Calie’s first flight / Calie的第一趟飛行

Finally, Calie would travel to Taiwan to meet all the family out there. Before Calie was born, Eddie and I already planned to take Calie to Taiwan after her third Vaccination shot. The best timing would be the Chinese new year time. Most Taiwanese were on vacation for the national holiday. It would be easier to meet my family.

Our direct flight was from Houston to Taipei. We had to take EVA’s shuttle bus from Dallas to Houston and it was a 3.5 hours bus trip. Calie wasn’t really liking the bus. She only stayed in the car seat for about 1 hour. The rest of the time she kept wanting us to hold her. Also, the toughest thing was changing her diaper. The toilet on the bus didn’t have a changing table. Every time she needed to change her diaper, we had to bring her to the last row seat to change. Even though there were not many people on the bus, Eddie and I probably will not be taking the same trip again. Taking the bus trip was more difficult than the airplane flight for Calie.  By the time we arrived in Houston it was already 9 o’clock in the evening. After passing all the security check, we started looking for hot water for Calie, and some fast food for us. We were totally starving :D.

The reason we chose the direct flight was to avoid the many takeoff and landings that could cause Calie’s discomfort from ear pressure, but the flight to Taiwan was pretty long. It was 17 hours.  However, since we prepared many things to keep her busy on the airplane, which includes an iPad with wireless headphones, baby carrier, lots of cookies, baby books, and toys. Before taking off, we made a bottle of formula. By the time the airplane was taking off, we let her have the bottle to reduce the pressure. She was totally fine with during the taking off. The only problem we had was the noise of people and the light in the cabin. She is used to sleeping in a completely dark room with white noise but the airplane wasn’t dark enough for her. Also, people walked all the time. She couldn’t sleep. We knew she should sleep because it already passed her sleeping time. If she couldn’t sleep, we would have trouble later. So, daddy decided to stand up and use the carrier.  The 17 hours on the way to the Taiwan, daddy probably carried her 4-5 times to make her sleep. Once she fell asleep, we put her in the bassinet. Beside this, she was doing very well on the airplane. I kept hearing crying and screaming from other babies. I was so afraid Calie would be like other babies but I was glad she didn’t do that. On the flight back to the US, she was even better. Daddy only carried her once. She slept about 10 hours directly through. The flight back to the US was pretty easy for both of us. Compared to the 17 hours flight, 14 hours was nothing lol…

The whole trip to Taiwan was awesome. I’m glad most of Taiwanese are still very nice. The first day we arrived in Taiwan, we went to buy phone sim cards.  Unfortunately, Calie had a #2 while we were in the cell store. In Taiwan, finding a changing table isn’t always easy. Only big department stores might have a changing table.  I asked the service lady from mobile store if she knew where I could find a changing table. Calie wasn’t very happy at this time. The lady said there probably wasn’t any baby changing tables nearby but they could let me change Calie’s diaper in the back of the office room. Thank God! I’m serious, they were really helpful to us especially since Calie was crying. During the whole trip no matter where we went, people liked Calie so much.  One day we were at a department store, I brought Calie to the restroom. On the way to the restroom, many salespeople were yelling to us saying she was so cute. In my mind, I was like…but she has a big stinky poopy diaper on her butt and the poop was coming out soon haha.

I really appreciated the people who helped us and being so kind to us during the whole trip. We were also proud of our daughter. At least, she didn’t make the trip so difficult. Giving her a big thumb up!

終於Calie可以到台灣去跟家人見面，Calie出生前我跟Eddie就討論過何時帶Calie出國好，我們當初就決定在她打過三次預防針後再出國，那最佳的時機就是過年，大部分的人都在放國定假期，所以要見到家人就更加容易。

我們直飛的飛機是從休士頓到台北，所以我們必須要先搭長榮提供的巴士從達拉斯到休士頓，那是一趟三個半小時的車程，搭車時Calie就很躁動，她只待在汽座裡一個小時，其他的時間她都要我們抱，加上最困難的是換尿布，巴士的廁所沒有尿布台，所以她只要又不舒服要換尿布，我們就要抱著她去最後一排位子換。這巴士人不是很多，但是Eddie和我大概也不會再選擇這樣的行程了，對Calie來說搭飛機好像比較輕鬆，巴士跳動太大了，而且我們到休士頓的時候也已經晚上9點，過完整個的安檢，我們三個也餓扁了，趕緊到處找熱水先給她泡奶，然後再餵食我們自己 😀

我們選擇直飛的原因其實就是要避免飛機起飛和降落的次數，因為是Calie第一次搭飛機，我們不確定她是不是可以適應起飛跟降落時造成的耳壓，也因為是直飛所以航程很長，17個小時呢！不過，我們為她準備了很多的東西，讓她解悶，像是iPad跟一個無線的耳機、一個背巾、很多的零食、書、玩具。在飛機起飛時我們就先泡好奶，等起飛開始有耳壓時就讓她喝，這樣會排除掉耳壓耳鳴的不舒服，所以起飛跟降落她都適應的很好，唯一個問題就是機艙裡的雜音跟燈光，她在家睡覺時房間的燈光是完全暗的，所以飛機上的光線對她來說很難入眠，而且旁邊的乘客、空姐也是走來走去的，她根本沒辦法睡，都已經超過她該睡覺的時間了，所以我們知道她真的很累，如果再不把她哄睡，之後她可能就會不開心了，因此，爸爸就決定站著用背巾背她，一背著、小毛巾蓋著頭，暗暗的她馬上就睡著了，這17個小時的飛程，爸爸差不多背她4-5次，只要每次她一睡著，我們就可以把她放到睡籃裡，除了這個部分比較麻煩外，其實帶她搭飛機還不算太困難，她也超可以適應的，我們一直都聽到旁邊的寶寶在哭在叫，我們還很擔心那些寶寶會影響到Calie，還好她一點都沒有被影響到。在台灣飛美國時，她反應的更好，爸爸才背一次，她就直接睡了10個小時，所以回程對我們來說輕鬆許多，跟17個小時的飛程比，14個小時根本不算什麼了 哈哈

在台灣的這兩個禮拜也是很棒，真慶幸台灣人還是非常的友善。第一天我們到台灣，我們去買電話的Sim卡，很不巧的這小妞在中華電信便便了，在台灣要找尿布台真的有一點難度，好像真的只有大的百貨公司才有，所以我就問了中華電信的小姐知不知道附近哪裡有尿布台，Calie那時候已經躁動到不行了，然後中華電信的小姐就跟我說附近可能沒有，不過我們可以開後面的辦公室讓你換尿布，我的天啊，在Calie正在哭的當下我真的覺得她們是神救援。 整趟旅行不管我們到哪裡，大家也都很喜歡她，有一天我們在百貨公司吃飯，我要帶Calie去換尿布，在去廁所的路上，幾個櫃姐很誇張的一直說她很可愛，我的心裡卻os…她屁屁有一個即將要滿出來的便便布布說 哈

我很感謝這假期裡大家的幫助跟友善，也替Calie感到驕傲，至少她沒有讓我們覺得很有負擔，給她一個大拇哥唷！