when you get to check in - just ask about the sky cot again - you might be surprised. We were told you could not book sky cots and that it was a case of first in best dressed.

there are a number of threads about flying long haul with little ones.

singapore are fab.... flown them on 2 trips to Aus from the UK and have no complaints.

Dd1 was 8 months old the first time we flew to Aus.. as she was bottle fed, I bought steri bottles and pre mixed formula so I could jettison as i went along. Make sure you pack in carry on a clean shirt for you and dh - you will need it by the time you get to Aus.

both our flights were night flights so i put dd1 in her pjs and sleeping bag and she slept.

Best bit of advice - your babe takes priority - you will never see these people again and if your dd is distressed - try not to worry about the others - worry about her..

even if you don't manage to get a cot, push hard for a bulk head seat, they give you so much more room and you don't have anyone reclining their seat in front of you.
if your baby likes pouches, these are also handy when you are both sleeping, if you don't have a cot, as you don't have to worry about her falling. & definitely more spare clothes for you and the baby than you would normally take out!

We just made sure we had dd1 out of the sun between 10 and 3 - relatively impractical I know... shade a babes are great - last summer for dd2 - I just used a thick muslin wrap to attach to the buggy - still let light in but filtered the sun. ( dd2 was born last november!) If you will be at the beach for time - you can buy those spf little tents that offer complete shade for everyone.

I used sunsense 30+ spf sunscreen for both of them as well.... started dd2 on hats early as we have had a real struggle with dd1 getting her to wear them. We also bought a sunsuit swimsuit for dd1 whilst here - much cheaper...... think hers was called radicool..... can buy hats from there as well.

Where are you going in Aus??

Dont be too despondent about sky cots, we flew to Australia with Singapore with a 7 month old and a 2 year old last christmas and the sky cots were more hassle than they were worth. Every time the seat belt sign went on you had to take the baby out of the sky cot, even if you had spent the last 2 hours trying to get her to sleep, and it didnt give the person who was by the sky cot much room at all. Half way through the flight we asked them to take it away, because the lack of space and to have to keep moving dd.

We were in Sydney over christmas, we used a shade a babe, also kept long cool clothing on her and we used a little sun suit and hat whilist on the beach, and she came back as fair as when she went. I found that she adapted to the heat really well. We also had a sun tent but that seemed to get so hot that she didnt like to be in there, so I sat her on the beach and stuck a huge umbrella over her.