Traveling with an Infant

Over the past month, we have traveled a ton with Grayson! In fact, I still feel like I am recovering a bit from it all.

I thought I’d share some of my tips and favorite items that made our travel a ton easier {and by travel, I mean 3 flights, 1 train ride and 2 long car trips}. There’s no way to get around the stress that comes with traveling with an infant but it IS doable and not as scary as it seems. I was so nervous for our flights but it turned out the road trips actually gave me more of a headache than the plane.

Solly Wrap: I love this wrap! Unfortunately now that Grayson is about 20 pounds he is getting too big for it, but it has come in super handy over the past few months. I used it every day on our trip and so glad I brought it. When he got fussy on the flights, I would just pop him in the wrap and walk him up and down the aisles until he fell asleep. Worked like a charm. I love the Solly wrap, in particular, because of how light and breathable the bamboo fabric is. I’m sad to be putting this away now until the next kiddo because Grayson loved it so much.

Car Seat Travel Bag: This was a last minute impulse purchase but I’m so glad! We checked the car seat on two of our flights {carried it on on the third flight} and this bag came in so handy. We have the Chicco Keyfit 30 and it fit perfectly in this bag with extra room to spare. This bag is a backpack and is incredibly comfortable to wear! When flying, you really want to make sure your car seat doesn’t get banged up and this super padded bag does an excellent job at keeping it all safe and sound.

Boppy: Packing this was a TOTAL life savor!! I brought it on the plane and used it to nurse on take-off and landing. On our first flight, I nursed G on take-off and he completely passed the heck out {on the boppy} and didn’t wake up until we were wheels down in Austin. Of course, that chained me to my seat for three hours but we were glad that he got a great nap in!

Be sure to pack your diaper bag really well before getting on a plane with your baby! Here’s what was in my diaper bag:

• copy of Grayson’s birth certificate
• five diapers
• package of wipes
• 1 wet bag for soiled clothes
• 5 large ziplock bags for trash/dirty diapers/wipes/ect – something I learned is that you can never have too many ziploc bags on you! They come in very, very handy.
• 2 extra onesies for him, socks, 1 extra nursing tank top for me
• one little wooden rattle toy
• nursing cover
• burp cloth
• infant gas drops, baby tylenol, extra strength tylenol for me
• 1 blanket
• changing pad
• pacifier
• snacks for mama {gummi bears, larabars and trail mix}

I think that’s it! I’m so glad I brought so much with me because it was nice to have everything I need at an arm’s length.

I tried my best to stick to our Moms on Call schedule while we were traveling. I found that Grayson adapted very quickly and easily to the time changes going there — it was coming BACK to California that really got him. Sometimes the schedule got tough, but I just nursed every three hours like I normally do, made sure he got three naps a day in, and we were fine. It took us a solid week upon returning to maintain a sense of order in this house, though. It was pure jet lag chaos for daysssss. But that’s another post for another time.

As for sleeping, Grayson slept in a pack n’ play at my mother-in-law’s house and a travel crib at my parent’s house. I actually liked the travel crib so much that I brought it home with us and we plan to use it for future weekend getaways. Here’s the one we got! I loved it because it has a zippered “door” so you can just slide him in and out after nursing in the middle of the night. We requested cribs at the hotels we stayed at and that worked out fine. I brought his own crib sheet from home, which I highly recommend.

I’m trying to think of what else! We brought our Chicco Keyfit Caddy instead of our big nice Uppababy stroller and I’m so glad we did. It was light and easy to travel with. We gate checked it for all our flights and it worked out great.

I think I mentioned that we cloth diapered on the trip and it was way easier than I thought it would be. I’m so glad I did it! I just packed my travel stash of 18 birdseye flat diapers and six econobum covers. I did laundry every two days at either my mother in law’s house or my parent’s house. I ended up leaving all the diapers at my parent’s house so they will be there when we visit for Christmas.

Oh, and you’ll also need lots of caffeine when traveling with an infant. That, my friends, is pretty much mandatory. My new favorite Starbucks concoction – a plain ol’ coffee frappuccino with whipped cream. 😉