Baby Travel

Traveling with a baby can be a pretty scary and stressful thought.  I know, it absolutely consumed me before our first plane trip.  We recently flew to Dallas and had Baby J sitting on our laps.  When we left from our home airport, the plane we were flying on broke…. Yeah on top of already being stressed, now we have a broken plane and a delay… a delay that meant we had no time to eat.  No time to expend some of that energy.  No time to change a diaper.  Only enough time to catch our next flight.  It really was the worst possible situation.  But you know, it turned out just fine.

 As she gets older and we have our next flight planned this fall… I’m thinking about getting her own seat and bringing a car seat.  She rides great in the car, she has her own place to relax, she’s not stuck in our laps (which is uncomfortable for everyone).  Hopefully she’ll be more interested in videos or cartoons to keep her occupied for part of that time.

We have just been co-sleeping with her when we are on vacation.  So far that has worked out great.  I’m hoping it continues.

The best tips I can give you are these:

• Fly during the day.  Even if you think that a red-eye is the best option, its not.  They won’t sleep like you think they will.  I prefer to travel first thing in the morning when they are well rested. When it's their naptime, they’ll actually fall asleep and if they don’t, don’t stress, go with the flow.
• Go to the dollar store and stock up on a million toys.  The best item I bought was a bag of balloons.  I ended up giving them out to other kids in the airport and thankful parents.  They are the best distracter, time waster and energy expender there is.  Cheap and take no room to pack.
• Bring suckers, just in case they refuse to drink or eat anything to pop their ears for take-off and landing.  We had to do this once and it worked great.
• Bring a large bottle of water and their sippy cup.  Yes you can go thru security with it, just tell them its for your baby.  They will test it and send you on your way.
• Bring the snack pouches or pureed foods.  Baby J stopped eating them, but on the plane we ended up feeding her those.  It worked out great.  I wish I had brought more than I did.
• My favorite item we have ever purchased is our backpack.  We get stopped all the time with people asking about it.  She loves to ride in it, it’s great for getting through the airport and it travels well, you can even carry it on and stick it overhead.

Deuter Kid Comfort II

Most importantly, just go with the flow and do the best that you can.  Your schedule will be messed up, but you're on vacation, have fun.  If they can't sleep, get up and go to the pool at midnight, play games, watch TV.  It will all work itself out.  And if you can RENT BABY EQUIPMENT to save yourself time and hassle. Less things to lug around the airport is a positive in my husband's book

Also when you get home, things might be a little crazy for a week day or two while you adjust back to your normal routine.  

Any travel tips you want to add?