ferrousland.com - daily news archives
Friday, September 22, 2006
hysterics on the plane - 06:52 PM
(filed under 'smiley')
when i posted here about us arriving in bahrain, i mentioned that smiley had a meltdown on the plane. i'll tell more about it now.
he fell asleep in the taxi on the way to the airport & stayed asleep the whole time i was checking us in for the flight, waiting to board & even when we got onto the plane. still asleep, i settled him into his seat no troubles & even got his seatbelt on, but after a few minutes, he woke up asking to go to the toilet. i told him that we were about to take off & that he'd have to wait.
that's when it started. maybe he was a bit disoriented, over tired, or maybe just feeling the need to pee, but he got totally hysterical. he started with some crying & whinging & then it escalated from there.
since the aeroplane was ready to go, i was desperately trying to stay in his seatbelt back but he was fighting me. i could barely hold him. he was arching his back to stop me putting him in his seat & get his belt around him. i did manage to get it on him, but he knows how to undo it & about three times, he just took it off again. i was trying to hold my hand over the buckle to stop him undoing it again, but no matter how tightly over his hips i'd do it up, he'd manage to slide down so that it was over his tummy or even as far up as under his armpits. when i'd pull him back up to try to put it safely over his hips, he'd undo it. all this was accompanied by screaming & crying.
he wanted to slide down onto the floor, but even with me fighting him to keep him on the seat, he was winning. when he was seated but still squirming & crying, i tried to talk to him gently, even sing to him, but he didn't want any of it. he kept pushing me away or hitting at me. his eyes were wide & had a scared look in them. he did answer my questions when i was trying to talk to him & ask if he wanted some boobie or a drink of water, but mostly, i think he wasn't really seeing or hearing me. at this stage, i was in tears myself.
eventually, i had to just let him stay down on the floor at my feet under the seat. the plane was supposed to be taking off & even the air stewards were strapped in ready to go, but apparently we were waiting for something, so the whole time i'd been fighting to get him into his seat, we weren't moving from the tarmac, or if we were, only very slowly.
so he stayed on the floor there, with his hands up to his face, not making a sound & pushing my hand away when i tried to comfort him. i suppose he stayed there for about three or more minutes.
after a few minutes i spoke to him gently while he was still down there. i told him that the plane was really going to take off soon. i asked him if he remembered the jay jay episode where savannah was teaching tracey how make a sonic boom & how there was lots of bumping & shaking. i said that similar bumping & shaking can happen when the plane is taking off & that he could get hurt if he wasn't in his seat with his seat belt on & that very soon i was going to pick him up to put him into his seat.
it seemed to work, or at least something did, because when i then took him off the floor, he let me put him in his seat & get his belt on with no fighting or crying. he was tired again by that stage & so he closed his eyes & went back to sleep, but even in his sleep, he was doing those funny little hiccupy noises that you make when you've been crying really hard.
the whole thing went on for about ten to fifteen minutes, but boy did it feel like it went on forever. while he was still upset, the lady in the seat in front of me offered him a (lolly) snake, but even that couldn't shake him out of hysterics. usually a snake will be the one thing that will make him settle down if he's upset or chucking a tantrum or something.
i've never seen him like that before. it was really upsetting. i was in tears myself after only a few minutes of it. my poor little darling.
fortunately, the rest of the flight was really good. i actually got some sleep, smiley slept really well (he continued to sleep for quite a few hours after he got so upset) & he was really well behaved. when he finally did wake up for the last seven or so hours, the final leg of the trip from the stop over in singapore to bahrain, he ate like a horse & he played fairly happily with whatever small number of toys i had carried with us.
i was really proud of him for handling it all so well. seventeen hours travel in a tiny space is hard on anyone of any age, let alone an active three year old, & he did so well.
jet lag = groggy - 05:32 PM
(filed under 'bahrain')
woah. i feel like i've been scraped up off a road somewhere, like i've been out on a heavy night of partying or something. went to sleep with smiley at about midday here/7pm brisbane time & only just woke up now, four & a half hours later. smiley's still asleep.
i suppose that having a huge swim out in the bahrain heat this morning helped to tire us both out. i don't feel all that rested, though. well, they reckon it takes three days for jet lag to go away & it's been one & a half already, so "come on down!!" feeling normal again.
far out. i can hardly even type!
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