One very long day of travel!

Just over a month ago we moved from Melbourne to Toronto, Canada. In the lead up to our move the thing I was dreading the most was the flight home. A three-year-old, a nine-month-old, seven hours in LAX, and nearly 34 hours of travel door-to-door did not seem like a recipe for a good time. I'm happy to report that it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be - either that or I've blocked the most traumatic parts from my memory! Though no matter how well it went, I'm pretty relieved that our days of flights to and from Australia are over (for now!).

I kept the following diary throughout the very long day - perhaps reading it will give you some tips on flying long-haul with two young kids, or perhaps it will make you glad that you don’t have to!

6:15am Melbourne time

Aaaaand we are off. We left our beach house in Rye 15 minutes ago after the obligatory mad panic to get everything packed and make sure our suitcases are all under 23kgs. I think we are about 1kg over on two of our bags so fingers crossed they don't make us repack anything at the airport. 

We had a terrible night’s sleep. For the first time since sleep school Ollie wouldn’t settle and it was 11:30pm before he was finally asleep for the night. I had just drifted off to sleep when I heard little footsteps and saw a curly mop of hair approaching the bed... Ella needing to go to the bathroom. Thankfully she went back to sleep very quickly. Ollie was restless throughout the night. Although he never actually woke up, he was pretty noisy, making it hard to sleep. My reaction when our alarm went off at 4:20am was basically "noooooooooooo" along with a general feeling of dread. Anyway, we are on our way now, and on schedule. Only 31 hours until we land in Toronto…

Practicing wearing our sleeping masks in the taxi to the airport

11am Melbourne time (5 hours of travel)

We are sitting on the plane, about to take off. The taxi to the airport was long, about 2 hours and 15 mins. Then getting through check-in, immigration and security took over an hour. We had a minor issue as we never got Ollie an Australian passport. I didn’t think we needed one, as we didn’t do any international travel with him before this, and we have his Canadian passport for the move. Turns out I should have got it, as he is supposed to leave Australia on his Australian passport, and then use his Canadian one to get into Canada. Whoops! Dual citizenship rules are so confusing. Anyway, they let us leave, with a reminder that if/when we come back to Australia Ollie will need his Australian passport. 

We had passes to the Qantas business lounge which was awesome. It was a very relaxing way to start our flight. We all had some breakfast and some much needed coffee and the kids had a bit of time to play. I kind of wish our flight had been delayed so we could have hung out there longer!

We are seated in the upper deck of the A380. It’s a very small economy section, only about six rows, and it’s half empty. We are the only people with kids, and boarded last. Ollie was pretty vocal when we boarded so I’m sure our fellow passengers were disappointed (annoyed) with our arrival. The seats are arranged in a 2-4-2 configuration. Ella and Andy are seated in the window/aisle seats, and then I have the seat across the aisle, on the end of the four middle seats. We don’t have a bassinet for Ollie, but there are two empty seats beside me. I’m hoping this works out for us and Ollie will sleep across the empty seats.

(Side note: My parents are on a different flight, with United. They leave Melbourne about 20 minutes after us, and then have a slightly longer layover in LAX where we will try to meet up with them. If all flights are on time they will land in Toronto about 1.5 hours after us.)

Ollie is already pretty difficult to manage as he doesn’t want to sit still. Andy is standing with him, letting him jump up and down until we have to put our seatbelts on. The plan is to breastfeed him when we take off and then hopefully he’ll have a nap.



Ella is happy as she’s watching Frozen on the seat back TV. However she gets annoyed every time the captain comes on to make an announcement, interrupting her movie. How rude! Thankfully we’ve got the iPad as a backup. I wonder how many hours of television she’ll end up watching on this flight... oh well, there are zero rules about kids and screen time when you are on a plane!

12pm Melbourne time (6 hours of travel)

Just before we were about to take off, Ollie had a massive poo. Standard! That happened to us all the time with Ella. So I had to sit with a stinky, overtired Ollie during take off. Yuck! He was not very happy about it either. 

Once the seatbelt sign was off we changed him and he was much happier (as were the surrounding passengers, I imagine). He had a really good feed and then we hung a blanket over the (empty) seat beside me and the back of the seat in front and put Ollie down for a nap in his makeshift tent. So far it’s working. Fingers crossed he stays asleep for an hour or two.

2pm Melbourne time (8 hours of travel)

Ollie slept for 1h45 which was fab. I actually got to eat lunch in peace! Great start to the flight. Ollie sleeping across two seats with a blanket tent seems to be a good set up. I had a very yummy salmon and rice salad for lunch. Probably the best economy food I’ve ever had. And it even felt sort-of healthy. I love Qantas. Ella also ate her lunch and has been pretty good so far. While Ollie was napping I got in half of the first episode of the series Sharp Objects. Let’s see if I get to watch anymore during this flight (spoiler: I did not). Ollie had a full bottle when he woke from his nap so now I’ll try and get in to a feed/play/sleep routine as best as possible. The extra seats we have for the flight have been awesome, as Ollie can sit in one and play with a few toys. Ella has discovered some new kids show called Butterbean’s which is keeping her occupied for the moment. 10.5 hours to go to LA, 22.5 hours to Toronto!

7:30pm Melbourne time (13.5 hours of travel)

We’ve just put Ollie down to sleep in his blanket tent. Since he woke at 1:45pm he’s had another hour long nap from 4-5pm, so he’s pretty much sticking to his normal routine. I really hope he sleeps a good few hours now! Next we’ll try and get Ella down. The plane is dark now and lots of the passengers are trying to sleep. One of the flight attendants came by to say good-night to her as well, so she seems to understand that it’s bedtime. We put our carry on suitcase in front of her seat and topped it with a pillow so she can stretch out. We actually bought a Plane Pal, which is a big blow up cushion to use for the same purpose but haven’t bothered getting it out as the suitcase seems to be doing the job just fine. (Also, they are technically not allowed on Qantas flights. After reading lots of reviews I bought one anyway as others have said it really depends on the crew, some will allow it and some won't.) Plane Pals have rave reviews so I’m sure we’ll end up using it on another flight sometime. 

We have just over five hours left of this flight. Both kids are going to be pretty sleepy when we land in LA as it will be the middle of the night in Melbourne. They have both been pretty good so far. Ollie has spent a lot of his awake time alternating between jumping up and down (my arms are SO tired!), and happily sitting on a seat going through the bag of little toys I brought for him. Again, the extra seats are fantastic. I’m so glad we have them rather than the bassinet, which he is probably a bit big for anyway.

Ella has been pretty good too. Lots of TV time but she’s also played with her dolls a lot (my mom got her Frozen dolls as a surprise for the plane which have gone down very well) and also making these foam fairies, which were a great Kmart find:

Ollie is still grunting away beside me but they are his normal noises he makes before bed so I’m hopeful that he will fall asleep soon. It’s funny as his feet are just poking out the end of the tent, so I can hear him and see his feet moving but I don’t want to peak in to see what he’s up to as that will probably disturb his self-settling. I hope I can shut my eyes for a bit soon too. I don’t think I’ll be able to actually sleep though as I’m paranoid that Ollie might roll off the seats!

10am LA time (23 hours of travel)

We are in LA international airport. We've gone back in time, it is now morning on the same day we left Australia. So weird. LA is 19 hours behind Melbourne, so the actual time for us is 5am, over 24 hours since our alarms went off. I am SO TIRED!

The last five hours of our flight were pretty good. Ollie slept solid until we landed, when I had to wake him. Ella slept for about three hours and then woke up when the breakfast service started. All in all the 14 hour flight passed without incident. I think our fellow passengers were pleasantly surprised with us. Once we landed the guy in front of me turned around and said “your kids are GREAT”, which is always lovely to hear. I am very proud of them, especially Ella, who must be exhausted.

Getting through immigration in LAX was super busy, as expected. It felt so chaotic, airport personnel shouting directions and large crowds of tired people shuffling along. We were in a super long line but were saved by a security guard who plucked us out of the main line. He led us to a secret short line reserved for people with disabilities and families with screaming babies. Thanks, Ollie!

Next we had to pick up our bags and clear customs. Luckily we ran into my parents at baggage claim so they were able to help us out, otherwise it would have been really tricky to do this part with all our luggage and two small kids. 

When thinking about this layover in LAX I investigated getting a hotel room for the day. We had a seven hour layover so I thought it would be worth it. But unfortunately the timing didn’t really work out. We landed in LA at 6am and you can only check in to a hotel for the day from 9am. So we looked for a place to go for breakfast instead. As we are flying out of a different terminal to my parents we had to stay in the main part of the airport, before security. There are very limited choices for eating before you go through security, especially so early in the morning. We settled on a Planet Hollywood in the Tom Bradley (international) terminal and had a very average breakfast. 

My parents then kindly offered to look after the kids so Andy and I could have a break. We’ve wandered around to the domestic terminal we are flying out of, but there is literally nothing to do except for one very crowded Starbucks. There is hardly any seating so Andy and I are just sitting on the floor, curled up in little balls, trying to get a few moments of shut eye. It sucks but at least the kids are with my parents! We’ll use the bathrooms to freshen up in a bit and then meet up with everyone else again. This is only my second time flying through LAX and I have pretty much the same opinion of it I had last time: it sucks! 

1:30pm LA time (26.5 hours of travel)

We are waiting to board our flight to Toronto. We met up with my parents after our little rest on the floor. Classy. We are now waiting at our departure gate. It is super busy.  This layover is LONG. I will definitely look into a day hotel if we ever have to do this again.

I’ve just spent a small fortune on some food that seems at least a little bit healthy for everyone. By far the hardest part of this whole trip has been feeding Ollie. He doesn’t like those squeezy packs of pureed fruit and veg so I’ve had to find other whole foods he will eat. He is honestly the only baby I've ever met who doesn't like those things! Thank goodness he is still taking a bottle or he’d probably starve.

The kids have been fantastic so far. While they were with my parents Ollie had a nap in his pram (love our Mountain Buggy Nano for trips like this!) and Ella played quietly with some dolls at Planet Hollywood. I really just want to get on the plane and get this all over with! It feels like Toronto is soooooo close, but we still have a five hour flight ahead of us. 

One Month later…

Ok so I’ve finally got around to finishing up this post! As you can see my last entry was just before we boarded our flight from LA to Toronto. I didn’t get to write anymore as that flight was FULL ON! We had three seats for the four of us, and because we were on a smaller plane it felt super tight with Ollie on my lap. The first half of the flight we all slept (after some initial crying/fussiness from both kids). Ella slept on Andy and Ollie slept on me. So that part of the flight was great. But once they woke up they were both very grumpy and overtired. It was definitely the hardest part of the whole journey. 

We landed in Toronto around 9:30pm (Toronto time) after 31.5 hours of travel, and spent a further hour and a half in the airport. We had to first stop at Immigration where Andy was questioned as he was entering as a Permanent Resident for the first time. As it was so late there weren’t many other people there, so we were pretty lucky that it only took about 15 minutes for the immigration officer to question Andy and check over his documents. We then collected our bags and headed over to customs, where we had to fill out some paperwork for the items we shipped separately from Melbourne. We then got a taxi back to my parent’s house which is only about 20 minutes away, arriving around 11:30pm, after a grand total of 33.5 hours of travel. It was SO COLD, about -10 degrees that night. 

Once we got to my parent’s we gave the kids a bath and put Ollie to bed. My parents got home shortly after us and we all had some wine and cheese to celebrate our arrival in Canada. Yes we probably should have just gone to bed, but everyone, including Ella, was a little bit wired at that point and not quite ready to sleep.

Ok so this was probably a pretty boring post for everyone. Sorry about that. But I think it will be funny to go back and remember this one day. And when we travel to England this summer I can remind myself that I'm grateful for only having one seven hour flight to endure!

Next post: an update on our first month in Canada!