My baby can fly 5

Traveling with an infant is NOT for the faint at heart. It can bring upon anxiety…

Will she be happy?

What if she cries nonstop?

Did I pack enough diapers?

If she has a bowel movement mid travel, what do I do? (And my poor baby was gassy the entire way to LA on the plane but thankfully waited until we got off to let it all out.:)

None of these are end-of-the-world situations but trust these thoughts, and many more, ran through my mind for several weeks prior to our departure in addition to what do I bring?.

Bailey Kendall and I began our travel with my family to visit my little sister at the University of Illinois. This made our first road trip a tad easier because I wasn’t alone on the journey to carry bags and baby. I was even able to shower without rushing or worrying that she’d roll off the bed or fuss non-stop because she couldn’t see me. The extra hands on Bailey duty was a nice change for our usual routine. (That and inflatable bed rails!)

Nursing in Denny’s near the university in Urbana-Champaign. Baby gotta eat!

Bailey screams at me a lot now. It’s cute 🙂

Her ability to sleep anywhere is a blessing! (We were walking to the stadium and she fell asleep.)

After making it back to our city, Bailey and I drove to Kansas City to catch a flight to California. Why KC you ask? Because deals. **travel secret** I only like to fly on flight deals! I scoured the net for weeks until I settled on the west coast and thank God I did because I was looking at several east coast spots not knowing Hurricane Matthew was in route! So anyway, I paid $122 for a roundtrip ticket from KC to LA and I happen to have family in Kansas City, so this was a win-win situation as I wanted them to meet Bailey before I went back to work from maternity leave!

Heading to KC! Bailey slept at least 3 of the 3.5hr to Kansas City and for that I was grateful! I listened to my audio books in peace.

Reaching for my sandwich on the plane -_-

Color me confused…why does Southwest make you remove a child from a carrier and hold her in your lap during take off and while coming back down? #realquestionneedingananswer

Now on to sunny California…I needed octopus arms once I arrived! Car seat, stroller, diaper bag, duffle bag, lunch box with breast milk (yes you can travel with this even in your carry on), and a travel pillow which I wound up not using because it made it difficult to hold Bailey on the plane. To my surprise – and because I had no choice – I made it all work without needing assistance! Here’s an article I wrote with flight tips.

On Venice Beach

We walked from Venice Beach to Santa Monica.

Snapchat: MNRtv

My cousin picked us up for the day and we went to Comfort LA (I’m a fan of “That Guy” ) and we toured LA. He’s not into pictures, but was talked into it! 😉

Fifi of The Divine Hostess always takes me to the healthiest and delicious spots! Thanks girl!

I’m grateful Bailey traveled so well because now I don’t have to leave her behind. This gives us so many opportunities to travel all over the world, but we might save that for when she’s a bit older. Small steps. Although, I would love to go to Iceland and hire a 4×4 vehicle (look at this information) and take part in a road trip across the country, as think of all the experiences we could have seeing the Northern Lights and glaciers? And that’s just two of the things that can be done. Now that definitely sounds exciting. I just can’t wait to see where our adventures will take us. She’s my road dawg for the next trip; maybe even after age 2! (We are currently in the fly free stage of life!) Here’s ideas of what you may need to ease the travel pangs.