Longhaul to NZ with potentially 10 wk old baby- is this mad??

[SaraL77]

I need a bit of advice/reassurance as I'm due Jan 30th and we need to book flights for NZ (visiting inlaws for a month) now. The problem is if I'm overdue then the baby could be as young as 10 weeks old. We also have a toddler that will be just over 2 at that point.

we have to travel then as later on it will be NZ's winter, and then by November it's the rugby world cup and flights will be extortionate.

I'm anxious about taking such a young baby on a long trip but DH thinks it'll be fine.

Has anyone else done this or does anyone have any advice?

I agree with TSC. I took DD to Oz when she was 12 weeks. She slept almost the whole way there. I fed her for each take off and landing which stopped her ears from hurting.

Cabin crews were really helpful, offering to hold her while I sorted my seat out and when I needed the toilet (DH was not with me for this trip).

I have also taken DD there at 18 months - much harder work.

I agree - the 10 week old will be fine especially if you are breastfeeding - the 2 year old aaarrrggghhh nightmare - sorry no helpful advise except opt to look after the baby and let dh do the 2 yr old

thanks all for your advice - yeah I think our 2 yr old will be more than a handful- racmac, great idea putting DH in charge of him- lol!

hoping to bf but last time wasn't successful, obviously would be good for so many reasons, not having to worry about formula/bottles on board plus protection against airline 'air quality' and bugs, another.

think it's just stressful as I'm not a good flyer myself but I guess I'll be too busy/distracted with the kids to worry about my own fears this time round!

thanks for reassurance!

We flew with our twins when they were four months old and it was fine. 10 weeks will be even better - at 4 months they were completely overwhelmed and got really excited - on the first flight only really! By the last leg, they mostly slept the whole way.

We FF and it wasn't too bad, but obviously BF would be much easier. Also flew Singapore Airlines who were amazing. Let me know if you want to know what we did re FF as I looked into it a LOT.

We actually found internal flights in NZ to be a PITA. Airports were badly equipped and staffed, you don't get to board first (!), had to sit in separate rows etc.

We're flying back for good with the boys when they will be 15 months old and am not looking forward to that at all!

We flew to Singapore with a 9wk old and an 18mo and it was fine. The 9wk old slept and fed and that was about it. That trip was by far the easiest of the 4 flights we took out there.

I found night flights were more stressful than day flights because everyone else on the plane wanted to sleep but my dcs couldn't/wouldn't. At least on a daytime flight you can walk around with them and don't have to worry quite as much about them making a noise.

We also went with Singapore Airlines each time and they were fantastic - can't recommend them enough if you're flying with small dcs. They did all sorts of things to keep my dcs occupied and bent over backwards to make the flight as easy as possible for us.

Try and get a bassinet - even if the baby doesn't go in it, it's very handy for keeping all the kids' paraphernalia in!

Take the baby in a sling around the airport and use the pram to dump all the hand luggage in. Makes chasing a 2yo much easier if one of you has nothing to carry .

Hi! I'm in NZ right now. We flew with a 4 mth old and a just-turned-2 year old.

We flew Air New Zealand and found it pretty smooth, considering. The flight times are sensible and the luggage allowance is brilliant - 23 kg for each person (including the baby!) PLUS a car seat and buggy for each child free of charge. (But you should have seen us getting through the airport with that lot.)

We got three seats together. Baby in basssinet - my job. Toddler on the seat between me and DH - his job. We took a stack of books and activities like stickers, colouring, etc and pulled one out of the bag each time she got bored and fractious.

I BF but they said they had formula on board if we needed it, which surprised me. I would double check though.

We flew via HKG and did a one night stopover at the airport hotel. (Regal Airport hotel - right next to the arrival gate so you don't even need to leave the airport building.) They gave us a room with an enormous heavenly bed plus two cots. Had to phone them to arrange this. Was worth doing just to get a rest.

Agree with RoseM - sling in airport much needed.

Good luck! We are doing it again in reverse next week...

thisisyoursong I'm interested in your FF on the flights if that's okay. Was going to take a thermas with me and get hot water and bottled water after customs to make up bottles. Will they allow the powder through in unmarked plastic bags? What is the best thing to do?

I'm going next week with 3yo, who is a great traveller, and 4mo (first flight), have a 10hr stopover in LA, eek, plus 2 flights.

Sorry, have just seen this.

Boots at the airport sell premade cartons. Apparently their stock goes up and down, so you can call the Boots in whichever terminal you are going from, and get them to put some aside; although when I went to pick them up they had loads. Wouldn't completely risk it though - we took lots of powdered formula just in case. Boots will tell you that you can't take them through onto the next flight - which was not true in Singapore, but not sure about the US.

Powdered formula is fine, you can take as much as you like. We took it in unmarked plastic Klip It type containers.

When we were in NZ we couldn't get premade cartons in hungry baby milk so had to bring powdered formula on the way back. We did what you said - took a thermos and an empty lidded bottle to decant water into to cool down. If you use bottled water for cold water, apparently Evian has the lowest sodium content. The water on the plane is on a rolling boil so not ideal but I figured a couple of bottles weren't going to make a huge difference. We made up the full powder amount with half boiling water, mixed etc then added the rest of the cold water to cool it down enough to use straight away. Its impossible to cool down quickly on the plane.

Re bottles, we ended up buying the Playtex bottles with disposable liners and they were brilliant (you can get them on ebay and some local pharmacies stock them). We bought enough teats to last for the whole flight so didn't have to worry about washing them on the flight. Otherwise, we tried some Nurture disposable bottles which were SO HARD to use. Apparently you can get Tommee Tippee disposable hard bottles as well, we didn't try these but I would definitely suggest a hard sided bottle as the Nurture ones were hard to keep hold of when they collapsed down and really messy.

Will think if there is anything else. I don't think it was as bad as we thought it might be - the anticipation was worse! But let me know if you have any questions, otherwise good luck!

Thanks very much for replying. I'm flying from Canada. Playtex bottle is a fabulous tip! I'll nip out tomorrow and get some. Was ready the DM articl yesterday about thermos thing so not sure if I should take one on board or not.

Oh not much use ringing Boots then! The Thermos thing worked really well for us but the premade cartons are definitely easier if you can get them through or past Customs.