I. Am. Exhausted.  It’s that kind of exhaustion you feel all the way down to your bones.  It has been a day.

First of all, Kiran was awesome.  He had a few moments of fussiness at the airport (our flight was delayed a bit, and we went plenty early to have time to handle any snafus), but he was a total rockstar on the plane.  He slept for most of the flight and when he was awake, he just chatted happily and quietly.  I don’t know how we got so lucky to have such an easygoing dude, but I will gladly take it!

So.  There are two of us – and a baby – so imagine wrangling a huge bag (to check in), a good-size carry-on bag, a camera case, a briefcase, a backpack, a diaper bag, a stroller, and a carseat….thankfully, Arif was smart enough to buy a cheap cart with wheels and we also found the joy of the smart carte….Needless to say, getting on the hotel shuttle this morning at crazy o’clock was made a lot easier with the nice old gentleman helping us with our bags.  Of course, our checked luggage was overweight…by 6 pounds.  We managed to get it to 51 pounds, and the agent took pity on us.  Fun start.

TSA wasn’t as bad as I thought, but it did take some time.  We are TSA-pre so no line – thank goodness – but they had to meticulously check the carseat and Kiran’s premade formula and liquid medication.  Luckily, we didn’t have to argue to keep any of it.

So.  We finally get to board the plane.  We find our row.  We get all of our bags situated, and Arif finally gets the carseat installed.  Kiran is buckled in.  We are settling in.  I am finally starting to relax just a little….and the flight attendant comes and tells us we have to move.  Apparently you can’t have a carseat behind an exit row.  At this point, everyone is on the plane.  It’s boarded.  They have to find a couple lucky people (we had splurged and bought the extra legroom “comfort” seats – we figured we’d need the space) to trade us for regular seats….

Talk about stressful.  I really wanted to make an announcement that it wasn’t our fault – we weren’t the ones holding things up – the flight attendants really should know airline policy.  In fact, considering Arif booked on the phone with an agent from Delta, they should have known not to put us in that row.  To top it all off, as we are moving everything, I realize Kiran stinks.  Badly.  I was told I had to hurry … hm … you try changing a fussy baby in an airplane bathroom for the first time in your life while in the middle of a very stressful situation.

Needless to say, it took my heart a long time to start beating normally.  I will say this: the flight attendants BENT OVER BACKWARDS to make it up to us the entire trip.  They were very attentive and very pushy with free snacks and made sure we were well taken care of.  I applaud them for that.  I still plan to write a letter to Delta.  Now that I’m a heart mom and a HUGE advocate for CHD awareness, I seem to have a bug for this kind of thing.  I think it’s very important – given that safety organizations are now saying the safest way to travel with kids is to buy a seat and put them in a carseat – that all airline employees know the rules and regulations.  We really didn’t need the added stress today.

All of that being said, we kicked butt at the travel thing today.  We really did.  All in all, though exhausting, it went pretty darn smoothly.  Many things I feared didn’t happen – and the things that did were things I hadn’t even thought to worry about!  And another win – the rental car company gave us an SUV for the same price as the midsize car we had reserved.

Arif is out picking my parents up from the Caltrain station right now, and Kiran is just waking up from his nap.  I have things pretty well unpacked and organized in the airbnb house we are staying in for the next eleven days.  Looking forward to just relaxing for a bit and then getting everything ready for our big day tomorrow.  Next step: Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.  Tomorrow, we meet the surgeon and go through our pre-op appointments.