Tips For Traveling With A Newborn
After a vacation with the family to Tel Aviv, we are FINALLY home and let me tell you, mama is happy! If you follow me on social media you may know that it wasn’t the easiest trip and I think I may have pushed myself too hard to travel with a newborn. I loved getting away with the family and soaking up the sun on the warm beaches, but I definitely learned a lot from this trip.
You may be a new mom facing travel on the horizon so I want to provide you the best tricks + trips for traveling with a newborn and what helped me with baby Noa and our boys.
I recommend requesting a travel stroller or umbrella stroller from your place of stay. Most hotels offer sitter services and I highly recommend finding one through the hotel. It’s safer and more convenient. Bring activity books for your kids and books for reading with your newborn. Try to keep day-trips (i.e. museums, tourist attractions, etc) to a minimum, maybe 2-3 per week. Save these for when your newborn is older and will remember the trip. Look into a local camp or immersion programs for your kids so you can spend some alone time as parents.Then you’ll feel like you’re really on vacation!
We also practice no more than an hour a day on technology devices which can sometimes include a special movie with the whole family. For jet lag, immediately regulate to the the new time zone. Use holistic sleep aids like melatonin and plan fun activities during the day when you first arrive.
Mamas, YOU CAN TRAVEL WITH KIDS! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Listen to your intuition, be flexible, remain present and practice patience.
Baby Essentials Packing List:
Bassinet (or request one from hotel)
Changing pad (to lay on bassinet and floors)
2-3 swaddles / blankets
Diapers, wipes (more than you think you need!)
3 changes of clothes (warm with footy)
Hat
Essential oils
High-nutrient snacks for possible layovers or delays (perfect bars, apples, sandwiches)
Accommodations:
Try out Airbnb if you want to live like a local. This way you can also go grocery shopping and make meals at “home” which saves money and is WAY more fun. You also have all the amenities of a home (i.e. access to laundry, cost-effective, and much more space). While we stayed a hotel, we have family that we visited so we had the amenities of home too.
Naps and Bedtime:
These are just as sacred while traveling as they are at home. We do our best to acclimate to the new time zone, and really honor their sleep. Although they are feeling really off kilter with a new time zone we try and keep them awake the first day as long as possible and get them on that time zone. They may still wake up in the middle the night and we just go with the flow - play with them, feed them a snack and then try and get them back to sleep as quickly as possible. It can be hard to honor nap times when you’re on vacation with the baby, but it can also give you some time to rest middle of the day if you do nap them in the hotel or Airbnb. Most of the naps my kids take when traveling are in a stroller or or in the carrier instead of at home so we can continue having adventures.
Traveling + Vaccinations:
We asked our pediatrician about vaccines at Noa’s young age, since I’m spacing out the travel anyway she said it was completely fine to travel without getting vaccines. She advised to be super careful to protect her on the plane from germs and keep her covered up. I kept her in the carrier on my body or in the bassinet as often as possible, or in a blanket wrapped up, and washed my hands often.
Do you have any other tips for traveling with a newborn and young kids? Share with me on Facebook using #MyPhilosophieLove and #PhilosophieLove.