Planning Baby's First Plane Ticket

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 We have booked tickets to visit family across the country! It is Tuesday that I am typing this and we are flying a week from today.  So only a week to plan and prepare.  I will walk you through what we are going to plan and prepare for Mary’s first flight.  The first thing we have done to prepare is the scheduling of the flights.  All of our flights are planned for when Mary is sleeping.  Actually, they are all at night after Mary’s bedtime, because that was the cheaper flights.  So the first thing we are going to do is bring her dummy and sleeping bag and hope she sleeps.  She is breastfeeding so if she needs it hopefully I can nurse her to sleep. 


Now I’m in the awkward planning to pack and sort of packing, but it is too early to actually pack.  So I have started preparing.  I bought a big box of wipes today and a pack of disposable nappies (diapers).  We usually use cloth for both of them, but that is a lot of laundry for vacation and I don’t want to pack the extra bag it would take. A day or two before our trip we will wash all the cloth we have and then keep her in disposables for the trip.  We will take a package of wipes and probably about 7 nappies or so since that should last us overnight and until we can get to the store.  If you will be near a store, I recommend taking a few more nappies than you think you need and buying them at your destination to save on a lot of space.  


I have also bought some pouches of baby food.  If she is fussy or maybe in the airport before our first flight we will be able to feed her with less mess.  It may also be her breakfast before we go shopping, although I’m sure our family will have food she eats. 


I plan to buy some new toys for Mary to play with.  Good for the plane if we need it, or else we will use them at our destination. 


We looked to see what the airline allows us to check with a baby.  She can have 3 items such as a suitcase, car seat, pack and play, and pram as well as her own carry-on.  We have a travel-sized pram so the nappy bag will be my carry-on and the pram will be hers.  I am hoping to gate check the car seat, or possibly put it on the plane if I can, but I need to call the airline to see if I can.  If not it will probably be the only thing we will check.  We try to maximize our carryons to minimize the time at baggage claim and the possibility of losing items.  


This is pre-trip. I will do another post after the trip about what works.


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