Happy Half Birthday Petite!

Today is February 27, 2010. Petite is exactly six months old today.


Where did that time go? Seriously, how did we get from there...

to here...?




Colour me grateful. Always.

Petite had a doctor's appointment earlier this week to check on the reflux. She still experiences it now and then, but it doesn't seem as severe as it was when she was younger. I guess she's getting better at getting rid of the gas and now that she's had some solid food, her tummy is able to keep the acids down.

The stats:
She's 15lbs 11oz, and 26" long. And yes, her eyes are still grey... exactly like my mom's. I expect they will stay that way now. I think it's beautiful on her.

She is sitting fairly well in the tripod position (with a wobble here and there). She transfers toys from one hand to another. She is making consonant sounds (ma, ba, pppp, those sorts of things), she scooches all around the floor backwards, and once or twice, has managed to inch forwards. She's starting to raise her hips and figure out the crawling position, though honestly, she much prefers to be up on her feet. Her legs are awfully strong; she just may walk before she ever crawls! She still has some eczema on her arms and legs and although we had tried a doctor-recommended over-the-counter cream, it wasn't working so we have a mild cream to treat it properly now. In three or four days, I already see a difference.

She has had rice cereal, oat cereal (she prefers the rice so far), butternut squash, carrots, peas (I made homemade peas the other night and she took to those really well), grapes and bananas (both in the baby feeder) and she launched herself at my plum the other day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZUMK_yM2zA

And her sleeping habits are improving. We are getting her to bed at approximately 7:30, we get her at midnight for a feed, and most nights she goes down again til about 7 a.m. A few nights, she's wanted to play in her crib at around 4 a.m. (!) but she's getting the hang of it. Let's hope it continues to go well.

For now, we celebrate her half-birthday! In a mere six more months, she'll be one year old. I can't believe it!

Of Dreamland and Dreams

We have a growing baby girl in our house, and it never ceases to amaze me. I continue to thank, the powers that be (and all the REs, testing, urologists, and you other IFers and friends, etc.) for such a blessing in our lives. Though I confess, not every day is full of "happy happy, joy joy," it is all definitely worth it.



One of the things that is making our days difficult (and our nights too really) is Petite's lack of a schedule. Yes my dear Internet friends, Petite STILL doesn't sleep more than 3-4 hours at a time on a regular basis. There's the odd night when she's down for 6 hours or so, but they're few and far between, making Mommy and Daddy very tired indeed. And really, by now, most babies are on some sort of a schedule, right? So I've taken matters in hand and we're starting a new routine. We tried it for the first time last night, and it worked relatively well.

The whole crux of our problem is this: Petite still doesn't drink more than 4.5 oz per feeding. She refuses to eat more and of course, you can't force children to eat (nor do I ever want to). So naturally, she wakes up partway through the night with an empty, growling belly, wanting to be fed. And we oblige her.

Last night, the schedule looked a bit like this:
5:45 p.m. cereal in her high chair, followed by playtime while Mommy and Daddy ate, etc.
6:45 bath time, put on jammies, quiet time, playtime on her playmat with quiet toys
7:30 storytime with Mommy (I'm a big believer in reading to children)
7:45 bottle & burp

Just before 8 p.m., she started to doze off in my arms and I put her down in her crib, sleepy yet still semi-awake. She hated that, lemme tell you! She woke and started to screech. I went to her every 5 minutes, talking lowly but not engaging her, putting her soother in her mouth, gently touching her tummy or her head, and letting her know I was there. She would settle, I'd creep out and before I was back to the kitchen, the howl would go out again. She kept that up for about 20 minutes (I went in three times, the last time I sat on the bed til I knew she was settled for good) and by 8:30, she was asleep. However, she only had 4.5 oz as usual. So I knew she would wake for food somewhere along the way.

To circumvent that, at 11:45, I prepared another bottle and gently lifted her out of her crib, and tried to feed her. She took about 2 oz before refusing any more and she turned into my arm, snuggling down again. I laid her back in bed, hoping to get through the rest of the night and I put the rest of the bottle in the fridge.

Alas... 1:45 a.m. and I heard her stirring. I got up before she was fully awake, grabbed the remainder of the bottle in the fridge (about 2.5 oz), heated it and fed her while she stayed in her crib. She polished it off, turned over and drifted back to the Land of Nod. And that was that. I climbed back into bed, happy to not need an hour or more to get her back to sleep.

This morning, she stirred once at 6:45 (when Hubby left for school), but she never really woke til 7:50 a.m. Fair enough. I can handle that I think. With time and practise, I expect she'll get the hang of it. But it was certainly a whole lot better than being up with her from 2 a.m. to 3:30 as she writhes in my arms! Until she takes more ounces during a feed, I don't expect it'll change all that much. But as long as she's growing and developping on track, I can't find fault with her eating habits at all!

By the way, so far she's enjoyed rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, butternut squash and a little pear juice (diluted). But she definitely prefers a bottle!

And this week, we celebrated Valentine's Day! Hubby and I traditionally don't plan anything special; for as sure as we do, it blows up in our faces and we've had some hella blow-up fights on Valentine's Day in the past! So we don't mark it with much. A card, a token gift, something little. Nothing major. I got a cute card, and some chocolates. I gave Hubby a card, some chocolates and some winter Olympic gear, including the famous red mittens that are so hard to find!

I happened to be in Zellers last week when they were getting some out on the racks and I snapped up a pair. In hindsight, I would have liked to have a pair for myself. Oh well. Nevermind. One thing that pisses me off about those mittens is that for all the Canadian Olympic pride that they're supposed to represent, the damn things are made in freakin' China! Don't get me wrong, I have lots of things in my house that are made in China but it'd be nice to support Canadians by buying Canadian... yanno? Oh well. They're still cool mittens. And Hubby's been stopped by stranges who ask about them and where he got them, etc. They're hard to come by now! So if you see them (in adult sizes; kids sizes are still easy to find), grab em! If nothing else, you can sell them on E-bay for about double the price!

Ah yes, a token pic of Petite in her Valentine's Day outfit from Nana. We had Hubby's kids for the weekend and her big brother was making her laugh!

And this week, one of my hopes has finally come to fruition. Pancake Day. With OUR baby girl. Here she is being a true Canadian, sucking on the syrup bottle (don't worry; the cover's on!).

Pancake Day traditions where I come from are very particular indeed. Yes, you have pancakes and all that good stuff. But you must follow the tradition of putting trinkets in the batter. I've written about this before, and I remember lamenting that I probably wouldn't ever have the opportunity to share our family's (or our provincial) tradition of putting trinkets in the batter with any child of mine. I vividly remember Mel (our resident Stirrup Queen) telling me in a comment how I may not be able to pass the tradition vertically, but that I had just passed the tradition horizontally by sharing it with you, my readers. A few of you wrote to let me know that you would commence that tradition in your own families as you thought it was lovely. I like to think that somewhere out there, someone is putting a ring, a thimble, a button, money, etc. in their pancake batter to partake in the tradition. And this year, I am blessed. Because I do have a baby girl who got to enjoy her very first Pancake Day with our family and our tradition. Fine, she didn't eat any pancakes herself... that'll come next year. But she saw Mommy and Daddy enjoy the tradition and with luck, one day, she'll carry it on, passing it vertically to her own family.

Am I Getting Greedy?

Welcome to February. And Petite is now five months old. I can hardly believe it. Where did that go? Nevertheless, time marches on and a few things have arisen to shake me up a bit.

Actually, the first thing that shook me up was the reappearance of dear ol' Aunt Flo. Oh yeah. She didn't waste a moment showing up on my doorstep in early January in fact. I stopped pumping milk for Petite near the end of November and let my milk dry up around about the time we travelled home for Christmas. Exactly one month later, on January 3, the carpet-bag-carrying, haggard, wrinkly old wench knocked on my door. Okay, she busted down the door and marched on in, making herself right at home after a long absence. Such fun.
NOT.
And just like clockwork, 29 days later, she reappeared again. Bless her bitchy soul. At least I'm regular; there's no denying that anyway!

When I returned home from our trip, I found a letter from the Reproductive Centre at McGill in my pile of letters to tend to. Lo and behold, I opened it to find a bill for the storage of our last vial of donor sperm. There arises the conundrum... to pay, or not to pay? Do we want to keep this vial of donor sperm for any possible future use? I mean, if perchance we decide to go for another IVF + ICSI attempt, and we cannot find any of hubby's viable sperm a second time around, we'll need that vial of donor sperm, right? Or would we opt not to go through with it? Or what if someone else needs that vial to make a full biological sibling for an existing child somewhere in the world? All the scenarios started running through my head.

And the one that comes to mind first is: do we want another child? Do I want to hedge my bets and attempt to give Petite a full sibling? At my age (I'll be 40 this year)? And if we want to do that, when do we do it? Soon I guess, given my age!!

Hubby and I took a drive yesterday to upstate NY to do some shopping and get a little something for my brother-in-law for his upcoming birthday. Along the way, we discussed our plans and where are thoughts are at the moment. Hubby is in school, and will (hopefully!) be finished at the end of April, 2012 and thus starting a new job/career in May, 2012. If we want another child, our timeline would look something like this:
July/August 2010 - try another IVF in the hopes of success
September 2010 - Gil goes back to work; Hubby in school; Petite in daycare
May/June 2011 - sibling for Petite? Gil takes another year off to care for both children
May/June 2012 - Gil goes back to work; Hubby starts career; Petite in junior kindergarten; sibling in daycare

And that, my dear friends, means that I'd need to call McGill now, like right now NOW to start trying to book appointments. But like the title of this post says, am I getting greedy? After 6+ years of TTC, we got lucky. VERY lucky. We know and recognize this and we are immensely grateful to everyone who has helped us, cheered for us, held our hands, and cried with us along the way. Are we getting greedy to want another child? Are we asking the powers that be for too much? Are we doing the wrong thing for our family or is it the right thing? How do we know? Can we know at all? These are some of the questions I'm grappling with at the moment. I'm open to hearing your opinions though. So by all means, hit the comment button and weigh in. I'm listening!

Rally
I got another e-mail from Conceivable Dreams the other day. On February 15 (Family Day... appropriately) there will be a Rally at Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario to show the government just how many people are out there that are waiting and hoping for the government to help them build their families based on the recommendations of the Expert Panel on Infertility and Adoption. (If you recall, I was interviewed by the Panel for my input.) If you can attend, please do. Information can be found at www.conceivabledreams.org.

On a personal note...
Thank you all for the good wishes following the death of Snowpoke. We still miss him. But it does get easier, I know.

And before this month is done, we will have Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Day). I'm looking forward to sharing our tradition with Petite for the very first time.

Doctor's Appointment and Death of a Pet

It's been a rough week in our house. Right now, I'm just sort of stumbling through the days. I hope things will change this weekend. But for now, let me fill you in.


Petite had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning. I took her there, while hubby took one of our guinea pigs to the vet's. (More on that in a moment.) Anyway, Petite needed her 4-month vaccinations and a check-up and all that. And I had an appointment as well. So here's the latest from the doctor's office:

• Petite weighs 14 lbs 6 oz (at 4 months 3 weeks old; 50th percentile)
  
• She measures 25.5 inches long (again, 50th percentile)


• Her development is right on track, as she is putting things deftly in her mouth, talking up a storm, rolling both ways and doing well with holding her head up.


• I described the feeding problems that we have been having. In fact, Petite threw up twice in the doc's office even before the doc came in! So sour smelling as well, her poor tummy is frequently upset. She fights food, stops feeding in the middle of a feed (after 2 or 2.5 oz) and sometimes cries when the bottle is near her. She has reflux disease and was prescribed medication to help. With luck, that will help her tummy settle and she can eat a little easier and better. This may be why she is only still taking 4 oz per feed rather than 6 or 7.


• She had two shots. The first one bothered her momentarily. She was downright cantankerous for the second and offended that we'd subjected her to that a second time! When she realized it was another injection, her eyes grew wide, she screwed up her face, held her breath and shook with anger. I picked her up and only after she was on my shoulder did she let out the most God-awful, piercing wail! Poor baby. One of the injection sites was a bleeder too; I got it all over my shirt. Oh well. The shots made her cranky too. She spent all day on Wednesday fussing. And I mean all day! She woke at 8 a.m. and never went to bed til 10:30 p.m. with about 45 mins of dozing in between. It was NOT a good day.


• The dry skin on my hands is psoriasis. I now have a cream to help treat it. In only two days, I see remarkable results. Thank heavens! No more cracked, dry, bleeding knuckles!


• I told my doctor about the two gall bladder attacks that I'd had while I was home in Newfoundland. I ended up in emergency during my vacation and was referred to a surgeon. I had hoped to have that appointment before I left to return to Ontario but alas, that didn't happen. My doctor wanted to refer me here in Ontario... and I'm torn as to whether to go back to Newfoundland for the surgery (I'd need my family to help me out for a week or so) or whether I'll ask that they fly up here to help. I may do the latter; Petite's stuff is all here in Ontario and it would be easier, that's for sure. Besides, they'll take any opportunity to see our sweet baby girl!

So the doctor's appointment is done. I have to make another appointment for her in a month to follow up with the reflux meds to see if it's helping her.

And yesterday was a bad day for another reason. One of our sweet guinea pigs, Snowpoke, succumbed to illness on Wednesday, January 20 at about 10:30 a.m. We did everything we possibly could for him. We noticed he was extremely lethargic on Sunday night. By Monday evening, things hadn't improved, and we noticed that he had blood coming from his pe.nis. He had to have been in extreme pain, and I raced upstairs to try to find an emergency veterinarian who was skilled with pocket pets. None were available, so I left a message on our regular vet's line telling them that we'd call first thing in the morning. They called us before they opened on Tuesday morning and told us to bring him in. Hubby did that and he was there for a couple of hours. They did an x-ray and found stones in Snowpoke's bladder. Two options: surgery (at a cost of 2K and not knowing if he'd make it through the surgery; being a pocket pet, that's difficult to do), or painkillers and antibiotics and hope that the stones didn't work their way into his urethra. We opted for the meds first. By Tuesday evening, he was still very lethargic but more responsive. We had hope. Wednesday morning, hubby gave him his meds at 8 a.m.; he even squirmed away from hubby as he didn't want the meds. But it was for naught. Snowpoke passed away by about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.

I cried buckets of tears. Somehow, I never thought I would be so greatly affected. But I am. I miss the little guy. I miss his wheeks and his head butts. I miss cuddling with him and giving him his treats. In fact, I was making soup on Wednesday morning and cut up extra celery for the piggies, hoping that he'd be well enough to eat some on Wednesday afternoon. He never got that celery, but I hope that wherever he is, he's free of pain, and he has all the celery and peppers that he wants. Blessed little sweetie. We're going to miss him terribly. I already do.

I feel guilty that I haven't spent as much time with the guinea pigs since Petite's birth in August. They're situated downstairs and I just rarely get the time to get down there, that's all. I ask hubby about them often, and I still make sure they get what they need in the way of veggies, hay, treats, water, etc. But it's tough to shake the guilt that I have because I haven't cuddled them much since August. And I realized that we don't have ANY photos of Petite with any of our pets. I need to rectify that very soon. I had hoped that she would grow up and get to know Snowpoke and his buddy, Scruffles and maybe learn to take care of them as she got older. And it's important to me that I have photos of Petite with the cats; they've been my babies for 14 years. I need to have pictures of her with them. As she grows up, she may not remember anything else.

Nevertheless, she won't know Snowpoke. I am so sorry that we didn't see his pain sooner. I have to console myself by reminding myself that he had a wonderful home, was extremely well taken care of and loved, and he was (hopefully) in no pain. We love you Snowpoke. Take care baby, and one day, we'll see you and cuddle you again. Promise.

Developing by Leaps and Bounds

Baby Girl is 4 months old. I can't believe it.



She is really developing by leaps and bounds these days. A sample of some of her accomplishments:

• she far prefers to face forward rather than facing me (even in the moby wrap)
• she's able to deftly stuff her soothie into her mouth, when she looses it
• she perfected sucking her thumb; although she doesn't keep it in there long
• she found her toes... and like everything else, quickly stuffed them in her mouth
• she is exploring our faces when we feed her
• rolling from tummy to back, and back to tummy; she prefers the latter
• laughing out loud and talking up a storm (on Dec. 30, she spent the entire day blabbering!)
• she is trying to hold herself up on her feet, and she prefers to be upright rather than sitting up (we have a Bumbo seat and she tolerates it for maybe 10 mins at a time, but she loves her new exersaucer!)
• she watches every morsel of food or every drop of fluid that goes in our mouths! (a sign that she is ready to start cereals maybe? She tried to grab my Mom's coffee mug out of her hands!)

I estimate that she's between 14 and 15 lbs right now. We'll know more next week when we go to the doctor's for her shots and a check up. She's still in some 0-3 month outfits, but she seems to be starting to fit into the 3-6 month stuff now. About time too! She looked so adorable in her Christmas dresses! What a cutie!

And we had her christened while we were at home. I received two wonderful gifts from three of my good girlfriends (all sisters) at home. One of them made me a little photo album with pics of the day and the event, and the other two made me a beautiful framed keepsake with a photo, a quoted passage, the date and the people involved (baby's name, our names, those of the godparents and the church official). It's spectacular. I'm so blessed. And Little Miss looked angelic in her (my!) christening dress. She never even made a peep when the water touched her forehead; my concern was that she would stick out her tongue to drink it!

It was a lovely 5-6 weeks at home, and now we're back in our own surroundings and we'll get her on some sort of a schedule. She's still only taking 4-5 oz per feed, with a rare request for more. And some nights she sleeps through, while others, she's up for more food. It all depends. I'm hoping that when I can start getting some cereal into her formula that she'll sleep better at night.

This morning she had a first; she had her first swimming lesson. She really enjoyed it for the most part, crying only momentarily the first time she went underwater. But she did beautifully and I'm looking forward to the rest of the classes! I hope she is too!

Merry Christmas

It is indeed a most wonderful thing to be able to gaze at the cherub face of your child and know that this is (hopefully!) the first of many Christmases as a family.

Merry Christmas everyone. Blessings to us all.

Hubby has arrived!

A very quick update...

Hubby arrived the other day with a new stroller for us. Seems that although they had one on display here, they didn't have any in stock and even with a cross-country wide sale on that particular model, they weren't going to get any either. Nice huh? That's the kind of problem we frequently have living on the island portion of this province. How lovely. *sigh*

A funny story though; Air Canada was going to CHARGE EXTRA for hubby to bring the other one, new in its box. When he explained that he was bringing this one to his wife to replace one that their airline had broken almost 3 weeks prior, they authorized a wavier on the extra fee! No kidding. Damn lucky I wasn't there; I think I would have ripped someone a new one! Anyway, hubby made it, stroller intact and it's nice to have some relief for the night shift. Now I know what many single parents must handle in the course of a day/week/month. Tiring, that's for sure. Needless to say, I'm grateful for his help. As always.

If I don't get a chance to post again, Merry Christmas everyone. I hope 2009 has been good to you and that all your dreams come true in 2010. May we all be so blessed.

So Much for the Stroller...

The first time I use it is also the last time I use it.

The airline 'handlers' sheared off one of the front wheels on the flight home. Good grief. To give them credit, they offered to compensate me for a replacement, and I'll take them up on that. I have the paperwork to submit for a claim when I'm able to purchase a replacement for us. However, the trick is actually FINDING one that meets my needs here in my hometown. In the meantime, the airline offered me the use of a regular umbrella stroller (it's all they had to offer me). I declined, as that style doesn't meet our needs.

So I'm shopping here at home for something suitable. Nothing yet, but Toys R Us hopes to have some arrive in a shipment in the next day or two. Keep your fingers crossed, cause being sans stroller sucks.

Mind you, we've had over 40 cms of snow since we arrived here. So I doubt I'll be doing much walking outdoors with it anyway! Can you say "housebound" boys and girls? I knew you could!

Love to you all in blogland. More later!

Travel Plans Modified

I don't know how many of my readers may have seen this story, but the other day, this gave me goosebumps...

Toddler falls from mother's arms to death at Toronto airport

A 15-month old was in his mother's arms on the Departures level and when the mother turned her attention to the 4-year old sibling, the baby wriggled out of his mother's arms, over the side of the balcony and fell to the Arrivals level below. The baby was taken to hospital but died.

Knowing that I'm travelling with Petite next week, and I had planned NOT to bring a stroller or car seat, this shook me. I had tears in my eyes at the thought of that poor family and the grief and probably guilt that the mother must feel.

So yesterday, hubby and I went out looking for a lightweight stroller that reclined (for a young infant) that could fold easily for travel. The stroller we have has a large footprint and is quite heavy; it would count as a piece of luggage if I were to take it home on the plane next week. And I'd risk getting it beaten up in the process. Anyway, we found a couple of strollers that fit the bill. The one I liked best was the Graco Ipo (we found it in Navarro). But here's the kicker; here in Canada, it was $149.99. Across the border... $89.99. Guess where we bought it?! Now I have a lightweight, reclining, 5-point harness, umbrella style stroller that is suitable for a young infant. And I'll be taking Petite home in it (as well as the Moby wrap) when I go home next week. I can't fathom an accident happening and losing my baby girl for want of a stroller. It just ain't worth it.

Firsts for our Baby Girl + Infertility News in Ontario

Petite has had a few firsts of late.

She went to see her first movie... Michael Jackson's This Is It. They have "Stars and Strollers" here for parents; movies with the lights a bit brighter and the sound lowered a tad, stroller parking, and an area set up to change diapers and bottle warmers and everything. Hubby was off on Wednesday last week and the three of us went together. It was good. She was fussy at first, but after we got some food into her belly, she was happy and content for the remainder of the time.

Petite took a bath in the big jacuzzi tub too! (Okay, okay, with me, but she was in there!) She loves her bath and really enjoys kicking and splashing in the water so to have that much more water to do it in was loads more fun! The second bath she had with me ended on a bad note though; her head bobbled and she got some water on her face and in her mouth and she really didn't like that at all!

She also went to church for the first time. I've been looking for a church here for a very long time and hubby and I think we have found one that we like. The congregation and priests were very welcoming (maybe it's the baby effect? I'm not entirely certain.) and we're definitely going back there again. Regularly in fact.

Church is something that played a very important role in my life growing up. My family heritage is inherently tied to the Anglican church at home. I myself started going to church with my parents at a very young age. I attended Sunday School, I was one of the founding members of the youth group in my teens, I sang in the children's choir, I was a server assisting the priests at the altar, I counted the offetory after the service, somewhere along the way, I'd memorized the Nicene Creed from the BCP, etc. And although I personally don't hold all the ideals of the Church to be true, I still have a lot of faith in my life. I recognize that I want to belong to a church and attend services regularly. Although, no church here in this province will ever match the fondness I hold for the church my family attends at home, I'll do my best. And what's more, it's important to me that my daughter be baptized at the church at home. As the great, great, great, great, great granddaughter of that church's first rector, I think it would be beautiful and very fitting to have her baptized there. I'm currently communicating with the office there to organize things over the Christmas holiday. Hopefully we can get it together. Wish us luck.

On the infertility front...
I was contacted by one of the organizer's of this past spring's Babysteps Walk for Infertility. Apparently, there's a virtual rally happening on Wednesday December 2 at noon for those who live in Ontario, Canada. Go to www.conceivabledreams.org and take a peek. By putting in your postal code and your e-mail address, you'll receive an e-mail with an electronic form letter that you can forward to your MPP (they give you the name and e-mail addy of your MPP too!) regarding the Expert Panel's recent recommendation that the Ontario government fund three cycles of IVF for infertiles. Oh, I -so- wish the funding had been there for us. Go register on the site and on December 2 at noon, join us to make a difference in the Ontario policies.

Additionally, I was told that they're seeking someone who has undergone (or is undergoing) fertility treatments, who resides in the riding of Ottawa-South, who would consent to being interviewed for a community newspaper. Alas... I don't live in Ottawa-South so I can't qualify. But maybe you or someone you know does. If so, jot me a note (jiliana2 AT gmail DOT com) so I can put you in touch with the organizers/interviewers.

T minus 12 days and counting... til I leave with Petite to fly home to visit my family. For those interested, I'm definitely not taking the stroller or the car seat; those will be waiting for me at home and they're fine to use. Nor will I be taking a pack-and-play; I'll have one of those and a bassinet at home too. And I'll also have a swing to use at home. I'll be carrying Petite in the Moby Wrap (or my arms if she doesn't tolerate the Moby well for that length of time) and I'll be using the Baby Sherpa diaper bag I have (a knapsack). I'll ask for a window seat near the rear of the plane. I'm a big girl... the window seat will be easier for me to work with and Petite won't get her head or feet thwapped by people on the way to the washroom if she's sleeping. Alternatively, if I need to get up frequently and walk with her, I'll ask my seatmate to change with me. Much easier to ask to change that way around rather than to ask to take the window if someone else is sitting there! Wish me luck.

Now if I can just remember to put soothers in one pocket and tissues in the other for the flight...