Last week, we took our first family vacation – a week spent on Sanibel Island. It was hot, sunny and a perfect getaway for us to relax with family. My mom and stepdad joined us, so it was great to have a few extra pairs of hands for baby duty! Such a luxury for a stay-at-home mom.
During the weeks prior, I was nervous about our trip. I wasn’t sure about the best ways to navigate the airport, our luggage, the stroller and carseat, and of course I was concerned how Baby Markers would do on the 3-hour flight. Mrs. Cake recently wrote about traveling essentials with a baby (in two parts) and her posts were very helpful during the planning and packing process. Since we were traveling with a very small baby, I thought I’d share my experience about what worked for us.
Me, wearing the baby and Mr. Markers, wearing our car seat!
2. Babywear. It was awesome to be hands-free while navigating security and walking through the airport. They allowed me to keep her on while I went through the metal detector, but I did get pulled aside for a hand swipe. I think this was much easier than trying to navigate with the stroller/carseat combo.
3. Try to get a seat in the bulkhead. Out of nowhere, we got bumped to first class for our flight to Florida, which was amazing. The extra room made the flight so much more comfortable for us and the baby. On the way back, we were in the bulkhead, so we still had a bit of extra room. Since I was holding her the entire time, it was nice to have some space to stretch my legs and still have room for the massive (overstuffed) diaper bag.
4. Use the diaper bag as your carry-on and your purse. I fit all of the baby’s and my essentials in the diaper bag – including my laptop! It was no small feat, but it worked out great. While I was baby-wearing, I kept my phone and ID in the zippered pocket on the Ergo, which made it easy to access them when needed.
4. Feed the baby during take-off. To ensure Baby Markers ears didn’t bother her, I let her nurse on the way up until she fell asleep. When she woke up, I was ready with a pacifier to keep her comfortable. She was actually asleep during both landings on each flight, so I didn’t need to feed her on the way down. We never had any issues, thankfully!
5. Have all your baby’s favorite things within arm’s reach. Baby Markers loves her paci, her giraffe lovey and Aden & Anais blankets to hold onto. I made sure these things were on top of the diaper bag during the flight so she felt as comfortable as possible.
6. If someone offers to help, let them! On our flight home, it was just me and my mom with the baby. We had a LOT of stuff to carry from baggage claim out to the passenger pick-up area, and we were visibly struggling. A nice guy offered to carry a bag for me, and while I protested at first, it was a huge help! So if someone offers a hand and looks trustworthy, take them up on it.
All smiles (and maybe some skepticism) during our flight.
I’m still amazed at how easy the trip was after being so nervous beforehand. I should have kept in mind that Baby M is pretty chill to begin with, so it’s no surprise she just went with the flow. And trust me, I’m grateful! I have another post coming up that covers how we managed a pool/beach vacation with the baby – including what to bring and sun safety essentials.
What are your best traveling tips?
pineapple / 12053 posts
can’t wait to hear about your travel essentials. we live by the beach and i’m trying to navigate what things we need for baby. how old is your LO again?
pea / 20 posts
My best traveling tip is to buy your baby a seat and have them in their carseat on the plane. It is much safer for the baby and the other passengers on the plane!
coffee bean / 44 posts
Sanibel is awesome – how was the shelling?
persimmon / 1420 posts
Ask the fight attendant to find out the time of “Top Of Descent”- that’s when the plane actually starts to descend, and the pilot should know the time (it’s usually about 20 minutes before scheduled landing). Start feeding the baby (or giving a paci) THEN, not just when their ears hurt! *My dad is the captain of a commercial airline, and is always amazed at how many people don’t know why their kids are crying. I told him he needs to just make the announcement every time- “Ladies and Gentleman, we’re now beginning our descent. If you have infants or small children, start feeding them now to help them clear their ears!”.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
This is helpful even though M is much older. I’ve been putting off going home to see my parents because I just am not psyched about flying alone with a toddler.
@meganmp: He should!!
pomegranate / 3053 posts
Glad to hear you had a smooth flight! It’s always so hard to tell how your baby is going to be but there are things that helps your LO and you be more comfortable and it sounds like you utilized them all! I Ergo’d my then 8 month old on our International flight and it was awesome. He’s almost 14 months and I still Ergo him when I take his older brother to school. He loves it and tucks his arms in and snuggles up to my chest. Our next trip he’s getting his own seat!
My travel tip is that if you were to gate check your stroller, use a cover as it gets real nasty and black marks all over if you don’t. I just bought that cheap big red “gate check” bag and it didn’t rip during multiple flights. Our double stroller stayed clean during our 5 week long trip.
pomegranate / 3401 posts
Great post! We’re planning on taking our LO to Taiwan this Christmas (she’ll be almost 10 months) and the LONG flight scares me!!!
kiwi / 511 posts
My recommendation regarding disposable or consumable gear such as wipes, diapers, food is if your destination is not exotic (for example you are in the US and going to another US location) pack enough for the trip plus a bit extra. Just buy that bulky heavy stuff when you arrive for the amount of time you will be staying. Then return again with stuff you bought there for the trip plus some extra.
Our trip with our oldest after we adopted him we splurged for business class seats (4 hour international flight and then a second 6 hour international flight), BEST THING EVER. Not only did it give us more space (yes he was a lap baby because we did not take a car seat to Russia) but the best thing was it gave us access to the lounges where there was food, place to stretch out and it was so much quieter. It made it easier to feed, change and entertain him. Needless to say this was a good thing because he was very curious and DID NOT sleep until we only had 4-5 hours left on the last flight to the US.
All of our other travel when it was just us was coach.
Our first car trip was a 4.5 hour drive to my Grandmother’s funeral with a 2.5 year old and an 8 month old. or driving, I found it so much easier to pack most baby stuff in rubbermaid totes rather than duffels, tote bags or suitcases.
cherry / 175 posts
Good job, momma!
I traveled first by plane with my LO when she was 2 months old. We only flew about an hour and it went quite smoothly. She was happy both ways. Checking luggage was definitely a good move. We rented a car seat for our rental and I wore her in the Ergo in transit.
This summer we’re flying across the country (about 6 hours each way) so I’m getting a little nervous both because of the distance but also because she’s older and more mobile now. I’m afraid she’s going to get bored sitting for so long.
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
Way to go!!! I promise you that travel gets easier after this. And look! You rocked it this time!
cantaloupe / 6397 posts
How old was baby markers? We’ll be travelling with our LO when she’s almost 10 weeks and I’m pretty nervous!
guest
Any reservations about having baby in lap? I wonder about the two that left comments saying they had baby in the Ergo during travel. I have my first (short) flight with my infant in a few weeks. We opted to do lap baby, I keep thinking maybe I want to strap him to me or something….