Flying with a 3 month old - Help!

[Iggipolka]

I'm going to be flying with my 3 month old for the 1st time. It's a 4 hour non-stop and will just b her and I. Help! Any tips or tricks?

X-posted to the Transportation board.

 

[Erica09M]

Use her car seat on the plane, and she might sleep through part (or most?) of the flight. I'm not sure if you breastfeed or bottle feed, but feeding her will occupy some time. If she was older (6 months), I'd suggest you taking a couple jars of food or cereal for her. But since she's so young, I can't do that.

I don't know, at this age my daughters were really laid back, go with the flow kind of kids. When the seat belt light on the plane is not on, you could hold her and play with her, etc. Then put her back in the car seat when you're required to wear your seat belt (take off, landing, turbulance, etc.) and hopefully she'll get some sleep!

 

[Perditamarie]

Gate check your stroller, so you can use until you board and right when you land, and this is probably gentlist way to transport stroller. Keep in mind that you will have to fold it to go through security, so that could be tricky. If you have a baby wrap, you can wear baby while you deal w/stroller. Even if you wear baby, it is great to use stroller to hold your carry on bag/car seat/luggage through the airports.

Make sure you go to bathroom before you board --otherwise you will need steward/ess to hold infant for you onbard. Also, change baby right before you board...very tricky to do on plane. Plan to breastfeed, bottle feed or use pacifier during take off and landing to help w/ear pressure.

Pack a light carryon, but w/enough supplies (diapers, bottles, etc) to hold you in case you get stuck on runway or lose luggage when you land. Make sure you have a clean shirt in there too, in case of any spit up incidents!

 

[Iggipolka]

Thanks for the advice. I forgot to mention that I'll be holding her on my lap the whole flight. There's no way I can afford to buy a 2nd seat for her.