Tips for traveling with a (6 Month old) Baby

A few weeks ago we took baby Ralph on his third trip. Prior to his trip to Los Angeles, we took him to Miami (he was 6 months old in Miami) but before that, the last time he had been on a plane was when he was just 7 1/2 weeks old. After his very first trip, I did a full blog post on tips for traveling with a new baby (you can read it here) but after the last trip, I got lots of questions for tips and tricks! While the majority of my tips are the same, see below for an updated list!

Tips for Traveling with a 6 Month (ish) Old Baby

• plan flight around when the baby eats: this was so helpful because I was able to feed him upon take off and give him his passy whenever we were decending in order to prevent his ears from hurting him. Ralph’s schedule is now different (you can read his current schedule here). For example; he eats around 12, so we booked our flight for 12:15. This made getting settled on the flight really easy because I was able to get him comfortable and then give him his bottle whenever we were taking off! After that we just played, watched a little movie and snuggled until his ‘scheduled’ nap time.
• valet your car at the airport: baby or no baby, this is super convenient because we landed at a different terminal than where we parked. After getting off of a long flight with Ralph, it was so convenient to just walk outside baggage claim and our car be waiting for us (the difference in price is about $7 a day..for us, it was worth it)
• book a more spacious seat: we flew first with the baby so we would have more room but if that is not in your budget, then I recommend paying the extra $30-$50 each way and getting a main cabin select seat which gives you an extra 4-6 inches of room (plus you will be one of the first on the plane, giving you time to get settled)
• check your car seat/stroller with your luggage: my sister is a flight attendant and told me to do this. she said that if you gate check your stroller, regardless if you are the first off the plane, you WILL be last to walk back into the airport. she explained that for some reason they are SUPER slow with retrieving your stroller post flight. we took her advice and this really worked out great.
• bring a few toys for the plane. Ralph is obsessed with these little stuffed animals, so I brought some for him to play with during his up time on the flight
• buy the doona stroller for travel: this stroller was a gift from my friends at my baby shower and it is literally the best stroller/car seat ever. it’s a car seat with wheels attached (they just pop down) and is literally the best thing to travel with. like I said previously, we checked this with our luggage and even used the travel bag that it flew in to store a few ‘over flow’ items. It was super easy to get in and out of ubers and also so easy to use when strolling around. I cannot say enough good things about this stroller/car seat combo. It really is the BEST!
• wear your baby:  When we arrived at the airport, I just put on this baby carrier and he stayed in it until we got to our seat on the plane. It is so easy to wear your baby because you do not have to take them out of the baby carrier to go through security.
• wear a sweater/sweatshirt over your shoulders: this was great to prop under my arm while feeding Ralph and even for support while he slept on me
• pack an extra can of formula and whatever your baby sleeps in (Ralph is currently in the sleep sack) in your carry on. my biggest fear is to arrive somewhere with no luggage and no formula for the baby!!
• bring an extra shirt for yourself: just in case baby spits up!
• bring two extra pajamas for baby
• If your baby is on a schedule: keep to the schedule. This was so important to us to make sure that Ralph was on his normal schedule while we were traveling. Yes, it’s fun to be gone all afternoon enjoying a city but it is so not worth it to make him over tired. We kept our ‘outings’ much shorter to make sure that he got ample nap time and kept to his schedule.
• put whatever your baby ‘cannot live without’ in your carry on. I still bring a carry on for my shoes/bags; now I add things like extra diapers, jammies and a few other things for Ralph JUST in case his bag doesn’t make it
• check a bag for your baby. we have been using this large piece of luggage to pack everything from Ralph’s clothes, diapers to extra formula. when he was itty bitty I just put his things in our bag but now that he is bigger and requires a few more things, I just put everything in this bag for him and check it!

I hope this helps a little bit and if any of you have questions, feel free to comment below or e-mail me! xx