Hawaii Trip - Travel

So while I was pregnant with Cara I had semi-seriously decided we needed to take her to Hawaii when she was around 7 months old. This was because my mom got her a cute little Hawaiian shirt to fit her at 6 months old and that's when my mom shared with me that I was 7 months old when they took me. This was right around my birthday so I thought it would be perfect. When she was just two months old we booked the trip (through Costco) for this week. I was so excited...and then realized I'm going to be on a plane, travelling far away, going back in time and trying to get a 7 month old to adjust to a time change...how bad was this going to be? I won't lie, I almost stressed out about it more than was excited for it. I decided to read everything I could about tips and tricks when it came to traveling with a baby, how to get them to adjust to a new time zone, and what was going to make this as easy as possible. The week leading up to the trip I was telling Larry I was almost more excited for it to be over with so I could know how it was going to be to travel with a baby. Had I known we had the best baby of all babies I wouldn't have stressed out nearly as much! Haha

Had to get some Hawaii-themed shirts for our trip

Especially when they are 50% off!!

We got so lucky today in so many ways:

• You know it's a good sign when people look at your baby and go "oh my gosh, look how adorable she is!" I was told I would get a lot of judge-y eyes and people giving looks like "oh no a baby?!" But I didn't see one person with that look
• We got to the airport early and they actually put us in a separate line since we were traveling with an infant and we were the first ones in this line, no one was in front of us so we got checked in really early and the lady was super nice.
• We got to be in the TSA Precheck line! I've never done this, but man was it awesome! I'm not sure if it was because we had a baby or what, but it went SO smoothly (no removing belts or shoes and they just did a quick body scan and check of our baby food and that was it).
• We got to board early. This we actually missed when they called for "people traveling with infants" so when we showed up I was like "okay, guess we have to wait our turn", but others were like "shouldn't you go up to the front?" and then a worker told me to just go on up and the other worker at the door just had us scan our own tickets. It was pretty awesome.
• We got the whole row to ourselves! I didn't think that was going to happen, but it was SO amazingly helpful during the direct flight to Hawaii (a 6 hour flight no less!). AND they gave us blankets and pillows, which made it so comfy!
• Cara didn't really cry once! She whined a little when she got tired, but we had a great comfy set up for her and she napped TWICE. Two really good naps too! And she ate awesomely! Even though there were plenty of distractions (which really doesn't mix well with a wiggly baby), but she powered through!
• Cara LOVED the decent of the plane and didn't seem to mind take off one bit. She ate her pouch food (which I got specifically for her to eat during take off) way before hand, but she didn't complain or grab her ears or anything.
• We got free movies on the plane. Like new movies! And Larry and I both got to watch two of them, each. I chose Baywatch and the 5th Pirates movies. Larry chose Shrek and one called Ghost in the Shell. Mine were awesome!
• When we landed a few people made comments about how great of a traveler she was. She even made faces at the babies who did cry almost like a "what's wrong with THEM?" kind of face. It was so cute. Larry and I secretly high fived each other with our eyes haha.

Wiggle time at the airport

Sleeping SO well on the plane

Eating with Daddy

Watching movies, playing, whatever

 

I did get some great tips for traveling with a baby, here's ones I learned and good ones that were helpful:

1. Be friendly to the airline workers. They deal with stressed out, angry people all day long (no one is a really happy traveler) so if you are friendly to them they are not only friendly to you, but usually help you even more than normal.
2. Bring enough toys and food to keep them entertained for the times they can't wiggle. We brought a soft toy, a teether toy, and a couple other smaller-ish ones so that she never seemed to notice she couldn't wiggle around (and was actually trapped on just our laps).
3. Keep baby in their PJs and a sweater and bring an extra sweater for yourself to act like a blanket for them. Since we were given blankets, the extra sweater I brought cushioned her from the seat belt buckle so it didn't dig into her hip or anything while she napped.
4. Buy water at the airport. Then as you're flying ask for the hot water (which is really hot). Pour the hot water into the bottle (but only for about 1/3 of what the whole bottle will be) and then pour the rest from your bottled water. It will be warm, but not too warm. So I did 2-3 ounces of the hot water and then 4-5 ounces (for a 7 ounce bottle total) in the bottled water. I also pre-packed the formula and oatmeal so that al I had to do was add that, shake it, and hand it over to daddy to feed her.
5. Bring a boppy pillow to help support your arm while the baby sleeps. We also brought a binkie, which Cara doesn't take, but she liked to play with them right before she slept. I also rubbed her face for about 10 minutes to calm her down and get her to close her eyes. It was a great combination.
6. Definitely work as a team. I let Cara nap on me (which really wasn't a sacrifice since I had the boppy pillow under her, the airline pillow under my arm, the blanket around both of us and then next to her ear so she had it blocked off from their constant announcements..it was a really comfy setup and I just watched movies as she slept), then she ate with Larry (who has always been good with getting her to finish her bottles). I was also happy to change her diaper and clean out the bottles too (with the remainder of the hot water to sanitize it as much as possible) since it gave me time to get up and walk a little.

Cara was confused by all the announcements
Made on speakers haha

Happy Mommy and Baby

Check out her vaca bed

After the flight we went in search of our rental car and ended up getting upgraded (for no extra charge) to an SUV - that being friendly thing REALLY pays off! And the car seat was actually pretty comfy for Cara - she completely passed out on the 2 hours drive to the hotel (which was only 38 miles away...but traffic was AWFUL). After we got checked into the hotel we fed Cara a quick dinner, then we went out to dinner (just at the hotel restaurant...it was okay), we got back to the room and fed her her last bottle and got her ready for bed. She's now sleeping and now that I'm at the end I'm signing off so we can go to bed too. I expect it to be an early morning tomorrow so I'd like to get as much sleep as possible.