Last month was Little Man’s third vacation in his life and his first time on a plane. Part of me thought I was crazy for taking a 9 month old on 4 flights (each way had a layover) in the middle of March, but I would do it again. He was an amazing travel buddy! I like to think that all the planning and preparation I did helped to make it less stressful, but I feel like I should give credit to Little Man and my husband.
I will be the first to admit that I am very Type A. I planned everything for this trip and told my husband what his tasks would be. I did all the research and had decided that we would pay for a seat for Little Man and he would sit in his car seat. I (over) packed toys and things for him to do on the plane and even bought some new toys specifically for the trip. We decided that we would fly out on a Thursday and come back on a Tuesday, spending Thursday to Sunday with my husband’s family and then Monday would be spent at Disney World.
Packing and Preparation
Like I said earlier, we brought a car seat onto the plane with us. We used the Cosco Seneca Next for Little Man because it was lightweight and cheap. We also brought his 4Moms pack n play and the SnoozeShade pack n play cover as well as his portable sound machine since I knew we would all be in one room. We travelled with a checked suitcase, the pack n play (which was also checked), a carry on suitcase, the diaper bag, a second backpack, our GB Pockit City stroller, our Lillebaby baby carrier, and the Cosco car seat. The checked suitcase had the full formula tub, his portable booster seat, toiletries, Little Man’s clothes, and my clothes which were in compression bags to stay organized. The carry on suitcase had my husband’s clothes and the toys as well as extra diapers (my husband’s family had some diapers and food already so we didn’t need too much extra). The SnoozeShade and the sheet were stored in the pack n play. The diaper bag held bottled water, 3 formula servings, wipes, extra diapers, a change of clothes for both me and Little Man (because if someone was going to be puked, peed, or pooped on, it would be mom), a light blanket, a few toys, some food pouches, and infant tylenol. The extra backpack held the tablets, chargers, and Little Man’s headphones. In the airport, I carried Little Man in the baby carrier, the diaper bag, and rolled the carry on suitcase. My husband was tasked with checking the luggage and carrying the extra backpack, the stroller, and the car seat (the car seat either strapped to the carry on at times or sat in the stroller). I also had a fanny pack that had my wallet, the boarding passes, and a copy of Little Man’s birth certificate (which I never needed to show). As a side note, a diaper bag does not count towards your personal item on a plane and is kept separate and you can gate check both a car seat and a stroller for free (our stroller was small enough to fit in the overhead though). You are also able to take baby food, formula, water, and juice through TSA “in reasonable quantities” and they do not have to follow the 3-1-1 rule so take advantage.
Airports and Flying (including the unexpected)
I want to start off this section by saying that my son was amazing in being flexible and was better than a lot of the passengers. We got to the airport two hours in advance and breezed through TSA. I was allowed to keep Little Man in the baby carrier and we just had to tell them about the formula, water, and baby food in the diaper bag which was checked separately. I also recommend slip on shoes since they were easy to get on and off with a 20 lb baby on my chest. Little Man loved the airport and loved watching the planes as well as all the people in the airport. We boarded during family boarding in order to install the car seat and get situated. We also would change Little Man right before boarding each time to decrease the chance of having to change him on the plane (my husband did have to change a diaper on the plane and did say that it was less than enjoyable due to the cramped bathroom). We took off on time from Boston and landed in Newark around 10am that Thursday. This is where it all went downhill.
Our flight out of Newark to Florida kept incrementally being delayed. Our layover was only supposed to be an hour but it ended up extending to a 7 hour layover due to everything that can go wrong. First, it was due to low lying clouds over Newark, then it was because of storms over Florida, then it was a battery that wasn’t holding a charge on the plane, then it was a door wouldn’t close, then they couldn’t find us a plane right away and we had to wait for one coming from Denver that was also delayed, and then finally we had to wait for the First Officer who overslept.
I will admit I was very frustrated with this turn of events like most people. Instead of an hour of having to entertain Little Man in ther terminal, we were now faced with almost 7 hours before getting on the plane. We ended up walking around the terminal a lot and playing with toys and watching Super Simple Songs on Youtube. He napped in his stroller and we ate overly expensive airport food. We landed in Florida at 9 and managed to get Little Man to sleep in his pack n play by 11:30pm. It wasn’t ideal, but we made the best of it. Next time we will fly direct, but it was super helpful that we had extra formula and diapers in the diaper bag.
Disney with a 9 Month Old
We spent Sunday night to Tuesday morning on Disney property staying at All Star Movies. My father in law brought us on Sunday afternoon. We unpacked and then went to Disney Springs for dinner since we had reservations for Planet Hollywood. My husband loved all of the movie props and Little Man loved taking food off of our plates. It won’t be long before he will need his own meal. We walked around Disney Springs for a bit before going back to the hotel. I got our Disney backpack ready while my husband put our son to bed. I packed diapers, food pouches, bib, wipes, sunscreen, and his sunhat.
The next morning, we were able to get up and go basically. Little Man was fed a bottle in the room before heading to the quick service on site for breakfast. He had his first Mickey waffle which was gone in less than 5 minutes. While we waited for the Magic Kingdom bus, we got sunscreen on all of us and then we were off.
Some people have questioned why we brought Little Man to Disney if he won’t remember any of it, but I always tell them that I will and he enjoyed it in the moment. I paid for the experience not the memories and Disney is very infant friendly. Every bathroom, including the men’s bathrooms, had changing tables. Each park has a baby care center but we didn’t find a need to stop since we fed Little Man on the go each time. He went on Pirates, It’s a Small World, People Mover, Carousel of Progress, and the regular Carousel. We watched the Festival of Fantasy parade and walked around Main Street. I was able to go on Splash Mountain and Space Mountain myself while my husband took my son on a few rides alone. During Little Man’s naps in the stroller, we walked around some of the shops and grabbed a bite to eat. All in all, Little Man spent just about 12 hours in the park before we returned to the hotel room to finish packing before our flight the next morning. For next time, we will definitely take advantage of Genie+ just so that we don’t have to wait in line as long with Little Man and therefore be able to do more rides and activities and I definitely want to stay longer.