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Published: July 11th 2006
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At the Munich Airport
At this point (before the trip), plane travel is still fun Kaan is one well-traveled 7-month-old. He has traveled by plane, train, tram, car, bus, ferry, metro, pram, and bicycle. A lot of people stop traveling once they have children... or they find a babysitter. We take Kaan with us. It's not always easy, we admit, but we live in a foreign country and at the very least must visit our parents. Now, of course we realize every baby is different, but here are our experiences with Kaan. Some of them might be universal...
Forget about schedules
Once a baby is a few months old, it may actually have some sort of sleeping schedule, whether self-imposed or parent-imposed. Kaan definitely did. Once he was around 6 months old, he would get really tired and cranky and want to sleep around 7pm. That doesn't mean he just closed his eyes and fell asleep, but in any case he would fall asleep within around 10 minutes of being in his crib. Jump ahead one month. Dinners with family and friends, unfamiliar noises, people forgetting to talk quietly because a baby is sleeping, and busy travel schedules from place to place meant that Kaan was rarely able to be in bed at 7pm... nor was he
In the Bicycle Carriage
Perhaps Kaan's favorite mode of transportation always able to have his daytime naps. Now we're back, but the handy schedule is not. Not necessarily because of the lack of schedule while we were away, but at least in part because Kaan learned how to crawl and to pull himself up on things while we were in Turkey, and he's excited to try all his new tricks at home.
Food
Depending on the age of your child, you may be feeding it food when you are traveling (as opposed to just mother's milk or formula). Unless you count on bringing a suitcase full of baby food jars, you are going to have to be flexible and creative. You can't be picky about using a particular kind of food, or for using organic food, because they may not be available where you're going. Don't stress! Your baby probably won't notice a thing. If your baby drinks some formula, though, as Kaan does, bring enough powdered formula with you as you can. Formula was readily available in Turkey as everywhere, but when we ran out of Kaan's usual formula, we bought one made by Nestle, and I must say that it gave him... digestive troubles.
Poop
On the Train
This was on a trip to Salzburg in the winter Where there is food, there will be poop. Once you are a parent, poop has an entirely different meaning. It has the tendency to become a topic of conversation that is not disgusting or unusual. Poop can happen at any time. Be prepared. One thing I can say about the US is its amazing sanitary infrastructure. You can find a clean, free bathroom almost everywhere, and baby changing tables can be found at malls, restaurants, and just about everywhere else. This is not the case in much of the rest of the world. It's definitely a problem here in Munich. In Turkey, it was less of a problem. In Paris, I did find one place (a department store) that had a nursing/changing room. Sometimes, poop leaks, no matter how fancy a diaper you use. Be sure to bring a few changes of clothes wherever you go, just in case. And be prepared to change your baby's diaper in very uncomfortable places.
Photography
I hereby warn you that you may not get any photos of the places you go with your infant, even if you have a fancy new camera. You will take photos, for sure, but they will
Munich Pram
You will have to trust me that Kaan is in the pram. likely be of your baby.
"Look at that cute face Kaan is making, quick, take a picture!"
"Ok... let's have a look at the photo..."
"Oh, how adorable he is. What's that black thing in the background?"
"Hmmmm, oh yeah, it's the Eiffel Tower"
"Is that what that is? Let's erase that picture and take a new one. That tower is causing a shadow..."
Planes are public places
We were so proud of Kaan when, at 3 months old, we flew from Munich to the Western US and the people behind us didn't even know we had a baby with us. He was so good. He slept in my arms most of the way and totally soaked up being able to snuggle for so many hours. Different story when your infant knows how to crawl. Now, others had told us this and we had read it, but then we experienced it on the way home from Turkey. Kaan was still exceptionally good - he had been stuck in his car seat for 6 hours the previous day and a few hours the morning of our flight. He had been up late partying at a wedding the night before our flight back
Stroller
This is Kaan's summer "light" stroller to Germany so he was clearly tired. But how do you explain that to the dozens of the people on the plane who are disturbed by his screaming? We tried a bottle, we tried nursing, we tried singing to him. We couldn't exactly take him for a walk in his stroller. We got tense, which probably only made him tenser... and the man in front of us kept turning around and glaring at us, as if to say "why don't you make him stop?" Note to all non-parents who travel on planes: babies sometimes cry on planes. Their parents try to make them stop, but sometimes they are not successful. Sorry, but it's kind-of tough luck for you. You can't ask people not to travel with their kids, because scores of people live far away from their families and want to go and see them - and sometimes airplanes are the only way they can do so. In case you were wondering, Kaan did eventually fall alseep... until the infant in the seat behind us squealed very loudly (in laughter) and woke him up so he could scream some more...
Tired
As I mentioned before, Kaan learned to
Stroller 2
Here, Kaan's in his Colorado-based stroller. In the photo, he's in Palm Beach, FL. crawl and pull himself up on things while we were in Turkey. When you travel with an infant, don't be surprised that the one you left with is not the one you return with, in terms of development. When we arrived home, we were so happy to have Kaan's crib all ready for him. We were exhausted. We were excited for Kaan to go to sleep so we could relax a bit. Bedtime came, and we put Kaan in his crib. Five minutes later, he was standing up in his crib, clutching the sides, and crying. Time to move the mattress down to the lowest level. We put Kaan into his play pen, where he continued to cry. We took apart the crib, lowered the mattress, and put it back together. By the time we were done, we'd missed the first half of the soccer game on TV, and Kaan had fallen asleep in his play pen. Ugh.
Traveling with an infant can be exhausting. I can best illustrate this by telling you that once we got the crib set up, Levent fell asleep on the couch, in front of the final match of the World Cup. This is
Stroller 2 in Colorado
Kaan in Stroller 2, this time in Garden of the Gods, Colorado a die-hard soccer fan we are talking about here.
While we were traveling, I thought of all sorts of things to add into this blog entry about traveling with an infant, but now I'm too tired to remember any more of them!
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Melanie
non-member comment
Loved it!!
I loved it!!