Night flight with a toddler

I am actually getting a cheeky moment to write this while on holiday in Australia. But I figured as Husband has taken Pichan on an adventure into the city, I might as well catch up on emails.

Pichan is now 2 years and 3 and a bit months and can definitely understand what is going on (mostly). Last year I made him a special book for his Australia trip (see here), but as my parents have moved house (so the pictures of their house/his room etc) are different and I didn't make another one, we didn't use a book this year. I did mark our trip clearly on our big calendar with pictures of aeroplanes (one for going to Oz, and one for coming back to Japan) and coloured in all the dates so he knew when we were going to Nanna and Poppy's house, and when we go back to Pichan's house.

I did prep him before hand that he would need to sleep on the plane and all sorts of other things like: the things we would pack in his suitcase, how we would get to/from the airport and what we would do in oz.

We flew Qantas this time into Brisbane instead of Jetstar. Unless you get a super sale with Jetstar, the price of the sale Qantas tickets were almost the same price as regular Jetstar tickets. Pi had to pay almost full price now that he is over 2 years old. I think my tickets were 75000yen return, a Pi's were 55000yen return. That included meals and 30kgs of baggage each.

Originally I ordered the kids meal for Pi, but then got worried it would be chicken nuggets and chips (I am kind of strict with his eating), so I changed it to a vegetarian meal. I was so impressed with his meal. Nice and healthy (though a little salty). It was a spinach pasta with vegetables in a tomato and parmesan sauce, and fresh fruit salad for dessert. It was super yummy. The only problem with the Brisbane flight is it takes off at 8:45pm, which means it was about 10pm by the time the meals were served. Naturally we ate at the airport before the flight, so we only picked at our dinner.

*side note- if you are travelling out of Termimal 2 of Narita- I highly recommend "Miso kitchen" (or something like that). It has so many options- both Japanese and some western options like minestrone soup.

By the time they cleaned the meal up it was about 11pm, and turned out the lights shortly after. I was disappointed we didn't received an amenities pack- one that has a toothbrush and eyemask, etc. I tried to get Pi to sleep lying down in his seat with his head on me but that just wasn't working. I ended up giving up and putting him in the ergo, and rocking and singing to him. An hour later- shortly after midnight- he was finally asleep. Though having the extra 14kgs pulling at my front meant that I couldn't sleep on the flight- unlike the last two trips where he was small enough to go in the bassinet on the plane.

By about 4am I thought I was going to throw up (too tired, too heavy, and I get motion sickness), so I unstrapped him to give him to Husband. He woke up and started screaming so I took him back and then was able to lie him down across the two seats (mine and his) and then cuddle him while laying down and curled up so that I could protect him from rolling off. Ofcourse, it meant that I was propped on the edge all night, but I actually managed to get 20 minutes of sleep that way, and he slept right through- even through breakfast and the lights coming on. It was only that we had to wake him before landing that he woke. I was so surprised, as he can be such a light sleeper. Obviously he was exhausted (he usually goes to bed at 7pm) and the flight landed at 5:30 brisbane time- so all up he only had 5 hours of sleep- thankfully we had a big nap together during the day.

I was dreading the flight, and it was pretty horrible, but Pi was really good in terms of not screaming too much. It helped having the TV in front of him so he was pretty mesmorised. The other great thing about Qantas was the screens in the seats in front were playing the whole time (except when there was an announcement)- before takeoff, durning, and even when we landed- so it meant he was entertained the whole time and could keep the screaming down to a minimum.

Now we just have to get through the flight back- which is a day flight- but still 9 hours of entertaining a toddler in a small space...