I’m a nervous flyer. Always have been. It can be a little crippling, because I wish I had the drive to travel more… and I hope that I will get over it eventually. I really only go to Florida, and have gone to Vegas twice (my sister lives there!) But this is a conversation for another day. Today, I wanted to share our first experience traveling/flying with Willow! We visited Delray, which is luckily only a 3-hr flight from here. It actually worked out pretty perfectly in terms of timing, because Willow eats every 3 hours. I was able to feed her on the way up and during descent to prevent her ears from popping. Thankfully!
But, already being nervous, I was pretty much losing sleep over this flight before we went. I couldn’t stop stressing about all the things that could go wrong – will she scream the entire time? Will there be turbulence? Will her ears hurt? Will she have a blowout? Ahhh… so many questions and what ifs, but at the end of the day, there was nothing that I could do but make sure I was packed and prepared. And honestly, all the negatives were outweighed by the positives: seeing my parents, getting out of the cold, and enjoying 10 days in the sun with our family of three.
I’m happy to report that everything went great on the way down – Willow was literally an angel – she slept the whole way to airport, through security, woke up when boarding, ate, knocked out for 2.5 hours, and then ate during descent. On the way back from FL, we didn’t get as lucky. She was pretty fussy for a good portion of the flight. She only slept for an hour or so, and was up and wanting to be entertained the entire time. Thankfully, I packed an arsenal of toys, books, etc. My anxiety was pretty much through the roof each time she would scream, but my husband is a saint and really took over when things got hectic. You guys have no idea how grateful I was for that!!
Good or bad, we did it and we had an amazing trip… and guess what? I don’t have to see any of those people on the flight ever again (you know, the ones who I was sure were hating life when Willow was screaming her head off).
Like I mentioned already, I packed really well to be prepared for worst case scenario. I wanted to share my carry-on packing list for our 4 month old. I feel really good about what we had on hand. It looks like a lot, but it actually wasn’t bad and all fit in our backpack diaper bag. I found this one on Amazon, and it is so spacious. No complaints at all!
Here’s what we packed.
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WHAT TO PACK IN YOUR CARRY-ON WHEN TRAVELING WITH A 4-MONTH OLD
- Ergobaby carrier (I didn’t really pack this, I just wore it through airport and security)
- (3) 9-oz bottles of breast milk (I packed one for each hour, but only needed 2)
- Swaddle blanket
- (3) bibs
- (3) burp rags
- (6) diapers
- Package of baby wipes (great for baby, but also disinfecting your area)
- Pacifier
- Small book
- Extra sleeper and onesie
- (5) toys – one musical, one light up, o-ball, rattle, and teething
- (3) pacifier clips (attached these to her toys to avoid them falling on the dirty floor!)
- Security blanket (optional if your baby has one – I think this helped give Willow a familiar smell)
- Baby birth certificate (I needed this traveling Southwest)
- Nosefrida (you just never know)
- Munchkin Arm and Hammer trash bags (in case of dirty clothes, diapers, etc.)
- Travel tissue pack
- Travel hand sanitizer
- Lip balm
- Extra shirt for myself
- Ipad
- Pen
- Cell + charger
- Gum
- Wallet
- Sunglasses
- Tylenol (for us and baby)
- (2) Luna bars
I hope this helps other moms out there who aren’t sure where to start. This is what worked for us and our 4-month old! xx bianca
