When a Southwest Airlines flight took off from Chicago Midway Airport today bound for Salt Lake City it had 123 passengers. When it landed, there were 124. The addition joined the flight at 30,000 feet somewhere above Denver.
As one of the passengers discovered, the floor at the back of an airplane can work fine as a delivery room in a pinch. Luckily, there was a doctor on board who could help deliver the baby. Southwest medical personnel on the ground gave instructions via radio.
In the case of this baby, they’ll be a story to tell later. Instead of claiming that a stork was in charge of the delivery, the family can tell tales of a jet plane bearing responsibility for the speedy arrival time.
An ambulance took the mother and new baby to a hospital in Denver after the plane was diverted there. Hopefully, this is the kind of flight delay the other passengers were happy to be a part of. I can’t imagine that it would have helped matters if any grousing was going on.
I wonder if the mom can sign up the baby as a frequent flier and get any credit for the baby’s portion of the flight?
I can understand the idea of a babymoon, a vacation taken right before a new baby is born. Enjoying one last (for a while anyway) trip before your life becomes a crazy blur of diapers and late-night feedings almost seems medically necessary. But taking a vacation with the sole purpose of getting knocked up – a procreation vacation – well, that sounds a little too “desperate marketing ploy” to me. Can’t people just have sex at home? Or just go on a trip and say “We’re gonna go on vacation, have a lot of sex, and see what happens” without making pregnancy the objective? Apparently, the Westin hopes not.
The Westin Resort on Aruba wants couples looking to take their own procreation vacation to book a stay this fall. The Resort is offering a $300 credit, to be used on on a future visit, to any couple that conceives while staying at the resort between September 1 and December 19. During that time, the Resort’s “Classic Package” is $399 per night for two and includes all meals and drinks, including alcohol. Guests who book by September 30 will also receive a $100 Resort Credit.
It’s an attention-getting promotion, but I doubt many couples will be able to collect. Getting pregnant seems like a crap shoot that requires the perfect storm of several factors. No matter how much sex a couple has over the course of their stay, the odds that the woman will happen to be ovulating and get pregnant within that time frame are slim. But if it does happen, the couple just needs to provide a doctor’s note confirming that conception was on or around the dates of their stay, and they’ll receive the $300 credit. For those who do receive a visit from the stork, I suppose it’s a nice incentive to return to the Westin for the first post-baby vacation.
Aloha, Gadling readers! Another week is upon us. Here are this Monday’s Gadlinks.
Do you hate babies and kids on planes as much as I do? Well, here are a few possible solutions to this unruly passenger problem. I put in my vote for a kids free zone on the plane. What do you say?
Here’s an idea for anyone who wants to travel alone, but hates to travel alone when it comes to meal time. These odd thoughts came cavorting through my mind after seeing this story on a Today Show segment. Imagine the scene:
There you are all by yourself while others are paired up or in groups. You are sitting waiting for dinner, maybe reading but feeling a bit dissatisfied. Perhaps you feel like a target to unwanted advances. You wish you had a detractor. Something that lets you know that you are not alone–or at least, if you are alone, you have a way to feel differently. Or perhaps you are a bit shy and wish you had a conversation starter, something that would break the ice when talking with strangers. And if a creepy guy is lurking about, something that would send a signal “hands off.”
A fake baby might be the answer.
According to the segment, the fake babies look and feel real. That downy soft hair. The weight of them. The way they appear in a baby carrier.
Here’s a YouTube video about these fake babies which, for some reason, have a big following in Britain.
One woman interviewed on the Today Show said that holding her fake baby helps her feel calmer. Think about how this might work on the travel scene. Holding a fake baby could give you something to do if a flight is delayed or canceled. Instead of feeling riled up, you can stay calm.
Here’s another way a fake baby might be the ticket to travel bliss. A fake baby in a car seat might help with long drives and cut down on the tendency to talk on a cell phone while driving. The women interviewed said they talk to their babies. You could tell your fake baby your travel plans and concerns which could help pass time as you’re driving down a highway. If you’re lost, telling your fake baby about your direction woes might help you feel better.
Babies can also be people magnets. People will stop to coo over a baby which opens up the channel for other conversations. They’ed certainly be curious about your fake baby.
Dogs can work this way as well, come to think about it, but never mind, this is about babies.
As a person who has traveled with a real baby, I can imagine what it might be to travel with a fake one.
Once I set my son on top of a blanket pallet on a table of a restaurant in Krabe, Thailand when he was three months. He slept while I wrote. I enjoyed having his company, but there was a predicament when, after drinking coffee, water and a smoothie over the period of a couple of hours, I had to get rid of some of the liquid. I wouldn’t have worried about waking a fake baby up–or dropping him on the bathroom floor when trying to rearrange my clothes.
Just like leaving my son sleeping on the table wasn’t an option, leaving a fake baby isn’t an option either. They can cost up to $4,000. A little over $1,000 is common. If someone stole your fake baby, you’d probably feel sad. Angry even.
Actually, a fake baby traveling companion seems a bit odd to think about it–harmless, but odd.
What about dressing up a dog like a person? Now, that’s another thought. Some celebrities do it. You’ve seen the pictures. Nah. That seems as weird to me as a fake baby.
As an aside, yesterday I was talking to a woman who was holding a six-week-old baby. The baby was sleeping soundly, not moving. Guess what I thought of? Fake baby. These days, double check.
Here’s a link to Reborn Babies, a company that makes the dolls. There are several examples of what they look like.
Successfully hydrating on airplanes has recently become difficult; as an adult you can no longer bring beverages aboard. And apparently even babies have the same problem, or at least it seems so after an incident concerning a mother breast-feeding her child last week on WestJet.
The Vancouver woman says that she was asked to cover up while breast-feeding during a recent flight, and that the incident has led her to consider filing a human rights complaint. After “discreetly” lifting her shirt to breastfeed her son, a flight attendant offered the woman a blanket to cover up. She declined twice, but the flight attendant insisted “She said that some men find the sight of a bare breast quite offensive,” said Ms. Tarbuck. According to the report, she wasn’t even bothering the people around her; the only other people in the row were her husband and two children.
Despite what your beliefs are on breastfeeding, let me just put it this way: traveling with children is difficult, maybe we should cut these mothers some slack. Do you really want to be enduring the sounds of a hungry, crying baby during the duration of your flight???