PS.. I know this pic looks a little funny…but doesn’t he look so proud!?

When we decided to take our trip to Atlanta I was excited. That is until I remembered that I would be flying with my 10 month old son. A  son who doesn’t sit still for long. I was nervous…how would I get through this? But then I said to myself…”self….people travel with babies every day…and if they can do it so can you…you got this!” That’s right I gave myself a pep talk. I asked friends and even my doctor for their tricks of the trade, and the biggest piece of advice I got was to be prepared, and to have a bag of tricks. So we did it…we packed up and boarded that plane, and our little guy was such a trooper.

The first step is choosing the best flight time for you. I went through a ton of options in my head and decided that for us, traveling during his morning nap time was the way to go. That way I could nurse him during take off, and hopefully have him fall asleep right after. This plan worked perfectly. Even when we taxied for a little bit too long he did well, and as planned he fell asleep right after take off.

When I asked my pediatrician for some tips, this is what she said…”go to the dollar store and buy 20 new toys. All toys that are new to him. Bring 10 on the way there and 10 for the trip back, and every 10 minutes or so bring out a new toy. I took this advice and it worked EXTREMELY well. Who needs expensive toys when there are dollar store toys!? He loved them and they entertained him!

We didn’t buy him a seat, but I can definitely see the benefit, since on the way there the middle seat in our row was left empty. He loved to stand and sit on that seat, and it gave my lap a break. We took a gamble and booked the aisle and the window seat, hoping that no one would book the middle on our not full flight. The gamble didn’t pay off on the way home, because when I booked the seats the flight wasn’t full, but when we boarded it turned out it was booked! Oh well, it worked out anyway because we moved my mother in law into the seat. I think next time I may not take that gamble.

Traveling with my 10 1/2 month old was an adventure, as is everything else in motherhood. What did I learn? I learned that I could do it, and the unknown was scarier than the actual flying. I also came to the realization that 3 hours is probably my flying max with my boy. At least for now. He did VERY well, but I have a feeling much longer than that I would be left with a little guy who got very frustrated.

The bottom line? We did it, and my son was a champ!