NY to Hawaii trip with 9.5 month old - advice

vlcoley

Hi all -

My husband has to go out to Hawaii for work in January.  We have always wanted to visit Hawaii and want to take advantage of this opportunity since his flight and accomodations will be paid for by his company.  Our daughter will be 9.5 months old at the time of this trip....I can't imagine going away for a week without her but am also SUPER NERVOUS about traveling with her such a long distance.  The plan is to fly from NY to the west coast (California or Arizona) and then from the west coast to Hawaii.  That way we will break up the trip into two 5-6 hour flights.  I figure that would be more doable then a direct 10 hour flight....thoughts?  Any other mommies out there take long distance flights with little ones and have advice/experiences to share.  I am already an anxious flyer.....so bringing baby along will probably only add to my anxiety (good thing husband is a good flyer and I think my mom would come along with us too so she can watch the baby when we have to go to business dinners, etc.). 

Torani

If you can swing it, get the baby her own seat on the plane for the car seat.  Make sure your car seat is airline approved (should say on a sticker).  Feed her right before or during take off.  By then she will be able to have finger food, so bring lots of snacks.  With any luck, she will sleep for most of the plane ride.  Bringing your mom along to babysit is an excellent idea!  We went to Hawaii with my parents when DS1 was 18mo, and having them there to babysit while we went off to do things like dinner or snorkeling was great.  Good luck and have fun!

palma44

 

buzzbee24

DH and I got married in Hawaii-Kauai- last year. Our DS is actually a honeymoon baby..LOL. Anyway, I know the flight was rough on me 14hrs total. I don't know if I could make the trip with LO until he is at least 2 or so (unless family were to come along)...but that's just me.I think it's great if you can make the trip.  My only advice is to make sure you take some serious sunblock for LO. I burned easily ( and I am a darker skinned person).

slyrose123

We just took a car trip that was 9 hours long. The best advice I got from here actually was bring lots of little toys if you can and give them to LO ONE at a time. So they do not tire out of all the toys at once. Once they get board of one toy, take it away and introduce another one! My LO loved it and was content the majority of the time!! 

MrsJetSet

I think it would be doable, especially if you could fill up a whole row. I HATED flying with dd a few mos ago but that was mostly because we were alone with no buffer seat so I felt like she was really annoying to the guy next to us. I would actually aim for a redeye so dc is more likely to sleep. We also bought the 3m peltor jr noise buffering headset for dd since planes can be loud and I didn't want to expose her to that.