I took my toddler 4,033 miles away from home and this is how it turned out.

Fine. Perfectly fine. Fun, even. Of course there were challenges, but isn’t that always the case with a 20-month-old? We had an amazing adventure in the U.K.

Isle of Skye, Scotland, U.K.

I asked for suggestions on what to write about. The most popular responses: “how did he do on the plane?” “how did you handle naps?” and “what if someone gets sick?” I’m going to answer those questions in a series of posts.

Disclaimer: Konnor is an extremely chill toddler. He’s easy going and adapts well to new surroundings. I recognize that I am incredibly blessed.

Learning about planes

Question 1: The plane.
We flew British Airways from Orlando, FL to London, U.K., and then another short plane ride from Gatwick Airport to Edinburgh, Scotland. Total time in the air: roughly 9 hours.

If you haven’t flown overseas before there are a couple of things you should know.

1.) If you have a lap baby, he will not receive meals on the plane. We didn’t know this and we didn’t pack meals for Konnor, but fortunately the staff had a leftover chicken curry. A hungry toddler would have been the worst! Pack snacks and meals!

2.) Choose a seat with an infant pull down. We did this, but didn’t realize what that meant. If you have one of these seats you can ask the flight attendant for a small bouncer for your child to sleep in. Keep in mind, if the fasten seat-belt sign goes on you have to move the sleeping baby and buckle him back in with you. We hit quite a bit of turbulence on the way out, but fortunately Konnor slept through all of the movement.

The infant seat

3.) Be smart when buying your tickets. If at all possible, select a time of day that coincides with bedtime. We booked an evening flight to keep him as close to his regular routine as possible. We changed him into pajamas as soon as we got onto the plane and read him a book before “night night” as we would at home. He was in his bouncer seat as soon as the fasten seat-belt sign was off. He slept for pretty much the entire flight. (I can’t say the same for the return flight, but that’s another story.)

4.) We read some advice that said to buy a couple of small, new toys for your toddler to play with on the plane. I’m glad we did this! Konnor appreciated something new to play with. We didn’t want to bring a ton of toys with us on the trip. He carried his toys himself in his blue monster backpack (that doubled as his pillow.) He carried:

• Two small board books
• A toy cell phone
• His favorite lion

Konnor carrying his blue monster in the airport

We packed minimally for the plane ride, but did bring an extra pair of clothes along just in case we needed them. Since it was an overnight flight and Konnor is a toddler, we didn’t need more than a handful of diapers and wipes. We brought baby Tylenol as an emergency item. I also bought him toddler friendly headphones that he could wear while watching in-flight entertainment without having to worry about the volume being too loud for his ears. Oh, and of course, we brought a pacifier so that he would have something to suck on during takeoff and landing. It is the change in pressure that often makes babies cry on planes. Chewing/swallowing helps with that.

Sitting in mommy’s seat before takeoff.

That’s pretty much it. The flight was uneventful. Kevin & I tried to sleep (although we didn’t because, well, planes.) And Konnor was a trooper! The return flight was a lot rougher because it was a daytime flight. He didn’t want to nap and he was bored. I saw other parents walking their toddlers up and down the aisle of the plane. That seemed to help some with the boredom, but Konnor wasn’t particularly interested in doing that.

I want to share our beautiful pictures, plus answer other questions that new parents have asked me, so consider the U.K. a series of posts. I’ll get to the rest soon!

Family plane selfie