Tobias and I both love to travel, so we definitely were both in agreement that we want to have as many family vacations as we can over the years. This plan started when Jakob was about 8-9 months old, with a week long trip down to Orlando, Florida!
Tobias had to take part in a work trade show lasting Sunday & Monday, so we decided to head down there Saturday and stay until the next Saturday. My parents came along too — which was great to have them join us and frankly, we wanted as many hands-on decks as we could have. Since we are up in Michigan, flying was the way we were going to get down there; we were aware some Covid restrictions were still in place and such, and since my parents were already fully vaccinated and Tobias and I already had our first round in, we made the decision to get down there by plane.
Now I wasn’t as nervous about all the stuff that would/could happen once we got there, since Orlando has all the things we could need if we forgot anything, etc. But the plane ride…the plane ride had me nervous for weeks. Will the baby be extremely uncomfortable and cry the whole time? Will I get too anxious with people staring? Will he poop and it’ll be too hard to clean up? What do I bring on the plane? What is security check like? Just sooo many questions came to my mind, mainly in a panic state. So much like most people do, I took to finding some answers via the Internet. Thank goodness there are so many forums out there with mom’s talking about what they suggest doing, what they suggest not doing, and just a lot of helpful tips to look into.
Without getting into every little detail about our travel adventure for the first time, I’ll just sum it all up and say this baby was a rockstar, and we are truly blessed about this! Here are some things I made sure to do (or at least try to do) and some go-to items we had on hand:
Leave earlier than you think. I figured it was better to wait an hour at the airport at the gate, rather than rushing just to get there right on time.
If you are brining formula or breastmilk, it needs to be checked — have this in a compartment or somewhere easily accessible so you can whip it out fast. We took the 8 oz bottles of formula that were unopened too, which was great because those didn’t get checked for us.
Put zip lock backs over anything that could burst during take-off and make a mess. We had some bottles leak and such, but having them in a zip lock at least stopped it from making my bag and other items soaked too.
Think about what you really need on the plane, and try not to overdo it. I know you want to have just about everything your baby could need, but think realistically about the items you need, especially on a shorter flight. Could some things really go in your checked luggage, so you’re not lugging around 12 stuffed animals as a carry-on?
Layer that baby up! Especially if you are going somewhere that is a different climate from where you are started. We had him in long pants, and a shortsleeve onesie, with a sweater over that, a pair of socks then little “slipper” type of things over those. It was colder here in Michigan, and who knows how planes will be, so the sweater and slippers helped a lot there, but as soon as we felt some warmth he could get comfortable in his short sleeves and regular socks.
Small toys to keep them occupied — with him only being around 9 months, we focused on some little teether type toys, and squishy things that could keep him occupied. Only about 2-3, nothing crazy.
We planned on bringing enough for him to eat/drink as we were taking off (or right before), maybe a snack during the flight, and something to have when we landed — then one extra bottle or snack. We gave him a bottle actually right before taking off — some people will say do it while taking off which I heard works great too, but he was very content in having it while the rest of the plane boarded, then he got kind of sleepy right after which made the take-off and change in altitude way more bearable for him.
Having at least somewhat of a plan for a changing schedule helped — we changed him about 5 minutes before boarding started, and as we hoped that got us thru the hole 2.5 hour flight! Then we were able to change him as soon as we got off the plane. Obviously this doesn’t always work out, and there are longer flights, but we at least had an idea of “ok if we do this now, maybe we can wait until X, etc.”. That eased my brain some.
Small accessible diaper bag! This was a great idea I picked up somewhere online. I had my normal diaper bag, but in that we had a small clutch type bag with a few diapers, wipes, a rag. and some cream — this was perfect for quick trips to any bathroom without carrying the whole diaper bag.
Extra pair of clothes — for both of you! I threw in an extra shirt for me, and a whole extra outfit for him. You never know what could happen to us both…
We had some baby Tylenol on hand for the flight; I won’t even get into the debate of whether giving your child some Benadryl and what not is right or wrong, but we figured if he did start to come down with something fast, got feverish, or anything like that, it was good to have on hand. We did give him some a couple days before to make sure there were no allergic reactions. Luckily, I think we only had to use it once before bed one night the whole week we were there (he got a little fussy and feverish after the flight and in the hotel the first night, was completely fine after taking a little bit and getting a good nights rest a day or 2 after).
Blankets & swaddles! Not all as your carry-on, but we brought some blankets & swaddles he was familiar with, as well as a crib mattress cover to use in the crib at the hotel. Looked just like his home setup which I hope helped him relax some.
We took our foldable stroller and they took it as we were boarding the plane, then we rented a car seat in our car rental - this worked well for us, rather than bringing our own car seat and all of that. It was just more convenient and less of a hassle. Bringing a car seat cover is also nice if you want to shield them some.
In warmer climates, we took this clip-on stroller fan I got at like Target right before, and that helped TREMENDOUSLY. It wasn’t even the coolest kind, and next time I am getting a better one — but in general, these things were awesome, get one!
There are probably some other things I am forgetting, but LASTLY: LET PEOPLE HELP YOU THAT ARE OFFERING! We had some very nice flight attendants, as well as passengers, offer to help hold something of ours or pick something of ours up when our hands were full. I was weird about accepting the help at first, but do it. You need it, don't act like you don’t, and that’s human and perfectly fine!
I could probably talk about this subject all day, but these are the main things that really worked for us for our first time flying with our first ever baby. Having a plan ahead of time really helped us, even if some things didn’t go exactly as plan, but we had an idea of when we wanted to leave, what we wanted to have, and what we were going to get/do once we got to our destination. Babies are unpredictable, traveling in general can be as well, so my overall suggestion for that first time flight with your baby is: have your plan, go over it in your head, think of what could go wrong and have some back-up plans, pack what you NEED immediately and what can be checked or bought in your destination, let those offering help to help you, and in the end if it all just seems to be going downhill — there’s always wine :)