crazy?? long haul with 4-6 week old

[kiwi5]

Am due mid december and we are booked to fly to NZ for sister in laws wedding on 4th feb. So could be travelling with a 4-6 week old. Flight company say you can travel with a 2 week old, so that should be ok.
used to live in NZ, so still have contacts with health type people (GP, paediatricians and allied health if any probs out there).
Travelling with husband and his parents so will have support on flight and throughout trip.

any tips or things to consider? paraphernalia, advice, anything....
please dont suggest not going - not really an option unless there are complications with me or bub.

cheers lovely ladies xx

Will your travel insurance cover you? What if there is some expected health complication, can you cancel? If so then I see no problem.

Small babies can be the easiest. You will probably be the trickiest.

Are you BF or FF? If BF, make sure you have blankets or pashmina etc. in case you feel self-conscious.

Nah go for it - travelling with proper wee ones is waaaay easier than travelling with toddlers.

If your baby is anything like mine, the bad bits will be taking off and landing, because their ears aren't too good at coping with the pressure changes. Have a bottle or boob ready, as sucking helps them to equalize.

Oh, and at that age, I'd probably check a buggy in and travel with a sling as the baby will be tiny and easy to carry and most babies sleep really well in a sling.

Agree travelling with a newborn would be 10 times easier than travelling with a toddler!

Will you have enough time to get a passport/visa etc?

Do you need to give the airline the child's name before you can reserve their "seat"? I think they can only take so many infants on laps per flight (could be totally wrong) so I would do this as soon as you can.

Agree you should go with a sling and take a load of blankets for padding etc if you plan to use the basinette at all.

Get good insurance that means you can cancel without penalty should YOU not be up to the trip physically. If all relatively hassle-free and your baby is well, I agree that tiny babies are the easiest to transport around, esp if you're bf-ing. On planes you can just feed/hold them all the time.

But do have a fallback plan in case you decide once your lo has arrived that you don't want to do it. And bear in mind that s/he won't have had any immunisations if still that tiny. Planes and airports are pretty full of bugs so poss worth talking it over with your GP.

cheers guys,very much appreciated

re immunisations, if you bf they get a lot of protection from you, and at that small they will still have some placental immunity from eg chickenpox that bf does not confer immunity to anyway

we took dd to Morocco at 7wks and had a ball
make sure you are waited on hand and foot when you are there though

I was still bleeding quite heavily at that stage with all that that entails plus bear in mind the fact that when you need the loo you need it immediately at least I did so perhaps worth getting the support of one of the cabin crew whenyou get on.Not sure where you stand if you have a C section,even if you think this unlikely best to find out your position,both insurance and medically.The other problem could stiches so you may wat to take a rubber ring as sitting for that long at 2weeks post birth could very very uncomfortable.
My SIL flew USA to SA at 8 weeks and it was fine,if it is unavoidable then you just have to get onwith it!

We travelled from Brazil to the UK via the US when DS was 6 weeks old. It was very easy, he slept, woke, fed, slept the whole way. Hardly cried (the airplane noise is very soothing).

I'd had a c-section, btw (re bourbon's post), and was fine.