Travel Tips Baby Edition

We recently returned home from our first vacation as a family of three. I use the word vacation loosely, as we learned that when you travel with a baby, it's a trip, a very fun trip, but exhausting none the less.

We have traveled quite a bit in the car with our little one, but this was baby's first flight and once the trip was booked, I started reading up on all the tips for air travel from veteran mamas and friends. We borrowed lots of great ideas, and came up with a few of our own. Below are my favorites! 

1. Lower your expectations. 

Typically, I have pretty high expectations for Everette's behavior (I think it stems from being a teacher all these years) but lots of seasoned mamas reiterated this to me before we ever left, and it's so true. Traveling (especially internationally) with a baby is full of over stimulation, exhaustion, and plenty of meltdowns along the way. I set my expectations pretty low and aimed to be pleasantly surprised, and I was. 

2. Speaking of surprises, airplane surprises. 

This was a great idea that I read about before we left. I headed to the dollar store and stocked up on a few new toys that Everette had never seen or played with before, in order to captivate her attention longer. I also wrapped them like a present to create a little more excitement and buy us more time. Things we brought were, window clings, stickers, foam puzzles, stamps, etc. 

3. Pack as little as possible. 

It's no secret that babies use a lot of gear, and you never realize quite as much until you start packing, especially to leave the country. Obviously, we had to bring plenty of things, bottles, diapers, swim diapers, wipes, and the list goes on. One thing we tried to do was bring as a little as possible. We made sure that our car transfer from the airport to our hotel, came with a car seat, so we didn't have to travel with ours. We also asked the hotel to provide a crib (and just brought our own bedding), to avoid checking our pack and play. These things made getting through the airport so much easier! 

4. Travel stroller. 

One thing that was a necessity was our umbrella stroller. In an effort to not destroy our nice heavy duty stroller, we purchased a light weight foldable stroller from amazon for travel, and it was worth every penny of the $60. I loved that Everette could zip through the airport, always had a seat, I felt like it cut down on germs, and we even used it a ton once we got to our destination. However, because airlines are so hard on your belongings, the cup holder was already broken off when we arrived, which made me even more glad I didn't bring our nice stroller. I think we will use this thing to travel until the wheels fall off. 

5. All the snacks. 

Before we left, I filled about a zillion resealable snack bags with all of Everette's favorite treats. Plenty of crunchy items that would take her awhile to eat on the plane, and some of her daily favorites like granola bars and apple sauce squeezes. These were super helpful to pull out when we were flying at inconvenient times, and might miss lunch, or just to keep her occupied on the plane. Also, I was very grateful I had them all once we arrived, because with it being a new place with different foods, my normally great eater, was a bit picky so it was nice to have these guarantees. 

6. Go with the flow. 

Flights will be delayed. Meals will be missed. Exhaustion will occur. Meltdowns will happen. Your job is just to get from point A to point B as easily as you can. We tried everything in our power to keep Everette awake until we took off on our longer leg, and sometimes that resulted in a cranky baby on the runway. We survived and so did she. Also, when leaving Turks and Caicos, I needed to buy some milk for a bottle to give her for takeoff to help with her ears. The only cold milk I was able to locate was out of a gallon jug from a mini fridge that was poured straight into her bottle. Go with the flow. 

7. Comfortable clothes for all. 

On travel days I made sure me and baby were both dressed in cozy easy assess layers, with very few buttons. Also, to help with diaper changes, instead of lugging her into the plane bathroom, or waiting for the changing table in the airport, I just laid her right on my lap and changed her in my seat. One less thing we had to do once we deplaned as well. 

8. Team work makes the dream work. 

My husband and I gave each other plenty of high fives throughout our trip. At times we felt like we were playing hot potato with the baby, or tag teaming to finish our meals. Typically, when we travel we always just carry our own personal items, passports etc, but with a baby it was super helpful to have one person carry all the personal documents, and pull them out at check in and customs, and one person take the baby. This streamlined the process so much quicker and helped keep us organized. 

Honestly, we were surprised how kind flight crews and other passengers were. We were seated across from an older gentleman on one of our flights and he played peek-a-boo with her to distract her while we waited for takeoff. On our last flight until home, it was dark and late and I aplogized for the mess to our flight attendant while Everette decorated our seats with stickers and she laughed and said "Oh please, she can do the entire plane if she wants". Survive and advance Mama. Happy flying!