Taking your first trip with your baby is a pretty scary thought. How many diapers do we pack? Outfits? Bottles? Food? Throw in an airplane and wowza!

We just traveled by plane from Detroit to White Plains, NY then rented a car and drove a little over an hour to New Haven, CT with a 7 month old, and did not check any bags. We left on a Friday and came back on a Sunday, all while a snow storm was brewing. So here are my top tips!

For starters, easier said then done, trust me I know! Stay calm. Everything will be okay. And if it’s not, it is still okay. People will understand that you have a baby!

Starting from the beginning with booking everything. For our hotel, we had the option to book a room with a kitchen in it, highly recommend that if you are traveling with bottles. It made cleaning them super easy. We were also able to request a crib/pack and play, which meant one less thing to travel with. We did bring our own crib sheet, just because then I knew it was clean.

For the rental car, we opted for a SUV, so we could pack everything in it. We opted out of renting a car seat, and brought our own. We also brought our own stroller. Like most strollers, our car seat attaches to that and then it comes off and attaches to a base in the car for a car seat. We brought the base to the car seat as well. When we checked our stroller at the gate, we took it apart (stroller and car seat) and attached the base to the car seat and checked just the wheels part and then checked the seat and base as one.

The airplane, you can either buy another seat and have your baby sit in a car seat in the airplane seat, or have them sit in your lap. We decided he would be more comfortable in my lap, plus it was a short flight. It’s also free if they sit on your lap. If you choose to bring the car seat on the plane, just make sure it’s FDA approved (you can find that on the stroller website).

Packing wise, I packed all of my clothes and the baby clothes in my carry on bag. As my personal item, I used the baby backpack and packed bottles, formula, toys, diapers etc. It was hard, but I did bare minimum. For diapers, I only packed a few and then bought a small pack when we got there. For bottles, you can bring as much water/formula/breast milk as you need. One airport checked everything, the other did not. So just plan an extra couple of minutes just in case. We ended up just bringing the whole formula container, because I didn’t know what else to pack it in.

Once we were on the plane, we played with him for a little until take off. I then gave him a bottle as we started to accelerate down the runway. We were super lucky and had no issues, he was fine the whole time. The first ride, he slept basically as soon as we sat down in our seats, which made me nervous that take off was not going to go well. I just kept a binky in his mouth to help with the pressure, and he did great! The second one, he was wide awake, taking his bottle and did completely fine. We didn’t use headphones either.

Once we landed, we just waited until we were the last ones on the plane to de-bord. One, because we had to wait for the stroller anyways, and sitting and holding him is a lot lighter than standing and holding him with bags. Two, getting him together, plus essentially 4 bags, is a lot! Three, we wanted to ask the flight attendance for his wings and the pilot for his collectors card.

Random thoughts:

1. We did not get asked for one, but everyone mentioned to bring your baby’s birth certificate for the plane ride.
2. For the hotel, we ended up getting a humidifier for the baby because it was so dry. Next time, I’ll look into a travel one.
3. Everyone around us on the plane was extremely nice about us having a baby. Many played peek-a-boo with him, the flight attendance were super accommodating with him.
4. I know everything would have been fine renting a car seat, but I am very glad we brought our own. I know how it works, I was already bringing the stroller, and honestly you can use the stroller through the airport to carry your luggage.
5. Baby wearing through security and the airport I found was easiest.
6. We bought some new toys from the dollar tree to give him while on the airplane. We ended up not needing them, but used them later on the trip and if we lost them, it didn’t matter since it was a dollar.
7. You’re on baby time. Saturday, we ended up having to cancel all our night plans because he fell asleep at 5pm and was sleeping so hard, we felt bad to wake him up. He ended up sleeping until 8am the next morning..

Do you have any tips on first trips?