Traveling with our baby

A very long time ago, I used to think that having a baby would mean the end of our spontaneous and delightful trips and voyages and I have to admit that this thought did not make me feel quite OK; I love traveling. I love going from place to place, from destination to destination, with or without a compass or a plan. Ever since I graduated high-school, I had been taking any opportunity to travel and to visit different places. As someone put it, “it’s not where you end up, but what you do along the way’- and sometimes the destination did not even matter at all, it was the trip itself that counted. 

 

And then, we had Anne. She seemed fragile and routine-demanding and I was not so sure that our traveling could go on. 

 

But it did.

 

We made our first trip when she was about 3 months and we visited my parents somewhere 400 km away from our residence-town. It’s not too difficult to imagine that I could have filled up 2 or more cars- and yet, we only had one -luckily. At first, I made a list. It was a huge list, considering the fact that I was still breast-feeding and she did not eat any solid foods. When I come to think about it, at least 50 % of the items on my list could have been left at home; we carried a hundred or more little baby-clothes and baby blankets and baby bed-sheets. I added dozens of diapers (as if we couldn’t buy them at our destination!), medicines (fever-reducers, colics-syrups, calcium, etcetera), wet-napkins, more baby-clothes, familiar toys, formula (even if she did NOT get any until 4 or 5  months!), pacifiers, shampoos and more. I was so focused on not forgetting anything from my list, that we actually did not forget anything at all.  However, by the time all our luggage was packed, I was already exhausted. 

 

The trip lasted 7 or 8 hours by car, considering the two or three pauses we took. Anne was quite comfy in her car-seat, but I thought she must have needed some time off the car and, besides, she needed to be fed. I have to mention that we never go anywhere without placing her in her car-seat. Therefore, we have searched for and bought the most comfortable car-seats (for her) so far, since I would not drive a single mile without one. So, the trip itself was quite alright and we even enjoyed our stay at my parents’. 

 

Car-trips became something quite natural for the three of us. Up to this moment, I still consider our car a lesser house of ours and our baby has always felt comfortable on the road. 

 

The second challenge regarding traveling was when Anne was around 6 months and we had to get to Paris. We thought the trip quite thoroughly and we decided that traveling by car would be rather tiring for all of us. Traveling by plane was our best choice; I must admit I was quite nervous myself, since I had never traveled by  plane before, nor had my husband. This time, I had to pack up things more rationally and “everything” fit into 2 pieces of luggage and 2 hand-bags. She was older now and needed baby-food, so we had to carry lots of supplies and some formula. I also packed too many clothes, a habit that I still hang on to, even if I realize that we never really get to put all of them on. We arrived at the airport 2 or 3 hours earlier and we checked in quite easily. We spent some time inside the airport and she was quite interested in everything around. The best thing we could have ever taken along was a very light baby-stroller where she spent a lot of time sleeping. Anne was quite calm and happy during take-off and during the flight, she even slept in my lap half of the journey. Curiously, she did not want anything to eat during the flight, she only had some water. 

 

Paris was quite baby-friendly and I will always think of it as one of the most beautiful and emotional cities of the world.

 

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Traveling by train was a piece of cake, after flying and we were always very comfortable while doing it. However, we still rely on our car a lot and most of our trips were made by car. 

 

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More on traveling with our baby in another post, soon.

 

Tagged as: baby, by car, by plane, Paris, Traveling