Travelling with a 6 month old

So after our back to back stint of travelling when tayo was 4 months old we’ve stayed put for a couple months in the UK until today. My mother, Tayo and I are currently enroute to Dubai for a weeks holiday. A forever friend of mine relocated to Dubai about a year ago and has always had an open invitation for us to come and stay and when my husband told me he was travelling for work for 12 days I decided to completely gatecrash my mums relaxing holiday. Lucky her !

A week leading up to our flight I realised travelling with a weaning , combi fed ,teething , alert 6 month old was probably going to be slightly more challenging than our very chilled sleepy 4 month old. I wasn’t wrong lol. There’s soooo much more to take. Food, milk, toys, teethes, the list goes on. Not to mention the mathematics that goes into working out how many feeds / foods to take on board. Admittedly I probably should of prepared a bit better but me being me was packing the day before our flight running around town to find his premade formula that had miraculously sold out of everywhere.... 

LESSON 1 learnt- preparation is key!!

• PHIL & TEDS traveller. Weighing only 6lbs this cot was PERFECT for travelling. I used it as both a cot (with the mattress) & a playpen (without mattress). The side completely zips down too which was super handy. Easy to build and collapse

• Lollipop baby monitor. When Tayo went down for naps or to bed early I could keep an eye on him with my phone 

• Amber Solair kids suncream factor 50

• Blow up baby boat with hood. Meant Tayo could float around on the pool without getting sunburnt. Got mine from amazon! Thanks for the idea THIS IS MOTHERSHIP

• MAM self sterilising bottles & dummy’s. Saved me taking any kind of steriliser with me 

• Ergobaby OMNI 360. Carried Tayo comfortably when we went down to the beach 

• Vital baby AQUAINT sanitising water. Perfect to sterilise dummy’s or teethers while out & about. This stuff is like liquid gold 

• Elvie pump. If i needed to pump while away, this is the perfect pump to travel with. Small and compact yet powerful & efficient 

• All in one UV protection swimsuit and hat- I got Tayos from H & M

• Quinny Zapp Flex Plus with the Maxicosy Pebble Plus. This meant we could shop in and out of taxis and cars really easily without having to lug around his pram seat too. I know its not ideal for him to sit in the car seat for long periods of time but whenever we got to our destinations he came out anyway

• Food pouches! I took ELLAS KITCHEN, as I definitely didn't want to be cooking and blending on holiday. These worked a treat

• Pre-mixed formula bottles to save hassle while out and about and on the flight

Second mistake. Night flight !!!!!! Initially it seemed like a brilliant idea. Tayo would have his night feed at take off , sleep the majority of the journey & wake up in a Dubai at 6am ready to start the day. 

HAHA how naive was I. He was soooooo excited & over stimulated by the whole experience that he was literally WIDE awake after his night feed. Hmmmm. Ok. So I played with him, he laughed away having the time of his life. Then BAM, the over tiredness struck. 3 hours into the flight and it was 10pm our time & he’s in bed every night by 8 latest so it got rather dramatic very quickly. But no matter how much he wanted to sleep everywhere he looked was bright tv screens, signs lit up in various colours and all sorts of new stimulation. Eventually my mum managed to get him to sleep , I think by pacing the aisle. There was no way he was going to stay asleep in the basinette though, not to mention even if he did i would have to stay awake because if he woke up he could escape that NO PROBLEM. So my idea of him peacefully sleeping while mum and i had a good nights sleep was wishful thinking. 

Emirates as an airline were fantastically baby friendly. From the check in to the service on board. The only issue was the size of the basinettes and the fact that every bulk head where the basinettes were fixed had a huge bright TV right above the baby’s head. This wasn’t an issue when he was little but it definitely proved a problem this time round as he was kept awake by staring straight at a TV. This was a minor though as he didn’t really sleep anyway LOL

They also give every parent with a baby a pack with wipes, bib, spoons, toys and cream so if you forgot get wipes , like I did, on Emirates there’s no problem 

The holiday itself was lovely, not as relaxing as holidays used to be pre-Tayo but better in so many different ways. Theres a few things I took which I highly suggest anyone taking on holiday with a baby, these are as follows...

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