My great grandma is 93 years old and lives in Washington State. Last time I visited her was in my early teens. So it was time to make the trip! And that meant it would be Sarai’s first plane ride!! Yikes! As soon as plane tickets were secured the anxiety and nervousness set in!
Y’all my 16 month old toddler doesn’t sit still. Moana and Secret Life of Pets keep her attention for maybe 20 mins but with lots of ups and downs off the couch/ bed and snacks have to be involved. So that being said unless she’s asleep, she’s moving! Instantly I started researching baby’s first flight ideas, how to keep your baby calm during the flight, etc. I found some great ideas including making little activity bags, getting a few new toys, and using a tablet for favorite movies and shows. Of course I prepared ALL of those things just in case I needed to use every trick in the book to get her to sit down. Luckily the flight would only be a little under 2 hrs, which was perfect for her first one!
Packing for any trip I always over pack! Clothes , diapers, snacks, toys, and basically all of Sarai’s belongings just in case we need them. Mind you we were only going for the weekend. Including all of those things now we had to also bring a stroller (small umbrella style) and a car seat! We had two checked bags, a backpack for myself, her dad (Gabriel) and a little Moana backpack of her own filled with new goodies to distract her!
We had to wake Sarai up early (which is always a gamble) to get to the airport in time for our flight with some cushion. Waking her up early we could either have a super emotional and dramatic baby or she will be fine and maybe a little extra tired and take a nap early! Getting to the airport was great, check in was easy, we got to our gate with about 20 mins to relax. I made sure to buy some milk so that way during take off I could give her a bottle to help some with the ear pressure (which I was so worried about, having her be effected and have a fussy baby the whole flight). The plane was so small we had to walk out to it and we piled all of our stuff into these two small seats along with the toddler. Luckily my mom was also on the trip with us and was in the seat across from us for reinforcement.
Sarai is a people person and being on this cool plane with all these new faces she loved shouting and waving hi over and over at anyone who would listen to her! She looked out the window and waved bye-bye to the trees ( she loves nature and animals). She drank some milk while sitting on my lap, watched a little Moana and FELL ASLEEP in the first 20 mins or the flight!!! I literally could not believe it and stayed as still as possible and thanked God for this miracle!! I was stunned. She slept the whole flight in my arms until we got our bags in Washington! All of my traveling fears went out the window and I was so thankful that she handled it all soo well.
And you won’t believe this, on the way back she fell asleep before take off and woke up just before landing. She was excited and enjoyed her time!
Anyways to recap, my anxiousness and nerves caused me to be worried, stressed and I literally had nothing to be worried about at all! But it did help to be overly prepared, and to travel with multiple people to help carry bags!
Now we are ready to take more trips and possibly even try longer flights soon!
xoxo
M
Wanted to share some of my favorite Pins from Pintrest on Flying with your baby tips!
Not So Glamourriss 