Last week, my partner and I flew to New York for a wedding. And we got to spend a day wandering around NYC. I had somehow never been (like HOW!?) - and it was so fun to explore. Traveling with a baby is new to us, because we had our first kiddo right during the pandemic - so we are in a learning currrveee.

There are a few things that we wish we would have done differently on this trip, and I thought I’d share so hopefully you can avoid our mistakes.

Traveling with a baby; things we’d do differently:

We would CHECK OUR BAGS. Before we had kids, we traveled almost exclusively with carry-on bags. You could find us galavanting around Europe for 2 weeks living out of backpacks. We are light packers. But with kids? It was just a lot to lug around the airport, and not have our hands very free. And if you have a baby, you KNOW that you want your hands free 😅

We would BRING A STROLLER. We didn’t bring our stroller because there was one waiting for us at our destination, but man we missed it in the airport. I would probably never again fly without a stroller to get to/from your gate. Plus it would have been nice to have a place for him to rest out of our arms. We did bring a blanket for the floor (forever unclean) and let him stretch his legs.

We would BRING SNACKS FOR US. We brought everything we needed for the baby, but we often didn’t have time to grab a snack or water for ourselves while rushing around. Next time I will pack an empty water bottle for me to fill in the airport and extra snacks. Traveling with a Baby IS harder work than traveling solo, so refueling yourself becomes extra important.

A few things we were glad we did?

Brought a neck pillow; we could use it as a makeshift boppy in the plane for naps and feeds.
Brought a Paci clip; our little one doesn’t use the Paci much at home but he loved it in the plane. It helped his ears adjust.
Got diapers and wipes THERE. Our friend ran to the store and picked us up diapers before we arrived so we didn’t have to pack too many; they take up SO much room.
Brought a portable sound machine; these are LIFESAVERS while traveling with a baby.
Brought a portable black out curtain; so helpful for naps in strange environments for baby.

There were definitely a lot of little hiccups and frustrations along the way but over all we loved traveling with a baby, and can’t wait to bring our toddler along on the next trip. We think it’s super silly to say you can’t travel once you have kids. It’s a different pace and your expectations have to change - but your lives don’t stop when you have kids. Plus look how happy H was to see the world!!! ^ haha

If you want to see more from our trip, come see me on TikTok!