Travel Summaries: Mom traveling solo with one infant

Like most young families who live far away from their relatives, there comes a point when one of the parents will have to travel alone with a small child.  For this mom, that trip came when her son was 7 months old.  She, like most moms, was a bit nervous about dealing with luggage and strollers without a father to assist.  She did just fine!  Here is her travel summary.



TRAVEL SUMMARY

Age of child (children) at the time of trip:
My little guy was 7 months old on this trip.  His first flight though was at 3 months old I believe.

Number of adults on the trip and their relation to the child (children):
Just me and my son!  Woo hoo!

Approximate month and year of trip:
It was spring 2010

Departure city and destination city (cities):
Fort Lauderdale (FLL)  to Detroit (DTW)

Mode of travel and name of carrier (Airline, Rail Company etc):
Airplane.  We were on Spirit

Any special gear you couldn’t have done without:
Besides obviously an upright suitcase with wheels, definitely a stroller that allows you to attach a car seat!  We got lucky and because the plane was fairly empty, the attendants gave me a middle seat with an open window seat for the baby.  Because we had a travel system stroller, I could effortless take his car seat all the way to the gate.  Right before we stepped on the plane I checked his stroller at the door of the plane and carried him in his carseat right onto the plane.  He was snug and safe strapped in his own seat!  The only other vital item was pretty simple:  a clip on pacifier.  I learned on our first flight that crawling on the floor of an airplane searching for a dropped pacifier is not my idea of a great time.



Any special gear you wish you had left at home:
Hmm.. good question.  This may sound weird, but I wish I had left diapers and formula and wipes at home!  It was just a 3 hour flight so even if I planned for a major delay, I only needed a few bottles filled with formula, some travel ready packs of powdered formula, and some diapers and wipes.  Everything else I have learned it is best to just ship ahead of time to my destination.  It is much cheaper to ship heavy cases of formula than to pay for them in my checked luggage.  And diapers and wipes just take up a ton of space that force me to bring a much larger suitcase than necessary.



More thoughts and notes from this parent:
I am for sure guilty of being an over planner.  But I suppose that is not such a bad thing when it comes to babies.  I came up with a step by step plan for dealing with the security checkpoint since that was the part I was most worried about.

1. Take bottle bag out of diaper bag.  
2. Place diaper bag, bottle bag, and our shoes into bin
3. Remove car seat from stroller (with baby in it) and place on floor
4. Collapse stroller and place on conveyor belt
5. Remove shoe-less baby from carrier and hold him on my hip
6. Place carrier on conveyor belt
7. Walk through metal detector with the baby in my arms
8. Put my shoes on.  Put bay shoes and bottles back in diaper bag.
9. Remove car seat from belt, place on floor.  Put baby in car seat.
10. Remove stroller from belt, set back up.  Place car set in stroller.
11. Hang diaper bag on stroller
12. Walk away feeling calm and accomplished!  :)

The only part of this  plan that didn't go perfectly was that the security guards wanted to inspect the bottles on their own.   That was fine.  I just let them take the bottle bag away and I continued on with my plan.  Once they returned the bottle bag to me, I dropped it back in my diaper bag and was on my way!

Getting the checked bag off of the conveyor belt at baggage claim was a little tricky.  If you can't manage to keep the stroller right at your side while you lug the bag off the belt, then ask for help.  But not with the baby.   Asking some stranger to watch your baby is clearly stupid.  Just point and ask someone to grab your bag for you.  :)