TRAVELLING WITH A NEWBORN Tips to make it through

Whether it’s to meet a granny, or just to take a sanity-saving break, sometimes travelling with a small baby has to happen. We know you’re already stressed out by the job of keeping a baby alive while occasionally getting an hour of sleep, and it would be a pity to add even more anxiety into the mix.

1. CULTIVATE ACCEPTANCE

Your best-laid plans of booking the flight to coincide with baby’s sleep time will go awry when the airline tells you there is a two-hour delay. There will be tears – and baby will cry, too! (Ha, ha.) If you can see the getting-there part of the journey as almost like a circle of hell you have to pass through before your paradisiacal reward, you’ll go into grit-your-teeth survival mode, and you’ll cope, because you have to. Try not to take other passengers’ nastiness and eye-rolling personally. Those grumpy people have forgotten that they, too, were babies once. And your baby has as much of a right to exist as they do.

2. TAKE A DUMMY

Babies’ ears hurt on flights (due to the pressure change), making them inconsolable. Letting them suck a dummy or breastfeeding can help.

3. PACK A TAKE-ON TRAVEL BAG

And don’t even bother to stash it in the overhead compartment. Essentials: baby wipes, bottles, snacks, nappies, plastic nappy bags, bibs, toys, and Rescue Remedy for you and your partner!

4. TAKE IT SLOW

If you’re driving, schedule in frequent stops and accept you won’t get to Durbs in your usual six hours. That’s a long time for a baby to be in a car seat – and she must be in a car seat whenever the car is in motion, that’s not negotiable. She’ll need breaks, and so will you. The upside is many babies are lulled to sleep by a long car drive, so you could get a nice, long stretch of driving in while baby is out for the count. ●