Recently I was able to visit my sister Janna in For-gin-i-a (Virginia, for those of you unfamiliar with phone announcer speak). It was, to say the least, fantastic! Loved every bit of it, and would recommend it to anyone. If only to hang out with my nephews who are c-r-a-z-y funny ("Mommy, poopie is squishy."--oh, how I look forward to potty training).
I flew there with my nine month old son in tow and the pre-flight jitters (thinking of how many times I've flown and hoped, desperately, that the person with the baby wouldn't sit by me) made me think long and hard about how to best handle a baby on board. Needless to say I did much research and following are my tips for traveling with a baby...
1. After booking flight for two adult seats obsess about how stressful it will be to travel with a baby. (Do this for AT LEAST three months ahead of time)
2. Talk incessantly about your fears of traveling with baby to anyone who will listen (generally family and friends and mothers in the play group)
3. Over research the topic of traveling with little ones. Pay special attention to the information that strongly recommends buying and infant seat. After all "...a baby can be thrown to the back of the plane if turbulence gets too rough and mother is unable to hold on to her child."
4. Glare at anyone who laughs or snickers when you relate your fears of baby flying to back of plane during turbulence.
5. Obsess about whether or not you are being overly obsessive about whether or not to buy an infant seat.
6. Waffle back and forth about buying the seat until one week prior to flight.
7. Buy infant seat.
8. Feel huge relief as you no longer have to worry about holding baby through seven hours of traveling.
9. Enjoy flight because baby is so much more content to sleep and play in car seat (which is securely fastened into plane seat avoiding anybody flying to the back of the plane) than he would be to sit on your lap.
10. Bring a sister or other traveling companion along to help carry both diaper bags (one filled with food and "distractions" the other with diapers and change of clothes), wheel stroller and sit next to you in case the only trick you have left to stop a distressed baby is breast feeding.
11. Hope and pray you'll never have to actually change diaper in plane restroom... very difficult indeed.
** Please note that if you were not born with my particular neurosis this "advice" may not apply to you.**
I flew there with my nine month old son in tow and the pre-flight jitters (thinking of how many times I've flown and hoped, desperately, that the person with the baby wouldn't sit by me) made me think long and hard about how to best handle a baby on board. Needless to say I did much research and following are my tips for traveling with a baby...
1. After booking flight for two adult seats obsess about how stressful it will be to travel with a baby. (Do this for AT LEAST three months ahead of time)
2. Talk incessantly about your fears of traveling with baby to anyone who will listen (generally family and friends and mothers in the play group)
3. Over research the topic of traveling with little ones. Pay special attention to the information that strongly recommends buying and infant seat. After all "...a baby can be thrown to the back of the plane if turbulence gets too rough and mother is unable to hold on to her child."
4. Glare at anyone who laughs or snickers when you relate your fears of baby flying to back of plane during turbulence.
5. Obsess about whether or not you are being overly obsessive about whether or not to buy an infant seat.
6. Waffle back and forth about buying the seat until one week prior to flight.
7. Buy infant seat.
8. Feel huge relief as you no longer have to worry about holding baby through seven hours of traveling.
9. Enjoy flight because baby is so much more content to sleep and play in car seat (which is securely fastened into plane seat avoiding anybody flying to the back of the plane) than he would be to sit on your lap.
10. Bring a sister or other traveling companion along to help carry both diaper bags (one filled with food and "distractions" the other with diapers and change of clothes), wheel stroller and sit next to you in case the only trick you have left to stop a distressed baby is breast feeding.
11. Hope and pray you'll never have to actually change diaper in plane restroom... very difficult indeed.
** Please note that if you were not born with my particular neurosis this "advice" may not apply to you.**
3 comments:
love it, jules! welcome to the blogging world!
bring a sister... or a grand canyon mule.
har har
way to go Julia! Somehow, you say things in a way on a blog that you never say to your Mom. I love it.
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