We took Little Person on her first holiday when she was two months old (Alicante), her second when she was four months old (Barbados), her third at five months (New Zealand and Bangkok) and her fourth at six months (Egypt). This was the most travelling we have done in a 6 month period ever. This may seem a little bit crazy and looking back on it if I hadn’t done it myself I would doubt it happened, but truthfully, for a full time working mother, maternity leave is quite possibly the perfect time to travel.
Your sleep schedule is messed up anyway since you are having to be up with the baby so jet lag has less effect on you. If you are a teacher you can for the first time travel outside of school holidays and your baby doesn’t actually require any entertaining, since the only thing he/she wants to do is eat and sleep.
We learnt some really good lessons from our time travelling with Little Person and I thought it would be nice to share them here.
Get a comfortable Baby Carrier
Front Carrying Little Person at 2 months in Alicante 
Back Carrying Little Person at 3 in Taiwan
My first recommendation is to get the most comfortable baby carrier possible, which will last for at least three years and allows for both front and back carrying. Baby carriers are by far the easiest way to navigate an airport and even though you can’t use them while the seatbelt sign is on the plane they are great for mealtimes since you can free up your hands to eat. They make traversing an airport/train station much easier since you don’t have to constantly wait on lifts or carry the pushchair up and down. You are also much more maneuverable without a pushchair in front of you when you are trying to get through crowds.
Baby carriers also make it much easier to go out for dinner or another evening activity since you can just allow your baby to sleep while you enjoy your meal without having to find space for your pushchair.
Do not gate check baby items
I recommend that you check as many things as possible at the check in area rather than at the gate. This ensures that you are going through the airport within the minimum amount of items possible. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people trying to wrangle a large pushchair around an airport or even getting on a plane with a very small one when we have had our arms swinging knowing that our pushchair will be waiting on the other side. If you have a comfortable baby carrier you have very little need for a pushchair anyway so save yourself the effort.
Invest in travel bags for Baby Items
If your pushchair/car seat/baby bed has a travel bag, then use it. It helps to make sure your item does not get scuffed, and since you are checking it in at the desk you can be more confident in the item not being broken. Baby items will normally have to go to oversized luggage and will have fragile tags, so the likelihood of breakages is much lower than for normal luggage.
Bring a pushchair appropriate for what you are doing on holiday.
Moving through Pisa 
Uneven Surfaces in Luxor, Egypt
If you know that you are going to be walking around theme parks on holiday then bringing a small pushchair makes perfect sense. If you are planning on going on outdoor walks on rugged trails or very uneven surfaces then a Babyzen YoYo is probably not for you. We bought a light pushchair with large rugged air-filled back tyres since it fit with what we were planning on doing on holiday. When we visited Waimangu Volcanic Valley, we could tip it back onto the back wheels and push over rocks and uneven surfaces. We saw a family with a YoYo struggling to push their child around. Big wheels also make it much easier to bump down stairs if this is something you are likely to do.
Bring a Travel Cot or Bassinet
A lot of hotels will provide cots in a room if you are travelling with a baby, but I still recommend bringing a travel cot. This will allow you to have greater confidence that the mattress is safe as well as ensuring that you have full confidence in both the operation and the condition of the cot. Furthermore, if your baby is fussy, letting her sleep somewhere familiar should hopefully reduce any anxiety.
Know your luggage allowance
I have an entire post about this under Luggage Allowance. The most important things are to know what your allowance is, and have the proof to back you up.
Conclusion
These are the main things we learnt while travelling with Little Person. I think the best advice I can give is to not be worried or scared. Travelling with your baby can be an extremely rewarding experience and Shleah and I are really pleased we did so.
