If the baby is less than two week old, limiting contact to as few people as possible is a good idea. 6 months? Not as much.
I saw travel now, while the baby is young enough that you don’t need to provide entertainment for it.
Fire, if you decide to go and you need a babysitter recommendation, PM me. A parent I know from a nanny board I’ve been going to for the past ten years lives in Maui and has a great on-call person she recommends.
Go for it.
All the other clever parents (and the pro babysitter) have coveredthe usefull advice, so I’ll juts comment on one thing:
Yes, don’t.
The belt that straps on to the parents belt while holding is much safer for the bay, should you encounter bad turbulende or an unwarned drop on hte plane (air pockets).
Spend the cash saved on a better room as other have suggested.
When we did this in London we had a tiny room and switched evenings so only one parent had to stay silent in a darkened hotel room - but being with your partner would be more fun.
Great information and tips everyone.
They let you bet babies? What happens if you plop her down on the roulette table and win and end up with 36 more babies? (Other than, y’know, getting your own discovery channel show.)
The flight stuff is covered extremely well already. Much easier to travel when you can just keep them on your lap instead of when they hit the squirmy stage.
But as jose noted, a six day vacation with an infant is pretty tough. You need to think through your sleeping options. Does your child sleep through the night? Is the child sleeping in a separate room yet? Hell is sleeping in 1 room with a baby that is too excited to sleep b/c he/she can the parents just a few feet away all night.
Please do not take your baby on the plane. Snakes on a plane, I can handle. Babies on a Plane? They better be solving crimes. Here’s the deal, you listen to that shrieking monster all the time, and you are somewhat desensitized to it. The rest of us don’t have to put up with piss, shit, and vomit every day unless we happen to be in a Frat. For an entire trip to Hawaii, imagine that your baby is behaving as badly as it possibly can. That’s probably how your baby is going to act.
Don’t put too much weight in what other people are saying, about how their babies were good, and nobody minded at all. These people are remembering it wrong. Yes, the person sitting next to you smiled at your baby, and then pretended to sleep for the rest of the flight, but in reality, everytime their nostrils filled with the smell of your personal Verne Troyer, or their babies went, “Graaagggguuuhhh YA!” they were probably shutting their eyes and trying to wish themselves back to the Correctional Facility at Lompoc, where, sure, you get raped with plastic spoons every now and again, but at least they respect the fact that lights out is quiet time. If you want a good story about travelling with an infant, watch Raising Arizona, at least that’s honest about being a work of fiction.
I will put it another way, their face is saying, “What a cute baby!” Their hands are saying, “Jeff, you can totally snap that babies neck the next time its mom looks out the window, then we’ll go right back to pretending to be asleep, don’t worry about the guy staring at us in aisle six, he’s on our side! We can do this. Jeff, we are your hands, and we have done everything you asked us to do up until now. Today is our day Jeff, we have never asked for anything before, and we are asking now. Please let us murder that baby.”
My opinions on babies can be summed up by this verse from “Linoleum Knife,” from Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters.
Did you bring your baby?
Babies don’t watch this, take the seed outside!
Leave it in the streets!
Run it over right after the show.
Amen to that. Last time we took a big trip with my son, who was just shy of 18 months at the time, he was fine for the actual traveling portion. Very well behaved. Then we discovered he wouldn’t sleep in a hotel because it was strange and scary. We didn’t annoy anyone on the plane but I probably owe an apology to the entire town of Forest Lake MN for the all night shrieking marathon.
A friend of mine did a 7 day trip to Hawaii when her kid was 6 months old. It all worked out just fine. Yes, you do have to think more about the sleeping arrangements, but it’s generally not super difficult. My friend recommends just operating on your regular time schedule instead of trying to adjust to local time.
Adding to advice already given:
-9 out of 10 doctors will most likely not recommend drugging your baby with cough syrup; the face of the 10th would probably be blurred out in a primetime TV news investigative report.
-As mentioned, one of the most common sources of stress for babies on planes is change in altitude, which adults can remedy by yawning. Since most babies can’t or won’t reliably yawn on cue, giving them a bottle or pacifier (or breast) to suck on triggers a relaxation response that can help them deal with such stress. Regardless, your baby will, in fact, cry on a flight as long as one from the continental US(?) to Hawaii, so be prepared.
-Other sources of stress and generally scary stimuli on planes include:
Sudden loudspeaker announcements
Flight crew that get “a little too close” when taking your drink order (consider seating your child by the window with yourself in the middle seat, if flying coach, to remedy this issue)
Turbulence
Other crying babies
Other passengers being jackasses
-Flying on a plane will potentially expose your child to airborne diseases. If possible, have your 6-month checkup immunizations done in advance of boarding. Also, at very least, bring antibacterial lotion for yourself and plan to bring whatever cloths or nappies used to wipe baby’s face and hands, since at 6 months, babies tend to grope, and well-travelled plane seats aren’t particularly clean or safe for children who will grab at foreign surfaces, then put their hands in their mouths.
-Make travel arrangements in advance, as mentioned. If child is at all attached to current car seat, prepare to bring it. There are car seat wheelies purchaseable over the internet that strap wheels and a handle to your car seat for easier handling.
-Goes without saying as you should probably be an expert at this, but plan to carry ample supply of baby’s essentials (diapers, wipes, formula and bottles if applicable, toys, bibs, spare clothes, pacifier if applicable, etc.) as luggage, as well as in a tote bag wherever you go on arriving.
-As mentioned, you will generally find at least a few childless passengers with no understanding of your situation, who may shoot you dirty looks or may even take the brave step of inaudibly muttering some sort of remark. Pay these people no attention; the stress of traveling with a baby is enough to keep you occupied without concerning yourself with the passive-aggressive tendencies of strangers.
My Rule #2 For A Successful Life is: “Never think like, or agree with, a lawyer. Especially one who is jumped up on a fentanyl suppository made from narcotics extracted from the sublimaze patches he stole out of his hypochondriac, drug-seeking client’s baseless court case prop bag.” Despite the fact that Rule #2 has served me well, I’m going to agree with Flowers here.
I have 3 perfect little angels, and I will never, ever take them on a plane ride longer than 45 minutes. OLG and I did it - ONCE. We took Young Lady Gravy to Texas when she was very little, and the trauma has still not subsided. It was exactly as Flowers described. The kid shrieking the whole time and us going, “Aw JEEZ sorry everyone, we’re so sorry, we’re trying we’re trying hush little baby don’t say a word oh come on now wee one mommy’s gonna buy you a mockingbird” and people forcing a death rictus grin over clenched, grinding teeth and saying, “Don’t… worry about it. She’s being… really really … good.”
Someone upthread mentioned putting the kid in a kennel for the trip. Because flying is what it is, you’re actually putting yourselves and a hundred or so stranges in a kennel with the kid and then repeatedly jabbing a Q-tip into the kid’s eardrum for about 8 hours straight. And since you’ll be over the Pacific, you won’t be able to fake an acute cardiac event like I did to get the plane to put down early, either.
Dear Lord, if there’s going to be breast feeding involved I hope the person sitting next to her is a significant other that can deal with it! :)
As a parent, I’m going to agree with Flowers. Traveling with an infant sucks for everyone. Maybe you have a dozen people willing to help you with a baby, but that’s more out of a societal sense of obligation than any real desire to do so. Plus, you have a newborn. A vacation is simply not possible; you’re still dealing with keeping the kid alive 24/7.
I still say Hawaii is laid back enough to do it and enjoy yourself on your own, but didn’t consider the long plane flight over.
Can you ship the baby over in a box or something?
Hawaii? Pah. I flew 11 hours LAX to LHR and back with a baby. Assuming your son is generally very easygoing, and you are a relaxed parent then it will be fine, the boob soothes all ills. If your son is high-needs and you’re the sort of parent who gets all stressy in new situations in case something goes wrong, then the baby will pick up on your stress and get stressy himself, start crying, and it will all go downhill from there. I’m pretty sure you’re the former, so it should all be good. Don’t listen to the high-stress people.
As for sleeping, whenever we went on a trip and slept in unfamiliar places, he just slept in the bed with us, comforting for him and more sleep for us. Cue horrified reactions from other posters in 3, 2, 1…
Yep, if your kid is generally not fussy that means you’re an awesome, relaxed rad dude parent and by extension an awesome person. Good job!
If your kid is fussy, it means you’re a stressed-out tweaker who is challenged by new situations and can’t deal. Boo you.
Ladies and Gents, this is your captain - paging Nassim Taleb. Mr Taleb, please press your flight attendant call button.
As I said. I have no idea how far your trip to Hawaii is - we did it to London for a wedding which is less than two hours. Something longer than that I’d only do with bigger and wellbehaved kids.
Our little bundle of joy had trouble with the formula we used and while descending she spewed like she’d never done before (which was impressive since she’d been training daily for weeks). My wife managed somehow to take it all, but the lady next to her looked kinda scared.
Great trick for passing to the front of lines and very quickly through customs and security - so if you’re planning on smuggling drugs on your trip, you should let yourself be covered in puke.
She was a very well behaved four year old when she next was on a plane for a slightly longer trip.
This was my wife’s experience traveling too. Up to the age when they’re mobile it’s relatively easy, even on long flights (12 hours+). Much more draining later on, especially if you have more than one. Only thing to watch out for is any sort of sinus infection. If that happened, I’d just cancel the tickets.
Are babies annoying for other passengers? Depends largely on the kid. Ours were laid back, but I’ve seen others who weren’t. I’d guess most are fine actually, it’s just that most passengers are only aware of the loud ones, and the louder kids are pretty excruciating and memorable.
On the other hand, if it’s your kid that’s screaming non-stop across the Pacific, I would imagine that’s pretty frustrating, probably more so than for most other passengers. At six months you no doubt already have a pretty good idea how laid back your kid is though.
Anyway, definitely go if you can. Better to not let having kids cut you off from your friends/family any more than is necessary!
Isn’t this why Grandparents were invented?
My apologies for the crass generalisations. I’ve seen a high correlation between the stress level of parents and their kids within my social circle, so its my little mantra to stay relaxed at all times. I didn’t mean to come across so snarky and judgemental. Sorry about that.
Also, never heard of Nassim Taleb before, but reading up on wikipedia now!