Please tell me I'm not completely insane for attempting this! I'm a well seasoned traveller, as are our girls, especially having just flown in from Australia; however, I have never flown with them solo and I am now freaking out about this prospect!

Long story short, we're moving to England and DH went on ahead of us to sort out a job whilst I stayed in the US visiting family and sorting out my visa. He is due to come back in a couple of weeks to collect us, but unfortunately, I've had some hiccups with the visa and I can't go back with him when he's here. He's still going to come in as planned so he can see the girls but will be flying back on his own. I'll follow a couple of weeks later on my own with the girls.

So here's my freak out - it's an 8 hour flight to England on American Airlines; we will be doing the overnight flight in the hope that the girls sleep. The plane only has one bassinet and it can't be reserved ahead of time, first come first served. We're on a 777, which has a seating configuration of 2-5-2, and go figure, we're in two middle seats in the group of five, as the flight is nearly sold out. We also cannot gate check a pram as Heathrow apparently doesn't allow for prams to be loaded/off loaded at the gate. Being an international flight, we will have to go through immigration and collect our luggage before going through customs; we won't be able to meet up with DH until after we've cleared customs. So, I'll be managing two babies in two middle seats of a five person row with no bassinet, and we'll have no pram to put our toddler in at the airport (I'll be wearing our infant, but our toddler will have to walk whilst I also manage our carry on bag), and I'll be trying to collect our luggage whilst keeping my probably very overtired and cranky toddler in check, all whilst hoping my carrier hating infant isn't melting down.

Ugh, am I an idiot? Am I setting myself up for a flight from hell?! I could have DH change his flights so he comes back with me, but then that means he won't have seen his girls for eight weeks, and it doesn't work as well with his work schedule for the job he just started last week. Sigh...

So those of you who have flown solo with your LOs, share your best tips and tricks to make this bearable! Oh, I forgot to mention, my parents will be coming with me to the gate in Chicago and staying with us until we get on the plane, thank goodness! But the rest of the journey is what terrifies me!