Travelling with a baby - advice please

[2020firsttimemum]

Hi all, we are due our first baby in July. We're planning to go to Spain in September as we can no longer go to America (too expensive to be tired with a little one)

The baby will be between 8-10 weeks old depending on when I give birth.

What do you do about travelling with a newborn? Would I just take the car seat attachment for the pram or would I need to take that and the normal one. Any advice on travel cots at all? How do you book your travel on airlines when the baby hasn't even been born yet? Do you take your prep machine?

Sorry for all the questions, any advice welcome!

I know I have a while yet but it's already stressing me out!

I can't answer all of those but I'd say a stretchy sling is great for the airport. The airlines let you take pram right up to boarding gate. Can't advise re prep machine as I BF but I'd definately feed during take off to help little ones ears.

Where will you be staying will they have a travel cot? Or alternatively you could use the bassinet for the pram if it's safe to do so. I wouldnt leave a small baby in the car seat for too long

I'll try and capture everything.....

Check with your airline on how to book. I had to add the infant after he was born and we had a passport.
Travel with a sling/carrier.
A nappy bag does not count as hand luggage.
Usually you can check in a 3-part travel system (2 part pram and car seat however I would advise on getting a travel buggy suitable for newborns)
You can take liquids needed for the baby.
I breastfed mine so this wasn't needed thankfully (I travel a lot, baby is now 18 months and has been on 40+ flights so we do kind of know what we're doing).
If you end up breastfeeding, practise breastfeeding in the sling/carrier, it makes life a hell of a lot easier. If you bottle feed, I prob wouldn't bother taking a prep machine but a travel sterilisier (I occasionally had to take my breast pump equipment...)
Usually you get travel cots if you pre-book them we just take our own sheets so we know the washing powder is ok.
And most importantly- know your rights when travelling with a baby. You have priority boarding and you should make use of this. Don't hesitate to ask for help.

To make it easier, you may want to consider buying a few ready made formula bottles for the flight. Babies cry on flights when their ears pop and the sucking motion prevents this - having premade formula just for that would be a lot easier and less stressful for you.

Most hotels and airbnbs will have travel cots available so check this in advance. Rather than taking one with you if not, just the carrycot of the pushchair on the floor next to your bed will be adequate.

Babies shouldn’t be in car seats for more than 30mins at a time due to risk of low oxygen levels so really I would say ditch the car seat all together and take the carrycot for the pram.

Definitely check if you have a sling library local to you as this will allow you to “check out” slings and borrow to try a few different ones. Much cheaper than buying one you realise doesn’t suit you/your baby. Our local one is £10 a week to borrow so you may be able to borrow one for the duration of your holiday if you would prefer not to buy.

That’s all I can think of. Have fun!

Thank you everyone for your help!

We are staying in a villa so would either need to take a travel cot. I didn't think of using the section of the pram as like a Moses basket (great idea thank you!)

I was planning on taking bottle formula for the flight and thankfully it's only a 2 hour flight so not too bad.

We're hiring a car whilst over there as where we stay is slightly out of the town - baby would only be in the car whilst travelling from home to the airport and then airport to the villa etc which is no more than half hour ish anyway (we live quite close to Gatwick thankfully!)

I've never travelled with a little one before and I like to be organised so im sure I'll have a list, checked it 100000 times and be packed about 6 weeks before anyway 😂 (will give me something to do if baby is late!)

If anyone has anymore tips, throw them my way :) x

If you don’t find somewhere with a travel cot and end up needing to use your pram carrycot, make sure you have one that is suitable for overnight sleeping (something to do with ventilation I think).

If you haven't bought a pram yet I think bugaboo bee has a good bassinet it's really comfy and the pram itself folds small

Sort out the passport as soon as you can. Take the baby to somewhere like snappy snaps and get them to do the photograph - they have experience and there are some specific rules you have to follow to get the appropriate image.

We purposely bought a pram where the bassinet could be used for occasional overnight sleeping - very handy.
If accommodation has microwave - Milton do steam sterilisation bags - dead easy and take no room in case.
Plan passport application in advance - we had a passport in our hands by the time dd1 was 1 week old (flew at 3 weeks).
If formula feeding - pre-made is your friend! Make sure you have it sometimes before at home as the texture is a bit different. We used to take enough for entire holiday. Made life easier. Can buy at airport (book in advance so you know it’s there) - we obviously planned back ups incase there was an issue. Only ever took prep when holidaying in this country.
Sling makes life easier!

Oh this is so helpful! We’re planing on going on holiday at 8 weeks too. I’m worried about our new pram getting wrecked in the plane hold though 🙈

@Nics23 hopefully it'll be okay because it's the last onto the hold and the first things off! I worry about that too haha!
But so many helpful tips so I feel more at ease now

You can get protective cases/covers for pushchairs and I would recommend. We just took a stroller (daughter was a year) and it was last on and first off and still bent and brake didn’t work. Airline sorted once home but be mindful if it’s a pricey pram xx