Travelling with a Newborn

Hi everyone, I have had tonnes of questions about my first trip abroad with Isabelle. While it was only a short flight away it was still a process getting everything in order prior to departure. From the passport to luggage carriers everything takes preparation so hopefully you can take some useful information from this post.

I'll begin with the passport photo! This I will admit was tricky to get, purely because I wasn't sure what was required. I had called into countless pharmacies, none of which felt confident to take the picture. Eventually my husband got it taken in a local pharmacy using a white t-shirt as the background and Isabelle lying in her pram. I'd possibly save yourself the journey and ring around your local pharmacies before you call in. The baby face needs to be facing forward, two ears in the picture, no shadows, no textured background and eyes open. Harder to get than you think! I'd recommend having the baby well fed and rested before hand. In terms of paper work this website is brilliant at telling you what you need. Especially if you have a different last name to the baby (like me!) further documentation might be required.

On the day of travel, we decided not to wake Isabelle as the wake up call was 4.30am. We had a bottle pre-expressed for the plane journey and all the bags packed at the door and were ready to go. In terms of security check, it is good to know that thankfully your baby bottle(s) are allowed pass security with no hassle. I changed her at the airport before we boarded the flight when she was beginning to wake. As Isabelle is still quite little we wanted to bring our Bugaboo buggy so after a bit of research we located a buggy gate bag we put the buggy in at the gate to keep it as clean as possible. You can either check the buggy in free of charge at check in or at the gate. Alternatively a stroller would be very practical when flying. I also have my beady eye on this one at the moment which might be worth the investment. Dublin airport (Terminal 1) also offer courtesy strollers if you want to check yours in (read about that here)

In terms of facilities Dublin airport has an area where you can warm your bottle and feed your baby in both terminals (read about it here) and there are plenty of baby changing areas. I used my bottle thermal case to keep the bottle at a warm temperature.

The airline had the baby buckle already at our seat when we boarded presumably known from your ticket number. You can give your little one a dose of Calpol half an hour before take off. Thankfully Isabelle was still asleep so I didn't need to take this step. I gave Isabelle the bottle when we were taking off in the air as she has to be sitting forward and breastfeeding isn't an option. I used my chekoh bay wrap which was an absolute lifesaver for travelling! Small babies love being close to their mamas so it is a perfect was of keeping them calm. There is noway of knowing how your little one will react to the altitude so the sucking motion from the bottle may have helped with her ears popping. As soon as the belt sign was switched off we took her out of the belt. I picked the seat by the window and breastfed her the rest of the flight journey.

Our Bugaboo arrived straight away at the bag belt and thankfully was in perfect condition. However folding up the buggy might be difficult if you are solo flying so a stroller might be a better option in this case. However if your buggy is specialised (double etc.) the airplane bag is a perfect option for you to bring your buggy.