When talking with other parents about our upcoming flight from Japan to Guam, they all reassured us, “Oh flying with a baby is easy. They just sleep the whole time.” Oh really? Well, not our 4-month-old. In fact, the flight was miserable. But we’ll get to that later. Our journey first starts with a two-hour bus ride. 

9:30 a.m. Although our flight to Guam isn’t until 5:50 p.m., we arrive at the bus stop heading for Tokyo’s Narita Airport early in the morning because the bus only offers two drop off times, and the later time would have us rushing to our gate with a 4-month-old. Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll take the earlier time. 

Our friends are there to see us off, and we give our final, parting goodbyes before boarding the bus. Donovan is a champ the whole bus ride. When he’s not snoozing, he plays with his butterfly toy or curiously stares out the bus’s big window. The trip to Guam seems promisingly easy so far. (Ha, joke’s on us.) 

12 p.m. We arrive at the airport with our four stuffed suitcases and three carry-on bags. We arrive to Narita just in time for Donovan’s next feeding. Thankfully, like most of Japan’s public buildings, this airport thoughtfully offers a nursing room for breastfeeding moms. Donovan and I make a beeline to the nursing room as soon as we arrive. Once he’s fed, it’s a lot of waiting around before we can check in. When Donovan gets tired, I strap him in the baby carrier and walk circles around the check-in area until he falls asleep. He gets in a quick 30-minute nap before check-in opens. 

2 p.m. The check-in line is short and seamless.

2:30 p.m. Jared and I eat a late lunch at one of the restaurants before placing Donovan in the stroller and heading to security. 

3 p.m. Getting through security is surprisingly easy with a baby. Thanks to the baby stroller, Donovan and I go through a different metal detector than Jared and the other flight passengers. The metal detector goes off (probably because of the stroller), so they quickly scan me and check Donovan’s stroller. All in all, security takes 5 minutes tops.   

3:10 p.m. We get to our gate. It’s, once again, a lot of waiting around. I feed Donovan once more before the flight, and Donovan later falls asleep slumped over in Jared’s lap while holding onto one of his toys. It’s clear he is downright exhausted from a long day of traveling, and we haven’t even boarded the plane yet. 

5:05 p.m. One of the only perks to flying with a baby is that we get the honor of boarding the plane first. Jared converts our nifty Doona stroller into car-seat mode, and we board the plane. Even though our car seat is travel-size, we find ourselves jamming it between the two seats with no room to spare. Thankfully, no one is sitting in front of Donovan as there is no way they would’ve been able to recline their seat with the car seat. 

Donovan almost immediately starts crying in his new, cramped quarters. Then, everyone’s TVs turns on for a safety briefing, welcome video and membership commercial. At this point, Donovan is screaming so loudly, it’s as if he’s trying to compete with the unnecessarily loud TVs. When we finally take off, Donovan stops crying (I think mainly from shock as his eyes are big and round like a deer’s in headlights.).  

Once the plane levels, Donovan quickly falls asleep, and Jared and I let out a sigh of relief. Our relief is short lived however, as he wakes up after just 30 minutes, and we spend the rest of the flight trying to rock him back to sleep and keep him from erupting in tears and screams. Our attempts to get him back to sleep are unsuccessful, but we are able to keep him from crying too loudly right up until descent when his screams turn into howls of pain (What we can only assume is due to his ears popping.). Thankfully, once we land, he calms down again, and we depart the plane feeling slightly bad for our fellow flight passengers who also had to suffer through Donovan’s crying.  

10:50 p.m. We arrive in Guam but the journey is far from over, as we still have to get through the long and strenuous customs process. The customs line is short yet somehow still takes over an hour. We get our passports checked, but wait, there’s more! We still have to pick up our bags and wait in another line so the customs agents can read our form that promises we haven’t brought any meat or plants into the country. (I’d like to take a moment here to clarify that I’m not complaining about Guam’s customs process. It’s like this in literally every country I’ve ever entered.) 

1 a.m. By the time we finally get to our temporary lodging, I am dreading the 26-hour flight I naively promised my parents we’d make to visit our family in a few months. We’re all exhausted and fall asleep within seconds of hitting the bed (Donovan included.). 

8:30 a.m. I wake up feeling refreshed and reenergized as Donovan slept the whole night, only waking once to eat. It’s my first time seeing Guam in the daylight. The warm sun beams through our temporary house’s many windows promising plenty of exciting and fulfilling days to come. Living abroad has its downsides—like having to fly on a plane with a 4-month-old—but it has its perks too and, call us crazy, but in our opinion, the pros tend to outweigh cons.