I meant to blog about our first flight with Liam but couldn’t find time. Liam is now downstairs playing happily in his playpen so I figured, it’s time!
So, back in August, we flew to London to visit family as well as to sneak in a mini Eurotrip. We booked the tickets quite early on and we meant to take a couple of short flights before to try to gauge Liam’s flying demeanour but we ended up doing none of those.
We opted for baptism of fire, going straight for a 13 hour direct light to London with a 1 year old baby.
In hindsight, I think we were pretty crazy haha.
So how did we prepare for the flight? I brought my baby carrier, 5 packets of his favourite Meiji crackers and hmm…that’s all.
I had meant to bring some small toys but I had genuinely forgotten as we packed really late. I even forgot his jumper. #terriblemummy
One of the things that I worried about when it comes to flying with a baby was, what happened to the stroller? I wasn’t sure whether we could bring it onboard or whether we had to check it in. I certainly didn’t want to check it in as there’s risk of damage.
Waiting to board.
Anyway, my fears were unfounded. We didn’t have to check in the stroller.
In fact, all we needed to do was leave our pram at the plane door and the wonderful cabin crew would deal with it. Up until that point, I had toyed with the idea of getting a compact stroller for travelling but I no longer harbour such desires.
My boys on the way to our inaugural family holiday abroad.
We had already called MAS earlier for bassinet seats and so yay…legroom!
Take off was a breeze, didn’t even need to boob him. He didn’t seem very bothered by the change in pressure, which I was thankful for.
He was sufficiently entertained by a few empty plastic cups and biscuits.
The bassinet was heaven-sent, it’s so nice that I didn’t have to have a 8kg heatpack lying on my chest all the time hehe.
Look at what a good time he is having in the bassinet, lying down with one hand holding the cups while the other hand holding his soggy biscuit.
Our entire strategy on the flight was to keep him occupied with plastic cups, food, milk or sleep.
Whenever Liam slept, we slept too. Gareth and I also took turns to sleep whenever possible. We managed to sleep in more than half the duration of the flight. Combined hours of course, not uninterrupted sleep lol ;)
While daddy slept, I entertained the baby and vice versa.
Bringing the Bjorn onboard was also the best thing ever. Whenever he got a bit too restless, I would just strap him on and walked up and down the plane. The constant motion helped to get him to nap.
I even had mood to selfie in the lavatory and slapped on some moisturiser lol
Before long, we landed!
So our first long haul flight with Liam was pretty good, all things considered.
I have read that some parents prefer night flight cause their bubs could sleep but after experiencing night flight on the way back to KL, we are very confident that we prefer day flights as there’s no added pressure about waking anyone up haha
Our flight back to KL, which was a night flight was actually not too bad, but it surely was not as pleasant as the day flight to London. There was a minor incident that I should probably blog about it too, as it involved another couple with a similarly aged baby who sat next to us.
Anyway, Liam did very well on his first flight and we are glad that we don’t have to worry too much in subsequent flights.
13 hour was about pushing the limit and I reckon we could breeze through all the 4 hour or 8 hour type flights in the future :)