Traveling with a Baby

Everybody knows that we travel a lot. While I was pregnant with Asher we flew almost 30,000 miles, and while we have slowed down a little since he was born, we still spend a lot of time going places. We started out flying to the beach when Asher was 7 weeks old, flying half-way around the world (literally) when he was 13 weeks old and then driving all over the southeast and flying to Denver during the past few months.

One of my Momma friends recently wrote a post about traveling with baby and I thought I would add my thoughts about traveling on airplanes with babies.

1. A good stroller is a must for long trips. We started out with a travel system, but now have a Maclaren Triumph. It's super lightweight and easy to fold up. When we had the travel system we would gate check the stroller and car seat, now we check the car seat with our luggage (it's free to check a car seat) and only gate check the stroller. When we are in an airport Asher stays in his stroller most of the time, but having a sling is great for those other times.

2. Try to not get stressed. When we flew from Indonesia to America we traveled for 2 days with 6 checked bags, a stroller, a car seat, a guitar, a diaper bag, 2 carry on bags and an infant. It was a lot of stuff and it was a tough trip, but I think one reason we made it so easily was that we just took it one step at a time and tried to stay calm.

Roger struggling with all of our bags and Asher struggling to stay awake.

3. I love nursing tank tops and my hooter hider! For two days of flying all Asher did was eat and sleep and these shirts made it so easy for him to eat and the hooter hider made it easy for me to feed him. Actually I love my hooter hider all the time, I use it anytime we are out and Asher needs to eat. It is probably one of the best baby things I have bought.

4. Dress warm and take a change of clothes! Airplanes are cold and babies like to be warm, so when we fly Asher wears pajamas with feet. That way I can change diapers easily, he stays warm and I don't have to keep up with socks. For our long trip I took several pairs of pajamas and put a clean outfit on him every 12 hours. I also took little baby hats so that his little bald head would stay warm.

Asher was nice and warm, but feeling a little crazy after 2 days on an airplane.

Well, I think that's all of the advice that I have. Basically, go prepared and enjoy yourself. If you have any questions let me know, I would love to help.