flying with 5 month olds!

Hi everyone, Thank you for the very warm welcome in my other post! I guess my days of booking vacations at the last minute are over. I've never planned a trip more than a month in advance, but today we just booked a trip to see DH's family in the middle of August. Its about a 4 hour plane ride and then once we arrive we will drive about 3-4 hours to our final destination. The girls will be a little over 5 months old.

We are flying on a nonstop flight and we are taking them on our laps since they want to be held all the time anyway! I reserved the aisle and window seats on both flights figuring that is some poor person is stuck in the middle of us, I'll switch with them and they can have the window seat. But maybe, just maybe no one will be assigned that seat and we'll have some room to stretch! A girl can dream. We are flying in the early evening and I timed it around dinner time. Then we are staying overnight in the city that we are flying into and then picking up our minivan rental the next day for the 4 hour drive. DH and I thought it would be best to not try to do all the traveling in one day.

Thankfully we won't have to bring the pnp with us because DH's sister has one to lend us and also has two car seats as well! I think we'll bring the stroller, but probably wear the girls in their bjorns (god I love those things!) in the airport and put our carry on bags in the stroller.. and then gate check the stroller. Hopefully it won't get trashed.

I read the sticky about traveling with babies... but any other advice? Anyone use those formula 'sticks'? Or is that a waste of money when you can just put some powdered formula into a ziplock and buy bottled water? We'll buy a week's worth of diapers and formula once we get there (or have it shipped out there if I buy it online) so thats one less thing to shelp.

I have two months to obsess over every aspect of this trip that DH and I have made a thousand times. I'm sure the girls will be fine and we'll all have a blast. -Leighann

 

Sounds like you have a great plan in place! We are flying in a couple of weeks, and it's about a 4 hour flight with layovers. You might be better off buying the formula sticks, as I don't know how you would get through security with the bag of powder? Have fun!! You are so lucky to not have to bring the carseats! We are going to have to check ours.

 

Personally I would at least get 1 extra seat. Otherwise it will almost be impossible to have a drink, prepare a bottle and go to the rest room ... but that's me. We bought 5 seats last time (one each), but that was 8 1/2 hours.

 

Call the airline and make sure they have both lap children included in the reservation. There are only so many oxygen masks per row and some rows only allow one lap child. I don't want to worry you, I just don't want you to have to move last minute. If no one sits in between you it should be fine, but if they do there may not be enough oxygen masks. Just something to think about.

 

QUOTE(becky5 @ Jun 5 2007, 09:02 AM) [snapback]280016[/snapback]
Sounds like you have a great plan in place! We are flying in a couple of weeks, and it's about a 4 hour flight with layovers. You might be better off buying the formula sticks, as I don't know how you would get through security with the bag of powder? Have fun!! You are so lucky to not have to bring the carseats! We are going to have to check ours.


Good luck wth your trip Becky! And good point about the baggie of formula. I'm sure that would go over really well thru security ("I *swear* its baby formula nice TSA employee!" I can just see the guards with the machine guns approaching us
now). -Leighann

 

QUOTE(Sofiesmom @ Jun 5 2007, 09:40 AM) [snapback]280046[/snapback]
Personally I would at least get 1 extra seat. Otherwise it will almost be impossible to have a drink, prepare a bottle and go to the rest room ... but that's me. We bought 5 seats last time (one each), but that was 8 1/2 hours.


If the flight were longer we would buy an extra seat (on nwa infants in a seat is half price so thats nice!). But since its a pretty short flight, and since the girls would be held 24/7 if they had their way, we'll try this out. We might regret it and I might need to scramble to book an extra seat for the return flight! Its all an adventure!!! -Leighann

 

QUOTE(MommyMeleah @ Jun 5 2007, 09:48 AM) [snapback]280056[/snapback]
Call the airline and make sure they have both lap children included in the reservation. There are only so many oxygen masks per row and some rows only allow one lap child. I don't want to worry you, I just don't want you to have to move last minute. If no one sits in between you it should be fine, but if they do there may not be enough oxygen masks. Just something to think about.


Oooh.. good point!! I hadn't thought of this. Actually after talking to DH, I changed the seat reservations and now we are both sitting in aisle seats opposite each other. This will also be good because the girls won't be hitting each other (a new game they've discovered recently! its the only time they 'interact' with each other). -Leighann

 

QUOTE(MommyMeleah @ Jun 5 2007, 09:48 AM) [snapback]280056[/snapback]
Call the airline and make sure they have both lap children included in the reservation. There are only so many oxygen masks per row and some rows only allow one lap child. I don't want to worry you, I just don't want you to have to move last minute. If no one sits in between you it should be fine, but if they do there may not be enough oxygen masks. Just something to think about.



Yes, definitely call and ask about this. When we flew to Florida in December and had 2 lap babies and my 6 year old we could not all sit in the same same row, due to have 2 lap babies, because of the oxygen masks. If someone else is in the row with you you will probably not both be able to be there with the babies. DH and I sat across the aisle from each other. There are usually 4 oxygen masks per 3 seats to account for one lap child. But you should call and check on this.

 

QUOTE
Good luck wth your trip Becky! And good point about the baggie of formula. I'm sure that would go over really well thru security ("I *swear* its baby formula nice TSA employee!" I can just see the guards with the machine guns approaching us
now). -Leighann


LOL! Exactly!!

 

We're flying in mid july from houston to syracuse, with layovers, on a saturday! We bought 3 tickets, and we bought them in march i think, so we've had plenty of time to obsess already! Good luck! OH yeah, we asked the pedi at our 4 month appt if it was OK to give them some benadry so maybe they'd just chill out during the ride. She said it was fine, but to try it at home first because it has the opposite affect on about 10% of babies and gets them wired. Not that I'm usually prone to drugging my babes...but desperate times...

 

We flew when the twins were 7 months old and we had to sit in different rows. You said that you were borrowing carseats. Is your SIL meeting you when you pick up your van so you can get the seats?

 

My twins are almost 5 months old and I've flown a total of 4 times with them. It's actually pretty easy at this age. One thing to consider - FAA regulations prohibit 2 infants in arms in the same row. It's due to oxygen masks. So, you will need to be in one row with the baby and your husband will need to be in the other row. We just did side by side rows (aisle) and it was fine. Also, if you're bringing a Double Snap N Go you can take it all the way to the gate and check it underneath with the infant car seats. This works out great because when you check in at your gate, if there are extra seats on the plane the stewardess may try to put you next to an empty seat so you can use the carseat. It's nice to have that option - even to put the baby down for a few minutes. I also just bring my own powedered formula and buy a bottle of water. Good luck!