Well, we're here in North Carolina with Chris. It's been a nice long
extended visit to the East Coast. Right now we should be on a plane back to LAX, however due to inclement weather, we are still here in North Carolina. (We'll be taking another plane tomorrow afternoon)
We arrived early Friday morning after a VERY LONG FLIGHT. Emily was such a trooper during the flight and slept through the entire thing!! On our red-eye flight to Charlotte (layover) we were stuck in the back with 4 babies. All of the babies, except one, slept the entire plane ride. And, of course, the cranky baby was right in front of us!! OMG!!! The baby cried THE ENTIRE FLIGHT!! I didn't get any sleep!
I kind of felt bad for the single mother stuck with this trouble child, but she wasn't doing much to try to solve the situation. The 20-something gang-banger mother was there with her 6 month old, that looked as much like a thug as her mom did. The mother was seated in the middle of two businessmen who were more then annoyed! She sat there sternly yelling at the child and grunting every time the child wouldn't sit still. She would frustratingly throw the baby from one arm to the other as if the little girl were a rag doll.
No one really knew what to do...do we step in to help? ...do we approach her? That might make her angry and cause more of a problem. Yet, she might welcome the help. I mean, after all, we've all "been there" and would have probably loved for someone to step in to help. Anyway, about an hour or so went on with the baby crying, and crying, and the young mom struggling with her before a stewardess stepped in and offered the help we all thought about giving. Eagerly, the mom gave up her baby. And, once the child was up and out of the seat, she immediately stopped crying! The stewardess held the baby for about an hour, and we all got the much-needed sleep that we all needed....well...for an hour. Yet, all good things must come to an end and stewardesses are not babysitters, so an hour later the baby went back to mom and the crying started all over again. ...sigh...
The baby cried for another 2 hours and the gangster-mom got more and more frustrated. So much so that she started "thumping" the baby's mouth to try to shut her up. By "thumping" I mean forcefully hitting the baby's mouth as if she were pretending to be an Indian doing a war-call. That didn't work and the baby still cried. She next tried putting a blanket over the baby's head, practically smothering the baby, but the baby still cried.
We had all had enough, and as I sat there watching her torture the baby, I thought more and more about stepping in. However, I had Emily fast asleep on my lap and I hesitated moving Em because I didn't not want to wake her up and possibly have 2 babies crying.
There happened to be another young mother sitting in the same row as the gangster-mom, just across the aisle. She too was sitting in the middle seat between two businessmen. She was traveling alone with her son who is 9 months old. I had talked to her before the plane took off and we both exchanged how nervous we were flying with the babies, and hoped that our youngsters wouldn't keep everyone awake. Well, as I mentioned Emily fall asleep instantly, and so did her son. Well, once the stewardess gave the crying baby back to the other mom, and the baby started to cry again for yet another hour...we had all had about enough.
All of a sudden I see the mom with the son struggling to get out of her seat trying not to disturb the sleeping businessman sitting next to her. Yes, her 9-month-old-tank-of-a-son was in her arms sound asleep. She leans over to gangster-mom and says "Give me your baby." The gangster mom kind of looks dumbfounded and says "What?" and then the other mom says it again "Give me your baby." So, from the middle row, with a crying baby, she leans over and hands her screaming child to this perfect stranger. It wasn't an easy exchange because as I mentioned above, this mother was still holding her 9 month old son and was now attempting to ALSO carry this cranky 6 month old that didn't belong to her. She struggled a bit to balance herself with the weight of the two babies and the mild turbulence.
She started to walk toward the back of the plane and let the child calm down. As she passed our aisle, we knew that we needed to attempt to help. I mean after all, here was this new mom with a sound asleep 9 month old, attempting to do the right thing for the entire plane and settling this gangster-mom's-baby. She Lisa leaned over to her as she passed and said "Would you like me to hold your son?" Without hesitation, she handed Lisa her sleeping boy and continued toward the back of the plane with the cranky baby.
I'm sure as many of you would hope, that if you're taking a red-eye flight, you'd hope to get some sleep during the flight. Yet, this cranky baby prevented everyone in the back of the plane from getting any rest. This mom, who had her own child to deal with, was the only one to try to do anything about the situation. And, instead of sleep, as many of the passengers did after the baby stopped crying, she stood in the back of the plane for the remainder of the flight with another woman's crying baby. She stood there for about 3 hours...changed a poopy diaper...and even fed this now-no-longer-cranky baby. And...what did the gangster mom, who so easily gave up her own child, do??? - She slept.
The mother with the son, Lisa, Emily, and I were the last ones off the plane. We thanked her, on behalf of the plane, for stepping in and calming the cranky baby. She mentioned that she was getting so angry at the gangster-mother because it was obvious that the baby just wanted to get up and walk around. Yet, the mother wasn't willing to leave her seat and would have rather tried smothering her baby then walk around with her.
On our way off the stewardesses had asked about the situation and wanted to know if we were all together. We explained "no," that we had just met. They couldn't believe that we were all helping to play "musical babies" in an effort to do what the other mom wasn't willing to do...calm her own baby.
