Travel advice

Not a lot of research for this one, just some personal experience. We went to Washington, D.C. when Little Bear was about 4 months old and we learned A LOT of important travel lessons.

1. Everyone will tell you to nurse during takeoff and landing. We did nurse during takeoff, but Little Bear was asleep during landing. Her ears didn't seem to bother her. When we asked people about traveling tips, this was the only thing most people mentioned. It was by far NOT the most useful thing we learned on our trip. 2. Wearing the baby is the easiest way to maneuver through the airport and security. Right now, I love the Boba wrap because it is comfortable to wear while you're sitting down. They didn't make me take her off to go through security (I've heard this differs by airport), and that way your hands are free to deal with luggage, etc. I also wore her during the entire flight. Technically, you aren't supposed to wear the baby during takeoff and landing (which seems ridiculous -- if the plane is going to crash, I'm more mobile when wearing her), so I didn't wear her during takeoff (she was nursing anyway), but I had her on during landing on both flights and no one said anything to me.

3. TAKE YOUR OWN CAR SEAT. You can gate check it. We found out that we could rent a car seat through the rental car company (Budget), so we didn't take ours because I was afraid it might get messed up on the plane. Big mistake. When we got there, they spent an hour looking for an infant car seat. Then they told us they only had a convertible seat that we could use for her (fine), but it didn't have the infant padding. The Budget employee (apparently against protocol) installed it for us, but she did it wrong. Luckily, I paid attention when the certified car seat installation people at Texas Children's installed ours so I knew it didn't look right. She assured me it was correct. After she left, Nick read the instructions on the seat (they don't give you the car seat instructions on paper) and fixed the problem. If we hadn't known better, we would have driven off with her in an incorrectly installed seat and she could have been seriously injured if we were in a wreck. I'll never again rent from Budget, and we're taking our own car seat from now on. Aside from this, the car seat wasn't a very good brand (Evenflo or Infantino I think), so I'd feel much more comfortable with my own seat. 4. TAKE YOUR OWN CRIB/PACK N PLAY/SLEEPING SOLUTION. We stayed at a hotel that assured us they had pack-n-plays available for baby to sleep in. Here's the major drama: The first one that was provided collapsed repeatedly (thankfully we had not put Amelia in it) and was given to us with sheets that did not fit. We called and got a different pack-n-play (this one was sturdy) and asked for a sheet that fit. The sheet that was provided was again too small for the crib; it caused the bottom of the pack-n-play to fold up and the sheet itself easily came off. When we called a third time to request a properly fitting sheet, the housekeeper who came brought the exact same sheet, new in the package. When I showed her that it didn't fit, she suggested that I simply wrap a twin sheet around the bottom of the crib. Obviously this is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS and could result in a baby SUFFOCATING TO DEATH. We insisted that we absolutely had to have a properly fitting sheet. Meanwhile, my mom called the front desk and tried to find out who was in charge of the equipment for infants. Apparently no one, and no one that she spoke to seemed to care that their staff was putting babies in life-threatening situations. The housekeeper left and came back with another housekeeping employee (perhaps her supervisor) who brought the same two crib sheets that we had already tried. I showed her again that they didn't fit and she also suggested wrapping a bed sheet around the bottom of the crib. We reiterated to her that this was completely inappropriate and could actually kill a child. She, of course, had no idea -- she's just a young woman working in housekeeping and she doesn't have any kids of her own! We repeatedly asked if there was another model of pack-n-play available (that these sheets might fit) and were told "no." Finally, the housekeeper did find another model of pack-n-play and the sheets they kept giving us fit this model properly. It was a tremendous ordeal and, again, if we didn't know better, we could have ended up doing something that placed our child in danger. After all that drama, Little Bear couldn't even sleep in the pack-n-play. The mattress part was so plastic-y that everytime she moved, it crunched and rustled; she woke up crying multiple times before we gave up. I thought about sleeping with her in the bed with me, but that left Husband with nowhere to go and the bed was a little squishier than I would feel comfortable with. Husband ended up going to WalMart at midnight and buying a Fischer Price rock n play cradle. She slept awesomely in that. We just packed it back in the box and checked it as one of our checked bags (thank you, Southwest, for 2 free checked bags) when we came home. So, I'd recommend taking a cheap pack-n-play of your own or else looking into something like the rock n play. 5. Consider skipping the stroller and just wearing the baby. I was (again) afraid that our expensive stroller would get damaged on the plane, so we bought a cheap one from WalMart that got good online reviews and took that. We gate checked it (easy). But the stroller wasn't very comfortable for Little Bear. I think she was a little too young for it so it didn't lean back far enough for her to be comfortable, especially when sleeping. We used it some, but she fussed a lot when she was in it, so we mostly ended up just taking turns wearing her (this time in my more ergonomic Beco Gemini carrier -- it has more structure than the Boba wrap) when we were sightseeing. The stroller ended up just being a place to stick our purses and diaper bag. If you do decide to bring a stroller, check that you can gate check both a car seat and stroller. I think some airlines only let you gate check one or the other; Southwest lets you gate check both. I bought a travel bag for our stroller, but it didn't arrive in time so we ended up using trash bags just to keep it from getting dirty in the cargo hold. That worked fine, although if you take your real, nice stroller, I'd probably buy a gatecheck bag. I got the one from Prince Lionhart on Amazon (it was like $15). 6. If you're going to take your breast pump, don't forget to take storage bags and an ice chest. We went to a wedding and I pumped while I was away from the baby, but I forgot to bring an ice chest to store the milk in while we were at the wedding (our hotel room had a fridge). Luckily someone there had an ice chest in their car, but otherwise that milk would have gone to waste. I had no problem taking breastmilk through the airport security. TSA regulations don't limit the amount of milk you can take, so don't let them tell you otherwise. No one gave me trouble, but I read stories online of moms' milk being confiscated. They just put ours in some kinds of little box that must test the chemical makeup or something. Overall, our trip went really well (once we got over the carseat and pack-n-play fiascoes). Little Bear was a champ. I was worried about the flights, but those turned out to be the easiest parts.