A bit about our flight, etc

Would you let this woman on your plane?When you're 33 weeks pregnant, no one really "recommends" you fly anywhere. The airlines require a note from your doctor, and my note didn't say, "Yes, I'm fully supportive of this woman flying across the world in her condition," but it rather said that everything was normal and he was aware I was flying.

The picture above shows me in my most pregnantiest shirt-- the one I wear when I want people to let me cut in front of them in line or help me carry stuff. I know, I'm tiny. So when I wore my slimming black shirt onto my flights, no one even talked to me about my pregnancy or had me sign a waiver or anything.

Good thing I didn't birth anybody over the North Pole.

The next picture is right as we were leaving our apartment in Arlington. We were really happy to have my parents there helping us move.

We decided to take Penny's carseat on the plane, and it was quite a hassle. She did wind up sleeping for about 4 hours of the flight (total) (not enough, in my opinion), and I really liked having the carseat to lean against so I could sleep too. But it was big and bulky, and in the future we'll have 2 kids everywhere we go, and I don't see this as a possibility ever again.

And given Penny's wakefulness on the second flight (no carseat) and on succeeding train rides (again, no carseat), I have doubts as to whether she'll ever sleep on a moving vehicle again.
We had a layover of a couple hours in Beijing. They have a swanky new airport, and here are a couple of my favorite people in that swanky new airport.

And then we came to Shenyang. The final flight, since it was the middle of the night for Penny (and all of us), was pretty horrid. Penny cried and fussed the entire time. But it was only an hour, so we were minimally traumatized.