Train journey with 5-6 month old baby

[Beachy10]

Hi, our baby is nearly 5 months old and we're considering a trip to London in the next few weeks to visit family. I just can't get my head around the best way to do it. The train journey will be 3 hours. We've got a Mamas and Papas Ocarro which is pretty bulky when it folds down and I worry that there'll be nowhere to store it on the train. I've started looking into getting a second hand lightweight stroller but our baby is used to facing us rather than facing outwards. My husband thinks we could just take a sling and no pram at all.

We do have a car seat that can fit on the pram frame so I guess that's an option too. It probably shouldn't be as complicated as this and maybe I'm overthinking it all.

I'd be interested to know what has worked for others. He's a really wriggly baby so not likely to sit on my knee for the journey.

Thanks

If it's a 3.5 hour journey it might be worth your while getting a family and friends rail card to save money. This means that even though your baby is under 5 you buy him a child ticket and that means you can get an extra seat.

If it were me I would just take a sling no buggy but I did that all the time anyway. Car seat can be handy but only really worth bringing if a) you reserve a seat to put it on and he will go to sleep in it for a bit b) you need it for car travel at the other end. Otherwise I wouldn't bother.

The two tricky aspects of train travel with small babies are nappy changes (perfectly doable but take lots of changes in case of delays or unexpected extras) and all the paraphernalia of babies. After a while you get used to packing light but it's hard to work out how at first. Ask the family you're visiting to borrow kit for you if possible so you don't have to carry it. Practice packing as light as possible everywhere you go from now on. Don't skimp too much on spare clothes though. Take spares for you and dh in case baby pukes on you.

Pick up at least one free newspaper for mopping up spills and letting the baby grab and scrunch as an easy plaything. You can keep a baby quite well amused with books and songs and tickle games (whisper the songs right by his ear so you don't feel self conscious). Of he's eating food by the time you go some crafty finger food will probably last a long time.

Trains and babies are awesome so I would definitely choose it over the car. It's worth researching if there are any big football matches or race days that might mean there are more crowds than usual, if you have any choice about the dates and times you travel

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Thanks for all of your ideas. I'm quite good at packing light but like you say can never underestimate the amount of baby clothes needed 😬. I like the idea of booking another seat I think that would make things much easier. It looks like we won't be travelling until after Christmas now so hopefully little one will be less wriggly and sitting up more steadily ( wishful thinking)

Go now if you can, the more mobile they get the harder it will be. My 9 month old stole an old lady’s purse on her first train ride.
Go at nap time, put him on the nipple, hope for a nice long nap. Otherwise walking up and down the train with the sling.
Baby banz are useful because the announcements are loud.

People take their babies on the train in London in a pram all the time so that isn’t an issue, I use to take my icandy double on the train it was never a problem there is 2 of you so I wouldn’t worry about steps etc, as for where it will go on the train I usually park it next to the doors but on the opposite side to where they open, if a station happens to be on the other side (not often) people just walk past it as there is still enough room never had anyone complain, you’re overthinking the pram situation it’s a non issue really, I wouldn’t take just a sling but I might be biased because I hated them so wouldn’t want to be stuck with one all day, they are really for short journeys like nipping to the shop imo.

We always travel by train. We had a Mountain Buggy Pod seat when DS was a baby. Screwed it into the table and he was much happier than in a seat.