Recently RevolvingDork and I headed to Detroit for a wedding. We have been doing a lot of traveling with Bitmap recently and we’re finally starting to get good at it.
At the airport and on the plane
Bitmap had her own seat on the plane, and we brought along her car seat to use. We have a Safety 1st infant seat and it fit in coach just fine, although the flight attendant said Bitmap had to have the window seat.
I carried Bitmap through the metal detector, and they pulled her bag aside for a hand check since it had bottles, formula, water, and baby food in it. In addition to her car seat we brought the folding stroller frame it fits in, which we gate checked. Gate checking is perfect for things like strollers; you drop the item off on the jetway so you have it right up until departure but don’t have to deal with cramming it into the overhead bins.
The flights themselves were pretty uneventful, although after a delay on our flight home Bitmap was getting tired of being in her car seat.
At the hotel
We called the hotel ahead and found out that they had pack-n’-play cribs available, making for one less item we had to lug on the plane.
Sharing a room with a baby can mean little sleep for anyone. Bitmap and I are light sleepers. White noise has been a godsend. Having white noise in the room makes it possible for RevolvingDork and I to flush the toilet or rummage around in a bag without waking the baby.
We use the ‘pink noise’ file from simplynoise.com. You can play the sound from their site directly, download an app, or load the mp3 file onto your ipod. We chose the last option. I have an old portable ipod dock we pack in the baby bag. Many hotels have ipod docks these days, but I find it’s nice to have our own.
Of course, my mother in law has a much simpler solution: turn the radio to static.
There’s a free baby monitor android app we use which will call the number of you choice if the baby cries so you can listen in. I leave my phone in the room (plugged in so it won’t run out of battery) and set it to call RevolvingDork. But usually when we travel she’s so tired it isn’t an issue at all.
Overall
Bitmap travels pretty well. She’s at an age where she’s generally accepting of strangers, and loves to explore new places. The hotel room itself was fascinating enough we didn’t have to get out any toys. I’m not dying to jump on an airplane with her again any time soon, but it’s totally doable.