Traveling With A Baby
Pregnant with my daughter and due just three months before my cousin's wedding, the question was whether we would pack up our little baby bundle and fly her across both the United States and the Atlantic Ocean to Oslo, Norway to attend. The kicker is that my fiancé’s cousin was also getting married that month, just a week later on a mountain in rural Wyoming. The itinerary would require us to make these trips back to back. It sounded crazy—but also fun. And everyone we spoke with said the same thing: DO IT.
All travel comes with twists and turns, even when you aren’t toting a little human along. Ours wasn’t any harder than it would have been without a baby. There were still delays, bad airport food, lost luggage and lost sleep—but it was different. My carry-on was full of diapers. This special edition of Traveling With Grace is dedicated to traveling with a baby—logistically and emotionally. We made it work, we did it well, and here's how:
Along The Way
the travel nursing pillow is worth it
MyBreastFriend makes an inflatable version, but I love the Boppy travel pillow. It’s smaller than their standard model, but still took up half of my Tumi tote bag. Despite its volume, it was too taxing on my body to nurse or cradle baby on the long haul flight without one. I didn’t use it on the first leg of our flights to Oslo and my body really suffered because of it. Once we got to our little apartment, having my own pillow felt cleaner and more comfortable than using the random, communal throw pillows.
PDX > OSL
buy all the leg room you can afford
Leg room is your friend and the best legroom is at the bulkhead. Bulkhead seats are in-demand since other families or long-legged folk might be requesting them, but if you (1) upgrade your section (we were in premium economy), and (2) request the bulkhead a few weeks in advance, you will probably get it. While you’re at it, reserve the baby bassinet. Not all airlines offer these, but we intentionally flew Delta because they did. If your baby likes the bassinet (ours didn’t—she wiggled around like a caterpillar until we picked her back up again), you may both get to eat at the same time—and with both hands.
the child you have on the ground is the child you’ll have in the air
We ultimately found this wisdom to be true, but before we became parents ourselves, we assumed all babies reacted to altitude with fits and screams, grating on the nerves of their fellow passengers. Our baby did not turn out to be a screamer, and by some stroke of luck, neither did the other babies on our flight. As advised, I nursed during take-off and landing as best as I could to alleviate potential ear discomfort, but she often slept through it. She slept a lot, actually, like most ten-week-olds do, and so our biggest problem was not crying, but swapping who would hold her while the other person ate or went to the restroom.
During Your Stay
rent baby gear upon arrival
I am someone who wants to carry as little as possible through the airport, so when it came time to plan our trip, my biggest anxiety point was how to handle all the additional accessories a baby requires. Imagine my delight to learn that there are companies designed to connect travelers with local families so that everything you need for baby is delivered to you upon your arrival! We used BabyQuip domestically and Babonbo internationally and have rented a pack-and-play, stroller, carseat, a baby bathtub, and bouncer. Both companies function the same way: “shop” gear from local families who will deliver your order anywhere you need it: hotel, airport, airbnb etc. After a long journey, this feels like an enormous luxury. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
co-sleep, if you can
Hands down the hardest part of traveling with our baby was adjusting to the time change. Ours is a good sleeper, but a nine-hour time difference is hard on anyone. She was waking up every 60-90 minutes throughout the night, every night, for the first week—just like her newborn days. Add to that our own jet lag and it was not that fun. But co-sleeping was a lifesaver. I know co-sleeping is a contentious topic in the United States, but there are ways to co-sleep safely. I recommend learning them now, especially if you are breastfeeding (our doula worked with us ahead of time). When baby woke up, I would nurse her back to sleep in the side-lying position and then fall back asleep myself. This allowed for fewer trips in and out of bed and more restfulness generally.
adjust your mindset
Everything takes longer with a baby, and this is still true in another country. It is especially true when you’re out of your normal environment and rhythm, so plan accordingly. And by plan I mean, plan on not doing too much. This is not the trip to pack in all the tourist stops or rush around checking items off a bucket list. Instead, be okay with a more leisurely pace. Our only firm goal in Norway was to attend my cousin’s wedding, so our days leading up to it were spent strolling the scenic parks, lounging at cafes, eating my favorite pastries, popping into a shop or two, and catching up with friends and family. On a rainy day we went to the modern art museum—and it was glorious. This slower pace suited our new family dynamic really well.
Vigelandsparken
All this advice held true by the time we arrived in Jackson, Wyoming too. I would only add: do not rely on those cheap, dirty, flimsy car seats from the rental car company. Rent from a BabyQuip family instead. I’m so glad we had the forethought to reserve one “just in case” because even though the car rental website said they had car seats for infants, they did not.
Ultimately, my friends were right: traveling with our baby was amazing and worth it. And I’m so grateful my fiancé and I embraced this adventure together. It truly takes a village… to raise a baby and to navigate all the trains, planes, and automobiles of an international vacation.
What advice would you share about traveling with a baby? As I write this we are planning our baby’s second visit to Norway, who at the time of travel will be 15 months old… aka mobile! I suspect our experience will be quite different this time around, so if you have advice for us, please send it our way!
🖤