Last year we went down to NYC for a few days before Christmas. It was a fun trip—even though our son hardly slept while we were away, and we were so, so tired!
Since our son was still so little (not quite 10 months) and not very mobile, we decided to take in as many adult sights as we could. We know in future years our trips will be dominated by kid-friendly attractions, so we skipped the museums and checked out lots of neighbourhoods. We wandered through Soho, Chelsea, the West Village, made our first trip to Brooklyn (well beyond a quick trek we made to Grimaldi's quite a few years ago), and hit up the Christmas market at Bryant Park.
We've been down to NYC around Christmastime a few times—it's such a magical time to be in the city, and for a couple of hearty Canucks the weather is pretty manageable. But this trip to NYC was our first major trip travelling with our son that wasn't going to visit family and we were a little worried about how it would all go down. Read on for some tips about travelling with a baby, and a couple of pics from our trip:
1. Hotels are tricky.
We were on a pretty tight budget last holiday season, so the only way we were able to go down to NYC was because my husband found a crazy Black Friday deal on a hotel—but staying in a hotel room with a 9-month old can be challenging. The particular
hotel we stayed in was especially challenging as the rooms are tiny—it was in a great location, and though tiny, the rooms were comfortable, so it would make for a fine place to stay for a couple—but for us it was difficult as our son did not sleep.
Now I know baby sleep and how you choose to put your little one down is different for each family, so I our experience won't apply to everyone. If you are a family that co-sleeps I don't think that you would experience the same challenges that we did. Our son sleeps best in his own crib in his own room, and we have a pretty consistent bed-time routine that works for us. The hotel provided us with a travel crib and we put our son down to bed every night in it. And he actually settled pretty well. We tried to be as quiet as possible after he tucked into bed, and he probably got a good 3 or 4 hours of sleep in, but then he would wake up slightly after midnight and would not settle. We tried moving him into the bed with us, we tried rocking and calming and nursing and putting him back into his own crib, we tried everything we could think of, and nothing worked. The first few nights of the trip we hardly got any sleep at all. Part of the problem (hindsight is 20/20 isn't it?) is that we put the travel crib by the door to the hotel room, and I think the light, noise, and footsteps from the hallway bothered him. Our last night we moved the crib to the other side of the room and our son slept through the night. So my advice to you is don't put the travel crib in front of the hotel room door!
Since this trip, we have always opted for an Airbnb, so our son has his own space at night, and trips for the most part have gone much smoother. It's also nice to have a little bit of space to ourselves at night too, because the reality of travelling with a baby means heading home early and spending a lot more time in your hotel room (at least more time than we were accustomed to when we travelled in the past).
2. The baby carrier is your best friend.
We brought our travel stroller with us to NYC and we used it exactly twice—to get to and from the parking lot in which we parked our car (we drove down to NYC as it's only a 6-hour drive from Montreal and my husband is comfortable driving in New York traffic). The rest of the time we used our baby carrier. We relied on the baby carrier a ton when our son was little to get around Montreal, and the same was true when navigating the busy streets of NYC. We walked or took public transportation everywhere we went and not having to navigate the subway or crowed sidewalks with a stroller was so much easier. My son was pretty used to being in the carrier and was content to be in it for long stretches, and because he hardly slept at night, he napped in it a lot during the day. My husband and I took turns wearing him and we were able to get around the city easily. I have an older model of
this Ergo baby carrier and love it. We also bought the
winter cover for it before our trip and it was great. We dressed our little guy in his regular clothes, made sure he had extra socks on his feet, and then put him in one of these
fleece bunting suits and he was nice and toasty in temps that were just above freezing.
3. Embrace the squeezy pack.
Up until this trip we had only fed our son homemade baby food (oh how times have changed, haha), so we were a little stressed about what to do about his food. We knew we couldn't pack enough homemade food for the trip, and crossing the border with food can be tricky (just ask my husband about the time we got stopped for hours at the border and had our car searched because I had two mandarin oranges with me—that I surrendered immediately). Relying on squeezy packs, and letting him nibble off of our plates was the easy solution. I'm not big into relying on food packs all the time, but they definitely work in a pinch. We stopped at a Target on the way down to pick some up, but they were readily available at Duane Reade or CVS.
4. Seek out good kid-friendly restaurants.
You don't have to eat at bad chains or Chuck E. Cheese just because you have a baby. Surprisingly we found a lot of NYC eating establishments to be very accommodating to babies. We did a lot of internet research ahead of time, and between that and stumbling upon a few places we were able to eat really well. The first night we went to Eataly, which was the only place we went that wasn't really baby friendly (no highchairs), but the staff was very accommodating. We had to balance the babe on our laps, but the meal was delicious and definitely worth it. We also checked out
Bubby's for brunch,
Sweet Chick in Brooklyn for southern comfort food,
S'Mac in the East Village for yummy mac n' cheese (but not so much for the ambience),
Shake Shack for the best burgers and milkshakes, and a few other favourite stops including Donut Plant, and Murray's Bagels.
5. Don't sweat the small stuff.
Before we left I was a little worried about how to handle all the regular baby things—feeding, changing, bathing, napping—and it turns out they were pretty easy to manage. Anytime we stopped at a restaurant or coffee shop we took the opportunity to change our son. Hotel lobbies were also great for this, and they usually had a change table in their bathrooms, whereas not all restaurants and cafes we stopped at did.
I was still nursing my son at the time (so we didn't have to worry about packing bottles or formula) and also found that you could usually find a quiet corner in a hotel lobby for a quick nursing session. Clothing store changing rooms also worked in a pinch for nursing, or even on warmer days a quiet corner at a neighbourhood park.
We only bathed our son every 2-3 days at the time so as not to dry out his skin, so we gave him a bath the night before we left and just didn't bathe him while we were gone, making sure to give him a good sponge bath before bed each night. And because he wasn't sleeping well at night, we didn't have any problems having him nap while out and about with him in the carrier. We tried to stop at a few parks during the day to give him a break from the carrier and to let him have a crawl (or swing) around. We also brought a few favourite toys from home to play with at the hotel.
And finally, have fun! Travelling with a baby can be stressful, but try to have a good time. Relax your regular schedule a bit, roll with the punches, and enjoy your trip. Soon that little baby will be on the move and have a mind of his own, and it won't be so easy to take him to grown-up stores or restaurants!
A couple pics from our trip:
XOXO
P.S. Recipe for the very best mince tarts here
