Flying with a 10 month old baby

Hi ladies. So, it looks like Phoenix and I are off to see my Dad in Coffs Harbour (Aus) in early November for a week or two. I have read the OhBaby tips of flying with bubs but would love to hear from anyone who has personally taken their bubs on a plane.

We are flying alone and sharing a seat (Dads paying and it's only a 3 and a half hour flight to the Gold Coast). Then Dad picks us up for a bit of a drive down to Coffs.

Any tips on keeping bubs happy on my lap for the duration of the flight, tips for getting through the check in and check out process with ease... hand luggage etc etc. Also he is formula fed, if that helps.

Will be using our Baby Bjorn front pack to get in and out of airport.

Thanks in advance!

ok I slightly disagree with Kabe on the waiting till last to get on the plane. I see your reasoning but I preferred to go on first. it gave us time to find our seat - put stuff in the over head (which if you get on last there normally isn't room and you have to store your stuff ages away from you - not practical when having a toddler as well)

I planned the flight round rhyleys sleep time so a couple of times he slept as we were taking off and slept for most of the flight.

Ask for a Bulk head near the window - in the middleis ok but if its just the two of you it will be easier to block him/her in and they have a bit of room on the floor to play or stand up and move.

Also ask the cabin attendant if there is a full flight and if not any spare seats they can block out next to you... You can ask at check in as well - best to get there sooner rather than later so you get the choice or else you may miss out.

There is also in general the same sort of thing being asked and people have replied to that. i have flown with a 4 month, 6 months, 12 months, 17 months and 20 month (and more older) - oh at different times of cause

we wait til last too normally...except international ones where they board you first and give you heapssof time to settle.....the internal ones can be painful if you go on first!

ella flies beautifully so we are very lucky....last time from nelson we made sure we had a bottle and another drink, plenty of small snacks etc...altho the few toys i took she hated and begged the tad toy off another bubba....nice mum she gave it to ella to play with.

I also take a blanket on....it gets cold flying and their blankets arent bubba friendly....and i use it to cover her ears when we take off and land and i cuddle her up

then of course the old rules...drink on way up and down....worked well as we only just this week got our first ear infection and she has now flown without probs many times.

Question?

How did you ladies go with getting your babies passport photos done? Did you just take your baby to a Photo Processing place and get them to do it? Or did you take your own taking into account the stipulations and rules surrounding baby passport photos?

Sounds tricky. Baby has to be front facing, so you can see BOTH ears, non smiling and have a white background (eg. lying them flat on a white sheet with no creases.

Can be tricky if your baby rolls and is almost crawling.

I think I'll pop into the local photo place and enquire.

Thanks for that WRX. It's amazing how many rules there are for a wriggly baby for a passport photo.

TaraandPhoenix wrote: I think we will be flying Air New Zealand and will be booking tickets in the next few days. So, I just ask when checking my bags in, about how full the plane is? And whether blocking a seat out is in option?

We flew Air NZ and found them good.

Going to oz i forgot to ask so asked on board - the lady said it was a full flight but as it happened someone didn't turn up and there was a seat accross from us spare so she moved the man next to DH to there so we had a spare seat. i don't think she would of if I hadn't asked.

On the way back at check in they said that they had blocked it out already for us - if they don't do it just ask at check in - it doesn't hurt. (some may lie and say they can't and its just luck - thats just laziness on their part and if they do just ask on plane. ) Normally i just ask if its a full flight or not and if there is any spare seats.

Thats a great heads up Ann... I am one of these people who get shy about asking people for things I don't know much about, but I will man up... whatever it takes to make the situation better.

Yes, we have a dummy, and I will be packing extras.