Will she be unsettled by the new surroundings?
How do I stop everyone from overwhelming her? She isn't very used to crowds because of her illness and isolation for 6 weeks.

Have any of you guys travelled with your kids (near or far)? Any advice or tips?

Thanks!

~Sabine~

Finally!

Results came back great..!
The neutropenia has completely resolved itself! Great news for us, but not such great news for baby as she had to get her first set of immunisations yesterday. Wow, it was awful!
We don't have the results back which explain why she had the neutropenia, but at this stage, it doesn't matter - she is perfectly healthy and I am eternally grateful.
On another note, we suspect she may have a cow's milk protein allergy and she started last week on a new formula. What a difference already. Only sorry I didn't change it sooner.
The new formula costs £13 per 400g tin. So far, 1 tin is lasting 3 days. Her old formula cost £9 for 900g and was lasting a week. This is where, for once, the NHS has been amazing. This formula is prescribed - and children under the age of 16 don't pay for medication....so it's free!
This is a huge relief, money is a real struggle at the moment, and my maternity pay ends soon.

All my friends with similar aged babies have already started planning their return to work and have been looking at nurseries and putting their kids on the waiting list. I have done nothing! I'm not sure what to do..
My salary will cover nursery and leave me an extra maybe £100 per month? Is that worth it? I don't think so. I just think it's too soon to put baby in nursery. I don't have any family here to help me out either.

What have you all done/planning to do after you have/had your babies??

I LOVE being C's mother. She sleeps through the night despite my complete lack of 'routine' (I follow her - when she's tired, she sleeps, when she's hungry, I feed her). She sleeps from between 8-9pm until 7am every night. No dummy runs. Completely uninterrupted sleep. I find the more sleep I get at night, the more tired I am in the day...
She has started to laugh and it melts my heart every time.
It amazes me how much she changes every day and that she learns something new every day too.
She just amazes me in general. I am so lucky and blessed.


~Sabine~