Travelling abroad alone with a ten-week old baby - help!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????

[naturopath]

Any tips? What do I need? Will I manage to carry everything? Do babies generally sleep on planes? Will I have to stay with him alone in a hotel room all night??

I have regularly travelled long haul with my two since they7 were 2 months old. Carry on enough nappies for 5 hours on either side of the actual length of your flight. Carry on a change of clothes for the baby, incase of spillage/leakage. Make sure that if it's a long haul flight that you get a few bottles of water from teh flight attendeant for yourself before you take off. You will get extra thirsty, especially if you are bfing. He will probably sleep when you are in the air, but not necessarily. Be prepared with a bottle or breast (whichever you normally use) during the flight. And if he doesn't sleep at his normal time, don't get agitated. Hold him in your arms and walk up and down the aisles. I can't tell you how often I have seen parents desperatelly trying to get their kids to go to sleep by placing them in the cot provided by the airline and somehow thinking that this strange bed will automatically be comforting for their child. and then as the child screams louder the parent gets more agitated and tries to shush them, instead of picking them up and just pacing. Bring book for yourself and food that you can eat with one hand in case your ds doesn't sleep and you need to deal with him while eating. Airline food generally requires two hands to eat.

And sling for getting on and off in case your buggy doesn't make it on the plane.

Depends where you are going and how long for...

I travelled alone with DS when he was about 15 weeks old. We did 6 flights in 3 weeks & it was fine. He slept on our overnight flight to the UK. Did not sleep at all on the way home (8hr flight)

Take as little of your own stuff as possible. In hand luggage, take change of clothes (for both of you), nappies etc.

If you are bf, do that during take off & landing - it helps with their ears, apparently. If not, give a bottle/ dummy or whatever so your ds can suck.

Some planes don't have changing tables in the loos, so be prepared to improvise. That was the worst bit for me.

If you cosleep, you can do that in a hotel, if not, you can ask for a cot. I ended up cosleeping with DS when we travelled as it was comforting for both of us.

HTH

Oh yes, sling, I forgot that - that was my saving grace. Never travel without a sling.

Thanks! I hadn't thought of half of these.. any more advice would be greatly appreciated!

BUMP