First Flight (Tips on traveling with an infant)
Hello Everyone. As i have mentioned on my previous life update blog, I'll share with you my experience and some tips on our first flight with Aria Bella. This blog is actually perfect for new parents that loves traveling so it can give you an idea in the future. Let's begin.
Our first trip with Aria Bella is to the United States. She was 4 months old. From Abu Dhabi, a direct flight will take about 16 hours. Yes that long. I prepared myself and my baby for that. I researched online on what to do and what to bring. But actually, there's only one tip online that I really used which is feed (breast or bottle) the baby when take off and landing and the rest of what we did are all personal preference.
We are fortunate to travel in business class (Etihad Airways). Thanks for our miles that we accumulate on our trips before and we get to upgrade our flight. Aria is a breastfed baby so it was a lot easier for us when we were in the plane. And thank God that she just slept most of the time on our flight. The cabin crew even said that they didn't feel any baby on board. She did the same on our flight going back to Abu Dhabi too. Good job Aria Bella!
Tips that may help you traveling by plane with an infant:
- Breastfeed your baby - This helps me a lot. Whenever she starts to cry, I give her my breast and then she's fine. A hungry baby tends to cry more. So make sure your baby is well fed.
- Business class or more leg room - If you can afford it, buy or upgrade your flight to business class. I know it sounds so conceited of me but I promise you, the comfort that you will get not only for you but for your baby as well is so worth it. Most especially for long haul flights (Abu Dhabi to LA is 16 hours imagine?). But if you cannot afford it, try to book your seat on the front row where there's more leg room. And don't forget to bring an extra pillow. I know some airlines such as Etihad Airways provides a bassinet. But if your baby doesn't want to sleep on it, a pillow or a nursing pillow like a boppy pillow is essential.
- Drink lots of water - Both you and the baby need to stay hydrated. Most especially if you are breastfeeding.
- Bring only what you need for your carry on baggage - Bring only stuff that you think are necessary. You don't want to carry a heavy carry on baggage plus a baby. I know some would take their strollers with them and gate checked-in if that suits you go on. Whatever you prefer. For us, we just used our carrier even though we took our stroller with us and gate checked-in. We learned and never brought stroller on our trips again. But it depends, some strollers can be brought inside the cabin like the Babyzen Yoyo.
Because we went to the states for the holidays, we didn't really go much anywhere. Only few places we visited like The Glendale, Huntington Library, shopping at Old Town Pasadena and watched the Rose parade. We focus on meeting relatives and my husband's friends. It was actually my first time to celebrate Christmas and New Year in the states. I really enjoyed it a lot. Let me know on the comment below if you want me to have a blog on places and things we did their.
Hope you learn something on my blog today. Good luck and have a great day.
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