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Travel Tips

Thanksgiving is next week. It is undeniably my favorite holiday.  I have a huge family with lots of cousins and aside from weddings, this is the one time of year we all get together.  If you marry into our family, you quickly learn Thanksgiving in Miami is none negotiable. 

This is the baby's big coming out and I couldn't be more excited.  I am however, dreading flying with an antsy 5 month old.  Here are some tips I have been told by my jetsetting friends.

1. Many airlines have infant fares. In my case it was still $400 so he will be a lap baby. If you do buy the baby a seat, you need to bring a car seat..
2. Once you book a ticket and plan to have the baby sit on your lap, you need to call the airline and have the baby added to the flight manifest.
3. When you get the airport, bring either a birth certificate or vaccination record to get a boarding pass
4. Ziploc Bags: Separate out contents of your diaper bag into separate Ziploc bags that you can easily pull out.  a) diaper zip:changing pad, wipes, a bunch of diapers, and bags to throw out the dirty diapers. b) food bag with bottles, formula, burp cloth  c) toy bag
5. Tote bag: for under your seat, put all your Ziploc bags in a tote bag, also put a blanket in there.  It might be too tight to go digging through your zipped diaper bag wedged under your seat.
6. Feed the baby on take off and landing to help soothe ears due to pressure
7. Once you meet the unfortunate soul stuck next to you, make a light hearted remark, like "looks like you are the big seat assignment winner" and try to get on his good side. 
8. Bring at least one change of clothes for the baby and an extra shirt for you because 2 people have told me that their baby leaked on them and went through the airport a stained mess
9. Get Gate check bags to cover your stroller or car seat when you check it just before walking on the plane. 
10. Some companies rent out baby equipment like exersaucers, baths,etc.  Contact your hotel.
11. Have food delivered to the hotel. Many hotels have arrangements with local grocery stores and can delivery milk, fruit, baby food. Ask the hotel prior to getting their.
12. Send yourself a delivery of essentials.  Before you get there, ship diapers, wipes, formula, food from a retailer like diapers.com and ask the front desk to hold it for you. If you can't do this, you can head straight to a Target or Babies R Us once you leave the airport.

Let me know any other tips you have and I will add them to the list.

This Will Have You Sleeping Like a Baby

When people erroneously use the phrase, "sleeping like a baby", they must mean the baby you meet the day he is born and the one who goes to the nursery at night for the nurses to look after while you sleep for the first time in months without running the bathroom every two hours.  It seems once that baby is at home, no one is "sleeping like a baby".

The day after we announced our pregnancy publicly, we attended my husband's company holiday party.  After the quick congratulations, two people told me you have to sleep train your kid.  And both people said the preferred way to go was Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child By Dr. Weissbluth.  Luckily my sister-in-law had already handed down her copy to me. 

I have to be honest, I didn't like the book.  I found it somewhat confusing and more scientific then it needed to be.  I had an internal fit where a screamed, "just tell me what to do!". The real reason I didn't like the book was you had to wait until 12 weeks to start, it involved more crying than I personally would feel comfortable with, and despite the sometimes convoluted advice, it seemed his answer for a fussy baby was to put him to bed 15 minutes earlier.

Luckily my friend, a doctor no less, said she was working with her 7 week old on a sleep book called,  Baby Sleep Solutions.  I really should build an idol in my friend's likeness and the author's, Susie Giordano.  This was the right book for me.

I truly believe Ms. Giordano should be sending me royalty checks because I have been acting as her undercover publicist since my little guy started sleeping through the night and I mean 8:40pm to 8:00am at 10 weeks.  

Her premise is simple. A baby needs to be 6 weeks old,  eating 24 ounces a day, and 10 pounds to sleep train.  First you need to get your baby to eat 24 ounces during waking hours, every 4 hours.  I just logged every time I feed him and how much he took. By 6 weeks I had abandoned breastfeeding so it was easy to figure out but she has a way to figure out breastfeeding based on minutes.  Once they meet this criteria they are physically able to sleep through the night and you use your "tool box" to stretch them until the next feeding.  She thinks a baby should only cry for 3-5 minutes before you go in.  I didn't wait that long.

The best move I made was reading this before the baby arrived because I didn't create bad habits I would later try to break such as relying on a swing, the vibration mode of the bouncy seat, rocking him to sleep, putting him down once he was asleep, or picking him up from his crib when he cried.

She also gives advice on how to set up a napping schedule. 

Final Thought: Buy this book and finishing reading it before the baby comes. Refer to it often.  The hardest part of being a new mom is the lack of sleep.  If you thought your third trimester was bad, you have no idea how much harder it is to be that tired AND getting up to take care of someone else.  My son hasn't woken up once during the night since 10 weeks.