Air Travel Woes

Ok, so we're flying to the Bahamas w/ Alex very soon, and I'm looking forward to it, BUT also starting to panic a bit because...
The only flight available was at 8am.
This means we have to leave our house at around 4:30am to get to the airport at 5:30am (isn't Bahamas considered international?)
This is going to totally screw her up. She usually gets a bottle around 5 or 6am, then goes down again till 8am or so. She then eats breakfast around 9:30-10am.
I'm going to have to feed her a bottle when I wake her, which is going to be SO early (figure 3:30am?)!

I'm just worried that b/c we have to wake her so early, it's going to be dark out, etc... that she's going to be a total crank on the plane.
Any advice on how I should schedule her feeding for that day?
Maybe by the time take-off comes around I can start feeding her "breakfast" so her ears don't pop?
By that time maybe she'll be hungry anyway.
Hah, maybe I'm answering my own questions as I type-LOL!
I could use some tips/advice though.

There are days I just want to reschedule this trip b/c we decided to take this stupid 8am flight. DH & I should have thought more, but he just doesn't have too many days he can do this.

Boy, did I ramble on for this one...

Message edited 10/2/2006 3:57:19 PM.

Re: Air Travel Woes

Just try to relax. Somehow in spite of crappy schedules we've survived all our flights. Just bring lots of things for her to do, play with, eat, etc.
Realize this too. She will probably get cranky and cry at some point. Just let her and odds are she'll be asleep on your shoulder in no time. That has been our experience.

Re: Air Travel Woes

Are you on the direct Jet Blue 8am flight?
We were just on that Friday!
Well, we left at 5:15am we were there at 6:15-6:30 and still waited in the Ap for a while. You can plan to arrive 2 hrs or 1 & 1/2 hr early for the flight.

There were a lot of kids on the plane too so don't worry about it. It's only a 3hr flight and the flight attendants seamed really great w/ the kids.

Re: Air Travel Woes

Message edited 10/2/2006 10:49:13 PM.

Re: Air Travel Woes

Don't worry about things you can't change (ie the flight time). You might be able to get away with not waking her at 3:30 and transferring her to the car seat or a dream feed at that time. Or, maybe she'll surprise and still nap during her regular time by falling asleep in the car or the plane. No matter what, my advice is to definitely find a way to feed her during takeoff and landing to help her ears, unless she's asleep. DD slept through the landing.

Re: Air Travel Woes

I just want to say that the travel full stop is going to wreak havoc with any schedule that you have!! When we were in NY Noah didn't sleep through the night ONCE...and tonight we have been trying to put him to bed since 7.30 pm...its 10.46 now...and I had to slip him a Micky Finn...so any worries you might have about the travel, don't worry about it...her schedule is going to be off no matter what you do.

Good Luck!!

Re: Air Travel Woes

Can you just let her stay asleep until you are ready to leave and then just pick her up in her PJs and put her in the car seat? She will probably go right back to sleep once the car gets going then when you get to the airport you can feed, change, dress, etc. Or if she doesn't go right back to sleep, maybe you can sit in the back and give her a bottle while riding in the car, then she should go back to sleep?

Re: Air Travel Woes

We did the exact same thing when we flew to California. We left the house at 5:30. DD fell back asleep in the car and slept until we got to the plane. She woke up a little and went back to sleep on the plane. She was up for a few hours on the plane and was so happy!! She was a dream