The holidays are officially here and that means, for some, travel. Grady and I have done our fair share of traveling, with his first flight taking place at three months old. I’m not going to lie, traveling with a baby sucks. Especially if you don’t have any help. Since I’ve gained some experience in carting a kid from one state to another, I’d thought I would share all I learned about travel by air and by road.
By PLANE
Baby: When Grady was three months, we said, “Oh, we’ll just schedule the flight around his nap and he’ll sleep the two hours.” Nope. He slept for maybe a total of 27 minutes. And he screamed. A lot. Guess what folks? Sometimes the baby doesn’t sleep! Sorry. These are some things I kept in mind during the traumatic flight down to Florida at Thanksgiving and then again for Spring Break:
Have an idea of how you’re going to carry your baby
I bought this carrier and it worked pretty well. Since I was traveling alone, I needed all my hands. I knew it would be hard to carry a stroller through the airport and then pack it up so a carrier is what I went with. We also practiced carrying Grady in it before the actual flight because he hated it and would scream.
Have some entertainment
For the times that Grady wasn’t screaming, I brought some baby toys. Teethers were also a must and I brought a few books although I was too frazzled to read them.
Know how to handle the ear pops!
Another mom told me to give him a bottle when the plane is taking off and when it’s landing. The flight was only two hours so I made sure I didn’t give him a full bottle when we took off. That way, he’d want another bottle while landing. I was breastfeeding at the time and used this cover up at first. But I didn’t realize how bad a flight can dehydrate you. This is probably one of the reasons why he was screaming (he wasn’t getting any milk). Luckily, I had packed extra bottles of formula and was able to give him those. But I learned the first time and just stuck with formula on the flight home.
NOTE: I didn’t know this but ALL LIQUIDS intended for babies can go through security! Had I known that, I would have just packed bottles of breastmilk. This would have been so much easier than mixing formula while holding a screaming baby. It was such a sight…using my teeth to open the formula package, powder flying everywhere, Grady flailing and me trying to contain him…
Toddler: Once again, we scheduled the flight around nap time, thinking he would sleep. Nope. Grady was older when we flew down for his birthday and things were a little easier. But he grew overtired and threw a tantrum and was unable to fall asleep. Maybe you have better luck with your kids.
Have an idea of how you are going to “carry” your toddler
Once Grady grew out of his carrier and he became a crawler, it was very difficult to contain him. We made a trip the spring before his first birthday and I was once again, flying solo. Knowing it would be a nightmare to try and strap him in a carrier, I bought this cheap umbrella stroller. I was able to keep him strapped in somewhere while I was taking care of business and I didn’t care if the airline damaged it. When we got to the terminal, I was able to take him out and fold it down with one hand and sling it towards the gate.
Once he was walking, that was a totally different story. I read somewhere that you should let your toddler run through the airport so they can wear themselves out before getting on the plane. Didn’t work for Grady. He was wired. For that trip, my husband was able to go and we took the our good stroller but only because it had a stroller bag to protect it for travel. Otherwise, I’d stick with the umbrella stroller.
Have some entertainment
Grady loves him some Sesame Street. We brought the i-pad so he could watch it while on the flight. He didn’t watch it. He was too busy pulling the magazines out of the seat pouch, crawling over the back of the seat to say hello to the people behind us and going back and forth between my husband and I. He DID, however, read a few books as he was older at this point. He also likes to dig through the diaper bag and pull everything out. Whatever works. Maybe your kid sits and watches an i-pad. Mine gets bored and would rather find random things to play with. We also asked the flight attendant for cups and straws. What kid doesn’t like playing with random things?
Know how to handle the ear pops!
By Grady’s third flight, we felt like semi-pros. We knew just the right time to feed him taking off and a few times he fell asleep and we were able to land without having to feed him again. During his flight as a one year old, we just gave him snacks. These yogurt melts seemed to really help him with the ear popping as he was chewing on them rather than sucking. And I didn’t care if he ate the entire bag. I’ve been told pacifiers really help too but Grady never took one so we had to find other solutions.
On the ROAD
Baby: We have found that making trips with a BABY is pretty easy. Especially when they aren’t crawling. They sleep most of the time and it doesn’t take that much to entertain them. What IS frustrating is when they are still feeding every 3-4 hours and you have to pull over and breastfeed or give them a bottle. Or when you are pumping. At this point, I just sat in the back with Grady and read him little stories if he was awake. Or I’d give him a baby toy. Then I would sit in the backseat with my portable breast pump. Good times.
Toddler: Travel with a toddler is way trickier. They don’t want to be strapped in at all. We did buy an i-pad holder for the headrest so Grady could watch Sesame Street but then that even loses it’s luster.
These are some things we’ve learned while traveling with both a baby and a toddler:
Pack a Cooler We use this cooler on ALL our trips. When Grady was a baby, we used it for open formula bottles and breastmilk. Now that he’s a toddler, we use it to pack snacks.
Know the Sleeping Situation at your Destination Our first trip we just coslept. We didn’t sleep the entire time. It was miserable. Now, we just put Grady in a pack n’ play everywhere we go. Our family in Florida has one so when we fly down, Grady already has somewhere to sleep. We use this pack n’ play for road trips. It’s great because it folds up real tight in a carry bag. We also use this pack n’ play mattress. It fits perfectly in the pack n’ play and Grady seems to sleep so much better with the mattress inside. Since they were so inexpensive, we had one shipped to Florida to use with that pack n’ play and then we keep one at our house for our road trips. We also pack one of Grady’s crib sheets to he can have the smell of home.
Have stopping points in mind We can kinda gauge how long Grady can make it before we need to get out and stretch. We once stopped at a Pottery Barn Outlet to let him run around. It was a huge warehouse and the people didn’t care that he was going crazy. So that was our stopping point on the way home from a trip too. The one thing we always have to do is tack on an hour or two to our trip because of the stops.
Don’t have any expectations One of the expectations I had on our first flight was that Grady was going to sleep the whole time. Other moms had told me how great their babies were on the flight and how they just slept or sat and played. So when Grady did the opposite, it got really upset. Every baby is different. I don’t listen to other moms and how their kids act because my kid is going to act totally different. I just roll with the punches and whatever happens, happens.
Please note: Grady did a lot of screaming (on all his flights) and though it bothered me, no one on the plane seemed bothered by it. Also, when you have a screaming baby, you get way more help! So even if you’re traveling alone, there is bound to be someone that will lend you a hand!
Hope these tips help make traveling somewhat easier (with a baby).
~Ashley