So yes, another Perth trip has been and gone. We've made 3 trips back now, and Hannah isn't even 18 months old yet. That's pretty good going, I reckon!
The main objective this trip was to spend less time dashing around trying to see everybody, and more time relaxing and hanging out with my parents, so they could spend some real quality time with Hannah - something which they haven't had during the previous two trips. We do love seeing and catching up with everyone, but it gets very tiring and stressful, and there never seems to be enough time to fit it all in. Anyway, I think we ended up striking a pretty good balance.
The trip over to Perth was, shall I say... "eventful"! Firstly, in the 36-48 ish hours before our flight, Sydney was awash from seemingly the biggest downpour of rain in a billion years, filling Warragamba Dam, causing it to overflow. This caused potential flooding of the two bridges over the Hawkesbury River, at Richmond and Windsor - our two ways out of here to the airport. Oh sorry, there is a third option. Up through the Blue Mountains, "around and down the back way", taking approximately 3+ hours. GAH! We had planned on Al taking us to the airport, but given the uncertainty of what was happening with the bridges, we decided it was best to take our own car and leave early.
So, that's what we did. We drove across the bridge which was nowhere near ready to close yet, and got to the airport within the normal time, which meant we were rather early for our flight. That was fine, we just had a walk around, sat down while Hannah crawled around the place, had some dinner, etc.
We were due to fly at 5.50pm, boarding at 5.30pm. At 5.20pm, we still didn't have an aircraft at the gate. Hmmmmmm. At 5.30pm, it arrived. Hurray! At 5.45pm ish, we heard this over the PA system:
"Attention all passengers travelling on QF571 to Perth this evening. We are experiencing a slight delay due to some technical issues with the aircraft which has just arrived at the gate from (Melbourne, I think she said). We hope to update you on this situation within the next 20 minutes".
By now, Hannah was starting to get a little bit over the whole deal and was getting bored. So we took her for a nappy change, and another walk, and a game of peek-a-boo behind the lolly stand.
Some time after we were meant to be already in the sky, another PA announcement:
"Attention all passengers travelling on QF571 to Perth this evening. Unfortunately the aircraft assigned to this flight has been deemed unserviceable. We are attempting to locate a replacement aircraft ASAP and will update you on this situation as soon as possible. We apologise for the delay."
The tension level at Departure Gate 6 at that precise moment, must have increased by about 200%. There were lots of groans, and one very very loud screaming child. MINE!!! Of course also at that precise moment, I needed to go to the toilet. I could hear her screaming, FROM THE TOILETS, a good 200 metres away. Inside, with the door shut.
Anyway. Lets fast forward. I'm not sure how we got through the extra time we had to kill, but they located another plane, announced the new gate, and we FINALLY took off at 7.30pm. 1 hour 40 minutes delayed.
My plan was to get Hannah into the bassinet once we were in the air and get her settled, so she could sleep practically the whole way there, while we ate our dinner, watched the movie, etc. HA! AS IF!
First of all, it took FOREVER for the seatbelt sign to turn off after takeoff. It was about 8pm by the time I could try and start getting Hannah settled. And guess what? She wasn't having a BAR of that! I think she'd gone beyond tired and had found a second wind. She wouldn't lay down, just kept sitting up, getting up onto her knees and reaching up to play with the TV screen, laying down again and waggling her butt in the air... you name it.
Then, I smelt her. OH NO!! The dreaded PLANE POO!! I don't think I've mentioned that she had diarrhea for the few days leading up to our trip, but hadn't been aaallllllll day this day, except for a small (and thankfully normal) one while all the "delayed, must find new aircraft" drama was going on. Well, it would seem that she hadn't quite done all she needed to do, and saved it for the plane.
Off I went to the toilet to change her. The change table is so small, and requires the poor child to lay sideways on them. So I got her on there and her pants off, new nappy, wipes etc all within easy reach. Opened the dirty nappy, and it was big. I've now decided that altitude must have something to do with massive dirty nappies, because it happens EVERY TIME! As I was thinking this (all of 0.3 nano seconds), WHAM, Hannah stuck her hand straight down there. I grabbed a wipe and tried to get most of it off her skin, and off her hand, meanwhile getting it all over MY hand. I ran water in the sink, holding her legs with one hand and swishing my dirty hand in the water. TOTAL nightmare. Not sure how, but I ended up with a clean baby, with a clean nappy on, with clean hands (her and me). I did need to wipe down the change table and the sink. TOTALLY gross.
Mission accomplished, I exited the toilet with clean, sweet smelling Hannah in my arms, and turned to head back to my seat, but saw that the meals trolley was in the way, delivering dinner. They'd already been past our seats, so I wondered what Mark had chosen for me to eat. No big deal, I thought, I'll just hang around here in the galley thingo whatever they call it, kills a bit more time.
Cue, turbulence. The plane started bouncing around, and it wasn't too bad for about 30 seconds, but then it got worse, and was REALLY bouncing. As I stood there holding Hannah and thinking "erm, not too happy about this", the Captain came over the PA. "All passengers and crew be seated IMMEDIATELY". CRAAAAP! At the same moment that I started marching towards my seat, the crew delivering the meals flung themselves into the two closest empty seats, hanging onto the trolley, blocking my way. I blurted out "I need to get past!!". They replied with "You can't. You must sit down immediately. Here, sit down there". They shoved the trolley forward a bit to shove me into an empty seat. Good grief!!! I flung the seatbelt around the both of us, and saw Mark trying to look back to find us. I waved *here we are!!*. Meanwhile, Hannah had taken a shine to the lady sitting next to us who was trying to eat her meal. "Ta, ta, ta, ta". The lady handed her a plastic spoon to play with.
A few minutes later, the seatbelt sign was off again, the trolley went on it's way and I could get back to our seats. I plonked Hannah in the bassinet to play and sat down to eat my meal. It was after 9pm by this stage!! As I ate, I contemplated how on earth I was going to get this child to sleep. I had stopped doing a bedtime breastfeed a couple of weeks ago, but I sensed that this was probably my only hope. So after dinner, I went back to the toilet and arranged my (non feeding) bra and clothes, went back to my seat, and popped her on. That worked to get her settled and drowsy. A bit of tossing and turning, then she snuggled into my arms and fell asleep, at 9.45pm, almost 3 hours past her bedtime!!! I transferred her to the bassinet, and she slept for an hour. Woke up and screamed. Got her out, cuddled her again, back to sleep, back in the bassinet for another 45 minutes or so until it was time to land.
By the time we got to my Mum & Dad's place, it was 9.45pm Perth time, 12.45am Sydney time. I put Hannah into her cot at about 10.15pm (so 1.15 her body clock), and I think she was asleep before I even left the room. She woke up at 6.30am the next day - PERFECT! Body clock, welcome to WST!
Which was just as well, because we had committed to going to Maylands Water Park that morning with some of the Perth members of our online Mum's group. Complete strangers, except for online!! One of them came to pick Hannah and I up, as Mark had the hire car that day. It was great! We all just chatted and got along as though we saw each other "in real life" every day!! I've got a couple of photos...
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| The water was a little colder than Hannah is used to!! Not happy!! |
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| Here we all are! Spot the odd one out!! They are all pregnant, except me ;-) |
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| Zonked on the way home, bless!! |
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| We moved into Size 1 pj's when we got home... these are ankle freezers!! |
We did very minimal visiting on this trip, and had a lot of visitors instead. It was nice!
One of our visits was on Sunday to see "the gang", all of our friends in one spot. Bev and Dave (who we stayed with during our February trip last year) kindly hosted our catch up at their place, with swimming pool :-D It was lovely to see everyone, and as always, we just pick up where we left off, as though we saw each other only last week :-)
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| Mark in the pool with Hannah and all the kids |
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| Hannah with Sam, some of the kids in the background, and Bev |
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| Hannah sitting with her Daddy and his best mate Dave |
It was also lovely to catch up with Keely and the girls, Phoebe and Mia, this time, as we have missed them the last two trips back. It's so sweet how all the bigger kids play so nicely with our little girl :-)
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| Phoebe reading to Mia and Hannah! |
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| SO CUTE!! |
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| Hannah pointing out photos of herself on the iPad! Ha! |
Of course, no Perth trip is complete without some quality time for Hannah with big sister Liv.
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| Can I put this popcorn up your nose??! |
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| It's love! |
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| A special icecream treat for dessert (which was apparently hilarious) |
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| Awwwww! |
Plenty of quality time too for Nan & Pop this trip. Pictures speak louder than words...
And Uncle Steven!
It was rather HOT... much hotter than we're used to after two years away from Perth! So Hannah cooled down one day with some outside water play!
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| Want to play, Pia?! |
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| Just dip this one in here... |
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| Happy girl! |
We enjoyed a lovely sausage sizzle at home to catch up with more of the family. I was too busy talking and catching up to take many photos, but here is Dad cooking the sausages!! Yum yum!
As always, the time goes so fast, and before we knew it, it was time to head home again. We had a really lovely time, very relaxing, and I'm so happy that my family got to spend some really good quality time with Hannah :-)
I'll finish with some photos of Hannah on the plane heading home!
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| Peekaboo! I see you! |
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| Just kicking back in the bassinet! |
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| Eating a snake!! |
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| Keeping Daddy's seat warm |
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| Zonked |
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| Last time sleeping in the bassinet - too big next time! |
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| Trying to escape Sydney airport!!! |
