Galushky's flight to Tel-Aviv

We are in Tel-Aviv! I'm seriously excited and finally feel home! The weather is great , the people are cool, and the food is wonderful as usual. And oh my! finally good coffee! I feel blessed! We are just over the jet lag and are planning our time.
Our accommodation turned out to be perfect, we rented a beautiful, renovated two bedroom apt near the Rothschild-Shenkin corner, so everything is near and convenient. I think we got really lucky. By the way this apartment is available for rent through out the year...

KIng George St, Tel Aviv

To all who were wondering and scared for us travelling with the baby :), our flight was painless :). Galushka slept all the time, ocasionally waking up with a smile on her face and going back to sleep. She literaly didn't make a sound! In general she has been a very happy baby since we left NY. She smiles at people, waves hi and gives hi-fives and of course cannot be unnoticed due to her chubby pulkes and cheeks!


Using this opportunity, I would like to give a few personal tips, that I thought might be of value to those of you who will be traveling with your babies sooner or later:

1. Book a night flight- I think this is pretty much self explanatory, babys will sleep at night  and you can have some rest as well.
2. You all probably heard that the bulk seat is the best place to be on the plane with babies, because you can put a bassinet in front of you. As much as this is true, it will not be necessarily convenient for nursing mothers for the lack of privacy(unless you occupy the whole row). In a common international aircraft you will be accommodated in one of the 3 rows of the plane. Side rows will have 3 seats and the middle one four. Also bassinet is usually available on a "first come first serve" basis, and might be gone by the time you reach the gate. What to do? there is another seat on the plane that can work perfectly for this kind of situation-the back seat. yes. correct. the seat that nobody wants. However it is not as bad as you think. in a 747 aircraft this will be usually a side seat in the row#66. Due to the plane design this row will normally include only 2 seats on each side of the plane, so no strangers around you- just you, your baby and a spouse(or a great chance of an empty seat).The window seat of this row has a big gap between the chair and the wall where you can fit your baby bag , freeing your leg room. There is nobody behind you. people traffic is minimal and nursing your baby during the flight is easy! 
3. Nurse your baby if you can, as much as you can. It will help them to go painlessly through the take off and the landing and will keep them quite and happy in general.
4. Prepare little gifts for your baby in case and nothing above works. New toy or rattle will distract them from an approaching meltdown and will keep them busy for a little bit. Keep giving new toys every hour or so.
5. Avoid seating in the middle aisle in between people at all costs even if you need to put the whole airplane upside down hysterically. Most likely, in this case, your baby will start screaming together with you and hopefully the reasonable ones on the plane will offer you their seat, rather then hearing your baby scream all flight. The normal procedure will be talking to the gate attendants before boarding, and then finding a supervisor of the gate who hopefully will help you and your baby find the right seat.

Evening of our arrival Galushky passes out on her cereal at the table while the grown ups are talking, nobody even noticed when she fell asleep.