Friday, October 19, 2012

Traveling with Baby - Lessons Learned

Recently, I took a trip to Florida with Miss Bug, mainly to visit my dying granddad. It was a very emotional trip. I cried off and on the entire three days that we were there. I learned a few lessons about flying with a baby.



Of course the first person I packed for was Miss Bug. In fact, she was the only person I packed for because I still have a bunch of stuff at my dad's place. She had jarred food, extra diapers and wipes, clothes and a few toys in the suitcase. That was fine, although I took about 2 weeks worth of food and we were only there for 3 days.

Someone in the house (here in Alabama) packed her diaper bag, which I really had no intentions of taking on the plane with us. I only wanted to put the needed items in my backpack and put the bag itself in the suitcase. The only problem would have been the can of powdered formula that I took with us. I would have figured how to handle that because well......I would have done it. (LOL)

If you want to know why I brought the formula on the plane, I made her bottles of it for take off. My mother in law said that it would help with the popping of her ears during take off. It worked wonders!!!

Miss Bug flew remarkably well. She fell asleep while we were in the air. Fortunately on the flights down, she was calm enough to fall asleep on her own and let me get a little nap. (I had to be at work at 5 the morning that we left, so I was worn out.)

My husband talked me out of taking her stroller with us. Yeah, that's the last time that I listen to him about that, but he did have a very valid point about it. It would have been something else for me to keep up with, but I realized in Atlanta that I NEEDED it. I had her in my arms, her diaper bag, and my backpack. That's quite a bit of weight to carry through a very busy airport. I was a little achy after all of that because that's weight that I'm not used to carrying.

On the flight back, I had a stroller to use to carry her through the airport. It was a good thing too because the Charlotte airport is much bigger than I remember. (I flew out of there about 10 years ago.) That airport is crazy and I had a long walk. Apparently you aren't allowed to use the people movers with a stroller. Yeah, just like on the escalators. Should have expected that. Even though it would have helped me get where I was trying to go faster, I followed the rules and walked through the concourses to the next gate.

Miss Bug was super tired because she was out before we took off from Charlotte, but for some reason she did NOT want to sleep while we were in Florida. It took her forever to get to sleep, but once she was out, she was OUT. Slept the whole night through without problems. She let me snuggle her to sleep (a rare treat). Once we were home (in Alabama), she screamed and cried and refused to go to sleep. My husband was really concerned about her screaming and crying, so we took her to the ER. (They diagnosed her as being just as tired as mommy and nothing else was wrong with her.) Once we got her back into her normal routine, she was fine.

Okay so lessons learned about traveling with a baby:

  • Pack the carry on bag as light as possible while carrying what you need. Next time, I will pack the carry on with just a few diapers, a blanket, a bottle/sippy cup, a travel case of wipes, some snacks and that's about it.
  • Never listen to the husband about how to transport the baby through the airport. (Sorry, babe. Love you though.)
  • Figure out some way to maintain a "normal" schedule/environment for Miss Bug when away from home. I think part of her not wanting to sleep was because Daddy wasn't there and she wasn't in HER bed. It was also a new, unfamiliar environment.

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