Speaker 1: Welcome to the Sees the Ya Podcast. Busy and happy,
Speaker 1: but tired and worn, just some of the feelings when
Speaker 1: baby is born. There's magic, elation, there's chaos and tears,
Speaker 1: but everyone goes through the same hopes and fears. So
Speaker 1: this is a segment we hope helps you feel supported
Speaker 1: and valid. The mum Juggles reel the good, bad, the ugly,
Speaker 1: the best and worst day. It's part of the journey
Speaker 1: to seize the Babe. I'm Sarah Davidson, a lawyer turned
Speaker 1: entrepreneur who hung up the suits and heels to co
Speaker 1: found Macha Maiden, a Macha Milk Bar, become a TV
Speaker 1: and radio presenter, and of course host The Sees the
Speaker 1: Ya Podcast. This year, I added motherhood to that list,
Speaker 1: which is the best job I've ever had with our
Speaker 1: beautiful baby Teddy, and this segment was designed to house
Speaker 1: all the conversations we've been having about parenthood. We'll still
Speaker 1: do our regular episodes, and just like real life, it's
Speaker 1: a constant balance between our parent identity and everything else.
Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoy this segment as much as
Speaker 1: I have enjoyed creating it. Hello, Lovely neighborhood, Welcome to
Speaker 1: our second episode of Seiza Babe. Thank you all so
Speaker 1: so much for the lovely feedback on our debut episode
Speaker 1: last week with Jen covering the Juggle. I'm just so
Speaker 1: glad it ended up being as reassuring for some of
Speaker 1: you as it was for me, And I think it
Speaker 1: was such a good one to start with because it
Speaker 1: was like a real time dear diary moment. I had
Speaker 1: been really struggling with the juggle and finding the right
Speaker 1: balance between work and parenthood and life, and Jen had
Speaker 1: been such a role model and great support at that time,
Speaker 1: drawing on the things that had come up in her
Speaker 1: book on the juggle, so it all just seemed to
Speaker 1: work out really well. I'm already enjoying this segment so much,
Speaker 1: being able to answer all the mum questions that you
Speaker 1: guys have in so much more detail than I can
Speaker 1: on socials. And it probably also is easier to listen
Speaker 1: to and be more real or vulnerable when you actually
Speaker 1: get to hear someone say it rather than read what
Speaker 1: they've typed, so hopefully it's more enjoyable for that reason.
Speaker 1: And we're going back to back just for this week.
Speaker 1: Firstly because I've oji answers on this topic traveling with
Speaker 1: a baby as our second topic pretty much since Italy,
Speaker 1: which is now months ago. I keep saying, I promise
Speaker 1: I'll do it, and I haven't until now. But that's
Speaker 1: why this segment is so great, because now it has
Speaker 1: somewhere to live. And secondly because we are freshly back
Speaker 1: from more travel with Teddy to Sydney a couple of
Speaker 1: days ago for south By Southwest, and then are going overseas.
Speaker 2: Again tomorrow with him.
Speaker 1: Well it will be tomorrow by the time this is published,
Speaker 1: so it just seems really timely because I think, you know,
Speaker 1: there'll probably be questions again about packing and flying with him,
Speaker 1: and yeah, this will just be a really easy way
Speaker 1: to direct you, guys to all the brain dump and
Speaker 1: the most detail I can possibly give on how we
Speaker 1: prepare for those of you who aren't as interested in
Speaker 1: the parenthood content, which is absolutely fine. We will be
Speaker 1: back next week with a regular interview episode and then
Speaker 1: those will keep dropping fortnightly. For today, though, I thought
Speaker 1: the easiest way to s set this one out was
Speaker 1: to give you the top twenty tips I've found useful
Speaker 1: traveling with Teddy so far, because you guys know, I
Speaker 1: love a tangent, and if I don't kind of have
Speaker 1: a list, this could we could be here forever. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be shorter when I do
Speaker 1: a monologue, but it often ends up being longer because
Speaker 1: there's no one to rain me in. I must add
Speaker 1: a disclaimer quickly for this segment overall that my inner
Speaker 1: A type is so tempted to try and make this
Speaker 1: segment a neutral and totally comprehensive layout of the entire
Speaker 1: landscape on each topic, so that every single option that
Speaker 1: you have is covered in depth. But the Juggle episode
Speaker 1: will tell you I simply don't have the time or
Speaker 1: energy to do the research that that requires, even though
Speaker 1: I want to become like a one stop shop for
Speaker 1: every single.
Speaker 2: Aspect of each topic.
Speaker 1: These episodes instead are simply me answering your particular questions
Speaker 1: that have come up over and over again from my
Speaker 1: personal anecdotal experiences, based on, yes, a lot of research,
Speaker 1: but also based on and my personal choices and values.
Speaker 1: The fact that I often was recommended something by a
Speaker 1: friend and didn't bother trying anything else. So often I
Speaker 1: can't actually speak to other options, like if something works
Speaker 1: the first time, I just didn't really look at anywhere else.
Speaker 1: It also is based on Teddy's age at the time
Speaker 1: that we traveled. For example, this is more about babies
Speaker 1: and not toddlers, so of course there'll be things that
Speaker 1: a bit different. But I'm sure, of course you guys
Speaker 1: know that I just felt the need to remind everyone.
Speaker 1: That means I'm sure I'll miss many other great options
Speaker 1: or tips on these subjects. I'm sure I'll also forget
Speaker 1: things that were relevant, but just keep in mind that
Speaker 1: you know, of all the things I've learned so far
Speaker 1: in parenthood, it is that every baby, and every parent
Speaker 1: and then every family is completely different, and even my
Speaker 1: own answers will probably differ in future chapters of our life.
Speaker 1: So for context, our biggest trip was with Teddy at
Speaker 1: four months old, and Italy was before he had started
Speaker 1: solids and before he was crawl, so of course that
Speaker 1: will be relevant too, and I'm sure that once it
Speaker 1: is I will probably have different or more comprehensive advice.
Speaker 1: So tip number one, it is so normal and completely
Speaker 1: valid to be nervous about traveling with a baby, whether
Speaker 1: it's the first time or the second time, or whatever
Speaker 1: time you're up to. It is truly really different to
Speaker 1: any other travel that you've done before, and you guys
Speaker 1: know we've traveled extensively, so it was, you know, a
Speaker 1: really quite abrupt change from what we were used to.
Speaker 1: But my top tip, really before we get into any
Speaker 1: of the details, is that, like parenting overall, how good
Speaker 1: a time you have on your trip is so impacted
Speaker 1: by your expectations and the mindset or perspective that you
Speaker 1: start with, which kind of sounds really wishy washy, but
Speaker 1: it really is the best tip that I possibly have
Speaker 1: on this topic. And I think people so often say,
Speaker 1: why would you even travel with a baby? It's like
Speaker 1: just parenting but doing it somewhere else, which is absolutely true.
Speaker 1: You are still doing you know, the herds at home
Speaker 1: are the same hards that you end up doing overseas
Speaker 1: or interstate.
Speaker 2: That doesn't kind of.
Speaker 1: Necessarily align with what you think a holiday should look like.
Speaker 1: So it's not necessarily like a lie down, have sleep
Speaker 1: ins holiday, because yeah, you're doing parenting, except without the
Speaker 1: comforts that you usually have. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I flipped that and was like, if you're parenting at home,
Speaker 1: you might as well do the parenting somewhere else, So exactly.
Speaker 1: Traveling with a baby is parenting, but just somewhere else.
Speaker 1: And that's why it's beautiful, Because it is somewhere else.
Speaker 1: Why not do it in a beautiful place and have
Speaker 1: a wonderful experience. Just because your life has changed and
Speaker 1: you can't do the trouble you used to do, doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you shouldn't still try and see amazing places. And
Speaker 1: if you're going for an occasion, it doesn't mean you
Speaker 1: shouldn't still try and make that work. You shouldn't have
Speaker 1: to miss out on everything just because you can't do
Speaker 1: it the same way that you wanted to before. And
Speaker 1: at least for us, travel has enriched who I am
Speaker 1: as a person so much in my life, and you
Speaker 1: can see that directly in your child too. Teddy grew
Speaker 1: so much from seeing different faces, experiencing different smells and sounds,
Speaker 1: and even like airports exposed him to environments that he'd
Speaker 1: never been in before. He changed so much while we
Speaker 1: were away, and like, one of the weirdest things is
Speaker 1: also that he was born in almost winter was a
Speaker 1: cold weather. He'd never been in hot weather. Like even that,
Speaker 1: it just kind of challenges them and extends them in
Speaker 1: a way that really helps you a little one developed,
Speaker 1: So I think, don't let the sort of fear of
Speaker 1: it being hard be a deterrent. And yeah, that quote
Speaker 1: that it's just trap parenting overseas, that's true, but that's
Speaker 1: kind of also the best part of it.
Speaker 2: If you want to do it, it's so worth it.
Speaker 1: And I have Victoria Divine from She's on the Money
Speaker 1: to thank for really pushing me to see that that, yes,
Speaker 1: it's hard, but why wouldn't you do it? It's so
Speaker 1: much less hard than you think, but also the better
Speaker 1: it's are so much greater than you think. So that
Speaker 1: brings me to number two, which is similar. And that
Speaker 1: is another thing that someone said to me. I think
Speaker 1: it was when maybe when we were during actually on
Speaker 1: the trip, and I had said that, you know, Teddy
Speaker 1: was quite jet lagged when we first got there, and
Speaker 1: you know, there were really hard parts, of course, but
Speaker 1: the quote that they used was, of course, it is
Speaker 1: really hard. Realistically, it is hard to travel with a baby.
Speaker 1: It's not like the easiest, most relaxing thing ever. So
Speaker 1: that's having realistic expectations. But funnily enough, you only remember
Speaker 1: the good bits. So even though when you're in it
Speaker 1: there's lots of hard parts, like logistically hard, there might
Speaker 1: be some meltdowns. It's funny that, like you, I've already
Speaker 1: forgotten those. I've already forgotten those, and in the forefront
Speaker 1: of my mind are the happy memories. And that's not
Speaker 1: just traveling with children. I feel like that's the same
Speaker 1: with any hard experience. It's so hard at the time,
Speaker 1: but even pain, it's like when you're not feeling pain,
Speaker 1: you forget what it feels like. You know logically that
Speaker 1: you had that experience, but like you can't remember it.
Speaker 1: So when people run marathons, of course it's hard and
Speaker 1: it hurts, but all they remember afterwards is the endorphins
Speaker 1: from the experience or what they learned or how accomplished
Speaker 1: they felt. And so keeping that in mind also really
Speaker 1: helped me as well. It's hard, but you'll only remember
Speaker 1: the good bits. You'll have the happy memories forever and
Speaker 1: you won't remember the hard or you might remember it,
Speaker 1: but it won't be like the overwhelming thing that you
Speaker 1: take away. And like, for example, the flight, if it
Speaker 1: goes really well, it's a bonus, but in the worst
Speaker 1: case scenario, if it's awful, it's still like maximum it's
Speaker 1: still only twenty four hours of your life. Like that's
Speaker 1: the furthest a way you could be flying. And even
Speaker 1: if it's awful, like once it's over, it's over, and
Speaker 1: then it's done. It's like such in the scheme of life,
Speaker 1: it's such a small blip on the radar. So those
Speaker 1: two things was like really about how you go into
Speaker 1: the experience. It controls what kind of a good time
Speaker 1: you have or if you don't have a good time.
Speaker 1: If you go into it thinking it's going to be hard,
Speaker 1: it's going to be awful. We're not going to be
Speaker 1: able to lie down and have you know, by the
Speaker 1: pool and endless reading books and sleep in, then sure
Speaker 1: it will probably be disappointing. But if you go into
Speaker 1: it knowing that, then it sets you up really well. Okay,
Speaker 1: Number three is I'm just a brief touch on the
Speaker 1: admin and is this information is kind of broadly available,
Speaker 1: so I won't really need to go through it that much.
Speaker 1: But one of the things I forgot until quite late
Speaker 1: is that babies need a passport and that can take
Speaker 1: some time. Luckily, there is an expedited option if you
Speaker 1: leave it as late as I did. I think it
Speaker 1: took us.
Speaker 2: Maybe three days.
Speaker 1: But you also have to go and get them a
Speaker 1: passport photo, which is a lot when they're little and
Speaker 1: they can't sit up by themselves, and it's you know,
Speaker 1: their first passport, so there's a bit more paperwork and
Speaker 1: you have to get everything right. So just don't forget
Speaker 1: that if you are going away, you do need to
Speaker 1: get them a passport, and depending on where you're going,
Speaker 1: also look up the immunizations that they need. So that's
Speaker 1: just one thing that it sounds obvious, but when you're
Speaker 1: in the depths of early parenthood, nothing's obvious, and most
Speaker 1: things don't retain you know, aren't retained in your head
Speaker 1: that easily, so fe fully in the list of the
Speaker 1: top twenty things. This helps you to remember that number four.
Speaker 2: Packing.
Speaker 1: This is an area where I got so many questions,
Speaker 1: and I actually published a packing list that I won't
Speaker 1: just read out, but I've posted and I'll share the
Speaker 1: link in the show notes.
Speaker 2: To that, like actually what we took.
Speaker 1: But the tip here is that I think you have
Speaker 1: the best experience that you can when you have the
Speaker 1: least variables from your normal routine, because little ones thrive
Speaker 1: on routine and they're going through so many changes in
Speaker 1: time zone depending on where you are, obviously, but even
Speaker 1: if you're going domestically within the same time zone, getting
Speaker 1: on a plane is a lot. They're going to a
Speaker 1: new obviously, your accommodation is going to be different to
Speaker 1: your normal house. They'll be sleeping in a different bed.
Speaker 1: So pack for the least variables, so that for us
Speaker 1: that meant bring your own sheets, bring things like that
Speaker 1: that smell like home that they're used to sleeping on.
Speaker 1: Don't forget your sleepsack. We were in a kind of
Speaker 1: unique situation where Teddy had been in the snow before
Speaker 1: we left, and you can hire us new in a
Speaker 1: lot of places, but in Sorrento and Italy you couldn't,
Speaker 1: so that wasn't an option. Instead, we had to kind
Speaker 1: of mimic his bed as much as we could, and
Speaker 1: for us that was using the rocket z, which is
Speaker 1: a device that vibrates the base of the bed, and
Speaker 1: also having your white noise machine, which we use at home.
Speaker 1: So yet, keeping the things that change to a minimum
Speaker 1: if you can, that really I think helps their transition.
Speaker 1: Everything else is changing, so the things that don't have
Speaker 1: to change, try not to make them change. And in
Speaker 1: that regard again, because you counteract, i mean preempt the
Speaker 1: fact that you are a new parent and you are
Speaker 1: exhausted and the mental load of packing for you. I
Speaker 1: mean most people find packing stressful anyway, thinking about things hypothetically,
Speaker 1: but doing that for you and a tiny person is hard.
Speaker 1: So write a list well in advance that you can
Speaker 1: tweak so that you'll like new things you remember you
Speaker 1: add to it. But at least then when you're packing,
Speaker 1: I print it out and tick things off so that
Speaker 1: I've kind of spread the load of thinking about what
Speaker 1: I need to take and then making sure I've actually
Speaker 1: packed it. It's like delegated already onto a piece of
Speaker 1: paper because it's a lot. So write a packing list
Speaker 1: well in advance. You can use mine as a base,
Speaker 1: but obviously when it's quite specific to the age we're
Speaker 1: at and whatever, and then you know, you can sort
Speaker 1: of also highlight the things that you don't have yet,
Speaker 1: so the admin of going to the chemist and you know,
Speaker 1: needing to borrow things, all that kind of stuff. Again,
Speaker 1: thank you so much to Victoria Devine, who I borrowed
Speaker 1: so much off because she had just done this exact troup,
Speaker 1: which was so fortunate for me. That made the packing
Speaker 1: list a lot easier. But then at least you also
Speaker 1: know what you've already got and what you don't. That
Speaker 1: was a really good tip for me. And another thing
Speaker 1: for how little they are the kids, stuff takes up
Speaker 1: so much space, so it depends on you know whether
Speaker 1: you want to pay access package or not. But we
Speaker 1: ended up just having one whole suitcase basically was for
Speaker 1: Teddy and I'll go into this more when I talk
Speaker 1: about what stuff we actually packed for him. But then
Speaker 1: Nick and I shared a suitcase, so you have to
Speaker 1: really get economical with your own packing. And like we
Speaker 1: had a wedding to go to it with multiple events
Speaker 1: and Nick has suits, so that.
Speaker 2: Was really hard.
Speaker 1: But you do kind of get really discerning with your
Speaker 1: own packing so that you can make sure that you
Speaker 1: have everything for your little one number five practice in
Speaker 1: the lead up. This is not like this again, this
Speaker 1: is like up to you. You obviously don't have to
Speaker 1: depending on what your load is before you go away.
Speaker 1: But we knowing that Teddy would be out of a
Speaker 1: snow for the very first time, we practiced in the
Speaker 1: lead up with the travelcot, so we spent I think
Speaker 1: it was the week before we left, just putting him
Speaker 1: in the non snow travel basinet that the exact one
Speaker 1: that we were going to use with the rocket zed
Speaker 1: and the white noise machine for one nap a day
Speaker 1: and then two naps a day and then overnight. And
Speaker 1: that just meant that it wasn't the first time he
Speaker 1: ever went into this new environment, wasn't when we were
Speaker 1: overseas whenever thing else was new at the same time.
Speaker 2: And it's hard to know.
Speaker 1: We didn't beat a test that obviously, it's hard to
Speaker 1: know how much difference that made, but I think it
Speaker 1: did at least ensure it wasn't a thousand new things
Speaker 1: at once. Having said that, one thing we didn't do,
Speaker 1: there's an amazing app I actually it was Olivia Molly
Speaker 1: Rodgers who first posted about this, and I used it
Speaker 1: extensively when I was traveling alone. There's an app called
Speaker 1: time Shifter which helps you with jet lag to kind
Speaker 1: of phase yourself from one time zone to the other.
Speaker 2: I think when you're with a little one.
Speaker 1: And again I'm not an expert on this, but we
Speaker 1: didn't do that time difference fading beforehand when it was
Speaker 1: us traveling with Teddy because I think it's already so
Speaker 1: much for them that you just stay on your existing time.
Speaker 1: So I'll cover this in the next point. But you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't when we did practice with the new COT.
Speaker 1: We didn't do practice with the time difference, but we
Speaker 1: did with the COT and the sheets and the rocket
Speaker 1: z and everything else. Number six is we're up to
Speaker 1: the flight now. And my tip here is actually, back
Speaker 1: at the time of booking, try to book your flight.
Speaker 2: Times very carefully.
Speaker 1: And Nick and I didn't do this, and we actually
Speaker 1: ended up having to pay an exorbitant amount of change
Speaker 1: fees once we got closer. And I think this is
Speaker 1: quite common because at the time of booking, you're not
Speaker 1: actually thinking about the logistics of getting your baby on
Speaker 1: the plane and to the other end. You're just thinking
Speaker 1: about making sure you've ticked off the booking and that
Speaker 1: means that you use the same habits that you've used
Speaker 1: the entire time, your entire life that you've been traveling
Speaker 1: without your baby. So we kind of looked at what
Speaker 1: was the cheapest flight to get us to the other
Speaker 1: end by the time we needed to arrive at That
Speaker 1: happened to be the five am flight, and that seemed fine.
Speaker 1: And then we kind of sense checked it and we're like, yeah, cool,
Speaker 1: Like Teddy gets up really early five am, we'll be
Speaker 1: fine totally forgetting that for a five am flight, to
Speaker 1: be at the airport three hours early, you have to
Speaker 1: check in at two am, which is totally disastrous for
Speaker 1: you know, your baby's meant to be sleeping overnight, so
Speaker 1: you have to wake them up to be at the
Speaker 1: airport by two am. It's just so suboptimal, and we
Speaker 1: just didn't even think about it. So one of the
Speaker 1: really hard things about travel is trying to keep their
Speaker 1: routine as close as you can. And our first mistake
Speaker 1: was obviously totally buggering that up with the flight time.
Speaker 1: So have a look at the times of when you're leaving. Obviously,
Speaker 1: especially for a long haul, at some point everything is
Speaker 1: going to fall apart, and that's just part of flying,
Speaker 1: but at least the original departure time. Like, keep things
Speaker 1: as easy as you can for as long as you can,
Speaker 1: So be careful about your flight times. And someone asked
Speaker 1: a question about whether you would do a long layover
Speaker 1: like for a while or for overnight, or whether you
Speaker 1: just do it all in one go. I think that's
Speaker 1: a really personal preference. It also depends on your little one.
Speaker 2: At this point.
Speaker 1: I would also say, if you've never done a short
Speaker 1: domestic flight, I'd maybe do that first so you get
Speaker 1: familiar with what it feels like. We did a Sydney
Speaker 1: trip first, so that at least we could check if
Speaker 1: he was one of those babies whose ears was really sensitive,
Speaker 1: if he hated flying, if he was okay. And so,
Speaker 1: because Teddy was quite good on the plane, we thought
Speaker 1: it's already hard enough that at some point along the
Speaker 1: chain their routine goes out the window. The quicker you
Speaker 1: can get to the other end and start the new
Speaker 1: routine felt better for us. So we thought, let's just
Speaker 1: rip the band aid, and it might be a really
Speaker 1: hard twenty four hours, especially once the nap cycle starts
Speaker 1: to get all messed up. But a longer layover for
Speaker 1: us just delayed us getting to where we wanted to go.
Speaker 1: We wanted to get on Italy time as quick as
Speaker 1: we could, so we didn't do a long layover and
Speaker 1: just rip the band aid. But that's really personal. If
Speaker 1: you feel like you need time to gather your thoughts
Speaker 1: before I left, I thought I did want that once
Speaker 1: I got there, I thought, I'm really glad I did
Speaker 1: it all in one go. And then the other thing
Speaker 1: at the point of booking is it's not guaranteed that
Speaker 1: you'll get a bassinette just because you make a booking
Speaker 1: with a baby, which I didn't know. And we ended
Speaker 1: up booking through a travel agent because we have one
Speaker 1: that my family uses all the time, and I sort
Speaker 1: of was nervous about booking with the baby for the
Speaker 1: first time, and she was the one who told me,
Speaker 1: you actually have to book that. So if you're booking yourself,
Speaker 1: you might not know. And there's a limited number on
Speaker 1: each flight, so make sure you ask about that, because
Speaker 1: not having one means there in your arms, which makes
Speaker 1: the likelihood of them sleeping well really difficult. And I'll
Speaker 1: also say that certain airlines have different basinets, and some
Speaker 1: are a lot easier than others. On our first flight,
Speaker 1: we had one that was built into the bulkhead, so
Speaker 1: instead of being like this portable thing that Teddy could
Speaker 1: see through the sides that were mesh and see us,
Speaker 1: it was built into a solid structure, like a sort
Speaker 1: of deep cavern that was cut out so he couldn't
Speaker 1: see us, We couldn't see him. It didn't really work,
Speaker 1: but the second flight on the way home.
Speaker 2: Was a dream.
Speaker 1: He had a portable one. It was mesh We could
Speaker 1: see him. Yeah, so do your research on that as well.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of information on which airlines have what
Speaker 1: bassinets number seven. I had a lot of questions about
Speaker 1: the process of getting the baby on the plane. Again,
Speaker 1: this probably depends on the age that your child's at,
Speaker 1: but I would definitely in the early months take a
Speaker 1: carrier and a travel pram. The carrier was amazing for us.
Speaker 1: It's funny now thinking about it because Teddy doesn't love
Speaker 1: the carrier right now, he's much more riggily, but at
Speaker 1: the time having him just strapped to you so that
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: He's sort of part of your body.
Speaker 1: Because you're moving so many different things you need both
Speaker 1: arms free as well to when you're sort of checking
Speaker 1: in your bags and stuff like that. That was really helpful.
Speaker 1: So I had him in the carrier for a while.
Speaker 1: It also meant that when you are desperately trying to
Speaker 1: rock them to sleep in a situation where it isn't
Speaker 1: there normal, like they don't have the normal copy. You're
Speaker 1: trying to get them to nap the carryer is really
Speaker 1: helpful for that, so yes, we did the carry out,
Speaker 1: then had the travel pram with us. I would highly
Speaker 1: recommend a travel pram. I think most of them do,
Speaker 1: but that kind of you can take, you know, in
Speaker 1: the airport like as you carry on. Most of them
Speaker 1: sort of flip down into a carry on size. We
Speaker 1: use the reds Baby Skip, which has an amazingly easy
Speaker 1: fold down and fold back out mechanism. It's really compact
Speaker 1: the amount of times when you're checking in. It's sort
Speaker 1: of slightly different for each airline, but you do have
Speaker 1: to take the baby out of the carrier or take
Speaker 1: them out of the pram and fold it down at security,
Speaker 1: so you're kind of getting out in out a lot.
Speaker 2: So getting one that's really easily foldable is so useful.
Speaker 1: And we just alternated him being in the carrier or
Speaker 1: the pram depending on sort of how he was feeling,
Speaker 1: what else we were carrying, but having both was really
Speaker 1: really useful and I can highly recommend the Red Bread's
Speaker 1: Baby Skips. Another question was whether I considered other options.
Speaker 1: We didn't at the time because both I think the
Speaker 1: Jewels and the Bugaboo both had either a newborn bassinet,
Speaker 1: but that didn't fold, or they had the toddler setting
Speaker 1: which did fold, but Teddy wasn't big enough because he
Speaker 1: was four months old. The reds Baby had like a
Speaker 1: middle option which didn't require you to take the newborn bascinet,
Speaker 1: but it did allow him to lean like sit up
Speaker 1: in the toddler configuration, but lean back a tiny bit
Speaker 1: so he could still have his neck supported. And so
Speaker 1: that seemed like the only real option that we had
Speaker 1: that we had looked at, and we love it. I
Speaker 1: recommend it so highly. I still use it all the time,
Speaker 1: and that was really helpful. Yes, So the process of
Speaker 1: getting him on the plane was he was in the carrier,
Speaker 1: then on the layover he was in the travel pram
Speaker 1: because it was easier. One of the things about the
Speaker 1: carrier I will say is once you get to really
Speaker 1: hot weather, it's you get really sweaty and they get
Speaker 1: really hot and airports can be quite hot sometimes. So
Speaker 1: that's when we swapped him to the travel pram and
Speaker 1: pushed him around right up into the gate until we
Speaker 1: had to fold it down, which was just before we
Speaker 1: got on the plane. And again, a lot of airlines
Speaker 1: get let families on the plane earlier, so you have
Speaker 1: room to put your travel pram overhead, and yeah, everyone's
Speaker 1: really helpful. Number eight on the plane. This is the
Speaker 1: bit that people are often the nervous about it, and
Speaker 1: I definitely was. And my top tip here is chances are,
Speaker 1: even if they're a dream, at some point they will
Speaker 1: cry a little bit for some reason, maybe not necessarily
Speaker 1: on a domestic flight and a twenty four hour flight,
Speaker 1: they're gonna cry because they cry at home.
Speaker 2: So at some point they'll cry.
Speaker 1: And at some point you'll get that sweaty, cold filly
Speaker 1: on your neck that everyone's looking at you and it's
Speaker 1: so awkward and oh my god. But firstly, my tip
Speaker 1: is other parents traveling in my experience at least have
Speaker 1: been so compassionate. They'll give you a warm nod or say, look,
Speaker 1: we've all been there, or they'll just you know, say
Speaker 1: what can I carry for you? Or they'll often help you.
Speaker 1: Or if there's someone who's giving you death stairs and
Speaker 1: they don't understand the situation you're in, you'll probably never
Speaker 1: see them again. Like, you've all paid the same to
Speaker 1: be there. You have the right to be there, and
Speaker 1: I know it's really hard to remember in the moment
Speaker 1: when they cry. Every second feels like five hours, but
Speaker 1: you just have to let go of the fact that
Speaker 1: it's probably going to happen. It's not the worst thing.
Speaker 1: You know, you deserve to be there as much as
Speaker 1: everyone else. But generally, in my experience, people have been
Speaker 1: kinder than you expect. So, and then in a long
Speaker 1: haul flight, at least when you do need to get
Speaker 1: up and go into the galley, you can bop them around.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be stuck in your seat. You
Speaker 1: can kind of walk them up and down. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it will happen. Don't stress. And like I said before,
Speaker 1: worst case scenario, it's twenty four hours of your life.
Speaker 1: And yeah, people often, especially in those bigger planes, like
Speaker 1: Teddy cried quite a bit on the way over because
Speaker 1: he couldn't nap in his bassinet. He got so overtired.
Speaker 1: But everyone has their headphones on so most people didn't
Speaker 1: even hear him, so it's totally fine. The other question
Speaker 1: about on the plane was routine wise, Did we stick
Speaker 1: to it? As I mentioned before, Yes, as much as possible.
Speaker 1: We stayed on the old time zone, and this was
Speaker 1: from a lot of the research I did. The biggest
Speaker 1: recommendation I got was stay on the old time zone
Speaker 1: until you arrive, because you know that as closely as
Speaker 1: you can. That's what their bodies used to. So you
Speaker 1: want to get the best out of your baby as
Speaker 1: long as you can, and that's by sticking to their routine.
Speaker 1: And then once you get there, that's when you swap
Speaker 1: to the next one. And I've got tips on that,
Speaker 1: you know in a couple of couple more dot points down,
Speaker 1: but that's what we did.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: We didn't do a middle phase. We just stuck to
Speaker 1: I kept my phone. One tip that was helpful is
Speaker 1: I didn't let my phone automatically change the clock and
Speaker 1: I just stayed on Melbourne time until we arrived. Tip
Speaker 1: nine relates to that, and that is one of the
Speaker 1: main ways you can do that because the airport, the
Speaker 1: airlines are turning lights on and off and doing dinner
Speaker 1: and breakfast dinner kind of manipulated way to help adults
Speaker 1: get on the time zone is to be able to
Speaker 1: control the light. So the overall tip at point nine
Speaker 1: is be prepared for the flight and pack your carry
Speaker 1: on really carefully as if you might have a delay,
Speaker 1: because I think we sometimes think about what we need
Speaker 1: if everything goes smoothly, and put every try and put
Speaker 1: every everything else in checking so that you're not carrying
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. But if you have a major
Speaker 1: delay you can't get to your check in, assume that
Speaker 1: you might need a few extra of everything so that
Speaker 1: you could kind of get by if you were delayed
Speaker 1: a little bit. So really be prepared in packing your
Speaker 1: carry on. And one of the things for us that
Speaker 1: was an absolute game changer was the one we used anyway.
Speaker 1: It was called the cozy Go, and that's like this
Speaker 1: cover that goes over the bacinet and blocks out all
Speaker 1: the light. It's still breathable, but it blocks the light
Speaker 1: so that it feels like nighttime for them and that
Speaker 1: allows you to just control and you can put it
Speaker 1: over the pram as well, so it just allows you
Speaker 1: to increase the likelihood that the baby is going to
Speaker 1: have a nap when you need them to, even if
Speaker 1: the adults all have their lights on because they're trying
Speaker 1: to feel like it's daytime for them to adjust to
Speaker 1: the time zone, especially in airports when everything is bright
Speaker 1: all the time. The cozy Go in our carara was
Speaker 1: like just such a game changer for slightly older kids
Speaker 1: if they're not in a b I think there's lots
Speaker 1: of other things like that that.
Speaker 2: Are really helpful.
Speaker 1: I think there's like one called cushy Kids, or something
Speaker 1: that turns the normal seat into like a small bed
Speaker 1: that they can lie on. There's also like kid friendly
Speaker 1: earphones that are in like a headband that are really helpful.
Speaker 1: Teddy wasn't up to that stage, but you can research
Speaker 1: those things. The biggest thing I would pack is extra
Speaker 1: outfits for both of you, more than you would ever expect.
Speaker 1: One of the things I didn't know is their bowels
Speaker 1: often relaxed quite a bit, and we had two unbelievable
Speaker 1: punamis unbelievable one in the first four hours, and I
Speaker 1: was like, we can't carry this material for the next
Speaker 1: seventeen hours. So I threw out the entire outfit, and
Speaker 1: then he did another one on the next plane, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my goodness. I thought packing three
Speaker 1: changes of clothes was excessive, but now way down to
Speaker 1: one clean pair if anything else happened, so overpack outfits
Speaker 1: for them. Kids have a lot of bodily fluids, and
Speaker 1: pack extra outfits for you as well. Another thing that
Speaker 1: really helped for us is oh another huge a few sorry,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm losing it. This point nine has
Speaker 1: lots of abcds, so as well as extra outfits, pack obviously.
Speaker 2: Enough nappies.
Speaker 1: Nappy bags for throwing them out or putting wet clothes in.
Speaker 1: One of the most useful tips for us was a
Speaker 1: change mat because all airports and planes have changed tables,
Speaker 1: but they're often not padded. They're just hard, and there's
Speaker 1: also sort of not necessarily like a clean protector on it,
Speaker 1: and I just didn't want to put Teddy down on
Speaker 1: anything especially hard, but also just that hadn't necessarily been
Speaker 1: like that was clean, but that I didn't know what
Speaker 1: had been on it. So we have a Bunny Caddy
Speaker 1: travel change mat that's a little bit padded. That was
Speaker 1: amazing for changing on the go, and we took that
Speaker 1: everywhere that we went once we were there as well.
Speaker 1: Take enough medication on the plane panat all, whatever you
Speaker 1: might need for your little one forget to pack that
Speaker 1: in your carry on for their ears if anything happens
Speaker 1: along the way. We also took baby fest which is
Speaker 1: like the nasal spray to help clear his nose and ears,
Speaker 1: and then the snotty boss, which is what we used
Speaker 1: to clear his snot Teddy wasn't quite at the stage
Speaker 1: of playing with toys a lot because it was quite little.
Speaker 1: Now he would be. But another tip I got is
Speaker 1: bring some new toys that he's not seen before so
Speaker 1: that they're not bored of them, and open them throughout
Speaker 1: the flight, because twenty four hours is a really long time,
Speaker 1: so that they've got something novel each like to keep
Speaker 1: them distracted, particularly if you don't want to do much
Speaker 1: screen time, and no judgment if you do. I can
Speaker 1: totally imagine that it's just you know, anything for survival
Speaker 1: when it comes to traveling. But yeah, the new toys
Speaker 1: tip was one. And then for us this is quite personal,
Speaker 1: but Teddy really really responds well to music, particularly when
Speaker 1: he's like crying or not feeling great. So we had
Speaker 1: a soundtrack and we still use it everywhere. That was preloaded,
Speaker 1: so we downloaded it so that it was available offline
Speaker 1: if there wasn't Wi Fi on the plane, or it
Speaker 1: wasn't working, or there wasn't WiFi we could connect to
Speaker 1: in the airport. Pre download that like the Happy Song,
Speaker 1: Baby Shark, all those emergency songs that was a really
Speaker 1: good tip because we used them more than I thought
Speaker 1: we would. Tip ten for their ears. They're much more
Speaker 1: sensitive than adults' ears are. The biggest tip that I
Speaker 1: read before we went for the actual flight itself is
Speaker 1: to feed them on the way up and on the
Speaker 1: way down, because swallowing helps clear their ears, because they
Speaker 1: can't often yawn themselves at that early age, so you
Speaker 1: kind of feeding them helps them do that by swallowing.
Speaker 1: That's all well and good, except that most of you
Speaker 1: will know that trying to feed a baby at exactly
Speaker 1: a particular time, sometimes you can. Often you can't, Like
Speaker 1: Teddy would get hungry, or we'd be on the TIMEAC
Speaker 1: longer than I thought and he'd need to feed before
Speaker 1: we took off, or I'd start and then we wouldn't
Speaker 1: actually with taxi for a lot and he would have
Speaker 1: finished before we took off or whatever, or you know,
Speaker 1: we just didn't last the window. Like there's just so
Speaker 1: many logistics already. So another alternative is if they have
Speaker 1: a dummy that sucking also works, or if they are
Speaker 1: drinking water, maybe their water bottle.
Speaker 2: They all helped.
Speaker 1: If they're really really sensitive, ask your doctor about panadol
Speaker 1: or some kind of pain relief and how you should
Speaker 1: do that if that's your choice, like consult a professional
Speaker 1: for that. But yet the tip was feeding on the
Speaker 1: way up or down and I managed it twice and
Speaker 1: the other takeoffs and landings we use the dummy number eleven.
Speaker 1: Once you arrive, you kind of forget about the fact
Speaker 1: that you won't have your own car seat in your car.
Speaker 1: We hired a car and we pre booked a car
Speaker 1: with a baby seat in it. But even in Sydney
Speaker 1: for example, like there are different rules in New South
Speaker 1: Wales and Victoria on babies under the age of whatever
Speaker 1: it is whether they can go on your lap or
Speaker 1: whether they need a baby seat, so always look that
Speaker 1: up before you go to take the stress out of it.
Speaker 1: You might want to pre book a transport that has
Speaker 1: a baby seat in it, and particularly if you're at
Speaker 1: that age where it still needs to be rear facing.
Speaker 1: A lot of cabs have front facing seats, like you
Speaker 1: can just book any maxicab and they often have them,
Speaker 1: but if you want a rear facing one for a
Speaker 1: smaller baby, you often have to book it. So I
Speaker 1: would look up the rules before you go and work
Speaker 1: out you know what you need. And then my big
Speaker 1: tip here is take like a light muslin rap or
Speaker 1: something that folds down really small and won't bother you
Speaker 1: too much. But because you can't necessarily like sterilize the
Speaker 1: entire seat, and they've been used by lots of different children,
Speaker 1: we kind of put that rap over it before we
Speaker 1: put Teddy in it, so that the bits that his
Speaker 1: face were touching on the rap and not on the chair.
Speaker 1: That was really useful and we did that in Sydney
Speaker 1: the other day as well. Number twelve the time difference,
Speaker 1: so I've kind of covered the fact that we didn't.
Speaker 1: We kept him on the Melbourne time zone as long
Speaker 1: as possible, and that just means, yeah, you're more likely
Speaker 1: to get a more predictable baby for as long as
Speaker 1: you can. Once you get there. They also get jet lag.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's really hard. In Europe, it was like
Speaker 1: the complete opposite time. Sometimes it's like the younger they are,
Speaker 1: the less they have a circadian rhythm, so maybe it's easier.
Speaker 1: But Teddy had just figured out night and day and
Speaker 1: then we went and flipped it on him. So Victoria
Speaker 1: gave me the biggest tip before we went, and that
Speaker 1: was get them up and out in the morning. First
Speaker 1: thing in the morning, get them up and out so
Speaker 1: they get light in their eyes and that helps them
Speaker 1: kind of recalibrate, So this is morning time, and then
Speaker 1: you try and get them on the time zone as
Speaker 1: soon as you can. But at the same time, and
Speaker 1: again this is probably quite personal, but my advice anyway
Speaker 1: is that get them up and out in the mornings,
Speaker 1: same for you, even if you want to sleep, and
Speaker 1: it will help you all to get sun light in
Speaker 1: your eyes. Then kind of try and get back to
Speaker 1: your normal routine as soon as you can, except.
Speaker 2: That, of course, they will be really tired. And some
Speaker 2: of the.
Speaker 1: Advice is don't let them sleep longer than their normal
Speaker 1: nap time. I would say let them sleep a little
Speaker 1: bit longer, because if they're overtired, they won't sleep and
Speaker 1: that's even worse, and then you're sort of chasing yourself.
Speaker 2: So we sort of got Teddy.
Speaker 1: Up really early in the morning and then gave him
Speaker 1: his normal naps. Is ish, but let him have longer
Speaker 1: naps for those ones. And yes, of course, like don't
Speaker 1: let them have an overnight length sleep during the day
Speaker 1: because then they'll just keep thinking it's nighttime.
Speaker 2: But we would kind.
Speaker 1: Of you know, he went two hour he's a thirty
Speaker 1: minute napper, and we'd let him have like two hour
Speaker 1: naps because he needed to still catch up on the
Speaker 1: fact that even in a really good scenario, we had
Speaker 1: a dream flight on the way home, but he's still
Speaker 1: overall in that twenty four hour period got less sleep
Speaker 1: than he normally would at home, so he had some
Speaker 1: catching up to do, which means that when we got back,
Speaker 1: we let him have slightly longer naps so he would
Speaker 1: catch up, but just not nighttime length naps, so then
Speaker 1: by the time he got to bed, he wasn't so
Speaker 1: overtired that he could fall asleep. It's like that age
Speaker 1: old thing that sleep forgets sleep. And yes, I know
Speaker 1: there's lots of material out there saying you don't want
Speaker 1: them to have so much sleep that they're not tired enough,
Speaker 1: but I don't think in the case of a long
Speaker 1: haul flight you need to worry about that because they
Speaker 1: probably won't have had the same amount of sleep as
Speaker 1: they normally do, and you do need to let them
Speaker 1: catch up.
Speaker 2: A little bit.
Speaker 1: Again, this is a personal choice, but that's what worked
Speaker 1: for us. And yeah, the day the first day, I
Speaker 1: did kind of wake him up from a few naps,
Speaker 1: thinking that I needed to stop him sleeping, and he
Speaker 1: just got so overtired that yeah, I abandoned that pretty quickly,
Speaker 1: but yet getting them up and out in the mornings
Speaker 1: was a big tip there. Tip thirteen. Jet lag does
Speaker 1: take them a little bit of time to get over,
Speaker 1: so again coming back to those realistic expectations, it does
Speaker 1: take a little while, and I was really overwhelmed when
Speaker 1: I read a few blogs that said it can take
Speaker 1: up to seven days and we were only going for
Speaker 1: like twelve or thirteen. I would say that it did
Speaker 1: take seven days for him to be completely normal, but
Speaker 1: it took maybe three for him to be more manageable.
Speaker 1: And in light of that, I would say my tip
Speaker 1: here is if you're going for an important event, like
Speaker 1: a wedding, for example, don't have it in the first
Speaker 1: three days. And this comes back to us making the bookings.
Speaker 1: When we thought that we could fly at five am.
Speaker 1: We also fly thought that we could fly the day
Speaker 1: before land, then get a car, not have a night
Speaker 1: to just recoup, get a higher car, drive three more hours. Again,
Speaker 1: he'd also never driven for three hours and then have
Speaker 1: one night's sleep and then have the wedding. We were
Speaker 1: there for the next night, absolutely impossible. We realized two
Speaker 1: days before that was not going to work, so we
Speaker 1: had to pay, like I said, an exorbitant amount to
Speaker 1: change it, because I was like, we're going to miss
Speaker 1: the wedding if we don't change it.
Speaker 2: So we're very privileged. Of course, it's a privilege.
Speaker 1: To be able to pay the change fees, but I
Speaker 1: just thought, you know, there's worth going otherway. So my
Speaker 1: advice to you so you don't have to do that,
Speaker 1: is if you do have a really important event that
Speaker 1: you need the little one to be a bit more
Speaker 1: routine for maybe plan that sort of.
Speaker 2: Not in the first few days.
Speaker 1: Having said that, we did make it, and it was amazing,
Speaker 1: and I took my mum so that she could help
Speaker 1: with babysitting, and again that's a great privilege and it
Speaker 1: was beautiful to have a family experience, but it was
Speaker 1: a lot harder to make sure that by the time
Speaker 1: we needed to leave, he was ready to sleep and
Speaker 1: he was going to take a bottle, and part of
Speaker 1: Teddy's when he's really tired, he sort of doesn't love
Speaker 1: his bottle, and that was really difficult, So I didn't
Speaker 1: get to stay at the wedding for the whole time,
Speaker 1: and I think probably the week after I would have
Speaker 1: been able to. So I would yeah, plan any important
Speaker 1: events after they've had a bit of time to adjust.
Speaker 1: Tip fourteen where did he sleep? So in Sydney, we
Speaker 1: knew the hotel chain that we were staying at, and
Speaker 1: we knew that they had We knew that the cots
Speaker 1: would be of a particular quality. We knew that families
Speaker 1: travel often. He's also used to, you know, sleeping in
Speaker 1: a cot. Now he's been out of the snow. We
Speaker 1: never went back to the snow after the trip because
Speaker 1: we'd kind of already weaned him. So in Sydney, you know,
Speaker 1: we were happy to trust that the hotel we were going
Speaker 1: to how to cot. If you are going overseas, it depends,
Speaker 1: of course on your location and on your baby, but
Speaker 1: you can call an advance. Definitely call an advance and
Speaker 1: work out what their options are. But in the Amalfi
Speaker 1: Coast we were staying at an amazing hotel. But Italy overall,
Speaker 1: sometimes like the communication isn't as great or you know,
Speaker 1: they have different standards on certain things and there's a
Speaker 1: language barrier. So I just wanted to, particularly for such
Speaker 1: a big adventure, make sure that we had consistent Also,
Speaker 1: because we were swapping hotels, I wanted Teddy to have
Speaker 1: sort of, like I said, changing as little as possible.
Speaker 1: I wanted him to have the same basn't the whole time.
Speaker 1: And so for us personally, it was worth taking our
Speaker 1: own and then at least we knew it met certain standards.
Speaker 1: He would have been able to try it before we went.
Speaker 1: And again I benefited enormously from Victoria Devine who had
Speaker 1: done all the research on the one that would fold
Speaker 1: down to be the most lightweight and fit within the
Speaker 1: large July cases, so it didn't take up much of
Speaker 1: that case, which was amazing. It was called the Chico
Speaker 1: Lullago travel Coot, and it was amazing. That's the one
Speaker 1: we gave him a couple of days before in and
Speaker 1: it just took the stress out of it. It meant
Speaker 1: that if they didn't have a cot setup, or they
Speaker 1: didn't have one, or it was taken, we knew that
Speaker 1: there was somewhere to sleep that we knew he could
Speaker 1: fall asleep in. So my tip there is, if you
Speaker 1: can and you want to take your own travelcot if
Speaker 1: you can't call ahead and make sure that they have
Speaker 1: one and that they know you've requested it, because yeah,
Speaker 1: but then what happened with us is we arrived and
Speaker 1: they knew we were booking in with a baby. They
Speaker 1: did have one ready, but the bed they had for
Speaker 1: Teddy was a fold out sofa, which now maybe he'd
Speaker 1: be able to fall asleep in, but at the time
Speaker 1: it was four months, there was no way and things
Speaker 1: get lost in translation, so we just thought it was
Speaker 1: better to have our own. So my tip is, depending
Speaker 1: on your level of anxiety about uncertainty, Yeah, we use
Speaker 1: the Chico La Lago and highly recommend it. And the
Speaker 1: other question in that area was did we get two
Speaker 1: rooms with Teddy napping in one or one room? And
Speaker 1: again this comes down to budget, how long you're going
Speaker 1: for where you're going. I would say that we ended
Speaker 1: up having a room for Mum because she was traveling
Speaker 1: with us. So we did end up having two rooms
Speaker 1: for our trip because we had Mum with us, But
Speaker 1: in terms of Nick, Teddy and I us three were
Speaker 1: in the same room. We didn't get two rooms for
Speaker 1: just our unit. And that was quite difficult because you
Speaker 1: do sound wise or like just general activity wise. Being
Speaker 1: all in one did mean that when Teddy.
Speaker 2: Goes to sleep, we all go to sleep.
Speaker 1: I think there's an Airbnb ad about that that right
Speaker 1: going around right now, that you got to sleep when
Speaker 1: your kids go to sleep. So if there is a
Speaker 1: way to book a room. Again, this is coming from
Speaker 1: a place of great privilege that we had saved a
Speaker 1: lot for this trip and we were able to kind
Speaker 1: of have flexibility. The reason we didn't get that extra
Speaker 1: room is because it wasn't available in the hotel. But
Speaker 1: when we went to Sydney a couple of days ago,
Speaker 1: we did make sure that it was a two bedroom
Speaker 1: family set up room.
Speaker 2: If you can make.
Speaker 1: Sure there's a separate room with a door where the
Speaker 1: baby can be napping so you guys can still do
Speaker 1: stuff when they're asleep, that helps a lot because when
Speaker 1: they are napping, they nap three times a day or
Speaker 1: two times a day or whatever, and then they go
Speaker 1: to sleep really early, so it kind of limits you
Speaker 1: if you can't do that. But again, we had the
Speaker 1: cozy go which allows you to control at least control
Speaker 1: the light, so if we were moving around at least
Speaker 1: if we were doing it quiet, even if it was
Speaker 1: the middle of the day. Another, yeah, I would highly
Speaker 1: highly recommend getting some kind of blackout mechanism so you
Speaker 1: can control their light. We took that to Sydney as well,
Speaker 1: enormously helpful. And then we use the white noise machine,
Speaker 1: which would at least kind of minimize the impact of
Speaker 1: our sound moving around. So yeah, we had one room
Speaker 1: for the three of us, one for mum and the
Speaker 1: cozygo and the cot number fifteen. This is specific to
Speaker 1: small babies and hot weather, especially babies who have never
Speaker 1: been in hot weather ever or the reverse. It is
Speaker 1: also not just the time zone, but they're dealing with
Speaker 1: a different climate. Everything's going to feel weird for them,
Speaker 1: their skin, it's all new. One thing that really helped
Speaker 1: us was to have and actually this is probably helpful anyway.
Speaker 1: At home, we always have small white face washes everywhere
Speaker 1: in the house, in every bag, in every like pram
Speaker 1: and everything, because you just need to wipe them at
Speaker 1: all times, but particularly when it's hot and you need
Speaker 1: to cool them down quickly, not air con always everywhere
Speaker 1: you can just get a bottle of water or go
Speaker 1: into a bathroom and get like literally wet the face
Speaker 1: washer and put it on them to keep them cool.
Speaker 2: That was so useful.
Speaker 1: And we also always had a light muslin wrap like
Speaker 1: a pashmina type thin piece of material, not just for
Speaker 1: the car seat like I mentioned before, but to cover
Speaker 1: the pram to keep the heat and like the sun out,
Speaker 1: and also when he was napping, to keep the light out.
Speaker 1: That was really helpful for us if you're going to
Speaker 1: a sunny climate. Number sixteen is the things that help
Speaker 1: you during the day, like just in general the time
Speaker 1: between the naps. They're wake windows, pack really well for that.
Speaker 1: Don't forget that you will have time where you're not distracted,
Speaker 1: you're not going out and seeing stuff. Particularly if it's
Speaker 1: really hot or it's really cold, you might or a
Speaker 1: raining you might get stuck in your room. And I've
Speaker 1: kind of only thought about it at the last minute,
Speaker 1: so we actually ended up taking and this is a
Speaker 1: very time specific thing. We don't need it anymore, but
Speaker 1: we ended up taking the fitball with us and a
Speaker 1: pump because it's so essential to our wake windows and
Speaker 1: calming Teddy back home, or it was at the time
Speaker 1: that I thought we need this. There also we need
Speaker 1: someway for him to roll around, like he wasn't sitting up,
Speaker 1: he couldn't walk around at the time, so we needed
Speaker 1: a play mat. So getting one that's portable for just
Speaker 1: like when you're in the room doing nothing was really
Speaker 1: important and you kind of forget about bringing toys for
Speaker 1: just kicking about. So yeah, a playmat that you can
Speaker 1: fold up, a bouncing ball if you need that. You
Speaker 1: obviously can't necessarily take their rockers or they walk it,
Speaker 1: they're all those things, but taking the things that are
Speaker 1: portable was really helpful. Number seventeen bottles and sterilizing such
Speaker 1: a big question, and that was a big part of like,
Speaker 1: again when it comes back to their stuff taking up
Speaker 1: so much room in the case, the feeding was a
Speaker 1: big logistical thing. So this list, part of my list
Speaker 1: was like extensive. Yes, we did bottles over there, particularly
Speaker 1: because we were going out without him, but also because
Speaker 1: I was pumping and we wanted to maintain his familiarity
Speaker 1: with bottles so that when I came back I could
Speaker 1: still go to work. And it is really hard, because
Speaker 1: sterilizing is really hard. I had a lot of questions
Speaker 1: about that. The fridge control I didn't think about, but
Speaker 1: a lot of hotel fridges aren't at the same coldness,
Speaker 1: and milk storage is a really big thing. So what
Speaker 1: we did is we took our normal bottles. I took
Speaker 1: my pumps. We also took sterilizer tablets. The brand was Milton.
Speaker 1: That was a tip from Victoria. Again, like I owe
Speaker 1: this whole entire episode to Victoria, I should have actually
Speaker 1: done it with her. She was just amazing with tips
Speaker 1: like that. You can also sterilize using boiling water, so
Speaker 1: we use the kettles a lot. One of the things
Speaker 1: that was really helpful was and I didn't think you'd need,
Speaker 1: but a portable bottle washing kit that like folded up
Speaker 1: and it had a washing brush, a detergent bottle, and
Speaker 1: a drying rack so that you could put the bottles
Speaker 1: on something after you wash them and then you would
Speaker 1: sterilize them later. So yeah, we kind of took everything
Speaker 1: that we would normally use, the bottles, sterilized tablets.
Speaker 2: I preferred to use the kettle because I thought it
Speaker 2: was easier.
Speaker 1: And the one problem was one of our fridges wasn't
Speaker 1: that cold, and I wasn't super comfortable with that.
Speaker 2: So and also because.
Speaker 1: Again stupidly, we arrived not that long before the wedding,
Speaker 1: where well we would need bottles. I didn't have enough
Speaker 1: time to pump enough milk for that. So the best
Speaker 1: thing that we did there was you've heard me probably
Speaker 1: talk about it before, is we freeze dried some of
Speaker 1: my breast milk beforehand. And again this is quite specific
Speaker 1: to breastfeeding mothers or parents. If you use formula, this
Speaker 1: is not a problem because you've already got powdered milk
Speaker 1: that is shelf stable. But if you are using breast
Speaker 1: milk and you don't know about the fridges, that's where
Speaker 1: Narashi was amazing because they freeze dried bags of my
Speaker 1: frozen breast milk so that I could travel, and even
Speaker 1: having spare milk on the plane because you don't know
Speaker 1: that airplane travel and JETLA doesn't affect.
Speaker 2: Your supply either.
Speaker 1: I felt a lot more comfortable because Teddy wasn't on solids,
Speaker 1: knowing that I had powdered breast milk with the same
Speaker 1: convenience of formula, but that it was my milk on
Speaker 1: the plane in transit in case, so Teddy wouldn't starve
Speaker 1: if my boobs just kind of dried up suddenly because
Speaker 1: you just don't know. So I can include more links
Speaker 1: to that, but that was really amazing for peace of
Speaker 1: mind to just have yeah, the shelf stable, non refrigerator
Speaker 1: needing milk, and then if you were if he was
Speaker 1: on solids, which he was for Sydney, that's when again
Speaker 1: it depends on what you can access at the other end.
Speaker 1: If you do have cooking facilities and you can cook
Speaker 1: eggs or beef or ground beef or whatever your sterup,
Speaker 1: whatever you're doing, if you can take a nutrible whatever
Speaker 1: your setup is, that's helpful. I also just took a
Speaker 1: lot of pouches. We hadn't really used pouches before. I've
Speaker 1: just preaked everything. But there are a lot of great
Speaker 1: pouch options now that have nothing, no additives or anything.
Speaker 1: So I feel like that's a really good option if
Speaker 1: you're comfortable with that, or if you're just not going
Speaker 1: to have cooking facilities at the other end, there's some
Speaker 1: really great brands.
Speaker 2: So we did that for Sydney.
Speaker 1: And I also took his wheat bigs in like a
Speaker 1: little ziploc bag, and then I took my pump so
Speaker 1: that I had the milk to put with it.
Speaker 2: And Yeah, but I.
Speaker 1: Think if I traveled overseas for solids, I'd probably have
Speaker 1: a bit of a different approach. Eighteen was about heating
Speaker 1: up milk on the go. So the old school ways
Speaker 1: just use a kettle, and like all the maternal and
Speaker 1: child health nurses and night nannies and all the people
Speaker 1: that we know, or even my mom was.
Speaker 2: Like, just use the kettle, but we used.
Speaker 1: We bought one from the memo called the Jiffy. We
Speaker 1: tried a few and the Jiffy ended up being the
Speaker 1: one that we like the most. It's really portable, easy
Speaker 1: like it packs down really small. We took that so
Speaker 1: that we could heat up milk as we went. Another
Speaker 1: tip though, is if you're in really hot weather, it
Speaker 1: doesn't need to be as hot as it normally is.
Speaker 1: Teddy tolerated it a lot cooler because he was hot,
Speaker 1: so we might not have needed like a full on warmer.
Speaker 2: But yeap, that's what we use the Jiffy.
Speaker 1: And that's also so all of the products that I've
Speaker 1: mentioned pretty much are in my packing list, but I've
Speaker 1: also got baby essentials like page that has the links
Speaker 1: to all of them, so I'll put that in the
Speaker 1: show notes as well. Number nineteen. This is one from
Speaker 1: my sister in law who always said with kids, if
Speaker 1: they have an absolute meltdown, and they probably will at
Speaker 1: some point, because they also sometimes might at home. Like
Speaker 1: that's the other thing you've got to remember is if
Speaker 1: they cry, they also cry at home. If they have meltdown,
Speaker 1: sometimes they have those at home too. But also you
Speaker 1: have to have so much compassion for them, their tiny
Speaker 1: little humans, and they're seeing a whole new world. They're
Speaker 1: new to the world anyway, but you're showing them a
Speaker 1: whole nother new world. Of course, it's going to be overwhelming,
Speaker 1: and the poor little things, it's a lot to drag
Speaker 1: on to the other end of the world. So there
Speaker 1: will be a couple of meltdown moments. But my sister
Speaker 1: in law always says, either put them in nature or
Speaker 1: just add water, and so if you can get outside,
Speaker 1: that also, like always really helps. But one of the
Speaker 1: things that helped me when Teddy was having quite a
Speaker 1: meltdown when we first got there, he was like, what
Speaker 1: is this hot place with the opposite time zone without
Speaker 1: my staff, I'm tired, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1: He just yeah, absolutely, and like he was really good
Speaker 1: on the planes, but he actually he's like kind of
Speaker 1: meltdown was after we arrived, when he was just done.
Speaker 1: I jumped in the shower with him and just add
Speaker 1: water in a bath or in a shower is so calming.
Speaker 1: I'd never jumped in a shower with him before, but
Speaker 1: that just like was a circuit breaker he needed. And
Speaker 1: I found that a really valuable tip when you just
Speaker 1: went all else fails, You're bouncing, you're you know, padding,
Speaker 1: you're shushing, and none of it's working. Is just jump
Speaker 1: in the shower. That's not like expert advice by any means,
Speaker 1: but that helped me. And then number twenty, I can't
Speaker 1: believe I've monologued for like a bloody hour. I thought
Speaker 1: this was going to be a half an hour thing.
Speaker 1: But I'm just trying to give as much information as
Speaker 1: you guys might find it helpful or useful, and I
Speaker 1: hope it has been. But number twenty and I've probably
Speaker 1: missed stuff. But someone asked anything I do differently, And
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing is just be kind to yourself.
Speaker 1: It is there's nothing I would do differently because I
Speaker 1: couldn't know what I couldn't know. You've just got to
Speaker 1: try it. It's hard traveling with the child. You're doing
Speaker 1: the best you can. You're doing an amazing thing, and
Speaker 1: it's not the same as travel before. And just like
Speaker 1: we said in Jen's episode, you're not the same person
Speaker 1: you were but were before, and you do say goodbye
Speaker 1: to your old identity, So you also say goodbye to
Speaker 1: the old way that you traveled for a little while,
Speaker 1: not forever. You will be able to when they're bigger,
Speaker 1: kind of go back to that same kind of independent travel.
Speaker 1: But you also gain a whole new identity and you
Speaker 1: gain a whole new set of experiences. And seeing your
Speaker 1: favorite tiny human that you made see the world is
Speaker 1: special in a way that I can't even describe. It
Speaker 1: is so worth it. It's one of the best things we've done.
Speaker 1: It's not as hard as you think. You will be
Speaker 1: amazing again. Even if it is, you will only remember
Speaker 1: the good bits. And I hope that this is at
Speaker 1: least help you feel a little bit more prepared and excited.
Speaker 1: But if I have missed anything, please let me know.
Speaker 1: If you have any further questions, please let me know.
Speaker 1: This is meant to be bite sized, so I'm going
Speaker 1: to cut myself off now. But I hope that that's
Speaker 1: been as much detail as you had hoped for, and please, yeah,
Speaker 1: you guys know I love keeping the communication channels open.
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that you get as much
Speaker 1: value as you can. Remember this is my specific anecdotal information.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm that like TNZ disclaimer at the
Speaker 1: end of an at But yeah, I hope this was useful.
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought. Good luck on whatever
Speaker 1: travel you have, and we'll be back in a fortnight
Speaker 1: with the next one, which I think will be on
Speaker 1: the sleep progression. I have so much to say on
Speaker 1: that it'll probably be longer, but chat to you guys then.