I’m still very new to the whole “traveling with a baby” thing. We’ve only flown with Prim the one time so far (though, it was 14 hours and 2 flights to get here…), but I figured I’d relay what I’ve learned so far, having flown internationally with a one year old and navigated the schedule shakeup of a nine-hour time change.

Obviously, babies are unpredictable. In case you missed it, our flights from California to Amsterdam were so far from perfect it’s not even funny. (It’s sort of funny now, but in that “OMG remember how terrible it was??” kind of way.) For flights, here’s what I did and what I would do differently the second time around:

• Dressed Prim in fleece jammies
  • We assumed that the flight would be chilly (as they usually are), and since it was an overnight flight, we opted to dress P in warm pajamas. The plane was warmer than expected, and since Prim spent a lot of the flight flipping out, she was really warm. If I had to do it over, I would dress her in lightweight cotton jammies.
• Between the three of us we carried on a diaper bag, two backpacks, two suitcases, and the stroller
  • Next time we’re carrying on as little as possible. I’m talking the diaper bag and THAT’S IT.
• Booked Prim her own seat and brought her carseat to sit in
  • Having an extra seat is always great, if you can swing it. I assumed we would need the extra seat for the long flight, thinking that flying 14 hours with a baby in my arms would be torture. I didn’t count on the fact that Prim would end up being on my lap anyway because she would be falling apart the entire flight.
    • If you can book the extra seat, I think it’s always a plus, even if you don’t end up really using it. As for the carseat, it’s been helpful to have it here in Amsterdam (since we would have had nothing to put her in once we got the taxi that took us to our hotel), but I can’t say it was particularly helpful during the flight.
• Booked a red-eye
  • Everything I had read was like “FLY WHEN THEY SLEEP!” which I really took to heart. I didn’t think about the fact that Prim could end up not wanting to sleep and being a complete mess because she should have been sleeping. So, in the end, if you’re changing timezones (especially more than 3 hours), I’d say book whatever flight you want. Because if you fly when they’re awake normally and they fall asleep — awesome (and who cares because their schedule is going to be totally jacked by the time change anyway), or if they don’t fall asleep, then hopefully they’re not in that “I’m so tired I’m insane” stage.
• Brought new toys, new books, and downloaded kid shows on the Kindle.
  • These bought us small amounts of time (way less than anticipated), but I’d still do it again. Word to the wise though, if you have a baby who has never watched TV (like Prim), don’t assume they will love whatever you download for them. The only show she would watch for longer than 2 minutes was Mister Rogers. I think if I had thought about it more, I would have downloaded videos of animals (especially dogs) because that’s what she can identify and likes to watch in real life. I didn’t realize that having not watched any TV would mean that she would be interested for like 30 seconds and then get right back to losing it.
• Made sure I was still breastfeeding when we flew
  • Best thing I ever did. Can’t recommend it enough.
• Didn’t use drugs to calm P down
  • I know this is controversial, but damn Daniel, I’m gonna be packing that Benadryl for the next go-round.

For our international flights, I did TONS of research. There was a fair amount of advice out there (and most of it actually made flying with a baby sound pretty easy and doable). And if Prim were under 6 months, I think it would have actually been pretty manageable. Unfortunately, Prim is still in that window of time where she’s on a schedule, completely mobile, but not yet walking, which makes flying infinitely more complicated.

If you have a non-mobile baby, they are most likely still pretty young and will hopefully chill out wherever they’re usually comfortable (whether that’s in the carseat, in a carrier, or laid out on your lap across the seats). If I were flying with Prim when she was younger, I would have definitely packed one of the baby wraps that she loved to sleep in as an infant (my recommendations for baby wraps can be found in this post). Some airlines also offer bassinets (especially on long/international flights) which you can request. I requested a bassinet for Prim when we booked our tickets, but found out later that in order to actually reserve the bassinet (and, y’know, be in the seats near the bassinet), we had to call the airline’s help desk to get our seats changed. We flew United to Amsterdam and asked about the bassinet when we were checking in and were told that we could move our seats, but it would be an additional fee for all three seats we had booked, because the seats near the bassinet were technically “Economy Plus” seating. Everything I had read said that the baby’s seat and my seat would be free to move, and any additional people we wanted to move would require paying the upgrade fee. I didn’t feel like getting into it with the check-in guy (though I probably should have), and so just opted to keep our regular economy seats. However, anytime I have the option to upgrade to any additional space in the future when flying with kids I AM TAKING IT. Flying economy is ridiculous enough (and, ahem, I’m 5’2 on a good day, sooo yeah…), but trying to wrangle a wiggly child with zero inches of space is just plain torture.

Just remember, even the best laid plans can go awry when kids are involved. It’s good to be prepared, but sometimes all of that preparation means absolutely nothing — sometimes your kid just falls apart. Remember that the plane will land eventually and you’ll most likely never see any of those people sitting near you on the flight ever again. Light at the end of the tunnel!