Reflections After Travelling with a Baby

The challenges of travelling overseas has made us learn more about Ethan's behaviour and parenting in general. Here are my musings...

• Sleeping with us make for a sticky Ethan. We really saw it with Ethan! You see, he's been sleeping in his own room since 1 month and sleeping thru the night since 8 weeks - heavenly! We only sleep with him in our bed for short naps during the daytime. But after this trip and 4 nights of sleeping with mummy and daddy, he learned to wake-up during the night to get our attention! It became more pronounced on night 3 and 4 and continued when we got home. He cried more when we put him down for the night and even woke up for mummy's milk a few times. He has only woken up during the night ONCE in the last 4 months when he was having a growth spurt. So these wakings are certainly due to having too much sleeping with mum and dad! Now after 2-3 days things have returned to normal, thank goodness!
• Routine, routine, routine. Because this was a mission trip and we had to meet certain timings, we had to change Ethan's schedule here and there. The one hour time difference also affected him. Things were a bit more difficult because of this but still manageable. He got extra grumpy on the last day when he had hardly afternoon nap cos we had to check out. Next time, we would try to ensure he gets sleep even if it means paying for 1/2 day at the hotel as he much more grumpy on the return flight as a result.
• The Quinny Zapp is a great travel stroller. We packed it in it's own bag and took it as hand carry so it was ensured of not getting damaged. With a toddler that's all we would need, but as Ethan can't sit up by himself yet, we had to bring the Maxi-Cosi car seat and check it in on Tiger Airways. Their regulations say they can take it for $25/sector. Not wanting to pay $50 round-trip, I packed it in a big cardbox box and checked it in. Everything was withinn our 15kg/pax limit so no extra costs! When he becomes a toddler we'll travel with just the Zapp and will pack it into it's bag just before getting on/off the plane.