Cruising through Delta with an Infant Baby

MJ and I just completed the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest, or completing an Ironman Triathlon, except for parents: taking a 4.5-month old Baby Girl Yan across tge country in a cross-Atlantic flight. We'd heard all the horror stories before of parents trying to take kids on airplanes, heck I've experienced firsthand babies on planes: they're not always the most cooperative, and "let them sleep for 6 hours" seems like an unrealistic expectation to go in with. Flying with kids is another one of those things the propaganda adults get for having children get bombarded with. Especially for my previous lifestyle of getting to the airport at the very last moment, check no luggage, go to the gate with TSA pre-check, and barely duck in to the flight before the close the gates, sit down and sleep. With a baby, packing is probably the hardest, and luckily MJ did most of that: from pumping parts (for breast milk), baby clothes, baby diapers, wipes, pacifiers, basically everything you need at home to maintain a baby you need to pack into a suitcase, and oh you need to bring your own clothes too. Don't forget carseats and strollers! I hadn't been dreading a new experience more than going to the hospital to deliver Baby Yan last December: not that I dreaded the result, the result of getting across the country to see baby's grandparents is great, but the process of getting there is like Cormac McCarthy's The Road or Ulysses's trek on The Odyssey: full of booby traps, potential mishaps, delays, potential monsters of the world like TSA agents. We left FIVE HOURS before flight time, a first for me! (I've left 45 minutees before departure before, what a rush!) but with also a record of SIX bags in tow! I'm the primary transporter/mule, so that's a big onus on me to somehow get those bags from my house to Gate C of the terminal, no easy task with the use of the metro, taking the metro elevators, geting all the luggage through the narrow turnstyles, carrying an almost 16-pound infant baby along with teh carseat without a stroller (there are probably easier ways to do this, but we chose to go sans stroller this time) Luckily we chose to fly on a Saturday.....NOT the busiest flying day! very short TSA lines, less traffic getting into the airport, and the TSA agent....lukewarm, maybe even bordering on friendly? Probably because they hadn't dealt with too many victims yet that day, fewer chances they had to deal with truculent travelers. We OF COURSE triggered a bag inspection because we were concealing a 24-pack of baby formula that they had to "test" whether it was baby formula (maybe someone had tried to smuggle drugs using baby formula? Hard to imagine). Lugging the carseat to gate was a challenge, but it constituted a workout. We were surprisingly welcome at the Delta skyclub lounge, although I detected a few puzzled looks, if not dirty looks. We were definitely the only family with a baby in there, but Baby Yan gave us 2 full hours in the lounge next to the buffet and complementary drinks and more importantly......a fully functioning, well-cleaned bathroom that the general public wasn't allowed in. I did my first diaper change in a men's room changing station, didn't feel too awkward about it. Adults will respect an adult with a baby and at least tolerate the baby, up to a certain extent. On the plane was a tough one: tons of adults around, enclosed space, high risk of multiple bouts of crying within the 6-hour time span. And who knows how long the plane would be delayed? Somehow we thread the needle: passengers around us were nice and we never got shushed or anyone complaining, the flight took off on time, very low amount of turbulence, flight attendants didn't give us any grief about how to hold the baby, and....we bought an extra seat for baby's carseat, therefore getting the entire row to ourselves. No grumpy adult next to us wondering what he'd gotten himself into. Moral of the story: get lucky and have a well-behaved baby. We didn't do any special, we were probably ill-prepared, and it was a huge gamble to take a baby this young on a plane for so long. (I have heard of some Koreans taking their baby from US to Korea). Baby Girl Yan has really been a godsend for us, she has met every mark and allowed us to sleep pretty well at night. With all that being said......really not sure about Baby No. 2 though, I really don't know how families do it with MULITPLE babies who can't help themselves and you have to do everything for them. Seems inconceivable.