Congratulations on your baby!

We just took our baby girl (8 weeks old) with us on her first airplane ride. The first leg was in a CRJ, the second one a four hour stretch in an A320 in first class.

Our baby was either asleep or seemed quite happy, with other passengers smiling at her and her putting on a little show in return (looking around, smiling, waving her hands, etc.).

Following suggestions from our pediatrician, we let her suck on a pacifier or bottle during climb and descent, in order to help her deal with the change in cabin pressure. This seemed to work great. The only other advise that our pediatrician gave us was to not travel until the baby is at least two weeks old, but that was not because of travelling in particular, just because of the exposure to other people - which goes along with what pdx_dr already stated in his response.

Nobody wanted to see a birth certificate on our trip, not at check-in, not at the security checkpoint and not at the gate. I thought that was a little odd, but it seems to work. We had a stroller with us that we could leave at the airplane door, it was delivered to the jetway again a few minutes after arrival. If you have a stoller, have the gate agents attach the tags before they start boarding to avoid delays. Speaking of boarding, families travelling with young children will be among the first to enter the aircraft, so you won't be stuck in an overcrowded jetway or aisle.

We had been assigned seats 4-A and 4-B, and they turned out to be great seats for us. If you wife would like to be able to breast feed the baby during the flight, the window seat in the last row of the first class section will give her the most privacy, with a curtain behind her and everybody else facing forward. Also, with two people taking turns, it was no trouble at all holding the baby during the flight, and I can't imagine how an infant so young would be more comfortable being strapped into an infant seat than being held by a parent - which may change when they get a little older.

In August, I'll take our little girl on another trip, with three added challenges:

• we are flying trans-atlantic
• we have booked the flight in coach class, and
• we will travel without my wife.

I will let you know what I find out about the "babe magnet feature" described by ilovemiles when I come back. I can't imagine it'll be powerful enough to talk a female gate agent into an upgrade to WBC, but who knows...

All in all, our trip was easier than we thought it might be - hope all goes well for you, too! Good luck!

- Martin


[This message has been edited by AviationFan (edited 07-07-2003).]

[This message has been edited by AviationFan (edited 07-07-2003).]