Well we did it! Our first plane ride and also international trip done with our baby. I definitely have at least 10 grey hairs coming in from the time I found out my child was coming with me, through pet care falling through just days before the flight, nerves of keeping her chill during my brother’s wedding, through just the trip itself BUT we did it.
So I had absolutely not planned the travel around our daughter’s nap time because she wasn’t going to come with us originally so I really just had to hope for the best. Our first leg was about an hour and half at 5am. So we had to get up at 3am to pack the car and get us ready. Got our little up at 3:30 to change her for us to leave for the airport at 3:40am. I was hoping she would sleep through the airport but no dice. She was wide awake looking around at 4am waving to the crowds! I was able to hold off on her bottle until take off however which is exactly what I was hoping for on that. I left about 1-1.5oz for landing. Remember, the most common reasons babies cry on planes is because our their ears.
We had a three hour layover in Atlanta before our five and a half hour flight to St. Lucia. The goal was to eat breakfast and grab lunch for the plane as we wouldn’t be arriving until roughly 3pm. And after landing in a foreign country you got immigration so we had to get food.
Breakfast worked pretty well all in all but lunch. Did. Not. So even though there’s plenty of little restaurants, you can’t rely on them to have Mac and cheese. You don’t know when they’re going to start serving lunch (probably 11), you don’t know. So my advice is bring food. Not just snacks, food. It took a lot of effort but we worked it out; definitely a stressor though.
What I’d fly with again
- Stroller
- Baby carrier
- Travel toys
- Snacks AND food (puffs, applesauce, pasta, nuggets, etc)
- Extra clothes (smart for an extra one for you too just in case)
- All normal diaper things- rash cream, extra extra diapers, wipes
- Cleaning wipes!! Lysol AND pacifier wipes. Especially the paci wipes.
- Hand sanitizer
- Children’s Tylenol
- Sippycup for water
- Pacifiers (like a lot)
Some of this doesn’t apply to older kids, obviously. For reference, my daughter was 11 months at time of travel. Super mobile with crawling and using furniture to walk from side to side and not walking. We did infant in lap and there were three of us traveling so we didn’t have strangers in our row (bless!). If you go to my Instagram you’ll see exactly what products I was using and what I liked and didn’t like.
Hopefully my mistakes and stresses will help you for your family travel in the future. Don’t listen to people who only want to complain. Your baby belongs wherever you want to take him or her.
Enjoy the journey!
-Jojo
Journeys With Jojo 