Babies on Planes, at Weddings and Other Horror Stories

I don't know why I presumed anyone would sit through this saga. I just want to thank you for your patience and for taking the time to actually read it! This time, I'm finishing it.

To give you an idea of what it was like to transport 9 bags, my mom in a wheelchair, my dad, my husband, a stroller, me and our 1 1/2 year old daughter from JFK to the car rental place: we landed in NY at 7:30...and didn't reach our hotel room till 11:00.

Needless to say, as soon as we entered our rooms, we crashed.

Even after the 15 hour nightmare travel experience, I woke up bright and early the next morning before everyone else, full of excitement. We were finally here, and it was going to be great. I was super-excited.

As I lay next to our daughter on top of our luxurious pillow topped mattress bed, at the Long Island Hilton, I pictured the 300 + guest lavish wedding and how much fun all the events surrounding it would be with all my cousins, aunts and uncles I hadn't seen in so long - and how excited everybody was going to be to finally meet our daughter for the 1st time. I put my cheek against her cheek, listening to her little snore, breaking out into an ear to ear smile. Just as I felt a sense of contentment and relief, I realized - she felt a bit warm. My excitement was quickly replaced by a fear. No - no, no no - please don't be sick. I got the thermometer out of my suitcase (yes, I brought the thermometer - exactly why men need to stay out of our business of packing), and placed in her ear: 103.3 degrees.

Besides planning, hand-tailoring and customizing each and every one of our outfits for the last 2 months, and spending $200 on customizing jewelry, we spent close to $2000 on plane tickets, $500 on rental car, and $1000 on rooms. Images of my grandmother getting to hold our daughter for the 1st time, her running around playing with her little cousins in her little Indian outfit, and us having a blast at this grandly scaled wedding event, were quickly fading.

To wrap it up: in between my husband and I taking turns nursing our daughter to health, taking her to a pediatrician there, back and forth on the phone with our pediatrician at home, stripping the bed due to unsavory leakages, and high temperatures I thought, before motherhood, required hospitalization for, there were moments where we thought (hoped) she was better. During those moments, we managed to

1. Take her to meet her 94 year old great-grandmother for the 1st time.
2. Take her to some of the wedding and other events to finally meet her cousins.
3. See my beautiful cousin walk down the aisle with her charming new groom.

And finally...the payoff:

I missed the best part of any and all weddings - the reception. We brought our daughter the highly anticipated event, which (from what I heard) included professional Indian dances, heartfelt speeches, and a rockin' party. But 15 minutes in, it was evident by her kicking and screaming, that we needed to call it a night.

All in all, it didn't matter. What mattered was that our baby was healthy. Of course it was disappointing, but in comparison to how disappointed I would've been before motherhood, the disappointment was minimal and I'm embarrassed for even admitting I felt. It's funny how motherhood really does put things in perspective...even if it does feel like a living horror story sometimes.

THE END.

I did skip some stuff like my nightmare sari episode and our Scooby-Dooesque drive-by the actual Amityville House. But, seriously - I couldn't put you through anymore. Maybe some other time? Which BTW, did you know they completely renovated the old Amityville House? I couldn't even believe it was the same house. Check it out, this is the old house:










here is the new one..











No more windows that look like eyes...totally not as spooky.