flying with a babe

[on the plane]

Well...we went flying with a baby. Just typing this makes my heart jump. Yikes... what the heck were we doing?! A three month old... on a plane... craaaaazy. We successfully flew to california a 1 hour and 45 minute direct flight to see the grandparents. Let me tell you it was worth it. A time for them to bond with Cora- she is a completely different baby than she was when she was born- thank goodness, and it gave us some time for us to relax and catch up. Oh, the alternative to this flight, would have been a 12 hour road trip. Considering she doesn't like her car seat, we thought it would be cruel (for all of us) to do a road trip.

Don't get me wrong, flying with a baby is way more stressful than flying by yourself and a complimentary glass of wine that's for sure. But Cora only had one 5 minute burst of crying each way. This 5 minute outburst felt like eternity... but it wasn't.

My dear blogger friend meghan (we ski slow) couldn't have posted a more timely piece on how to travel with a baby. So from her list -here-, I made my own.

My tips for what made this flight okay...

• We brought bottles of formula. The flight to California we only brought 1 bottle- big mistake.The flight home we brought two...it was perfect (one for take off and one for landing). And FYI you're allowed to fly with as much breast milk/formula as you need for a babe. Cora wouldn't breastfeed on the flight, too many distractions... so I'm glad we brought bottles.
• The flight home we had to get up out of our seats...use them as a flat surface and swaddled cora. It worked, just like at home.
• We brought tons of toys.
• We had her as a free "lap infant"...and didn't bring on her car seat, it was checked at the gate. Boise really only does small airplanes... so this worked well for us.
• Cora was handed back and forth between Matt and I the whole trip... it would be utterly gutsy to do this flight alone without a support person.
• Let's be honest here though....we got lucky. Good timing for Cora, short flight, and pure luck. Will this be smooth again, probably not. But I will take what we can get.

can you see the disbelief in my eye?! sleeping cora... amazing.

We also had a few other firsts with our dear cora... first time swimming *gasp*.... and get this... first time eating rice cereal. I know, I know... we are living on the wild side with our 3 month old. But gosh, these firsts were fantastic. Once we started throwing out the "shoulds" and starting following our new parenting instincts we have been a bit more relaxed.

...adorable naked baby. She loved swimming at the grandparent's house.

oh yea... i think she likes it folks.