Holiday Travel: Family Of Three... With A Pregnant Mommy

This will be our first time traveling by plane as a family of three, so I wanted to make sure that I document everything we did as a reference for future traveling. Hopefully other families can use this guide to help in their traveling process as well. Our tickets have been booked for pretty much six months at this point, so knowing the departure/arrival times haven't changed at all. I think buying the tickets and locking those in was obviously the most important step. Moving forward, I knew I wanted most of our luggage to be carry on, so we've been packing accordingly. I do believe we will end up checking one big suitcase, just for piece of mind and not having to deal with TSA stuff. I have called the airlines about a million times to verify what's allowed, pregnancy policies, and other little tidbits that are important to know when traveling with a child. I want to break this post down into three sections, one for Ava bug, one for me, and one for Justin. Basically just to show you how we plan on making this trip as smooth as possible.

Ava
Toddler Ava bug has definitely been my biggest thoughts with this trip. Not so much a worry, but making sure we don't miss a beat to keep her comfortable, safe, etc. Some of the things we have done to ensure this would be bringing the following items:

• Samsung Galaxy Tablet full of movies galore with toddler friendly headset
• Frozen luggage, frozen coloring books/crayons
• Frozen thermos with her milk (cold for up to 12 hours)
• Frozen snack container filled with cut up fruits she loves
• bananas, granola, fruit snacks, etc. 
• Princess Sofia toilet covers for toddlers
• comfortable clothes (layers)
• A few of her favorite books
• New convertible seat that's easy for dad to carry through our airport time

Mama

My main concern is comfortability. I want to make sure that this plane ride doesn't leave me full of aches, swelling, or anything that wouldn't be ideal for being (almost) 36 weeks pregnant. I debated on bringing my snoogle maternity pillow.. it truly is just too big for the plane and seating space. But here is a list of things I plan to bring that will make my trip easier

• Compression socks
• Brita water bottle
• raw almonds 
• hypnobirthing book
• travel pillow
• macbook (editing in the air)
• isle seat (closer to the bathroom)
• Comfy clothing/comfy shoes that aren't tight on my feet

Justin

My husband is by far the easiest to please out of our bunch, so his list is extremely shorter than both mine and Ava's. 

• Comfy clothes (sweats, sweatshirt)
• Book
• The tablet if Ava decides to fall asleep during our plane ride
• Sleep

In addition to everything I've listed I purchased a convertible seat bag so Justin can put Ava's seat on his back. I purchased Gohygiene toilet seat covers for myself, and I also made sure to purchase a waterproof case for my mac that I'll be carrying on the plane as well. Other than getting our ride arranged to and from the airport, that's pretty much all we've done to ensure the smoothest trip possible.

♥- Leilani