Surviving Long Hauls With a Baby

We had an unexpected trip back to the U.S. last week for a funeral.  While the circumstances were extremely sad, it was nice to see friends and family that we hadn’t seen in a while.  This also marked the first long haul trip that Cora and I did by ourselves as Mark had to stay in Switzerland to work.  And it was also the 3rd of 5 trips we are making back to the U.S. this year alone.  To top that off, Cora is arguably at the most difficult age to travel with.  She is crawling everywhere and on the verge of walking.  She does not want to sit still and is too young to be reasoned with.

Every child is different, and this trip was still not easy, but these are my tricks that helped us get through it.

1. Pack early.  I start packing days before we leave.  Not necessarily having everything in a suitcase packed, but setting things aside that I don’t want to forget.  Life is hectic and it’s easy to forget stuff. I use the spare bedroom as a staging area so it’s very easy to just throw things in there that I want to be sure to take.  I don’t want to take too much, but I want to be sure to have stuff that we will need.
2. Pack light.  I needed to be able to get all our stuff from one place to the next by myself.  We checked one suitcase and the car seat. The car seat is one we use exclusively for travel.  It has zero bells and zero whistles, but it is extremely lightweight and I put it in a travel bag with backpack straps and used the straps to attach it on top of the rolling suitcase.  I carried on a backpack and my purse.  I didn’t bring a stroller this time because I knew we wouldn’t need it in Denver and Cora is only about 20 lbs, so still manageable in the Ergobaby.  We will need it on the next trip, though, so we have a small, lightweight travel stroller that fits in the overhead bin since her everyday stroller is the size of a bus.
3. Snacks.  Snacks for hunger and snacks for activity.  I had tons of snacks including a number of things that Cora had never had before as well as old favorites.
4. Screens.  Cora is just over one year old and screen time is not recommended until at least two years.  On a normal day at home we don’t watch any TV, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I bought an Amazon Fire Kids Edition when Cora was only 6 months old in anticipation of using it for travel.  It doesn’t really captivate her attention yet (chewing on the protective case is actually her preferred method of using it), but she will settle down to watch downloaded episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Baby Einstein if she is really tired.  Since she’s pretty bad at napping on the go (too much distraction!), using it to get her over the hump to settle down and actually get to a point where she can take a nap really does help.
5. Other activities.  Since watching a movie just isn’t going to work yet, we had other things to do on the plane.  I bought several sheets of stickers and a blank notebook.  I had her favorite books since she really likes to turn the pages.  I had a felt activity board since she’s pretty obsessed with velcro.
6. Pick your battles.  Stuff that normally wouldn’t happen at home can happen on the road if it doesn’t hurt anyone and makes life easier.  I let her crawl around an empty area of the terminal and get filthy.  At least she burned off some energy and we just washed up in the bathroom.  She ate cereal instead of her meal on the plane. Fine – at least something went in her belly and it’s better than cookies.  And I stick that pacifier in lightning quick on the road when at home they are mainly used for going to sleep.
7. Extra clothes, for the baby and for you.  I had two spare outfits for Cora and an extra shirt for myself.  And sure enough, once we got to Denver and were on the rental car shuttle bus, Cora threw up all over both of us.  We were at the end of our journey at that point, so technically I didn’t need the change of clothes, but you just never know.
8. Downgrade your seats.  This is the first time that I actually asked to be downgraded, but hear me out.  Airlines will give away upgrades to fill up those premium seats in the front of the cabin to keep their status holders happy.  I’ve been a status holder for many years and you are not going to sit next to an empty seat up there.  I gave up some extra legroom, but moving back allowed us to get a whole row to ourselves since the flight was not full.  Cora slept much better stretched out across the seats than she would have on my lap and I even got to lay down with her for a while.
9. Letter of consent.  This is one that I had luckily heard about from one of the various expat mom groups that I’m part of on Facebook.  If you are traveling abroad with your child without the other parent, have a letter of consent ready.  Of course this is not always possible for everyone, so check online to see what you need if your circumstances are different.  I did have a letter that Mark signed and I had a copy of his passport just in case.  And I was actually asked for it when I went through customs in the U.S.  The border officers will do this to prevent child abduction.  I have heard that they scrutinize people with babies more since they are easier to abduct, but I didn’t mind being questioned because I was prepared.

So there you go.  We survived.  Tired, yes, but happy to have gone.