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Friday, June 24, 2011

Now, I need your help.

I'm glad that I was able to help a lot of you in my "pumping 101" posts! I have gotten so many e-mails telling me how educational those posts were to a lot of you! SO GLAD!

But now, I need YOUR help.

Next week, we are flying to Kansas City, MO for a wedding{any of you live there & want to meet up??}. 

Saying that I am terrified is an understatement. 

Claire will be 10 months old on the day we leave. & I have the most extreme anxiety of how she is going to do on the plane, how she is going to act & how she will sleep. 

I know I should just chill the f*&% out & have fun, but I want my baby to be comfortable on this "vacation". 

ANY TIPS ON HOW TO TRAVEL WITH A 10 MONTH OLD??!
Because I have not the slightest clue. 

12 comments:

  1. We just flew to the Florida Keys with Kendall (she's 8 months) and she did great on the plane. She usually slept during takeoff and I gave her a bottle or nursed her during landing. She got a little fussy because her ears were popping but I just distracted her. I'm sure Claire will do great!

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  2. I feel the same way everytime I fly with Sullivan. He's been on four flights already and he just turned 8 months. Next Saturday we are going again. Just me and him from Pittsburgh to Phoenix. I think the key is for there to be more than one baby on the plane. Somehow I feel more relaxed when I'm not the only one. I just bring toys, and hope for the best. He usually takes maybe a 45 minute nap or so but the rest of the (4 hour)flight is an endurance test for my arms :)

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  3. My friend has flown multiple times with her 5mo and wrote a post on tips...good luck!

    http://babyrocks.tumblr.com/post/6180569935

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  4. I started flying with Carley at 3 months & so far, she's only cried once and it lasted maybe all of 30 seconds. I did notice that as she got older, the key to happy flights are to bring plenty of snacks (goldfish, cheerios, etc) and something to drink. When I was nursing her, I found that pumping before hand and giving her a bottle during take off and landing helped a bunch. She never complained about her ears hurting.

    Also, as far as entertainment goes, bring a favorite book or one of those portable dvd players (or an iPhone) with a few pre-recorded shows that she enjoys. How long is the flight?

    & seriously, I know it's easy to say, but don't worry. She's a baby! If she cries, you'll soothe her and she'll settle down. You should be more worried about sitting next to someone who wants to tell you their whole life story on a flight LOL :P

    Good luck!!

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  5. I do I do!!! We took Gunner to Hawaii (a 5.5 hour plane ride) when he was exactly 10 months old. Let me just say that in all my travels on planes with kids (and there have been a lot) that traveling with them when they were in that 10 month range was by FAR the easiest. Treasure this time as when they get older? Like any older than a year old? SUCKS. HORRIFICNESS. WORST TIME OF MY LIFE.

    ok, now that that is out of the way, here is what we did. I'm assuming you didn't buy an extra seat for Claire, since she is only 10 months. The very very first thing I always do when I get to the airport is go to the checkin counter and ask the person working if there is any way possible you can sit next to an extra seat that's open. I always say that I have a baby with me who will be on my lap and if at all possible, can I PLEASE get sat by an extra seat. Every single time I have flown and there WERE extra seats available, they always accomodate me in this. Make sure you do it though as soon as the counter opens.

    If there are no extra seats and the baby does have to sit on your lap, well, my advice is to just scratch the vacation and go back home. just kidding! Totally kidding. What always worked for me is to bring a portable dvd player and put on baby enstien or something she likes, but only pull it out once she gets fussy, because if its on the whole time, she will get bored and then the dvd solution won't work anymore. I also bring tons of snacks, and I don't care if they are the most unhealthy things in the world, I will look over that fact for one time if it makes my kid happy and not screaming. also, lots of bottles seem to make them happy.

    ok so that's kind of all I have, I'm putting a few links on here some of the times I have flown with my kids, you can read if you want. Most are good, but one is really really bad, maybe you can read it and LEARN from it of what not to do ;)

    Good luck! and I'm sure she will be fine. You will probably be totally surprised and she might even sleep most of the way.


    These are my GOOD plane experiences:

    http://www.amommasdesiresandpacifiers.com/2008/12/well-we-finally-arrived_04.html

    http://www.amommasdesiresandpacifiers.com/2009/06/can-you-hear-my-sigh-of-relief-over.html

    And a few NOT so good:

    http://www.amommasdesiresandpacifiers.com/2010/12/hawaii-we-love-you.html

    this link is to the worst day of my life...

    http://www.amommasdesiresandpacifiers.com/2009/06/have-you-ever-had-one-of-those-days.html

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  6. I could give you a big long drawn out list of stuff and ideas, but the two things that worked the best for us? LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF SNACKS, plus an iPad loaded with some kids movies and games. Granted Ryann is 14 months old so I'm not sure how well that would work for Claire.

    As far as the sleep goes, I was impressed that Ryann didn't seem all that affected. She didn't sleep much the days we traveled, but she wasn't as much of a bear as I thought should we be.

    You should e-mail me what days you will be in KC. Maybe we could coordinate a little get together!

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  7. Don't stress girl! Claire is going to impress you with how well she was. Previous comments = GREAT suggestions! I don't have much to add. Just try to stay calm so she doesn't sense your stress. And, bring a couple of her favorite toys but also bring some brand new ones that she's never seen so you can whip them out. Also, I'm a big fan of lollypops. Ok, so I know she is totally young, but if all else fails I guarantee she'll be happy if ya stick a sucker in her mouth. :-) We had a variety of ring pops with us when we flew to Hawaii when Leila was 1 1/2. And she did great! 10 months should be easier than that. Good luck!

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  8. Great suggestions! For sleep, be sure to bring whatever "familiar" items you can manage. Katherine did swimmingly in the hotel's crib when she was 10 weeks old, but now she's much more aware of her surroundings. We bring her favorite blanket and a noise machine and try to recreate our at-home bedtime routine as much as possible.

    And? I don't know your situation, but KC was our first destination with a baby, too. It's against state law for a baby to enter the "bar" portion of a restaurant...just FYI. I NEEDED a glass of wine so badly (um, HELLO, traveling with a BABY!!!) and they made me wait until we were seated...even though she was asleep in her carrier...totally not a big deal - though I obviously still harbor some resentment!

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  9. Just flew with my 17 month old for the first time last week. She did great on 3 out of our 4 flights. Not sure what airline you'll be on, but I highly recommend Southwest. We didn't purchase a seat for Evie, but we were able to bring her car seat on and use an extra empty seat for her on every flight. I think that made her feel much more comfortable. We were also able to check our stroller at the gate for free, which was really nice since we could then use it in the airport.
    I also love that Southwest gives you two free checked bags. Hubbs and I checked three bags, plus they let us substitute our pack-n-play for one of our free checked bags.
    As far as the flight, I would recommend a paci/bottle for takeoff and landing, plus some quiet toys and books to keep her distracted. Don't worry about too many things, though, the novelty of new surroundings will probably keep her pretty entertained.
    For sleeping, I would recommend bringing familiar sheets, blankets, stuffed animals, etc. from home to make her feel more comfortable.

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  10. Everyone gave some great ideas. Just wanted to let you know that I just took a plane flight with my 2 under 2 and I survived when my youngest was 3 months and my oldest 21 months. So I promise you will too! :)

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  11. We flew from IL to Colorado when Brayden was 15 months. Here is what I would pass along:
    1. Give her some tylenol or ibuprofen an hour before. This helps the pain in their ears from the pressure changes, since they don't get that yawning will help.
    2. Keep her on as much of her normal schedule as possible. It was really important for me that Brayden still was able to nap during the day, so we planned around it. We split up so someone was always with Brayden while he napped so that not everyone was bogged down.
    3. Take snacks! And water. And a couple toys. And if you need to, a portable DVD player. This was a huge lifesaver and we only used it when nothing else was appeasing him.
    4. Calm down :) She will be just fine. I freaked over it for months before we left and it turns out, Brayden did just fine. Good luck!

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  12. Oh gosh, I have no tips. I am too scared to travel more than 4 hours with James.

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