On a plane...
With a baby...
On my lap...
The whole way!
Exhaustion doesn't really seem an adequate term for what I felt at the tail end of our Sydney to Los Angeles flight. It was 6:30 am in LA, and 12:30 am in Sydney. We limped through customs, been fingerprinted and photographed. We collected our bags from the baggage carousel. I wait patiently at the oversized baggage door for the baby car seat to arrive. Then all we have to do is load ourselves, all the baggage, and the baby into a taxi and we will be so close to having a hot shower and lying down I can feel the steam already and feel the soft flat mattress...
Wishful thinking.
Another, exhausted looking mother turns to me at the oversized baggage area and asks if I am looking for a stroller too. I manage an exhausted smile and say I am waiting for the car seat - no stroller on this trip, I am carrying the baby. The airport employee with the clip board seems to be taking down this mothers details and says something along the lines of, "We'll check the stroller straight through to New York for you and then deliver it to your hotel." Not good...
My stomach lurches a little. "I'm waiting for a car seat?" I show my baggage tickets and say a little prayer, "please please please please". This nice, fresh, well-rested young man flips a page and says, "Oh, BOOKER? Your baggage didn't make it onto the plane. It's still in Sydney, but should be out on tomorrow's flight..."
"WHAT?! Well what do I do now? Do you LEND me a car seat?!"
"Yes, what age do you need? 12 months? Ok, go upstairs to the recheck desk, fill out a report about the seat being left behind and they will bring you out a LOANER."
Phew! Thank you God! I knew You know I was too exhausted to cope with a no-car-seat-situation. Praise be. This is going to be ok, and so easy...
Wishful thinking.
Take baggage trolleys, and baby, up stairs, find recheck desk, maneuver the 100 feet of rope leading up to the desk with trolley and baby, and explain our little annoying but submountable situation. The response...
"We don't have Loaners. I can give you a $100 to purchase a new car seat. That's our policy."
"Oh...
BUT, where do I buy the car seat from? You?"
"No, go to a store, BabiesRUs..."
"BUT how do I get there?"
"Just get a taxi from out on the curb."
"But I have a baby - WITH NO CAR SEAT!"
"Well, its against California Law to take a baby in a taxi without a car seat. Our policy is I can give you $100 to purchase one."
I could continue on reiterating the conversation that followed, but I think you can already see the circular (and VERY FRUSTRATING) nature of the dialogue. After some time, when I realised the circular nature of the conversation I was having (it took me a while to see it due to the fatigue) and the fact that the people I was dealing with could not see how illogical their "policy" was, I went upstairs and asked to speak to a Customer Service Supervisor. Initially, there was a repeat of the above circular conversation with no fewer than 3 different people. At some point I outlined, slowly and clearly exactly what I was feeling and trying to achieve,
"Ivan (the name of the QANTAS Customer Service Supervisor, I have been on a plane for 14 hours, with an infant on my lap the whole way. It is 2:30 am in Sydney right now. Me and my baby should be asleep right now. But we are not. We are standing here talking to you about our missing car seat. We are tired. He has a dirty diaper. You have left my car seat in Sydney. Your only solution is to give me $100 to buy a new one, but I can't buy a new one, because I can't get there, as I don't have a car seat to transport my baby in to the shop to buy a new car seat. AND even if I could get there, $100 is not going to cover a car seat. I am trying really hard to be nice and patient here. But you do not have much longer before I am not nice any more. Find me a solution to the missing car seat!"
"Ma'am, I understand that, and I appreciate it. I am trying to work something out for you. But, do you by any chance have any family in LA who can pick you up?"
I'm thinking, "Oh, of course! Why didn't I think of that earlier? Silly me. Lets just call them and get them come over and get us."
I say, "NO!!!"
3 1/2 hours after landing, with no solution in sight from QANTAS, a friend - lets call him "My Saviour" arrived having pulled himself out of his sick bed, dropped one baby at daycare, and with another baby in tow who is sick also, and picked me and Noah up, loaded my in-laws into a cab, and we headed closer to that hot shower and bed - and a diaper change for poor Noah.
There was only one more glitch.
"My Saviour" had locked himself out of the house....
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