Worried about 9 m/o getting sleep while travelling

[tara72]

on Friday, we will be flying from Utah to Texas. my 9-month-old DD has a really great routine. she wakes up around 6:45 AM, takes a nap from about 9-10:30, a nap around 2-3:30, then goes to bed around 7. she has a great personality and is pretty good about going with the flow. of course, she does get a little bit fussy when she is bored or late for a nap (at church, for example).

the biggie: she pretty much only sleeps in her crib or travel crib. she has slept lightly in her carseat, but hasn't had to very often.

on Friday, we will wake her around 6 AM to go to the airport and be on two flights (one  almost 3 hours, the other an hour). we will not arrive to our hotel until about 3 PM. usually she has had two naps by this time, but I'm afraid that she will not sleep at all.

she will be a lap child, and we will have our laptop, and I bought a Baby Einstein DVD collection just for the occassion. I'll have lots of finger foods, and we'll have the light stroller to use at the airports.

I've scanned threads about travel activities (and will read more when I have time), but I'm just wondering how YOUR babies do while travelling and sleeping. do they sleep? are they fussy? I wish she would just fall alseep on my shoulder, but I don't think she will.

I don't plan on using Benedryl.

thoughts? thanks in advance for any comments!

 --tara (getting nervous about the trip)

[Samuel's mum]

I always found that the white noise/hum of the airplane make napping and sleeping easy. I would expect her to sleep on the longer flight and try and have a quieter time when you stop the activities and attempt some kind of wind down. I think you'll be surprised. She'll be tired having had lots of new experience and stimulation and she may well fall asleep on your shoulder but if she doesn't I would still try and plan in a quiet time.
The absolute bottom line is that even if she didn't sleep and she got fussy as you'd expect you will survive and so will she. She'll have things to distract her and most people know what babies are all about. It's not like you're next to some grumpy person for a 12 hour flight. Try not to worry too much or panic about the reactions of others - I know easier said than done - but if you are tense she will pick up on it too.