First Time Parent Panic: Travel

Here is some news for any and all, at least those of you in the United States:  Thanksgiving is next week!  Now, I know you're thinking "gee, Klingon Mom, what's the big deal?  Just dish up some gagh and bloodwine and have done."  That's all well and good, but since we have extended families to think about, travel is inevitable at this time of year.  Flying around the holidays is bad enough as an adult. Now we have a baby.

This will not be our first excursion with Picard.  A couple of weeks ago, we took a little road trip to visit some friends.  He hated it so much.  We thought it would work out great--he fell asleep, we set out, biut after about twenty minutes he woke up and started screaming.  Needless to say, our trip took a lot of extra time, what with the extra stops for milk and diapers and cuddles.  Had I been thinking ahead, I would have thawed a bottle of milk for the trip so he could eat on the road, but he hardly ever has bottles, so maybe that wouldn't have worked.  The plane will be a little easier in that regard; since we'll be holding him, he can nurse whenever he wants to.

The major source of anxiety is, of course, what if he has a fit of the screamies?  I mean, babies cry, and people understand that babies cry, but I am quite terrified of being the family with the [expletive deleted] screaming baby.  And more importantly, if Picard is crying, it's because something is wrong.  Granted, babies don't have the best sense of proportion, but the crying really makes me feel like the worst parent EVAR!  I went to a mom and baby group a little while ago, and Picard spend most of it in a cascade of heart wrenching sobs and ear splitting screams, while I paced with him in a darkened back room until he calmed down.  My greatest hope is that Picard will recognize that air travel is the closest he will get to the Enterprise for now, and that he will find it of some comfort.

I am also feeling a little bit daunted by packing--though that is tempered somewhat by the fact that I am an expert at packing a suitcase, and the fact that we'll be staying with my parents.  Any packing anxiety stems from the fact that I am used to only bringing carry-on luggage, and may have to end up letting go of that practice.  Alas.  I have concerns about handling the carseat, too.  We will have him as a lap child because, frankly, it's a pretty short flight and we'd almost certainly end up holding him for the whole thing anyway.  However, I know what happens to checked bags, and thinking about that gives me the shivers.

Anyway.  I am sure everything will be more or less okay.  In other news, I finally have mustered up the gumption to try cloth diapers, as soon as Picard wakes up from his nap.

Raktajino Klatsch--A Change of Direction

I have had some pretty significant changes in the past year.  Well, actually just the one.  As you might be able to tell from the Brand New Name, I had a baby recently!  Yay!  He's excellent and wonderful and perfect and all things that new parents say about their children.  It has me thinking about what I want him to learn from us and the world.  It has me thinking about what my own admirable qualities are, what is not so admirable about me, and how this will pan out in parenting the little sprocket.  It has me thinking about how much Star Trek I have watched throughout my lifetime.  

My husband and I are nerds.  I say it freely because there is no shame in the fact.  We had a conversation a couple of years into our relationship about "what Star Trek culture we most identified with," and he described me as half Klingon, half Vulcan--a somewhat unorthodox combination that I nevertheless find pretty accurate.  I went with "Klingon Mom" for the new title because it has a better ring to it.  Also, I think it might be slightly more important that Picard* grow up to be honorable than a paragon of logical thinking.  Not that I don't want him to develop that skill.  I want him to grow up to do glorious battle with his own fears and the challenges of being alive.  

I hope to continue the patterns and the household-y stuff, and discuss issues of parenting young Picard, as it appears from my vantage point.  I make to claims to wisdom, or even competence.  We're just doing our best to avoid screwing up too badly.  I like to think that we are probably up to the challenge.  Luckily, I feel like parenting is an adaptive interface--for the first couple of months, everyone just has to have their physical needs met, and once you gain the necessary experience points and acquire the skill ranks, the challenge rating increases.  

In writing this, I feel more that a little trite, since home/family/parenting blogs are a dime a dozen, but I think that nerd parents are underrepresented, much like nerd ladies.  And I'd like to be a part of remedying that situation.  I will try to update regularly.  Maybe aim for a schedule of features of some kind.  We'll see.

Qapla'!

*The child is not named "Picard."  It was, however, his nickname before he was born.