Tuesday, May 15, 2007
World Class Travelers
D: Recently I traveled with a good friend of mine and the Deuce to my brother's wedding in Colorado. Because the wedding corresponded with W's finals, my friend stepped in and helped me travel with the Deuce. There was intense anxiety leading up to the trip, but of course the boys did great. I'd like to say it is in part to my awesome planning skills, but I am learning that I've just got some pretty amazingly resilient babies. Non the less, I will share with you the planning that went into the trip, in case you are attempting to fly with two little bambinos any time soon.
• Because we had a god awful early flight, I made sure that everything was packed the day before hand and then traveled with the kiddoes in their PJ's that morning. I also sat in the back between the car seats to feed the kids each a bottle of breast milk on the way to the airport. This worked out well because their usual feeding is at 6am but we were mid-airport/security hell at that point and didn't want to worry about two hungry kids.
• Upon arrival at the airport we checked our bags, but kept the stroller with the car seats attached with us. (like a snap-n-go.) We took the car seat bases and put them under the stroller, and attached the bases to them once we checked the car seats at the gate.
• Each of us had a diaper bag with us that had a baby carrier in it. My traveling companion had enough bottled breast milk for the take off, landing x2 (Seattle - Denver and Denver to Co. Springs) so the baby's ears didn't bother him. I was able to breast-feed my baby on my lap during these times.
• We had to take the babies out of their car seats while going through security, so remember to leave a lot of time to go through security. We didn't, and got so hurried along that I left my breast pump at the Seattle security station. I wish I had a picture of O getting patted down!
• Once we got to the gate we checked the stroller and the car seats and carried the babies on. I've heard that if there are any extra seats on the plane you can try to see if they will let you keep one of the babies with you, in his own seat (sitting in his car seat) between you.
Some important things I learned:
• Breast milk or formula is considered an exception to the "no liquid" rule while flying, as long as you have a baby traveling with you.
• Because there are limited airbags for each row, you can not have more than one lap child sitting in the same row. What works the best is to make sure you've got two aisles seats, across from each other. This gives you a lot of room to move around and get up easily to walk the aisles.
• It really does help the babies to feed, or have them suck on something while taking off and landing. It helps with the pressure on their ears.
• Strollers count as a checked piece of luggage, even if you check it at the gate. If you have two pieces already checked you will have to pay more. Car seats are not counted toward this number.
On our return flight we lucked out and they gave us an empty seat in between us, where the babies snuggled up with each other and slept the whole time.
Some highlights from the wedding weekend...
Time spent with the Deuce's Grandparents:
Meeting their Great Grandmother:
Catching the classic shot, "O asleep on the Best Man"
And swimming at the hotel pool!
They turned out to be quite good swimmers. Check out O's first DUNK!
Read or Post a Comment
That's awesome that they did so well traveling. And, I love the swimming pictures. One question...how did you keep the milk cold? I know they won't let you take on those gel ice packs...I was hoping that they have some room saved in the fridge for passenger medications/milk, etc.??? I'm already getting nervous about this trip!
Hi again. I tried to comment on your "Changes" post, but it would not let me. In any case, I found that the herb Fenugreek doubled my supply. I was a bit skeptical at first, but it helped out a lot. I was still not producing enough to keep them solely on breastmilk (they never did latch, so I pumped exclusively), but this helped a lot. Also, I drank about 3-5 cups of the Traditional Medicinals Mother's Milk tea. Those two things, combined with lots-o-water helped out a ton.
I return to work after we get back from our trip, on June 4th. It will be a huge adjustment...! They should make a mandatory "ease into it" period after maternity leave. I haven't been away from my boys for more than 3 hours, so it will be a tough day!
Good luck increasing your supply!
Thank you for sharing all the traveling tips. Congratulations on everything going so smoothly. I'm sure your awesome twin mommy planning was key.