@laurenireland

We’ve survived four flights, a few bus rides, train rides, and road trips with the baby girl this holiday season and I’ve learned a looottttttt. I want to share while it’s fresh and if I learn more I will add it to this post! I broke the following down into logistics, travel, random tips + tricks, and how to prepare emotionally. 🙂 

Stuff to pack

+ Stroller + Infant seat. Attach the base to the bottom while its on the stroller.

+ These travel bags –  stroller bag and car seat bag

+ Favorite books – babe loves brown bear + the small board books she can eat

+ Change of clothes – I love to have these Gerber baby onesies on hand just in case wherever we go. A change of shirt or layers for you, too!

+ Blanket for baby – our favorite is this Burts bees baby blanket

+ Solly Wrap – baby wearing saved us many times. It is so calming for them and it’s always nice to be hands free.

+ Diaper bag

+ LIFE HACK | Use a bag with a large strap (I use the free people bags) and slipe it over the tray table. It will hang there when the tray table is closed and you can put everything you want on hand like toys and bottle in it. The first flight we were constantly reaching down in our bags under the seat in front of us and it was a pain. 

+ Boon spoon with fruit in it

+ Tommy tipee binkies with Mushie binky clip

+ UV binky sanitizer – an item I thought I would never use until we started traveling

+ Trip wipes

+ Plastic gallon zip lock bags for diaper / trash

+ Highchair toy to suction to surfaces as you are traveling – restaurants, airport lounges – it came in handy

Arrange for flight 

+ Check your bags!!

+ We had her as a lap infant. We wanted to save the money but she probably would have slept if we had her in her car seat in her own purchased seat. She doesn’t contact nap much so this was hard

+ Flights in the early morning/ afternoon while there is still “gas” in the baby’s tank

+ ‘Test runs’ are helpful if possible – It was nice for our first flight to be to AZ and only an hour, second flight was two hours. It helped build our confidence and hers.

+ TSA or Clear is super helpful but not a must. If we were traveling all the time or there was a long layover this would be more reason to spend and I would probably try to get in the United lounge as well.

Tips + Tricks

+ Change the diaper right before boarding.

+ Bag up your infant seat at the gate, your stroller in bag at the drop off before flight

+ Offer a binky // bottle when closing the doors and take off

+ The window seat kept her more entertained

+ Have a downloaded show on your phone just in case

+ Painters tape for entertainment. Rip off little pieces and stick it to the seat + window and let them pick it off

+ Share the joy of your baby with others! It was so fun to socialize with strangers that loved babies. (do so as your comfortable and set your boundaries, obviously)

Emotionally

Allll of the little lessons I learned while traveling are… 

+ Let go and trust that whatever happens, happens

+ Don’t apologize for your crying baby

+ Be the safe place, the calm + the support for your little one by observing your own energy and how you are approaching the situation. I always like to think about how my energy is making my baby feel

+ Take a breath and support your partner – check-in before on what you guys will both do when things get chaotic. We always remind each other that we don’t want to turn on each other when things get hard. It’s so easy to fight due to the stress, but we don’t want that energy around our baby. So we do our best to remember to be a team, a united front and to help each other out when we see the other one about to lose their sh*t

Are you traveling with babe this year? Tell me how you do it below! 

Happy holidays 

Xx kaitlin