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TRAVELING WITH A BABY

This past November I took our almost seven month old to Tulsa to visit my in-laws. We had the best time visiting with family! After a few days in Tulsa we went on to Raleigh to visit my best friend. All together this was six flights in nine days! Let's just say, our little man was a champ! Bennan did so awesome on all the flights. He was even in the "fighting his sleep at night" stage and cutting his first tooth on our way home. Our last flight was a little rough just because it was the longest flight he had been on, he was super active in the beginning (wanting to stand and move like a crazy man) and it was at night, just in time for him to fight going to sleep. Thank goodness my bestie flew back to California with us! It was so nice having an extra set of hands and the moral support! She is the best!

After traveling by myself for the majority of these flights, I thought I'd share some tips that helped me along the way. I had done a lot of researched about what worked best for other moms while traveling alone with an infant. Shout out to the awesome mommy bloggers!

Bathroom Selfie with all of our loot

WEARING BABY THROUGH AIRPORT:

I highly recommend wearing your baby through the airport. We have the Ergo 360. It is so nice to have your hands free, baby close to you and major perk, you do not have to take the baby out at security. They let you wear baby through security and then just swab your hands after.

GATE CHECK:

The toughest decision for me was whether or not to gate check the stroller, car seat and base. I had gone back and forth numerous times because that meant taking all those items with us until we literally walked onto the plane. Finally I decided to gate check it all. That meant rolling through security with the stroller, car seat, base, diaper bag and my baby strapped to me. It honestly was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was lucky to have nice people around me who didn't get annoyed about my eighteen billion items going on the conveyor belt through security. People actually asked if they could help me collapse the stroller etc. I was super grateful! Side note- I am the type of person that gets all flustered in the airport... like major anxiety especially through security.

BAG FOR CAR SEAT:

So I didn't buy the protective bag for the car seat to be stored in during the flight. Probably a bad idea on my part. After six flights, the car seat just has a little scratch in the plastic. Not too bad but I would recommend the bag for more protection.

BOTTLES & SNACKS:

Once we were on the plane, I made B a bottle for take off. I tried to keep him awake until we took off just so he would be sleepy, drink the bottle so his ears weren't bothered then fall fast asleep. This seemed to work out super well because His ears never seemed to bother him. I also made sure to have a ton of pouches, puffs and bananas on hand.

He was just starting to eat pieces of banana so this was fun for him and kept him entertained for a bit. Before our trip my mom had bought spoons that attach to the pouch. Brilliant idea because he was not quite to the point of eating right out of the pouch.

•You can bring as many liquids as you want- milk, juice, water, etc.

TOYS & VIDEOS:

As far as entertainment goes, my husband downloaded B's favorite Baby Einstein video and a Mickey Mouse Club House video from YouTube. Yep... I'm officially "that" mom! I wanted to have a back up just in case he freaked out!

I brought Sofie the Giraffe, his banana toothbrush, tag blanket and doggy Wubbanub. A mommy blogger had suggested bringing a rattle ball- great idea but we just did not have the extra space.

changing diapers:

I made sure to change B right before we boarded the plane. Before the flight, the flight crew told me where the changing pad was but every flight was different. On one of our flights no one was sitting next to us so I changed him in the seat next to me.

DIAPER BAG BACKPACK:

EXTRAS TO PACK:

I'm a big fan of Youngliving products, so I made sure to bring YL dish soap in a travel container and their awesome Thieves hand sanitizer. My mother-in-law gave me YL Lavender oil and YL Stress Away before heading to Raleigh (It really helped bring my stress level down a notch and the Lavender helped Bennan fall asleep on the plane). Bath soap, thermometer, nail clippers, Q Tips, Tylenol, NoseFrida, wash cloths, disinfecting wipes. I totally forgot B's Sleep Sheep noise maker at home. I found Baby Sleep Sounds Radio on Pandora and it worked out great through the night (I didn't connect to the WIFI for the first two days...OOOOOPPPSSS)!

Overall our experience was great! I really feel that if you have the right mindset about traveling with a baby it makes a huge difference. Like I said, I'm a stress case at the airport but I just tried to keep calm and have a positive attitude! I ended up having an awesome time traveling with my bud! I'm really looking forward to our next trip and hopefully it will be with daddy!

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