Traveling baby girl!! She had her 6th flight just yesterday, and she killed it. I know she feeds off of my mood, and I was feeling really happy, so she was too! Traveling with her for the first time when she was 2 months was tricky but still not that bad. I learned the best way to do it is wear the baby, check the car seat, and then just bring one carry on. She does really well in the carrier as we're going through security and walking to our gate, and then I take her out when we take a seat on the plane and she enjoys just looking around at people (and sometimes grabbing the girl's hair who is sitting next to us . . . oops).
Yesterday we travelled home to Salt Lake from DFW and when I was checking our seats, I noticed we were assigned to a middle seat again.... Agh. I almost paid $10 to switch seats to an aisle just because June is at the age where she's starting to move around a bunch, she grabs everything, she loves to screech, and I just wanted to be able to get up quickly if I needed to. But then, when we got on the plane (and I decided not to pay to switch), I realized the plane wasn't even full! There were so many empty seats and by the grace of God, we got the whole row to ourselves. It was like heavenly baby freedom. She sat in her own seat while we were on the runway waiting for takeoff, and then when we actually took off I nursed her to help with her ears. For the first 20 minutes of the plane ride, she was sooo slap happy because she hadn't napped all day and she was GIGGLING! It was music to my ears.
I could tell she was so tired though and she fell asleep so fast just with her binky and slept the whole rest of the ride, even when we landed. It was so nice to lay back and relax, and they were playing american ninja warrior on the flight (yay American) so I was entertained, too!
My best traveling tips so far with June are:
1. Nurse on takeoff and landing (and sometimes periodically throughout the flight) to help their ears. June has never showed discomfort with her ears needing to be popped, but I'm usually pretty adamant about nursing her several times.
2. Wear baby in a wrap or carrier through security. They don't make you go through the x-ray machine, and baby stays happy while she's with you.
3. Check the car seat where you check your bags. The first 3 flights we went on, I checked it at the gate and that was hell. Carrying it through security by yourself with your carry on and your baby (and possibly trying to go to the bathroom too) is hard! So I would recommend checking it before security, and just putting it in a car seat bag.
*Although, we lost the infant insert the first time we checked it so I would take that out before you send it through lol.
4. Accept help from people. A few times (when I was checking the car seat at the gate so I had to sent it through security), so many people (actually only men, never women) helped me disconnect the base, fix the handles, or sent my backpack through security... just the little things. You don't have to be superwoman. It's really helpful when people can give you another hand with things.
5. Bring a blanket to lay on the ground if you arrive early at your gate. Your baby is about to be held / cooped up for 2+ hours, let them roll around and play with their toys and get their energy out. Of course June is only 5 months so she isn't really crawling yet, so this will be different when she's older.
6. Family restrooms. Use them!
7. Get snacks and water for yourself... You might get hangry if you don't.
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