Cross country travel w/a 7mth old??
Any tips?
We want to go visit family in MI in September. DD will just have turned 7 months. I think we will just be taking her as a lap child. Leaving our place the night before to head to LAX, flying the next morning/day (??? see question on this below), flying to ATL, then to MI. Reverse on the way back, staying at LAX again that night, driving home the next morning.
Should we take the early flight (6 or 7am) out of LAX (9 hours travel time) and get to MI at 7pm, or take the afternoon flight (2 or 3) and get to MI at midnight (7 hours travel time)?
I don't know which would be best. On the way back we will take the later flight and get into LAX around 11, which should be fine, crash at the hotel, drive home next morning and hopefully get back to our routine throughout the week. Might be rough, but hopefully not horrible.
Any travel tips? Please!! 
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Re: Cross country travel w/a 7mth old??
First, maybe my State initials are off-- you are flying to Atlanta to go to Michigan? Isn't there a quicker way?
i think 7 months is a good age to fly since they aren't really mobile yet (at least mine wasn't) but that is a long flight(s). If it was me, I would probably do the early flight to try to have as little disruption as possible to overnight sleep. You are getting in at 7, then how long until you reach your final destination after rental car, luggage, driving etc.? That could put you getting in in he middle of the night with the later flight which is going to mess all of you up.
As for tips, I just have the usual of nurse or bottle right as you take off (not when you taxi as as I did this and she chugged her bottle before take off...) and even though she is a lap baby, she needs a boarding pass, that delayed us which made us have to board with everyone else which is so much harder with a baby. New toy for the plane (or a few in your case), lightweight umbrella stroller to check at the gate.
Have fun!!
We did a cross-country trip when Alana was 8 months old. I know that every baby is different and some people have had perfectly fine experiences, but, honestly, our trip, both ways, was hell. We flew Baltimore to Houston to California going and California to NJ coming home. Connection, direct flight, it was all awful. I thought the connection would give her a little time to wind down between flights, but, nope, just as bad.
The problem for us is that Alana was not a sleep-in-our-arms kind of baby. She was a mess. I spent most of the flights pacing in the galley or the aisle, rocking and shushing and screaming baby who would not go to sleep. It was awful!
So, my recommendation is to get a seat. I know it's a lot of money and I also know that others have been just fine with a lap baby, but, if I had to do it again, I would, without a doubt, buy a seat and have her in her carseat. It wouldn't have helped with her wanting to get down and move, but, I do think that she would have slept eventually.
As for other recommendations, in addition to having bottles (I brought a bunch of the little 2oz RTF's so I could give them to her at take offf and landing and not have to worry about having a half-finished full bottle). If you do snacks yet, bring A LOT of them! Also, in addition to a change of clothes for the baby, bring one for yourself. I was filthy and sweaty by the time we landed. Just changing my shirt helped.
Toys are good if your baby is distracted by them. Alana wasn't and still isn't. She has never been the kind of kid I can pull out a toy if she's unhappy and it will distract her and make her happy. She will just throw it. Also, at that age, I think I distracted her for about 2 minutes with the TV in the seat, but, that was it.
I hope I'm not scaring you! Like I said, when this question is asked on here, most people say that their experience is just fine. If you have a baby that can be rocked to sleep in your arms, then you are probably good to go. Oh, and about the departure time, I don't think anything would have made a difference for us, so, if I were you, I'd probably go with the shorter travel time.