The Burley Tribe: Summer Trip to WA

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Summer Trip to WA

After spending 10 days in Washington with a 9 month old without Nick, traveling all over the state to see family, Eloise getting four teeth and starting crawling, sleeping terrible at night and waking up every 1-2 hours... I could sleep for a month straight. We did have a wonderful time, but it's definitely not easy traveling with a baby. For those who think "oh it's just a 2-3 hour flight, no big deal...". It's 2-3 hours to the airport, shuttle from the parking area, waiting at the airport, 2.5 hour flight, and then going to our house, it ends up being a 8-10 hour day. I need at least 2 weeks to recover before I think of our next adventure, but I'm sure we will take more trips!

For anybody traveling soon with a baby, I have a few tips that helped me. I feel like every age is different in what you need, but this is what helped for 9 months old. Also a lot of our mistakes were silly and could have been avoided, oops!

Invest in a umbrella stroller. I still wore Eloise for naps at the airport, but the stroller was super helpful for eating lunch, the parking shuttle, and gives us a place to strap her in when she's not in the ring sling or Tula.
Bring snacks, like puffs and the baby squeeze packs. One of my friends suggested to bring those to go squeeze foods for Eloise to eliminate bringing a bowl, bib, spoon and baby food.
One of our bottles exploded everywhere because of the airplane cabin being pressurized. Um...common sense right?! These are the days that I wish I could still breastfeed, so much less to pack for the airplane.
If you have time, sit and eat lunch. I filled Eloise up before the flight and she stayed really happy. Also, I stayed happy because those little airplane snacks don't really help when you're hangry. :)
Separate all liquids/ baby food/ formula/ and baby wipes in a big ziplock bag so it's easy to take it all out when you're going through security.
Eloise loved playing with a cup of ice that the flight attendants gave her, it kept her busy for a good 15 minutes.

if you have any really good tips, please please please let me know!

Here are some pictures from our trip! Eloise had the best time, spent a lot of time with all of her family and went on a lot of little adventures.