{Taken just moments before somebody fell asleep in my arms, thus the lack of cooperation}
Vacations are so tricky as a family. Long gone are the days of alternating between napping and playing sudoku during a flight. When we’re traveling, it’s all hands on deck, firing on all cylinders, all OBaby, all the time.
It’s great to be able to get here and have all of the sweet experiences we’ve had [sweet like the cupcakes I shared with Auntie A, like the chai I drank while chatting with Nish, like the fruit cup OBaby sucked on while I caught up with a long time friend, and like the gelato we ate with my dad], but few things threaten cast their shadow over the joy of those moments like the lack of sleep and high stress level that come with being far from home with a baby.
I have learned on this trip that if my son stirs a little in a bed that is not his, he is more likely to wake. If he wakes in a bed that is not his, he is more likely to freak the freak out. If he freaks the freak out, there is no breast milk in the world strong enough to get him calm and sleeping again in less than an hour. Even if it’s 12am. Or 3am. Or 4am. I feel like the mom of a newborn again, and I have the dark circles under my eyes to prove it.
Hopefully the trickiness of this trip was just an exercise in us getting our travel legs, because we will be logging 3 more round-trip flights as a family before November of this year. Yes, you read that correctly. Lord willing, in his first year of life OBaby will take 4 trips by plane.
Tid-bits from this trip that we will take with us on future flights:
- Fisher-Price makes a $25 booster seat/high chair that straps onto an adult chair and folds down impressively small (like fit in a carry-on small). Totally worth the money.
- Buy a new toy before the plane ride and prepare to break some of your own parenting vows should desperate times require it.
- Pack light. Buy diapers and wipes at your destination (or have your parents buy them in advance if you’re lucky like us). On a six day trip, pack 3 outfits and wear each one twice. No one will notice and you will be glad you did.
- Remember to bring the lovie. ::kicks self::
- Know a way to get your baby to sleep on the go whether it’s in a stroller or a baby carrier; there will be inconvenient times that he will need to sleep.
- (This one I am trying so hard to work on:) See it as an adventure or a challenge, not a burden.
As I sat in Noah’s Bagels talking to a childhood friend about her and her husband’s plans to backpack through Europe for a month, I felt a tinge of sadness come over me. We can’t do adventurous things like that anymore, I thought.
But that’s not true. We can still have adventures! We are on an adventure! We are sitting in a bagel shop at 8:30 in the morning, 2,000 miles away from home with an 8 month old. We are parenting on the go and making it work… making it more than work, we’re making it fun!
So as I sit here, less than two hours from hopping on a plane, I am pumping myself up for the challenge of using nothing but our resources (MacGyver style) to entertain our baby for four straight hours.
Bring on the adventure!
It sounds like you had a blast! You are on an adventure! You’re doing more than a lot of people would with a baby!! :) Have a safe trip! Can’t wait to hear why Obaby will be going on more flights! Does this have anything to do with DanO’s job opportunities?? :)
Those pictures are adorable, lack of cooperation and all!! :)
We took our (then) 16 month old on a 9-hour flight (about 12 hours total travel time), so I have much sympathy for the flights! Tips for as OBaby as you continue to travel? STICKERS. And/or painter’s tape (can go on seat cushions, tray tables, faces, clothes, window/side of the airplane and come right off with no residue!). New toys no matter how simple or small help too. We packed a small toy in a small zip wallet in a container in a small purse, etc, etc and my daughter spent at least 45 minutes unpacking and repacking things into and out of the containers. Didn’t take up much space either! Playing cards (or flashcards from the dollar store!) are great to hand to Daddy one at a time (aka = 30! minutes! of! plane! fun!).
Just my 2 cents. :) Hope the flight went really well! Good for you for going on the adventures with baby – it can be fun! Our daughter has a language explosion every time we take a trip, she learns so much and she’s not even two!
This reminds me of a conversation I had once with my college roommate. We were SO organized. We wrote our day out on schedules down to the 10 minute mark! And followed them! About two weeks into our awesomeness, my roommate came into the room beaming. She said that a last minute meeting had been thrown at her. She was SO excited that she had to be creative with her schedule, because she said it was mommy training! From that point forward, I have tried to be prepared for the unexpected and not be disappointed at last minute changes. Good to hear from a real life mom that it is indeed fun and adventurous! :)
Traveling will get easier… I promise…
Until then remember backpacking through Europe is “child’s play” compared to parenthood!
I’ve so been there hunny. I understand. We traveled six times with Bubs before his 1 year – and only one of those was in a car – and it was a 14 hour car ride at 5 months old – Breastfeeding Only! It took us something crazy like 25 hours to get there! I won’t lie to you – even with the seven year old, I still have to plan toys, movies, books, etc. And, there is still stress of traveling with kids…but it’s worth it, which you know now. Just kiss the days of a relaxed flight behind for a while…you’ll appreciate them more when they return. And know that you’ve been missed around these parts. LOL!
You give me hope that when our baby arrives in October that we will be able to continue traveling. We have been traveling the entire time we were dating and since we have been married so it would be a sad day if the traveling stopped.
Thanks for all of your great insight into the concession you have to make in order to get through the travels, and that they don’t make you any less than an amazing mother. I look forward to hearing how your future trips go now that you have the first big one out of the way.
have a safe flight! hope you all had a great time!!! and i love the tips!!
My husband wants us to take our then 13-month old to Germany in September, and I almost immediately said HECK NO. I am a horrible flier, full of anxiety, and to have to also deal with a toddler sounds like torture. But then maybe it would distract me from the flying part… All I know is, you are brave for planning all those trips!
My husband and I took our 5 week old son to Aruba in November 2009 for my brother-in-laws wedding. We were lucky because we had all sorts of family around to help out but lets face it, it is so much easier to travel with such a small baby than a bigger one! Something I couldn’t/didn’t realize at the time. He slept wherever in the sling, he ate wherever I could find a place to sit down (yay nursing on the beach!), I cannot even imagine getting on a place with him these days so good for you for being adventurous!
Great tips, Allison. We traveled A LOT when Natalie was a baby, because we lived in California and Corey was working in Florida at the time. (And our parents didn’t live near us and we moved twice, yada yada yada.) I think we counted more than 13 round-trip flights before her first birthday. (By 18 months, she’d earned her first frequent flyer ticket.)
Like you, we learned to travel light. We didn’t pack diapers or food, preferring to buy those at our destination. We kept our schedule as flexible as possible.
And like you said, it helps to view it all as an adventure.
Now, with 3 kids and one on the way, travel has become even more complicated (and mind-numbingly expensive). For the past two winters, we opted not to travel for a “get away from the snow” trip because just planning for our “vacation” was stressing us out. But we know this is a phase. Eventually, it will be easier again. The key is knowing what’s right for your family at that time, I think.
Oh man. .we leave in just a few days for a 10 hour car trip!!! YIKEES!
I’m writting down all these good tips.. if you lovely commenters have more.. keep them coming!!!!!!!
O Allison, I feel your pain. We took a plane trip when V was 13 months and I was almost 8 months pregnant. Craziness! She was actually wonderful on the way there, but the way back was not so good. It was a night flight and she was tired, but didn’t want to fall asleep. She kept trying to climb into my lap, which was really nonexistent at that point ;) We also had to take a carseat, stroller, and bike along with all our luggage. I’m sure we were a sight to behold in the airport! Next time, I think we’ll avoid the stroller and use baby carriers (as long as I’m not pregnant!). Of course, I’m not really looking forward to flying with TWO kids! Yikes!
Hey, I am right there with ya on feeling left behind once you have a baby. My husband and I were both 21 when we got pregnant (it was a teensy bit unplanned) and I’m kind of ashamed (now) to say that my first and strongest feeling was that we were going to “miss out” on our twenties. The feeling still comes back once in a great while, but what kinda helps me out is remembering that forty is the new twenty, and when our baby girl (plus a future sibling or two) leaves someday for college, we are going to have our twenties back, and then some.
Just something to think about when young-parent-itus strikes.
Also, where did you find that Fisher-Price booster seat?? I want.
Nevermind about the booster, I found it!
Thanks for the travel tips. We are going on our 1st plane trip with baby in about a month and I’m already worried about how it’s going to affect baby’s sleeping and eating routines and how that’s going to affect our trip… definitely good advice to look at it as an adventure and not a burden :)
They make a really nice airplane seatbelt for kids so you do not need to bring the seat on board. With twins that was definately helpfull… thanks for your tips.
Cute picture of you and your baby! Great traveling tips, too! My friends and I always say the packing, the hassles of traveling, and all of the inconveniences, are all made better by vacation memories. In the end, it is all worth it!
That is great to know! We have a vacation coming up and needed some tips! lol. Love your blog! :)
http://www.Sugarandspice4baby.blogspot.com
My sons will be 6yrs old and 9mos old when we fly from Denver to Oregon in June. I am loving
reading about things you’ve done/see in Portland. Also the travel tips. We are renting a house
on the coast and it isn’t really equipped for a baby. I’d love to see a picture or get a link to the
booster seat you recommend. Sounds like it could really come in handy for us. The tip about
flashcards from a commenter was a great idea too – filing that away for sure!
I love your blog!!
I agree that once you have a baby, it changes your traveling style totally, but we still love it! Our son will be two this week, and he’s been to 4 countries already (although we live in England, so it’s not as cool as it sounds!)
I think as long as you are prepared to slow your pace down, maybe only see two things on your list per day, it usually works out just fine.
And I totally agree about packing light. There are diapers in Italy, wipes in Switzerland, etc…maybe not the brand you are used to, but they’ll work!
[...] not very many). Here’s proof:{DanO resurrects a computer via convection oven. True story.}{Oregon Coast trip in March}{Using a jack hammer on our front walkway. The usual.}{Celebrating our 2nd [...]