Infant air travel -part1

So I bravely decided to bring baby R onto the plane to make a trip to singapore at 5& 1/2 months. On my own. I thought I had read up on every tip possible to prepare myself. Still the ride was unpleasant.

We got to the airport in a taxi without a carseat which was somewhat scary. This was the first time we had travelled without a carseat. I had decided to use the baby bjorn.

I had already done Internet checkin so had the benefit of a shorter queue. I had also packed very lightly, so only had 1checkin luggage (about 10kg), and a hand carry (about 7kg). Went to clear customs (the queue was short) and I got spotted by the customs officer and was allowed to 'jump' queue.

Because it was about time for a feed, I gave baby R one boob to nurse, thinking to give her the other boob at take off to nurse from to relieve air pressure on the ears. There was a parents room near the departure lounge.  (2star). Going to the toilet was difficult with the baby bjorn. We hang around the departure lounge and got spotted by an airport officer to go to the waiting lounge for early boarding with the other passengers needing wheelchair assistance and other families with infants. The other family with infant had a pram that the airport staff packed away prior to boarding. The husband of that family offered to carry my bag, but I was managing ok.

When we got on, we got given an infant belt to attach to the adult seat belt. I had requested a bassinet so we couldn't put our bags under our seat at the beginning. Baby R was very tired at this point because I kept disrupting her attempts to sleep . She played on my lap while waiting for the other passengers to board. She became quite inconsolable upon takeoff and won't latch on the boobs to nurse. She ended up crying at the top of her lungs and sucking her fingers to help with ear pressure (I hope it helped, anyway). There was an Asian man who sat beside me who was probably very uncomfortable when I flashed my boobs and so changed seats with his wife after takeoff. I was so glad of that because the wife was so helpful throughout the flight.