Proud mama passing along tips & tools for other new mamas and sharing loads of free resources I'm creating along the way.
Hey Mamas - Travel Pt 2
Hey Mamas!
If you’re new here- welcome and congrats on your little one! Here’s the quick 1-2 behind this newsletter - As a type A new mom, I’ve created a whole lotta resources to keep life organized - checklists, spreadsheets, job descriptions - really the list goes on and on. I figured why not share these things along with the tips I’ve picked up along the way. If I can save you anytime at all then it’s a win!
Last month I started to dive into all things travel. Since I have A LOT to share on this topic I’ve broken it down into two parts. This is part two. You can catch part one here.
TRAVELING WITH BREAST MILK
When Libby was 7 months old we took her to Spain for 1 month. She was exclusively on breastmilk at that point so we decided to bring a month’s supply with us. Here’s what you need to know:
TSA Rules
The official rules state: “Formula, breast milk and juice are allowed in reasonable quantities in carry-on bags”. Not all TSA officers will know this. For that reason, I recommend having a photo of the rules ready to show them. Don’t worry - I already have this ready for you. Save this to your phone before your next flight. What’s a reasonable amount? It’s really up to you. I’ve traveled with 1 bottle + 2 frozen bags.
In-flight milk
On that note, here’s my tip. Get yourself a 30 oz Yeti tumbler. These mugs keep items frozen incredibly well and they can fit about 2 bags of frozen breast milk in them. The 30 oz tumbler is big but not so big that you can’t reasonably pack it in your diaper bag.
Checking milk as luggage
For additional milk that you plan to bring, you’ll want to check it as its own piece of luggage. The first step is to get a good cooler to pack it in. Yeti would be the gold standard but they are pricey and also not totally necessary. Here is the cooler I used to pack 1 month of milk for our trip (only $35).
You’ll want to affix a label to the outside of the bag denoting what’s inside. Use this template.
If your trip is 8 hours or less door to door then you could get by using cooler packs. Here are the ones I’d recommend.
If your trip is longer than 8 hours door to door then I’d recommend using dry ice. Most grocery stores stock it. Pack the dry ice into the bottom of the cooler. Add your frozen breast milk bags on top. Fill any empty space with crumpled newspaper or paper bags. As a rule of thumb 5-10 lbs of dry ice will disappear every 24 hours. For our trip, I packed 6 lbs and it was about 14 hours door to door and that was perfect. The downside to using dry ice is that it is considered a hazardous material and the airline will charge you extra for this - generally about $200 each way.
GETTING BABY A PASSPORT
Everyone, including baby needs a passport. Here is the link for the steps to obtain one. You can either have the photo taken at the passport office (like the USPS) or you can bring one. If you want to bring your own, you’ll need to make sure you 100% follow the guidelines or your photo will be denied. Here’s are some tips to make sure your photo passes:
- Get a white board and tape it to the wall
- Make sure the room is filled with bright light BUT does not cast any shadows in the photo
- Baby cannot have any headwear on like cute headbands
- Make sure baby is looking straight ahead
- Have one person hold baby on their shoulders and the other person behind the camera doing something to get baby to look straight at the camera (making funny faces, dancing, etc.)
- No part of your hands or arms can be in the photo!
- Use an app to remove the background from the photo and crop to 2” x 2”. Use this template to create a 4”x6” photo you can print at CVS / Walgreens. Cut out one photo for the application.
TRAVEL NANNIES
International
For our trip to Spain we chose to hire a live-in nanny to stay with us for the month. We used International Nanny and honestly the process of finding our nanny could not have been easier. They took care of everything and our nanny was so amazing.
If you’re wondering what a typical contract might look like - here’s a link to ours.
I created this guide and provided an emailed copy to our nanny before arrival and a printed copy for her to keep on hand during the trip. It includes need-to-know information like our itinerary and contact information as well as notes on the baby’s routine, nanny responsibilities, and expectations.
Domestic
When we have traveled domestically we have used both agencies as well as Care.com to find day nannies. Most tourist destinations will have some sort of nanny/ babysitter service. If you are staying at a hotel, my recommendation is to ask the concierge for contacts. They typically have them.
Here is a revised version of the nanny guide for nanny’s/ sitters who are helping out but not living-in.
TRAVELING WITH YOUR OWN NANNY
If you have a nanny and decide you want to bring her along for your trip, you’ll want to set expectations around hours, responsibilities, and pay ahead of time. The big lesson I’ve had heard from my research and experience is that you have to remember this is not a vacation for your nanny and she needs to be compensated for her time away from her own life. That means covering working hours, travel time, and extra expenses incurred with travel.
If you don’t have a full contract in place but want a quick travel clause - here’s ours. I would email a copy to your nanny ahead of time to get on the same page. You may even want both of you to sign it to make it more official.
THE BEST BABY MONITOR FOR TRAVEL
We wanted a monitor that we’d be able to view if we left Libby at the hotel/ house with a sitter. Most monitors operate on bluetooth so you aren’t able to view the cameras from a long range. The Lollipop cameras however operate on WiFi. Instead of having a separate monitor, the camera connects to an app on your phone. This means that you can be out to dinner and still check in on baby & the sitter. We opted to get two cameras - one that we attach to the crib and another that gives us a full view of the room baby is staying in. Other advantages are that you can invite multiple users to view the camera feed in the app and they also have a nice range of sounds so do not need to bring a separate sound machine. We bring these with us on every trip and they have been such a huge help for giving us peace of mind!
Here is a link to the Lollipop baby monitor.
RENTING BABY GEAR
If you want to minimize the amount of baby gear you need to pack and travel with, I definitely recommend looking into renting baby gear at your destination. Babyquip is a great site for domestic travel. If you’re traveling internationally, you’ll need to do a little more research, but a lot of locations offer similar services!
NEXT NEWSLETTER
As a reminder, I’m dishing out resources bit by bit each month so the folder will keep on getting more full! There are quite a few moms-to-be on the list so I want to dedicate the next newsletter to y’all. I’ll plan to share my resources and tips around:
- Products that saved my life in the 3rd trimester
- Hospital bag packing list
- Things you can get for free from your insurance
- Postpartum must-have products (including FSA eligible)
- PLUS anything you ask about!
Missed previous newsletters?
Looking for all the resources in one place?
- Newsletter resources folder
- Baby travel product list
- My Amazon shop (has multiple baby product lists)
Have mamas you think would love this newsletter? Send me their email and I’ll add them to the list!
Got a tip / tool / document you want to share? Email me and I’ll loop it into a future newsletter.
Thanks mamas!
❤️
Jen
Jen Miller
Proud mama passing along tips & tools for other new mamas and sharing loads of free resources I'm creating along the way.
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