WORLD TRAVELLER’S FIRST FLIGHT WITH A NEWBORN BABY

Luckily I only booked our all-inclusive holiday from Amsterdam, The Netherlands to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico 10 days before departure. Thus only had 10 sleepless nights to dread my first-ever trip with Tripp, our newborn of 10 weeks. Having travelled to over 100 countries and flown dozens of times (nearly all long-haul flights) this was the flight of all flights for me.

“Baby on a plane”, words with connotations which send shivers up most people’s backs. What else was I to expect? The only thing I had ever heard were the stereotype stories of screaming babies disturbing hundreds of trapped people held hostage on the plane.

Surprisingly everyone was overly nice to us in the airport and even on the plane! Something I’ve missed since being pregnant. I was delighted to have people stopping in their tracks or mid-sentence to say, “awww look at the baby, he’s so tiny!”. Okay, this is going pretty well, I thought to myself, expecting everyone to have the same dreadful expectations of him as I did (despite him being a generally easy baby).

I kept promising before the flight that I would buy him a Ferrari for his 16th birthday if he just didn’t cry on the plane. I guess I better start saving because this little flying super man didn’t make a peep for the entire 13 hours on the airplane!!!

I may be a travel expert but I am by no means a BABY expert, but here is a breakdown of my first-ever air travel with a newborn baby.

Baggage:

Baby Tripp was allowed to fly free (0-2 years is free) with a stroller (max 10kg) as well as a 10kg  check-in bag. My Dutch husband Kees took advantage of that extra bag and stuffed the stroller bed  as well as his largest kitesurfing kite into a huge army duffel bag. It was way over 10kg but the quite perplexed lady seemed relieved when I said the word “stroller”, the perfect excuse to excuse her from any further questioning of our very odd bag. She didn’t even weigh it and sent us straight to odd size baggage. With the other half of our stroller useless without the bed we sent it through too. Normally you’re allowed to take the stroller all the way to your gate and from there they check it under. I was disappointed I wouldn’t get to keep my stroller for the few hours in the airport, but the baby carrier worked out perfectly.

Security:

At security I was clueless what the next step was with a baby strapped to my chest. The first guy, clearly not wanting to be the one to say, waved me through to the scan where I was indeed stopped by the woman who told me my sleeping baby needed to come out of his pouch. “Oh boy! Here we go,” I thought, certain our peace was lost forever. And we’d not even made to the plane.

The guard apologized, “I really don’t like to do this. But it’s protocol. I’m so sorry”, as Tripp was passed back and forth between herself, Kees and me so I could get scanned. Surprisingly they didn’t scan or search the baby and he stayed sound asleep the entire time (thank gosh!). She was very nice and even came over to help us put him back in the carrier.

Immigration:

Seemingly uninterested in causing additional hassle, the immigration officer asked to see Tripp’s face then quickly waved me through after I awkwardly attempted to tilt his sleeping head up into view. On the Mexican side they didn’t even ask to see him and simply stamped down his very first smudge of ink in his brand new passport.

Flight:

We were the last people to board the plane (late as usual). “Everyone is looking at the baby,” Kees said, “Here let’s put him in the overhead baggage.” “What? No.” I passed Tripp to Kees so I could crawl into my seat and suddenly heard laughter. Kees was jokingly pretending to put the baby in the baggage compartment above.

The whole compartment exploded with laughter. Kees, the real crowd pleaser, couldn’t have done a better job of breaking the ice. Laughing with the other passengers he said, “You’re all laughing now, but just wait!”. A positive, fun attitude can certainly go a long way in a stressful situation. That’s why I always bring Kees along.

Take Off:

As recommended to me many times, I made sure to nurse him during both take off and landing so he could relieve the pressure on his ears by sucking. You learn something new every day with a baby, one of those things was that babies also get a seatbelt that is attached to your own seat belt. Thank gosh the seatbelt sign never came on during the flight or that would’ve been a hassle.

My Life Saver Item!

My South African girl friend who is 7 months pregnant lent me her Deryan air traveler which is basically a baby sleeping bag with a blow up mattresses (it can also be made into a seat for older babies). I’m always a bit hesitant about travel gimmicks, especially ones made for babies so was expecting this to be one of those things you haul around and never use because they always look handy in theory but not in practice. I’ve never been so happy to be proven wrong. This little gem allowed me to have my arms,  hands, lap and legs free during MOST of the flight while Tripp was able to sleep soundly in a comfortable flat position.

Carry On

For a newborn, the carry-on list is no different than what you’d take on a normal outing. They don’t need anything special or extra (except for my life saver item!). Make sure you have a few diapers, wet wipes, at least one change of clothes for the baby, extra pair of clothes for yourself, an emergency bottle of formula if you breast feed, a pacifier, …and even then the only items I used were the diapers and wipes. But you’d rather “have it and not need it than need it and not have it” with a baby.

13 hours solid on an airplane without a peep from our tiny angel, I felt I’d won a marathon. And I came in first place! What a huge success.  The first half of the flight he slept, and the rest he either played happily, napped or ate. And the best part? My fear of flying (in general) was nearly forgotten as I kept busy with him. I even looked forward to diaper changes because it gave me an excuse to get up, walk a bit, and take my time talking to and changing him. When you have an adorable baby to stare at, time passes JUST as quickly in the air as it does on land!

We landed at 7:30pm and he quickly fell asleep, giving us silent peace to collect our baggage, pick up our rental car, drive to the hotel, check in, place him down in the provided crib and crash ourselves. He didn’t wake until 4:30, ate then went right back to sleep.

All that stress was for nothing.

We’ve all heard the horror stories about traveling with kids, especially flying with them. But do you have a positive, inspiring story about flying with a baby that you want to share? We’d love to hear it!

Savannah Grace