I should put out a disclaimer in this post just for clarity that when I say this is our first experience traveling with an infant, I mean air travel (we have taken weekend trips driving different places but to me throwing everything in the car requires a lot less brain power) and that we have only done it once! So I am by no means an expert, but this post might help you see what you might want to do or not when traveling with your baby for the first time!
Craig and I were invited to one of my best friend’s weddings in Philadelphia and I was also a bridesmaid in the wedding. The wedding was child-free so I knew alongside planning what I needed to bring for Emma that I also needed to figure out child care. I couldn’t just leave her back at home with grandparents because I’m breastfeeding and she has not quite taken to the bottle enough to where I’d feel comfortable leaving her. Not sure even if she did if I’d want to leave her already! (#separationanxiety) So first off I’ll answer a question I got about childcare if the baby was not invited to the wedding since that was our scenario. I was lucky enough that my mom was willing to also fly from North Carolina up to Philly to stay with us and babysit Emma while we were out doing wedding festivities. I’m not really sure what other option I would have had if we didn’t bring a grandparent with us to babysit because while I’m sure there are lots of perfectly great babysitters in Philly, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable leaving her with a total stranger. New mom here and a really little baby! For reference Emma was 7 weeks when we did this trip. Otherwise, I might not have been feeling ready to go.
Next up, we were flying since the drive from Charlotte to Philadelphia is about 10 hours (woof) so I had to figure out how to air travel with an infant. I read Jen’s post here with a lot of her tips (def recommend reading hers!) and I immediately knew that I wanted us to get TSA pre-check. Not having to take everything off and out of your bag seemed like one step I was really willing to pay $85 for! Also, side note, if you have a Capital One Venture card, they reimburse you the cost of your TSA pre-check fee! I had no idea until I went and paid, and later that day got an email that they were reimbursing me the cost as a perk SO if you have that card, use it. I highly recommend doing TSA pre-check if you can. Otherwise just build in even more extra time at the airport to account for security and all the baby things.
Another thing you need to make sure you do is have “traveling with infant” on your boarding pass. I didn’t know this originally when I bought my ticket so I called American Airlines and had them add it for me as well as my TSA Known Traveler Number once that had been issued to me.
Here are the “big” baby things we took:
- Stroller (Uppababy VISTA) + travel bag
- Car Seat (Uppababy MESA) + travel bag
- DockATot
We checked one bag and inside it we put the DockATot, a pack of diapers, and some other random things we couldn’t fit into our carry ons. We tried to pack as light as possible but turns out that’s nearly impossible with a child LOL.
When we went through security here’s what it was like: I wore Emma in my Solly wrap and they did not make me take her out (again, TSA pre-check. Regular security might make you take baby out of the wrap, I’m not sure.) . We put the car seat onto the x-ray belt (turning it upside down makes it fit) and then they will instruct you to wheel the stroller through. They do a manual check of the stroller and we just walked through a metal detector.
We chose to just gate-check the stroller/car seat and took the travel bags with us to our gate. There we put them in their travel bags and got the gate check tags from the gate attendant. We picked them up at the gate after both flights (not at baggage claim.) FYI strollers/car seats do not count as one of your carry ons and you can gate check or regular check them for free.
Here are a couple questions you all sent in…
What was the flying experience like? It was pretty good! I wore her in the Solly wrap the entire time and she didn’t wake up at all. We had morning flights both ways and I knew this would be better because she usually has strong naps in the morning so we did that and hoped for the best! Also I didn’t have to take her out of the wrap during the flight. Jen’s post mentions that they don’t let you wear babies and you instead have to hold them, but they may have changed the rules on this because the flight attendants didn’t say anything to me about it. A lot of people said it is really helpful to nurse or feed babies/give them a pacifier during takeoff or landing to help their ears from the pressure. I planned to nurse her if she woke up but didn’t since she was asleep.
Did you gate check or regular check the stroller? Gate check! Glad we did too, because on the way back the airline didn’t get our checked bag onto our flight, so when we arrived home it was still in Philly. Had we done that with the car seat, I don’t think we would have been going home!
Car seat base? Our MESA car seat doesn’t need a base which is nice, so we didn’t take one.
Did you use a travel bag? Yep! Linked them above. They are worth it and if you register your products with Uppababy, they are covered in their travel protection program if the items get damaged during travel. We had these on our baby registry and I recommend doing that if you plan to travel a bunch!
Do you need birth certificate? We did not, no. I’ve heard some times airlines will want to see this to prove your child is under 2 years old but I think for small babies it’s obvious they aren’t 2 yet. If your child looks close to 2 you might want to bring it just in case. I’ve heard Southwest is pretty strict about this just from other stories, FYI! We generally fly American and in our case did not need a birth certificate but again, it’s obvious my baby is not 2.
Where did she sleep in the hotel? We brought the DockaTot and hoped for the best! She naps in it but it was her first time not sleeping in her SNOO. We didn’t get her down til about midnight both nights, but once she was asleep she stayed asleep! We requested a crib but I just chose to do the DockATot and she was also in this swaddle.
Childcare while you were at the wedding? My mom came to babysit. See above!
That’s about it! Let me know if you have other questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Also, if you have any other tips leave them in the comments below!
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xo,
Bess
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