We recently had our first family holiday; we took JubJub to Melbourne to meet her Aunts, Uncles and Cousins then to New Zealand to meet Grandparents and more Aunts, Uncles and Cousins (Nase is 1 of 6 kids, so there are a lot of them!). Traveling with an infant, especially when there are flights involved can be daunting, here are some handy things we learnt on our trip;
- Ring the airline ahead of time and see if they can give you a bassinette seat. The bassinette folds down from the bulk head, even if you don’t use it, you get a bulkhead seat with more leg room, BONUS! We got these on two of our flights, and on the other two the airline gave us a seat allocation with a spare next to it. On all the flights there were other people traveling with kids who didn’t get these perks, I’m pretty sure we got it because we rang ahead of time.
- Use a baby carrier. We have a Baby Bjorn and it was invaluable going through check-in, customs etc. Much easier on our backs and arms than carrying her without one and it also meant we could check the pram and not have to deal with trying to fit it in the overhead storage on the plane.
- Put toys on plastic chains (toy links) it’s easier to keep track of them and you won’t have to crawl under other people seats to retrieve them.
- Dress baby is a simple al-in-one. No shoes, socks, head bands etc they will just be a pain to keep track of.
- Get to the airport early, give yourself plenty of time for baby to have a meal and a nappy change etc before you get on the plane.
- Take plenty of food, formula (if you use it), nappies etc in your hand luggag. You never know if your going to get delayed, or if your baggabe might go missing (this happend to us, fortunatly it was on the way home so it wasnt too much of a problem).
- Swap your usual nappy bag for a backpack, it’s much easier to handle and will probably fit more into it. Also, make yourself up a mini nappy change kit in it’s own small bag; then when you need to change baby on the planeyou can just grab the mini kit and go. Shuffling through a huge bag inside one of those tiny aeroplane cubicles is impossibe and the alternative; carrying baby + loose nappies, wipes, cream etc down the aisle is also a disaster waiting to happen.
- If your flight is during one of your babies regular nap times, or you think they might sleep during the flight take their sleeping blanket/wrap/sleeping bag. It will help them get the hint that it’s sleep time even though they are in an odd, noisy place.