In the first 18 months of her life, Cora has traveled close to 60,000 miles by plane, and several thousand by car and plane. So, some of my friends have pegged me as a go-to person for traveling with baby advice. I don't know that there is any perfect way to travel with a baby or toddler, but since it's an intimidating prospect, I thought I'd offer a few posts (this being the first) on my "advice," such as it is. Keep in mind that every child's different. Every time you travel, you'll learn something you should do next time.
By Plane
The biggest struggle for plane travel is baggage, in my opinion. You need to be able to get through security, boarding, and settling into your seat without too much baggage juggling. I usually pack a small rolling suitcase (my luggage), a small duffel (Cora's), a diaper back/purse, and a backpack. I carry Cora in a Baby Ergo carrier. I used a Baby Bjorn until she was about 18 pounds, then I went to the Ergo. A baby carrier is an absolute necessity, especially if you're traveling alone with the baby. I try to avoid taking a stroller or car seat, but if I'll need them at my destination, I check them at the check-in counter. I also check my rolling bag and duffel. (Being Gold status at American means my bags are free, so be informed of any checked bag fees. Stroller and car seat should generally be free, on any airline.)
While at the check-in counter, I ask if there are any other seats available that might give me some extra room, like two empty seats together. As long as you're nice, the airline employees will usually be nice to you! American often reserves a row for handicapped or baby travelers, so it's definitely worthwhile to ask.
I head to security with Cora in the Ergo, a diaper bag/purse, and backpack. Be aware that you'll need to take off baby's shoes and jackets, as well as your own. You'll also have to take the baby out of the carrier and run the carrier through the x-ray machine. You can take liquids, like milk and juice, but store them in a bottle or sippy cup. TSA will run a chemical test on them, but it's totally sanitary and saf. If you're flying international, most airports will also allow baby liquids, but the UK will require that you take a sip of any liquids you bring on, to show that they don't contain hazardous material. Don't ask me why the UK just doesn't do a chemical test!
Once at the gate, I make sure all both of my bags are ready for the plane. I know I'll put the diaper bag in the overhead bin and the backpack under the seat in front of me. I make sure the backpack has these items:
-full sippy cup
-bottle, ready to go
-small tupperware of snacks (strawberries or cereal)
-cheese stick, Cora's favorite filling snack
-several books for Cora, especially liftable flap books
-small spiral notebook and pencil, for Cora to draw
-stickers, for when the drawing gets boring
-other plane toys - I'll post separately on toy strategies
-a blanket
-my book
-my cell phone
The diaper bag has the other essentials that I want with me but that I won't need access to immediately on take off. If I have to change her diaper on the plane, I'll have to get up anyway, so I leave her diaper-changing things in the overhead compartment, along with:
-a dose of children's Benadryl - you never know!
-extra juice
-extra snacks
-empty bottle
-change of clothes
-tissues
-my purse items, like wallet and camera
Once I make sure everything's in place, I'm ready to board the plane, with Cora in the Ergo. I find my seat, put the diaper bag above, put the sippy cup in the seat pocket, slide the backpack underneath, and plunk myself into the seat. Whew - we made it! I take Cora out of the Ergo, and set her on my lap.
If you get this far, you're as ready as ready can be, and now it's just a matter of surviving. Small babies will need to nurse or suck on a bottle at take off and landing to pop their ears, although I think take off is most important. Plan carefully, so that your baby will still be sucking 5 minutes after the wheels have lifted from the ground. If you're nursing, heaven help you, because it's hard in those narrow seats! But it can be done. I was never good at keeping the shawl on while nursing on the plane, so you might have to just do your best and be okay with showing a little boob. Other passengers will live, and no one will be obnoxious enough to complain about you nursing a baby. Older babies (8 months+) can do just fine with a sippy cup to pop their ears.
If baby falls asleep during take off or landing, I say leave him asleep! Even when Cora was small, 9 times out of 10, if she fell asleep during pressure change, she was totally fine when she woke up.
The time between take off and landing is the real challenge. All I can say is the difficulty depends on your child. If your child can walk and is used to going wherever she wants, whenever she wants, you're going to have the flight from hell. If you have training time before you leave on your trip, schedule time during the day for your child to sit in her high chair for 20-30 minutes. She must stay there, but you can sit next to her, giving her books to read or toys to play with. If she can't stay in a high chair for 20-30 minutes, well, you have a problem. Try to do this every day until your flight. If she can stay in the high chair for 20-30 minutes, you will probably be alright on the plane. All children have a short attention span, though, so you'll need to rotate toys every 10 minutes or so on the plane.
Once you can move about the cabin, you can take baby for a walk, but don't plan on being able to do that the whole flight, because flight attendants and other passengers need to use the aisle too, and there's rarely a place to stand that's out of the way.
Hopefully, you'll only have to entertain baby for up to an hour before it's nap time. Cora still takes 2 naps a day, so whether it's a morning or afternoon flight, she generally sleeps 60-90 minutes on the plane. If it's a long flight, and your kiddo can't calm down, I think it's totally okay to resort to children' Benadryl. If under 2, give a half dose. When Cora was little, we'd put a half dose in her take-off bottle. It makes them tired quickly, and cranky, so they'll probably cry as their settling down, but if the crying lasts fewer than 5 minutes, most passengers don't mind too much.
We'll talk plane toys strategy and packing strategy another day, but those are my first thoughts for traveling with baby by plane.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Hoboken vs. Brooklyn
Today, I had to go back to Hoboken for some miscellaneous errands (pick up dry cleaning, return cable box, etc), and the 5 hour trip gave me some time to think about life in Hoboken, and how life in Brooklyn is different so far.
Hoboken is..
..small and easy to navigate. (It's only a square mile, remember.)
..car-friendly, in that many apartment buildings have parking.
.modern, or apartments there at least have the modern conveniences, like dishwasher, disposal, central A/C washer/dryer.
..safe enough that I felt comfortable walking about a mile to church Sunday evenings.
..cheaper than living in Manhattan.
..baby-friendly, since at least half of Hobokenites have kids.
As a mom in Hoboken, I liked having my car. I liked driving to Wal-Mart/Sams, Pier 1, and Ikea. However, it also meant that I usually couldn't walk to the things I needed. The grocery store was just a little too far (8-9 blocks, I'm a wuss, you don't have to tell me). The hair salons in our neighborhood were way too expensive. I didn't even know where a hardware store was. The closest coffee was Dunkin Donuts, and we were near any restaurants, either. Granted, we lived in the deserted Northwest corner, but that's where the good deals were. All the haps are in the Southeast corner of Hoboken, but it's expensive to live down there, and you still aren't in the city - you have to take the PATH, the subway-like train, and then transfer to a subway. Heck, we didn't even live near the PATH, it took me at least 25 minutes just to get to the PATH, then 20 minutes on the PATH, then transfer to a subway. You're talking 60-90 minutes from our apartment to a location in the city.
However, I will say that I liked the open sidewalks, the park 3 blocks away, the friendly neighbors (when I saw them), the elevator in our building, and having a washer/dryer in the apartment. I also liked our leisurely weekend afternoons, when we could walk to the water and see the Manhattan skyline - you can't beat Hoboken's view of the city.
Brooklyn is..
..close to the city. We live within three blocks of four subway lines, which means that I can walk to the one I need and take it to my destination, without transferring. Of course, we do live with the sound of one of those subway lines, rumbling underneath the floorboards, but it just sounds like distant thunder...underground.
..cool all on its own. With Prospect Park, the Botanic Gardens, the Central Public Library, a home-grown brewery, and more bars/restaurants than you can shake a stick at, Brooklyn is a tourist destination.
..full of neighborhood conveniences. There's a little market down the street, or I can walk to the giant (seriously, Texas-sized) grocery store four-five blocks away. There's a pharmacy across the street, a hardware store across the street, a laundromat around the corner, an awesome nail place around the corner, it goes on.
..expensive! Eesh, we are paying through the nose to live here.
..part of New York City, and that means you pay city taxes, grr.
..old, which is a plus and a minus. It's a plus because I love, love our tin-impression ceilings, decorative archways, and aged wood floors. It's a minus because we don't have a dishwasher, garbage disposal, central A/C, or washer/dryer.
..totally hipster, which is also a plus and a minus. Hipsters love local beer, tasty food, fresh produce, and crafty fairs (all of which I love too), but they do weird things like raise chickens in the tiny brownstone backyards.
As a mom in Brooklyn, I love all the kid-friendly activities that are literally in our neighborhood. I haven't gone to any of them yet, because we're still unpacking and traveling quite a bit, but there's music in the park, story time at the library, and yoga for toddlers down the street. I love the Burrito Bar across the street, with its delicious happy hour margaritas and super kid-friendly service. They tie a balloon to the highchair for your kid to play with! I love the fantastic coffee shop down the street. I love that we now live between two parks, one on the way to the Texas-sized grocery store, and one on the way to boutique shopping.
However, I do not love lugging the stroller up and down stairs all the time. My arms are going to be awesome in a few weeks. We live on the second floor, so all our groceries and laundry go up and down, up and down, along with the baby and the stroller. Speaking of which, I do not like doing laundry at a laundromat or washing all the dishes by hand. I also am still uncomfortable with out my trusty SUV. We had to do Ikea exchanges (twice!), and we had to hire movers to pick up, take to Ikea, and bring back. That gets inconvenient and pricey.
So, I'd say Brooklyn wins, which is good because now that we're close to unpacked, there's no way I'm moving again any time soon!
Hoboken is..
..small and easy to navigate. (It's only a square mile, remember.)
..car-friendly, in that many apartment buildings have parking.
.modern, or apartments there at least have the modern conveniences, like dishwasher, disposal, central A/C washer/dryer.
..safe enough that I felt comfortable walking about a mile to church Sunday evenings.
..cheaper than living in Manhattan.
..baby-friendly, since at least half of Hobokenites have kids.
As a mom in Hoboken, I liked having my car. I liked driving to Wal-Mart/Sams, Pier 1, and Ikea. However, it also meant that I usually couldn't walk to the things I needed. The grocery store was just a little too far (8-9 blocks, I'm a wuss, you don't have to tell me). The hair salons in our neighborhood were way too expensive. I didn't even know where a hardware store was. The closest coffee was Dunkin Donuts, and we were near any restaurants, either. Granted, we lived in the deserted Northwest corner, but that's where the good deals were. All the haps are in the Southeast corner of Hoboken, but it's expensive to live down there, and you still aren't in the city - you have to take the PATH, the subway-like train, and then transfer to a subway. Heck, we didn't even live near the PATH, it took me at least 25 minutes just to get to the PATH, then 20 minutes on the PATH, then transfer to a subway. You're talking 60-90 minutes from our apartment to a location in the city.
However, I will say that I liked the open sidewalks, the park 3 blocks away, the friendly neighbors (when I saw them), the elevator in our building, and having a washer/dryer in the apartment. I also liked our leisurely weekend afternoons, when we could walk to the water and see the Manhattan skyline - you can't beat Hoboken's view of the city.
Brooklyn is..
..close to the city. We live within three blocks of four subway lines, which means that I can walk to the one I need and take it to my destination, without transferring. Of course, we do live with the sound of one of those subway lines, rumbling underneath the floorboards, but it just sounds like distant thunder...underground.
..cool all on its own. With Prospect Park, the Botanic Gardens, the Central Public Library, a home-grown brewery, and more bars/restaurants than you can shake a stick at, Brooklyn is a tourist destination.
..full of neighborhood conveniences. There's a little market down the street, or I can walk to the giant (seriously, Texas-sized) grocery store four-five blocks away. There's a pharmacy across the street, a hardware store across the street, a laundromat around the corner, an awesome nail place around the corner, it goes on.
..expensive! Eesh, we are paying through the nose to live here.
..part of New York City, and that means you pay city taxes, grr.
..old, which is a plus and a minus. It's a plus because I love, love our tin-impression ceilings, decorative archways, and aged wood floors. It's a minus because we don't have a dishwasher, garbage disposal, central A/C, or washer/dryer.
..totally hipster, which is also a plus and a minus. Hipsters love local beer, tasty food, fresh produce, and crafty fairs (all of which I love too), but they do weird things like raise chickens in the tiny brownstone backyards.
As a mom in Brooklyn, I love all the kid-friendly activities that are literally in our neighborhood. I haven't gone to any of them yet, because we're still unpacking and traveling quite a bit, but there's music in the park, story time at the library, and yoga for toddlers down the street. I love the Burrito Bar across the street, with its delicious happy hour margaritas and super kid-friendly service. They tie a balloon to the highchair for your kid to play with! I love the fantastic coffee shop down the street. I love that we now live between two parks, one on the way to the Texas-sized grocery store, and one on the way to boutique shopping.
However, I do not love lugging the stroller up and down stairs all the time. My arms are going to be awesome in a few weeks. We live on the second floor, so all our groceries and laundry go up and down, up and down, along with the baby and the stroller. Speaking of which, I do not like doing laundry at a laundromat or washing all the dishes by hand. I also am still uncomfortable with out my trusty SUV. We had to do Ikea exchanges (twice!), and we had to hire movers to pick up, take to Ikea, and bring back. That gets inconvenient and pricey.
So, I'd say Brooklyn wins, which is good because now that we're close to unpacked, there's no way I'm moving again any time soon!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Colorful New Apartment
My amazing sister slept on our couch for two weeks (!) so she could be here to help pack, paint, and babysit. Let's just say she has a great, big IOU coupon coming in the mail!
I've moved many times, so the packing isn't very exciting, but the painting, now that was exciting. The new apartment has three spaces, which we're using as living, dining, and library, separated by decorative, flat arches. The ceiling of the living room has an impressed tin ceiling that was painted white. We knew we wanted to accentuate the arches and the tin ceiling and that we wanted color. This is terribly mean of me, but I'm not posting pictures of the actual rooms just yet. Once I clear out the boxes, I'll post pictures. In the meantime, here are the colors from the Benjamin Moore Historic Colors line:
Pictures of the actual rooms coming sometime, but unpacking with a baby is a little slow-going!
I've moved many times, so the packing isn't very exciting, but the painting, now that was exciting. The new apartment has three spaces, which we're using as living, dining, and library, separated by decorative, flat arches. The ceiling of the living room has an impressed tin ceiling that was painted white. We knew we wanted to accentuate the arches and the tin ceiling and that we wanted color. This is terribly mean of me, but I'm not posting pictures of the actual rooms just yet. Once I clear out the boxes, I'll post pictures. In the meantime, here are the colors from the Benjamin Moore Historic Colors line:
Living Room, Wythe  |
Library, Stratton  |
Dining Room, Georgian Brick  |
And then for the master bedroom, which also has a decorative, impressioned tin ceiling, we went with Rockport Gray.  |
Pictures of the actual rooms coming sometime, but unpacking with a baby is a little slow-going!
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