Vacation

Just typing that word makes me happy....VACATION!  :-)  We are leaving early Saturday morning to head down to Siesta Key for a week long vacation with Brian's family.  We have rented a condo right on the beach and can hardly wait to get there!  Brian's grandparents live in Sarasota, so the main point of the trip is for them to meet Hannah and for us to get to spend time with them.  But we also plan on relaxing on the beach and in the pool everyday!  Can't wait!!

We decided that we should fly down instead of making the 9+ hour drive with a 3.5 month old.  I realize that at this age, she is probably the most portable she will be for a while, however I just can't stand the idea of her having to be cooped up in the car seat for that long.  She is starting to really not like being in the car, so I can only imagine how awful it would be.  What used to be a 9 hour drive would quickly turn into 10 or 11 with all the stops we would have to make....not to mention how messed up her schedule would be.  So we are opting for a short plane ride (1.5 hours in the air...but of course you have to also factor in the time it will take us to get to the airport and the fact that we have to be there at least an hour early.)  So I am thinking from door to door it will probably be 5 hours, tops.   That's a lot better than 10 or 11 hours.  Plus Hannah will not have to be in her car seat for that whole time, since she will be in our laps on the plane.

Since this will be Hannah's first flight, I am a little nervous about how things will go, but I have a plan (of course!)  Our flight leaves at 8:45am.  Hannah normally wakes up at 6am, eats and goes right back down til 9:30 or 10am.  So instead of putting her back down, we will just feed her and get her ready for the trip to the airport.  Hopefully (but probably not) she will sleep on the way to the airport and while we wait for the flight to take off.  And wouldn't it be amazing if she actually slept on the plan....HAHAHAHA  I highly doubt that she will sleep at all once we get her up at 6am, but one can hope. :-)  I plan on nursing her during take off and during landing (even though that is not her normal feeding time) to help her ears regulate.  And she will have her paci for the flight too.  A couple toys and mommy and daddy to entertain her and hopefully she will be fine.  Then if all goes as planned (which it rarely does), we will arrive in Sarasota at 10:30am and take a cab to our condo.  Hopefully Hannah will get to take her normal afternoon nap (between 2 and 5pm) but with all the family around, I'm just not sure.  The goal is to keep her schedule as normal as possible, to avoid too many melt-downs!  We'll see....

Packing is definitely a challenge, but thankfully we will have a washer and dryer in the condo!  So I plan on packing light and doing laundry while we are there.  Our goal is to not have to check any bags (trying to save a few bucks....HATE that they charge for luggage now!), which could be tough since we are packing for 3 people for a full week.

Please share any advice or tips you have for flying with a 3 or 4 month old and any ideas for things to bring or not bring for her.  I can use all the help I can get!!