I found Hell on Earth...

It's a five hour and forty-two minute (was I counting? Oh, you betcha.) flight with a just-turned-one-year-old.

Lord help me, it was horrendous.

First of all, security regulations. 

Don't even get me started on the logistics of bringing along bottles for your baby with all of the new security regulations. 

My daughter recently switched to milk instead of formula. And, stupid me, assumed that because of the regulations regarding liquids and gels that I wouldn't be able to bring along prepared bottles. You read that right, I embarked on an almost six hour flight with no milk for my baby. Oh, the depths of my stupidity. Just so you all don't think that I'm totally insane/cruel, I did bring along cheerios and other snacks. But still, no bottle=no sleeping and an extremely unhappy baby.

On the first leg I had enough time to buy a few little cartons of milk (for an exorbitantly high price I might add) for her bottles. On the second, and much longer, leg of the trip I wasn't so lucky. We only had a half an hour layover in Atlanta. Yikes. This gave us enough time to schlep everyone off the plane with all our crap, run to our gate, take one look at the horrendously crowded ladies room and wait outside the men's room (with much fear and trepidation) while my seven-year-old son went to the bathroom by himself, schlep ourselves and all our crap onto the next plane where we proceeded to sit for forty-five minutes because of delays. 

Oh, the ironies of my life.

Needless to say, the flight was hellish. I was able to get a carton of milk from one of the flight attendants which got us through the first half of the flight. The second half, however, involved an extremely wiggly baby who desperately needed to sleep and absolutely refused to without a bottle. Sigh. After about an hour of fighting sleep and being totally cranky, one of the flight attendants (God bless her) washed out one of our bottles and filled it with water for me. I really didn't think that it would work, but at this point I have the feeling that my daughter was just as desperate as I was. She finally slept. Oh bliss. 

The rest of the trip was a blur, but we made it to California in one piece. Exhausted, but in one piece. 

While I was in California, one of my friends suggested checking the TSA website to see what their regulations are in regards to baby bottles. Apparently, in an effort to avoid nightmarish trips like mine, the TSA in their infinite wisdom allows you to bring along full baby bottles and an ice-pack to keep them cold... 

God I'm an idiot.