Have Baby, Will Travel

We have taken a few trips recently and we have found that traveling with a baby is much, much easier than traveling with our two dogs, so that is a big surprise but a huge relief.

When Landen Man was only three weeks old, we dropped our other kids off at the kennel, packed up the car to its capacity and headed on down the road to Missoula, Montana. Chad was representing the hospital at a career fair and I was able to tag along. No way was I going to be left home alone with our new baby, so the only smart decision was to pack every baby item we had in the house that Landen might need during a 3 day trip. We seriously even brought his swing so that he could snooze away while being gently rocked 18 inches off the floor. It was heeelarious to watch Chad unload the car and bring all of our items into the hotel room. I am sure the front desk people at the hotel were totally judging us, thinking that we no idea what we were doing.

When Landen was almost three months old, we left on a jet plane and headed to Denver. Chad had a continuing education class and I was excited at the opportunity to get back to the Denver area and see some friends.

Since we were flying to Denver, we knew we had limited space and couldn't pack every possible baby item we might need and most importantly, we weren't going to be able to bring the swing with us for Landen to sleep in. I was dreading the potential sleepless nights we might experience on this trip or that I forgot to pack a hugely important item. We decided to take the approach that if we forgot something, we'd just go buy it- after all, we were heading to the big city that had such luxuries as Walmart that was open 24 hours a day and Target. Believe you me, if the little guy wasn't going to sleep one night, Chad was heading to Walmart to get a swing.

The day we were to drive to Billings to catch our flight to Denver, of course, work ended up being INSANE for both Chad and I and we left at the last possible minute. Which we always typically do when we go anywhere (actually we always leave 30 minutes after we say we have to leave), but this time we actually had to catch a flight and time was of the essence. This was also our first time flying with baby, so we had no idea what kind of time we needed to get through check-in and security. We got to the Billings airport, checked-in and headed to the security checkpoint. The security agents were super thorough, but so so nice throughout the whole process. I read an article a few months ago about how the mere sight of a baby usually calms people down and makes even the meanest of people nice, well it sure worked with the TSA agents because they were fantastic.

We got through security with about 30 minutes to spare until boarding was to begin for our flight to Denver. I had to log on to my computer and send a couple work emails, so we hunkered down on the floor and I got my computer out. Then over the loudspeaker the gate agent announced they would now begin boarding for our flight so we could take off early. Early! Early? I frantically sent my work emails. Started to wrap the silly Moby wrap around my body (the Moby wrap is essentially one giant piece of fabric), then realized I should use the restroom, ran off to the bathroom, Chad had to gate check the car seat, so he ran up and did that, we started to get Landen situated, but wait, what is that smell? Dangit, Landen needs to be changed and is it getting really hot in here? I quickly changed Landen, went and washed my hands, placed Landen in the Moby wrap and off to board the plane we finally went. Phew!

You know that article that I mentioned about the mere sight of babies making people smile and act really nice? Well, apparently that doesn't apply to passengers on airplanes. When people see a baby on an airplane, you immediately feel their glares upon you and all of the passengers are probably thinking "Crap, that thing is going to cry the entire time and ruin my nap." You know you have thought the same thing, I know I have. Chad and I didn't want to be those people that had the crying baby on the airplane, so we made sure we had plenty of provisions- 3 pacifiers, 2 bottles, a rattle, a blanket, extra clothes and formula if we needed it. Thank goodness there was another family on the plane that had "that kid", so no matter what our little guy did he would be deemed an angel. Of course, Landen was perfect on the entire flight, like a good baby he ate a little then slept a lot. Always good to be prepared for the worst though.

Here is Landen on his first airplane ride, clearly he is very excited:



Traveling with the little guy is a lot of fun and we look forward to our trips we have planned for this spring and summer. Landen and I are even going to travel to Illinois by ourselves in a few weeks, so that should make for an interesting story. A little scared about that, not gonna lie. Just going to throw this out there, there may be some money involved if you would like to assist me and Landen on our Illinois trip...