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Published: December 30th 2013
Getting ready to set off!
A Chip Off the Old Block
Everyone else travels to Hawaii or the East Coast with a new baby. We, of course, in true Scott and Sharon style, had to choose somewhere a little more adventurous. Indonesia it was, with most of our time spent on Komodo and Sulawesi. For some reason, when Scott suggested that I go a week ahead of him to get Kyla time adjusted, I thought it sounded like a good idea. As the time approached, however, I wasn’t so sure. 30 hours in transit with a 10-month old suddenly seemed more daunting than exciting.
On a cold and gray Sunday, Scott dropped us off for the 6:40pm airport bus from Carpinteria. That was the first time that I had actually carried everything at once: my big backpack, a shoulder bag, a drawstring hand luggage bag, and of course Kyla, snuggled up in the Ergo. Soon after we got on the bus and waved bye bye to Daddy, Kyla started to fuss. I got a sinking feeling about the next 29 hours and 50 minutes! However, I have to say that Kyla was an amazing airplane traveller, a real chip off
Snuggle time!
the old block! Maybe all that travelling her mommy and daddy did rubbed off us and into her DNA!
The first leg of the journey was 13 hours to Taipei. It helped that I was expedited through the line at LAX (the perks of travel with baby!) I have to say that I was pretty impressed with myself when they weighed my bag – only 13 kg between Kyla and I, including a rather large travel crib!
As we boarded there was a baby going hoarse from screaming.I could only think how thankful I was that it wasn’t Kyla! Kyla amazed me when the meal arrived soon after take off by sitting calmly on my lap playing with a sugar wrapper while I ate, without grabbing – nice! Our closest neighbour was a Cambodian man that instantly started to play peek-a-boo with her. That was so nice as any distraction was welcome. By the time the trays were cleaned she was getting a little restless so I took her for a walk in the Ergo – boom! She was out like a light and I soon transferred her to the bassinet. It was 3am
The airport bus is here - off we go!by this time and she’d only had two hours of sleep since leaving home at 6pm, but she hadn’t been cranky. She really was a trooper!
I settled myself down to get some much needed sleep but within 15 minutes was awoken by a loud cry. I opened my eyes to see Kyla sitting up at the end of the bassinet, having squirmed out of the so-called safety strap. So much for the bassinet idea. I realized that she’d have to sleep on me. Thanks to the noisy kids next to us, I spent much of the flight walking up and down the aisles to avoid them waking up Kyla. When they slept, I could sit down and sleep too, with Kyla strapped firmly against me.
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By the time we arrived in Taipei 13 hours later I was feeling quite pleased with myself. While I’d only had about 3 or 4 hours of sleep myself, I’d enabled Kyla to get 8 hours in - not bad! Plus for the five hours she’d been awake I’d managed to entertain her and keep her happy the whole time. As we walked through
At Los Angeles airportTaipei Airport I had several people approach me and comment that it had been a pleasure to travel with us. It was nice of them to say so but I wonder how they’d have reacted if she’d screamed the whole way. You never really know with babies!
Going through Taipei security Kyla fell asleep in the Ergo. Luckily they didn’t make me take her out as they’d done in LAX. Once at the departure lounge she woke up and really was on rock star form. She had some crawl time and she made friends with practically everyone in there including a school party of 50 Taiwanese 6-year olds! Before I knew it, it was time to board our five hour flight to Bali. I was again expedited through. This flight wasn’t as easy as she refused to sleep so I had to entertain her for most of the way. After some crying and walking in the Ergo she finally fell asleep 45 minutes before landing. Other than two diaper blow-outs, it really couldn’t have gone any better!
Now the fun was really going to begin! I collected my bag and again someone expedited me
Sleeping babe on China Airlinesthrough the long customs line, even carrying my backpack for me. Soon I was in front of the familiar money exchange booths which had all their prices colluded. I chose a random one, got cash, fended off some taxi drivers offering crazy inflated prices and then got a prepaid taxi to the Masa Inn. It was 3pm Bali time on Tuesday afternoon. I’d been travelling for 30 hours so I just took the room.
I unpacked and organized the room a bit, trying to make it more baby-friendly. When I’d packed at home I’d shoved in Mrs. Owl at the last minute. I was so glad I had because when I unpacked it and gave it to Kyla, she squealed in delight and hugged it close. I took Kyla into the pool and she had fun until we got out. I had made the mistake of leaving the air conditioning on in the room and it was freezing! I put her in a warm bath but she was pretty upset, poor thing! By 5pm she fell asleep on the bed and slept until midnight. At that point, it was playtime for much of the rest of the
Awake baby!night with some time spent walking the deserted Poppies I in an attempt to get her to sleep.
The next day and night are all a bit of a blur. Kyla and I bought funky local diapers and a swimming toy. She loved all the attention she got from locals but sometimes it was a bit too much. Kyla the Rock Star was back!
By Thursday I had to move as my room was booked so we packed up and moved to Suji Bungalows, which was much nicer. As Kyla had refused to sleep in the travel crib, she had been sleeping with me on the bed but I was always so afraid she’d fall off. The new room was large enough that I could put the mattress on the ground. After moving, I booked our internal flight tickets, called Scott, and finally took Kyla in the pool again. I even had my first Bintang Beer down by the beach for sunset and actually ate dinner. We even had naps resembling a normal day back home. All in all a successful day! That night was much better too. Kyla went to sleep at 7:30pm
The bassinet made the perfect play pen!and slept through until 3:30am – bliss! After feeding and play time, she went down for another hour before waking for the day. I finally felt like things were getting back on track.
Friday was a nice day as I really didn’t have any errands to run other than the usual treasure hunt to find diapers. They generally come in packs of no more than eight and are a strange design. Instead of having tabs to close them like at home, you just pull them on. At first I thought it was a dumb design but then I kind of got to like them as they are easier to put on a squirmy baby and seem like they’d be more comfy (less uncomfy?!) in the Bali heat. The only problem was when you had a poopie situation. You’d better have a pair of scissors on hand to cut them off or things could get pretty messy! Anyway, on a nicer note I found a great Greek restaurant just down the road from Suji Bungalow. The best part was that it had couches for Kyla to sit on.
That afternoon our perfect day
Lay over in Taipei Airporttook a turn for the worse. I was sitting on the benches at reception talking to Iris, the German lady I'd met. Kyla seemed unusually drowsy and fell asleep in my lap. She hadn't seemed quite her cheery self so I felt her forehead and it seemed really warm. I took her back to the room and, sure enough, she was running a temperature of over 102 degrees F. She was very groggy and refusing to eat so I didn't want to take any chances. I undressed and undiapered her down to a t-shirt to try to cool her down and then had reception call a cab for me. They tried to convince me to take a motorbike cab as it is faster - seriously?!I have to admit that traffic was awful and it took over 30 minutes to go the short distance to the Australian-run hospital, but it was definitely better to be in an a/c cab than speeding on the back of a motorbike with a baby in arms!
Kyla slept the whole way there. When we arrived I filled out some forms and was waiting to see a doctor when I suddenly felt a hot rush
Making friends in Taipei Airportof hot liquid going down my leg. Kyla had peed down me as she still had no diaper on her to keep her cool. It was so hot that it made me jump a little. The doctor took her temperature and it was 39 degrees C. They found no sign of an infection when they looked her over so said it was probably a virus. The recommendation was to give her baby paracetamol drops and monitor her temperature. Hopefully it would clear up in a day or so, but if she was still feverish after three days, I was to take her back for blood work. That's Monday afternoon, when we are scheduled to be in Komodo!
By the time we got "home" it was 9:30pm. I fed her and got her into her pajamas and we both went to sleep. I set my alarm for 2am and checked on her. She felt cooler so I dream-fed her and let her continue to sleep. She slept through to 5:30am the next morning. At that point her temperature was 100.2 degrees F so I gave her some more paracetamol and then decided to try to collect the urine sample the
and again...doctor had requested. It was pretty tricky as it was a plastic bag with sticky on it to stick to her. I had to carry her around naked and upright and basically wait for her to pee. We spent an hour or so in the early morning coolness walking around the hotel gardens and finally she peed! It was a tiny amount but I was hoping it was enough. They said I needed a "fresh" sample within an hour so I quickly got her dressed and jumped into a cab back to the hospital. At this point I'd skipped dinner the night before and now breakfast but I was surprisingly not ravenous, thanks to a granola bar I'd found in my backpack the night before.
When we got to the hospital, they said the sample was too small but offered for her to stay and wait for another one. The encouraging thing at this point was that she had no fever. The nurse took off her diaper and was about to attach a new bag when I felt a familiar warm trickly down my side. Hurriedly, he collected a good sample. Perfect timing, Kyla! While I waited for the
and again...results to come back I downed 3 cappuccinos for breakfast from the machine in the lobby. The results of all the tests came back negative, so it was time to just go back home and monitor her. On the way back I stopped at the supermarket to stock up on wipes and diapers and then headed home. I decided we'd go in the pool to freshen up before going out to get an early lunch. She got cranky pretty fast so we went back to the room and I dried her off and fed her and she fell asleep! By the time she woke up and we made it out to lunch it was almost 2pm. I was suddenly shaking with hunger, not having really eaten since lunch time the day before, so ordered up a Greek storm and felt much better!
Kyla's fever didn't come back so we had a nice evening Bintang at the beach and then I found an old restaurant we used to go to two years ago. Kyla was pretty tired so I just had a quick snack of garlic bread and a banana milkshake before heading to bed. Apart from a couple of
...and now for some pint-sized friends - a kindergarten class of Taiwanese kids!quick night feedings, Kyla slept through from 8pm to 5:45am. Looks like we are right on track for daddy coming tomorrow!
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