What I packed for my 7 week old for 12 hour overnight flight

Long gone are the days when I used to travel with my stolen business class pack of moisturiser, fancy eye mask and homeopathic spray....  For my 7 week old I packed the following (am not breastfeeding)

• Nappy bag with 8 nappies, wipes, nappy sacks
• 6 sterilised bottles
• 2 pots containing 3 servings each of Aptamil powder
• Premade Aptamil formula in carton (on HK side they let me carry them through and UK side I had preordered them at the Boots airside)
• Grobag
• 2 spare sleepsuits
• Blanket
• Hat
• 2 muslins
• 3 material bibs

What I packed for my 2.5 year old for 12 hour overnight flight

I recently flew back to the UK and got the overnight BA flight from HK which leaves around midnight.  Although I had a backpack for my own hand luggage, this is now taken up with things for the baby so I ended up using my daughter's Trunki for most items (very useful!)

• DVD player, headphones & DVDs (didn't use this at all as she watched the TV)
• Sticker book (brilliant)
• 1 book
• Pyjamas
• 3 sleep nappies (I will write a post about travelling with potty trained child)
• Cereal bar (BA had raisins etc that I gave to her on the plane)
• Her teddy bear
• Calpol
• 1 plastic bib

I forgot to pack her water bottle so just bought her some Evian at airport when she started to get thirsty.  Other than that I think this time I finally packed quite sensibly!

I heart my Trunki!

What a brilliant invention the Trunki is.  My parents bought one for Daisy for her 2nd birthday but I feel that only now (she's 2 and 8 mths) is she really able to use it.
The only downside is if they are too young to be able to carry it themselves and therefore you end up with another piece of hand luggage.
Now on to the positives:
-  Loads more hand luggage space for you (this came in most useful with all the bottles I was carrying for the baby)
-  Fun games in the airport with her sitting on the Trunki and me pulling it
-  Somewhere for her to sit
- Introducing her to the concept of packing and having her own bag - she was very excited about selecting some books and games for the plane

Flying short haul with a 6 month old - London to Stockholm BA!

My sister and her husband took my gorgeous niece away for a weekend to Stockholm from London.  Here's her flight review full of some top tips:

We booked British Airways to fly from London for a weekend in Stockholm with our 6 month old baby.  Infants get their own luggage allowance, and at Heathrow you can take the buggy all the way to the plane.  On our return flight from Arlanda airport we had to check our buggy in and were given an airport buggy to use until we boarded.  This was a bit annoying (no bag/clips on it to hold a bag) and was a very basic buggy and may have been uncomfortable for a very small baby.  On the positive side our buggy was wrapped very securely in a big plastic bag so I was less worried about it being damaged during the flight.

In my hand luggage I had several pouches of food, cartons of milk, sterilised bottles and a sippy cup of water.  I also preordered some formula and food pouches at the airside Boots just in case this was taken away from me at security.  If you plan to do this they are very helpful (even talked me through all the different flavours of food on the phone) but make sure that you call at least a week in advance.  At Heathrow they have a special lane for families to go through security which was great on a quiet Friday morning during termtime, but probably a nightmare during school holidays.  At both Heathrow and Arlanda I was asked to taste one food pouch and to sip from the water cup, but I did not have to open the cartons of formula.  At Heathrow our little girl was asleep as we passed through security so they didn't ask us to take her out of the buggy, just took it the side and searched it thoroughly.  At Arlanda I had to carry Abbie through the x-ray machine, and when I set off the metal detector a member of staff insisted on holding Abbie while I was checked.  This wasn't strictly necessary as my husband was just behind me - I found it quite irritating but I think that she just wanted to have a cuddle with a baby!

At the gate at Heathrow while everyone was waiting to board, a member of staff ushered us straight to the desk and changed our seat numbers so that two of us could have a full row of three seats to stretch out on.  We checked in the buggy at this point and walked straight onto the plane, no stairs.  At Arlanda the staff weren't so friendly when we asked to move seats and said that we had to remain in our assigned seats as infants are specifically put in certain rows on the plane.

The flights themselves were easy, although Abbie is now too big to just lie across my lap for the whole journey.  She sucked on a bottle or dummy for takeoff and landing - if you are using a dummy it's a good idea to take a dummy clip to stop it from falling on the floor and rolling around the plane.  The staff onboard were lovely, even giving Abbie a view of the flight deck when we got off in Stockholm.  

Back in business! (sadly not talking the plane version)

Hooray, it's so nice to finally be updating this! Which means I've had my 2nd offspring and started travelling again.
My 2nd daughter was born in early October and with my brother in law's wedding on the horizon it meant her very first long haul flight at a tiny 6 weeks old...  I'll update that trip later but the next post will be from my sister who's turning my niece into something of a jetsetter...