flying with a baby

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

headed to NYC

A few weeks ago Matt and I headed to the Big Apple with our sweet baby girl, and while I was beyond excited for the vacay and to see some sweet friends, I was PETRIFIED of the flights.  Like horrified.  As a new parent when your baby cries in a public place, well it's kind of like nails on a chalkboard.  I've gotten better about this now, mostly thanks to the fact that anytime I took G out in public those first few months, my mama came with us.  And anytime we had a meltdown or a blowout in public, my mama was there to laugh it off with me.  So because of that, we decided that G needed to come explore NYC with us.  And I am so thankful she did.  We had a blast!  

But that didn't take away from the fact that we had two plane rides to get there and two more to get home.  Luckily Gigi did amazing.  She slept for the majority of the time on all of the flights and was a happy baby.  But that was not without preparation and of course a ton of luck.  There were a few moments when she started to get sad and it could have gone either way... So here is what I will take away from the flight experience with a baby and some tips for any mamas taking their bambino up in the air!





Read THIS POST from a beautiful mama, Lauren.  I did everything she recommended and really all of my recommendations would be just restating hers.  Like seriously.  I read it over and over - and that part she said about scheduling your baby around the flights - THAT IS THE ONLY WAY WE SURVIVED.

All I would add is to take a deep breath with your hubby/partner before heading to the airport.  Go ahead and think of the worst case scenario (baby screams entire flight and everyone hates you), and laugh it off.  Matt and I did that both ways to the airport and it made light of the situation.  Also - have a plan for security.  I always get so flustered during security checks mainly because I try and carry way to many things, have too many liquids to take out and always feel like I am holding up the rest of the airport.  Luckily my husband knows my airport security fears so our plan for security was simple.  He would handle the baby and I would just get myself and all of our stuff through.  And viola!  We made it to and from with no haters... but let me just say - had G done HORRIBLE on the plans, and had we ended each flight with a handful of haters, the trip itself would still have been worth it.  Because the memories with your family are worth more than a few fussy flights :)

happy flying!  xox


3 comments :

Natalie | Mrs. Janney | said...

Lauren's hints are SO GOOD!! I have referred several people to that post because her tips are AMAZING.

Linh said...

AWESOME!!! I have only flown with Marli once and it was her only time. Going there was much more calm than flying back...probably due to the fact that the flight there was an earlier flight and it wasn't a full plane so I got to walk around with her. With the ride back, though, she was asleep until the SUPER loud pilot came over the speaker. I WAS TERRIFIED! She started getting antsy on a full flight so once the seatbelt sign went off while we were in the air, I took her to the restroom and rocked her back to sleep. Haha
Linh
http://abeautifulrawr.com

Amanda Marshall said...

Oh friend I am scared of the 48 hours of international travel we are getting ready to do with John in three weeks... ahhhh! I loved this post and Lauren's.. very helpful. Far more importantly though- Gigi is sooooooooooooo beautiful, cute, adorable!!!! I can't get over her!!!!

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