Getting ready for our first post-baby flight

[karendbrooks]

Hi All!
My hubby and I will be traveling to Western New York from Floriday with our DS, who will be 7mos at the time. 
I am looking for tips to help flying a little more bearable. 

Our first flight takes off at 7am, so I am thinking that will be good, since we will be taking off at his first feed.  Thinking the feed will help with his ears.  First flight is 45 min, 1hr 50 min layover in ATL, then second hop is 2.5 hrs, I think.   

Any advice is welcome!
thanks
karen

[anna*]

I'm sure it will be fine, at 7 months they are really still pretty portable! Flying with my little one, I held on to the thought that hey, the flight is only 2.5hrs, if he cries all the way the other passengers will just have to suck it up - it's only 2.5hrs. In the end, he didn't cry at all

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

I did this EXACT trip (backwards - so much nicer to go to FL from NY!) when DS was 7 months!!   Even similar flight times!

It was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be.  He did SO well.  The hardest thing was all our stuff!  I fed him as we took off and he fell asleep nursing and slept through half of both flights.  Then I just had toys to entertain him and we talked and sang quietly for the rest of the flight.  He cried for a total of about 5 min on all 4 flights!  I was amazed. 

I tried to get him to nap in ATL since it was his normal naptime, but no chance of that.  Too much stimulation.  So he was OT when we got there since his naps on the planes were short.  This was one tough part.  But I did a CN when we got to the hotel and then an early bedtime.  He caught up after a day or 2. 

Have a great trip!

[rach321]

Should be fine - I did 9.5 hrs to Vancouver with my 7 month old and he did pretty well.  I would reserve some toys just for the plane (don't let him play with them beforehand) so its a nice suprise to have something new to play with.  We got a load of those cloth activity books and that kept him entertained for a while, walking up and down the plane also wastes a bit of time, most people like to interact  with small people so it can be good fun.  Good luck!

[RachelC]

Take a peek here too:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85823.0

[karendbrooks]

Thanks everyone! 
I am blessed to have an easy going little guy, so I am optimistic that this will be fine.  Just would rather be prepared than not.
I am a little worried about him being OT, especially since we will only be there for 2 full days before coming back.  Going up Saturday and coming back Tuesday.  But we are doing a low key trip.  Hanging out at the house, maybe a dinner or two, seeing some old family.  hopefully it will be smooth
Thanks again for all of the tips!
karen

[marilyn73]

Ascending is no problem on the ears it seems (and we've done approx 10 in the first 8 months) and never bothered with feeding....  Descending seems to be dependent on how fast it is: 1/10 was really bad on our lo, and 1 mediocre.  The rest were nonevents.  The one that was bad, it didn't matter what we did for feeding, paci etc...
Dd doesn't feed long enough to make a difference anyhow - done in less than 10 min.