Air Travel with Infant - would you do it?
BoxerMomma24
member
I'm expecting my first child in July - DH's 2nd (his first is 21 years old). My MIL and her mother (baby's great-grandmother) live in Fl. DH and his daughter have planned her college graduation gift to be a trip to Disney and she's bring a GF. They sprang it on me the other day. DH & I previously had a conversation re: flying with a baby and I told him I'm against it. I've traveled many times via air and see flying with an infant as stressful for the mom and not enjoyable for other passengers on the plane. (The flight itself would be approx 3 hrs.) I've already told DH that going to FL after the graduation - late May - would likely be too hot for LO and I'm not bring him/her to any park at 10 months old. He agreed about not bringing LO to amusement parks, but thinks we can relax by the pool at the resort.
I understand that he wants his mom and grandmother to see the baby (MIL intends to fly up here after the baby is born) but I just don't see this trip as any type of "vacation". I'll be caring for the baby and knowing how his family is always late for everything, they'll throw the baby off it's schedule. For instance they'll plan for dinner at 6pm and you won't eat until 10pm. They even showed up late for our wedding, and they were all in it. It's completely beyond fashionably late - they're inconsiderate. I guess another part of it is after I take my maternity leave, I'll likely have very little vacation time left. I'd rather save that to take LO on local day trips or save them for snow days for the winter when daycare is closed.
Any thoughts on what to do? At what age do you consider a baby/child ready to fly?
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Re: Air Travel with Infant - would you do it?
I have flown with a 7 month old, a 2 yr old, & a 4 yr old. The baby was the easiest to fly with & actually the 4 yr old was pretty good too ; ) The baby slept during the trip. The 2 yr old was a nightmare! Babies are a lot easier to travel with as infants. But to me it sounds like you don't want to go anyway, so using the baby as an excuse. We have also driven 13+ hours with the three kids & it was not nearly as bad as I originally thought.
We just went to Disney last month, DS was 11 months. The flight was fine, and honestly so were the parks ( we were only in FL for 2 full days, did 1 park each day, squeezed in seeing family down there for dinner each night... AND DS cut 5 teeth in those 2 days).
Granted, I have a very laid back child.. but he even skipped naps all together and wasn't too cranky come night time. We had a blast (albeit *we* were exhausted) but we went into it knowing it wasn't a vacation, more of a trip. I honestly think toddlers would be worse and we don't plan on taking another Disney trip until DS is MUCH older.
He slept as soon as the planes took off. Didn't even need a bottle or paci for the ear popping.
Thanks everyone. I wasn't so keen on traveling long distance with the baby, given it isn't even here yet and we have no idea how good of a traveler it will be. I guess we'll have to coordinate the flight(s) with the nap/sleep schedule to make it easier.
In my family, kids haven't flown until they're at least 5 or older. I guess I can get the baby started on swimming a bit early. (Hopefully, I can convince DH to travel BEFORE the 90 degree weather starts.)
Yikes! Traveling with 3 - I can't even imagine that. It isn't that I don't want to go. I just see traveling with a LO as more of a hassle. I'd prefer to make short trips instead of something long distance. I guess flying would be much easier than driving the 24 hr trip.
I'm hoping we can table the decision on when we'll go until after baby is born & I've gotten used to him/her being here. I told DH tonight that I've thought more about it and am a bit more open to traveling. If we can go for a week instead of 10-14 days, I think I'd feel better about it all.
Honestly, you won't realize how easy it is to have a newborn until after he/she is no longer at that stage! But in hindsight.. so easy to travel with a baby under 1 or not walking or crawling yet.. It's when they start moving that you find more trouble. But it's hard being a first time mom anyway! We are driving to Kentucky again in a few weeks.. the older kids I am not worried about, it is my 20 month old that will not like being strapped in for THAT long.