Travel Diaries: Baby’s First Trip!

/ Jenn

Four months ago, I would have been scared to go on a plane with my son.  I was convinced he’d be the crying baby and I wouldn’t know what to do.  I was afraid I’d forget something he needed. I would have anxiety just thinking of it. After all, I was afraid to go to the store with the baby. How would I have ever survive going to a different city altogether?!

We decided to take a short trip for practice.  It turned out, I didn’t have much to worry about! He fell asleep on the outgoing flight. He smiled and laughed at people while we waited in line. He was happy and quiet when we were delayed for the rental car.  He was happy when we went out, and excited when we were with our friends.  He was awake on the flight home, but loved looking out the window and did not cry. We got a few compliments on his good behavior.  He was a great traveler!  I consider myself lucky.  (Note, he did have an epic meltdown when we got home. I guess all that smiling tires a person out!)

As with every first time event with my son, I learned quite a bit from the experience:

  • I am still unsure if it’s better to bring your own car seat vs renting it from the car rental company. It grosses me out a bit to think we’d be using a car seat that other babies have been in. That’s only because I can’t vouch for how often they’re cleaned.
  • Southwest does not do family pre-boarding like everyone else.
  • I had no idea at what point was I supposed to gate check my stroller. At least I did it before I became the next viral airline video.
  • I should have brought extra parts for my Medela Instyle. I think that speaks for itself.
  • I did not care if people judged me for wiping off our entire seat area before I let him touch anything.  It’s a petri dish in there, and I can’t always stop my son from putting his hands in his month or his face on the window.
  • Feeding the baby during take-off was genius. No ear popping cries here!
  • Since we were only traveling domestic, buying the baby’s diapers and {solid} food at destination really helped save luggage space.
  • Never estimate the time you need to check in with an infant.  We almost missed our outbound flight because there was a large school sports team in front of us. We had to check in to obtain the lap child boarding ticket, so it was necessary. Thank goodness an agent allowed us to cut in line!
  • I have always been a TSA pre-check participant. It’s even more awesome when you don’t have to pull out all of the baby’s milk and other things.

All in all, it was a good trip for the baby! We didn’t do anything particularly touristy, but it was so nice to be together as a family for a few days after my return to work.  I even had an entire day alone with my son – just hanging out like old times.  That really made it worth it.

We are planning another trip in the latter half of the year.  It will most likely be for a longer period of time. We haven’t decided, but it will be another learning experience. I’m interested in knowing – what kind of advice do you have for baby travel or travel in general? Comment below!

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Stock photo from stocksnap.io, artist Suhyeon Choi

27 thoughts on “Travel Diaries: Baby’s First Trip!”

  3. I’m so pleased your first trip was this painless. A friend of mine travels with 2 littlies a couple of times a year from London to New Zealand, with varying degrees of success. Don’t beat yourself up if it’s different experience next time, you just never know how it’s going to go 🙂

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  4. I’m glad you had a good trip, I was the same on our first trip away, I was worried about everything and almost packed the whole house with it. In the end maybe i was prepared for the worse and it turned out alot better than I thought.

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  5. I’m totally the mom that wipes every surface off too. Even though my boys are older, they still put their hands in their mouths and lay all over everything. We just took our boys all on a plane for the first time last summer. It turned out much better than I thought too.

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  6. I can so relate with this… 😀
    I had a similar experience on our first trip with my little one. I was dreaded with the thought that she will be super cranky however, it was absolute opposite. She had a gala time there.

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  7. I’ve never had the chance to be on an airplane, let alone bring my children on an airplane with me. My children are older now, so if we ever do take a trip by airplane, I know we should be ok. I’m glad to hear you had good trip. ( and you weren’t the next viral video ) 🙂

    Michelle/ Life of an Imperfect Mom

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  8. Yes to the feeding during take off! In fact, last time I went on a plane with my kids, my youngest was about 6 months and I nursed her the entire flight just to keep her calm and quiet.

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  9. You definitely got lucky. I’ve never flown anywhere, and I’m not sure that I would want to with my boys. We can barely have a decent car trip 20 minutes away from home, let alone a flight full of strangers.

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  12. I’m glad your first time experience was a good one! I was just as nervous the first time I flew with my three kids. Luckily my oldest two are over 10 and loved every minute of the flight, starring out the windows and snapping aerial view photos. My daughter just curled up in to my chest and dozed off for the bulk of the flight.

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  13. I am glad you had a great first time experience with him! I was just as nervous when I flew with my three kids as well. Luckily my oldest two are over 10 and thoroughly enjoyed the flight while my daughter cuddled up with me and dozed off.

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  14. Great post! I actually have an 18 month old, and we will be going on her first flight here in a couple months. I hope ours goes as well as yours, but I am concerned that she will get bored, she is very busy!

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  15. I got you on the petri dish thing!! Good for you for wiping everything down, and hopefully some watchers will watch and learn 😉 … I work in health care 😀 lol

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    • Yeah, everything gets some getting used to for us! I’m glad you’re recovering from the the baby blues. I’m recovering from full on Postpartum Depression and Anxiety, so I know it’s not easy! I’m glad you’re doing better!

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  17. Glad you survived! Traveling with little ones is very stressful! When we flew Southwest they did have family boarding. We checked our car seat and the stroller we took onto the plane. They told us to leave it by the door and they would store it under the plane. Overall we had a pretty good experience too!

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