First Flight

In 3 sleeps we're leaving for a 2 week trip. It will be our first "big" trip as a family of 3. We're flying to Philadelphia for a conference I'm attending for work. We'll stay in Philly for 5 nights, then 4 nights on the road....somewhere....and we'll round out our trip with 3 nights in NYC before flying home from there.

Although I know this trip will be quite different from other trips S and I have taken in the past 6 years, I'm still really looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the conference of course but also to exploring new places with Baby. I love to travel and wish I could afford to do it more often. I can't complain though as we have been very fortunate to have lots of great trips over the years.

Here are some of our travel planning items/ideas....feel free to let me know if you have more tips or tricks!

• Pack enough clothes for Baby to last 2 weeks. I don't know that we'll have access to laundry so I don't want to be short. I guess we could always do some hand washing and hanging to dry if need be.
• We've decided to do sposies for this trip. As I said above, we likely won't have access to laundry and won't have the time to find a laundry mat and sit there for a couple of hours every 2 days. I don't feel great about this decision but it's what we're doing so we'll see how it goes.
• We don't have cable TV and Baby doesn't really have any screen time at all (no laptop, iphone or dvds). I won't say she's never watched anything because we were given a few DVDs as gifts (Baby Bach and a couple of Elmo DVDs) and Baby has watched them and really enjoyed them. It's just more of a "once every 2 or 3 months" she watches one of them or a playlist on youtube with music/Elmo songs. Anyway, all that preamble is because I recently bought an ipad and have put some tv and a Peanuts movie on it for Baby to watch on the flights. After being asked what apps I had for her too (and shamefully hiding the fact that I had none...nor did I know of any) I have downloaded 3 toddler apps as well. I'm hoping between being mesmerized by the ipad, napping and playing with the super cool sticker book that S got for her that Baby will be fairly content on the flights. We didn't purchase an extra seat...she'll be on my lap most of the time I would imagine. Maybe we're crazy, maybe not...time will tell.
• We are bringing our own car seat. Even though taxis are not required to have infants or toddlers in car seats I'm just not comfortable with having her in a car without being in one. It just seems wrong to me and I don't understand the law at all. I'm also planning on insisting on gate checking the car seat along with a small umbrella stroller that we are bringing with us. Hopefully that will minimize the risk of the car seat being damaged. The car seat transport is the most stressful part of my planning so far.
• We're hoping to try and avoid over stimulation. Baby is pretty laid back and not prone to this but I know when S and I travel we tend to really pack things in. We've both agreed that we can't do this with Baby because rushing things and being overwhelmed makes all 3 of us cranky.
• Finally, I have NO idea how to deal with the 3 hour time difference. Will it even be an issue? Suggestions?

I likely won't be updating while we're away but stay tuned for photos and updates in early November!