Secret to stress-free travelling with a two month old baby

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I like travelling. I don’t want to give up travelling just because we have a child.

I was quite curious to see how hard it will be to go around the world with a two month old baby. Having travelled twenty thousand miles with a two-month old (London -> Kuala Lumpur -> Adelaide -> Melbourne -> Adelaide -> Kuala Lumpur -> London), I found it much easier than I first imagined.

The secret to stress-free travelling with a baby is to maintain your own sanity and energy. Create recharge points for yourself and try to relax whenever you can. Here are the four things we did:

1. I made a list of baby things to pack ahead of time. My husband and I already have lists of things to pack for ourselves. We both travelled quite a bit and these lists are super helpful. I did some online research on baby travel and bought the things that were missing (like a sun umbrella or “just in case” calpol). This saved us time going to the shops on the day of packing. See the bottom of this post for the list of things I packed for the baby.
2. We tried to pack as light as we could. My rule when travelling: take the minimum of things and the maximum of money, so you can buy whatever you need. However, travelling with the baby for the first time we overpacked a bit (e.g. I took 4 sleepsuits while we could have got away with 3, one was never used). In the end we (husband, baby and myself) had 2 suitcases (one large, one cabin-size), 2 backpacks, a baby changing bag and a stroller. In theory we could have gotten away with 1 large suitcase on the way there, but the second one was handy to carry back all the presents we’ve got from the family. Of course, amount of packing would have been different if we were going on a two week vacation without an access to a washing machine. I never understood before why porters in airports exist – and now I do.
3. We made a 24-hour stopover to break 24-hour flight. After one 13-hour flight with a baby las thing you want is to get back on the plane again. During the first stopover, I spent all day in the hotel room: feeding, sleeping, eating and relaxing. The next flight was a breeze. Again, it is not for the baby to adjust to the timezone, but for mum and dad to relax and regain their energy.
4. We had grandparents on the other side ready to take care of the baby and let us sleep. We didn’t need that because we got good rest during the stopover. What we did need is someone to look after the baby in the mornings while he was adjusting to the new timezone (waking up at 5am for a few days, bright-eyed and eager to play). Luckily, granddad was ready to oblige.

On the subject of jetlag, when we travelled from London to Adelaide it took the baby 4 days to adjust to the new timezone. He also regressed to a maximum of 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep instead of 5 hours he was doing at home. I don’t know why this was, perhaps because the air was more drier and he needed more “drinking”, perhaps because he was sleeping in a crib instead of a hammock, but still be prepared for a baby that can be waking up every 40 minutes to 2 hours at night. I solved this problem by co-sleeping and feeding him whenever he woke up at night. On the way back from Adelaide to London, it took the baby 2 nights to adjust. I didn’t establish any kind of routine before we travelled, we were following the baby cues.

Baby on board

We got seats with a crib on all long-haul journeys. We called the airline and specifically reserved them (free of charge – Malaysia Airlines). Surprisingly a lot of airlines don’t allocate cribs to infants by default, so don’t assume that you will get one. I had friends travelling without a crib on Air Canada and British Airways.

A baby of this age doesn’t need much entertainment. We took one toy and a dummy and this was enough. Bring a toy that can occupy your baby for 5-10 minutes at a time – usually something with black-and-white patterns or bright colors, like a rag book or whoozit, or something that they can suck or rattle, like this zebra rattle or a keyring from your pocket. The baby will sleep in a crib (or in your hands) most of the way and when he doesn’t you will need enough activities to switch between (rocking, singing, looking at the screen or phone, playing with their toy, sucking, walking and looking around). Learn enough nursery rhymes in advance!

I was stressing about my son screaming during takeoff and landing, but my fears were worse than the reality. It is tricky to time the feeding for the exact time of ascend/descend. Turns out this was not necessary for us. A few times our baby was screaming for food while we were standing on the tarmac, so I had to feed him then. Once after that he fell asleep and slept through the takeoff soundlessly. Another time, we kept playing with him during landing as he wasn’t hungry and then offered the boob at the first sight of discontent (and he happily sucked it until the gate even though he just ate).

For me the best thing about travelling with the baby is that now I don’t worry about malfunctions in plane equipment or pilot’s error. All I worry about is whether the baby is going to scream and whether I will be able to pacify him. And it looks like I can.

Good luck in your travels!

Baby packing list

What	Hand luggage	Comment
Clothes		take enough to last you until you get to the washing machine + one extra
outerwear
sleepsuits	yes
vests
swaddling blanket
muslins	yes
blanket	yes
socks
hat
nice outfits
swimsuit
Bum and skin care
nappies	yes	our baby goes through 5 in 24 hours, so I took 10 for 48 hours of travel + 5 extra in case of delays
wipes	yes
Sudocream	yes
Bepanthen	yes
sun protection cream
changing mat	yes
cotton buds
cotton wipes
Milk stuff
pump		not necessary, but in case you want to go out on your own and leave baby with your partner or babysitter
bottles with all the trimmings		see above
small steriliser		see above
breastfeeding cover	yes
Carriers
pram		Depending on the airport and pram size, most airlines will allow you to take pram to the gate or you may be able to borrow the airport pram
pram bag		We ended up not using ours
rain cover and sun umbrella for the pram
baby carrier	yes
car seat
Misc
dummy	yes
toys	yes
chocolate to give out on the plane	yes	we brought some chocolate to introduce ourselves to the neighbours and apologize in advance for the baby screaming. This went down well 🙂
Mummy
change of clothes for the plane for adults	yes	in case the baby vomits or poos on you
nipple cream	yes
breast pads	yes
vitamins	yes
Documents
passport	yes
birth certificate	yes	noone asked for it, but you may need it if you’re travelling without your partner or if you have different surnames
Medicines
thermometer
nail clipper
Calpol
saline drops for nose
mucus extractor