Our first flight with Z

Everything that could have gone wrong did

Last Saturday we flew with Zachary for the first time. He’s 11 months for reference. I accumulated all the tips. Tips included: have new toys they’ve never seen before, get the suction fidget spinners, bring the artipoppe, lots of hand wipes, snacks snacks snacks, and my favorite tip, don’t lose it on your husband.

We had an 8am flight out of LGA. I, along with my nanny, spent the bulk of the week packing meticulously for Zachary. I had a LONG packing list, and there wasn’t a stone left unturned. We had two seats booked. A window for Steven and a middle for me. Zachary would sit on my lap.

I was nervous about the flight and things going smoothly, but mostly nervous about having to wake Zachy up and his schedule being all over the place. Luckily, the morning of, he decides to wake up at 5:50am. This is the only time you’re actually happy your baby is up early, lol.

Us with the bags at 6am (before the chaos)

Let me back up for a second. Part of the reason I am writing this is because so many of you asked for tips for your first flight. I’m never going to be the kind of person who comes on here claiming to be an expert at this parenthood thing, let alone something I’ve done literally once. I’m writing this moreso as a “don’t make the same mistakes I did.” Hopefully it helps.

Anyway, back to the story. So, we hit the road at 6:15 on the dot. The doormen of our building were so kind as to help us load up the car. Steven was in charge of the bags, I was in charge of the baby. We are about 10 minutes into our car ride when I ask Steven to get something out of the main carry-on bag for Z. It’s not there. He panics, I somehow stay calm (if you know me, this is rare). Steven says, “Let’s get to the airport and then I’ll turn around and get it and meet you.” “Absolutely not,” I say. “I’ll get an Uber and we’ll ask the doorman to put the bag in the Uber.” My plan wins. Our first fail.

We make it to the airport and immediately get into the bag drop line. This is when we both look at our boarding passes and realize I forgot to add precheck into our tickets. Our second fail. We figure we can just add it in when we get to the front of the bag drop line. We are close to the front when the Uber with the other bag arrives. Steven goes to get it, and I work on checking us in. At this point, we are nearing 7am, the time of Z’s first bottle.

The bag is acquired and brought back. We are told by the staff member that we cannot add precheck to our reservation unless we wait on the special services line which is about 100 people long. We decide we’ll have to continue on without precheck. We wait in the regular security line, and it’s now past 7am. I feed Z in line, and it’s hectic, but it works. We finally get to the front, and our flight is now 5 minutes into boarding.

The staff member stops us. “Do you have registration for him?” “No, he doesn’t have a seat” “He needs to be registered in order for me to let you through” “Can you just register him here?” “No, you need to go to special services and come back.” OUR THIRD FAIL. I don’t understsand. When I was accumulating tips, HOW DID NO ONE MENTION THAT WE HAD TO REGISTER AN INFANT IN ARMS?! I just don’t understand how moms are supposed to know these things.

Steven takes Zachary in the stroller while I wait at the front of security and SPRINTS through the airport. Somehow comes back in record time, and we are now running through the airport. We get to the gate 1 minute before it closes. I was SO excited to be able to board first with a child. NOPE. We boarded LAST. Even though we were last to board and probably annoying to everyone on the plane, I had to ask the pilot if he had wings for Z’s first flight and they very kindly gave it to us. That was cute.

Z with his wings

The flight itself was more or less fine. It was all about finding ways to entertain him until he fell asleep. I fed him his solids as we were taking off because Steven was worried about his ears popping (they were fine). We got very lucky because we were seated next to a really sweet girl who babysits often. It very quickly became apparent that we needed the aisle and the middle not the middle and the window. She offered to switch with us so she could nap against the window and we could stand up and move about the aisle whenever we needed to without bothering her.

When it was almost his usual nap time, I walked around with him in the carrier up and down the aisles until he got sleepy. Then, once he was asleep, I sat down, and we actually got a decent 30 minute nap. Our first and only win! I was so starving (I didn’t bring food for myself because I thought we’d have extra time in the airport. Don’t make that mistake either) I downed one of his Once Upon A Farm fruit packs. LOL. But I gotta say, it was delicious.

We got there, got the bags, got an Uber (thank god for the Doona), and I fed him his next bottle in the car. I know you’re not supposed to feed them in the car but you gotta do what you gotta do.

The pilots let us sit in the cockpit before we left the flight. So sweet.

Was it a shit show? Yes. Would I do it again? Yes! Zachary is so happy to be here in Florida. It’s an incredible escape from the cold weather, and he really loves the pool and the beach. It’s so great to be able to experience it with him at this age vs. when he was only 6 months in the summer. I highly recommend traveling with your baby, but make sure that you don’t make the same mistakes we did.

I have so much more to share about this travel experience. What we brought that we didn’t need, what we didn’t bring that we did need, and so much more. Stay tuned for the next Substack on that! And please let me know in the comments what went wrong the first time you traveled with your little one!

L

Please excuse any typos!