babies in cities

yeah, it's true -- we're flying out to california over xmas (baby will be about 16 months by then) and I'm dreading it. though i've found that traveling so far with the kid has been way worse anticipating it in my head than it actually turns out to be.

We took a 10 hour road trip (plus 10 hours back) with our one year old in the early 2000s. It was way better than it's been with 2,3,4 year olds, when they're too young to read or play video games & anyway their attention spans are short, but too old to just sleep the whole way (as our baby did on the aforementioned 10 hour trips).

We took transatlantic trips with our oldest child & youngest child when they were about 10 months old (respectively) (and a few cross-country red eyes too). They weren't a big deal. Again, the transatlantic trips with the 2,3,4 year olds have been worse (though better since you can play with them on the flights at least).

We flew transatlantic with Aidan when he was 7 months, it was fine with him in the wrap. At least flying you can attend to their needs immediately. We were lucky in that Aidan didn't dislike the car or the carseat and he'd sleep for most of our long car-rides, sorry.

The transatlantic flight we took when Aidan was 18 months was much worse, sorry Tyler, especially as he was still on my lap at that point. If you can afford to buy a seat for them then I heartily recommend it. A red-eye flight on a full plane sitting in the middle of a row with an 18 month on your lap, who's uncomfortable, claustrophobic and unwilling to sleep on you is one of the circles of hell, I'm sure.

haha, yeah, i'm sure. fortunately the flight itself for us isn't too long (2 hours) -- it's mainly dealing with airports around that time of year that I'm dreading. I'd be dreading it even if I didn't have a baby tbh.

W/r/t the 13hr drive, can you do it overnight? Then (in theory, don't blame me if it goes hideously wrong) all you have to do is stop for night feeds every however often (mind you Howie was still feeding hourly at night at this stage, though Archie was sleeping through, so depends how much of a good sleeper you're lucky to get!).

yeah my older brother is a big proponent of the "put the kids in the car at 1am and drive for 8 hours" strategy, which seems to work for the kids. he's pretty wiped for the rest of the day, but it might be worth it.

Kinda miss those good old days of my daughter in the Ergo, walking around to bookstores, record stores, comic shops, 3-hour sojourns with her nestled up against me. Now it's all pulling everything off the shelves, pointing, screaming, blowing kisses at winos.

We're going to Hawaii in October. She'll be 22 mos. We're flying overnight, which will either be the best or the worst idea ever. We flew with her last summer, she b-fed during take-off and landing, no problems, but she's fully weaned now, so who knows!?!