Flying long haul with little kids
„Welcome to Singapore, Ladies and Gentlemen, and to all Singaporeans and residents of Singapore, a warm welcome home“. Two and a half years have passed since we last heard that sentence on a Singapore Airlines flight. At the end of 2019, we took our baby onto a 12h flight for his first Christmas and celebrated with friends on the other side of the world. Shortly after that, the pandemic hit. And now, we are back here, one pandemic and a baby later.
In spring, on a whim, we decided one weekend to book flights to Singapore for July. We had found a really good deal for a 2-bedroom apartment, the flight prices were decent and we were optimistic that the pandemic situation would allow us to travel. Travelling to Singapore was one thing that I really missed during the past two and a half years - and the moment that Singapore allowed vaccinated tourists to enter the country was the moment I couldn‘t fly anymore because of my pregnancy. Most of all, I was looking forward to showing around our toddler, watching him react to this new environment, having him try all the food and of course introducing him to our family and friends (for the first time he might remember).
I won‘t deny it - I was worried about the flight. 12h on an airplane is uncomfortable at best, but with a toddler and a baby, it can be unpredictable. It would be the first flight for our baby, the first flight with a toddler and our first flight post-pandemic. So many factors that could make it unpredictable at best!
And now that we‘ve arrived, I have to say: it went far better than I had expected! Our toddler - as expected - spent a big part of the flight watching TV. We knew that this might happen and we felt that it would be fine if he watched exceptionally for a long period, as it was a special situation. Towards the second half of the flight, we told him to turn off the screen and he slept until after we landed.
Flying with our baby was more worrying for me. He can be a very light sleeper and gets really grumpy when woken. He also has often difficulties to fall asleep and needs to be walked around for a while, which is a challenge in the confined space of an aircraft. For once, I think the noise of the plane was in our favour: it acted as a white noise that calmed him down, so he actually slept more than I had expected him to! He did wake at times when we had to take him out of the bassinet because of turbulence, but we were already surprised that he actually slept in the bassinet on his back as he only sleeps on his belly at home.
Overall, the flight was long, tiring and slightly bumpy, but the boys also have a quite good age to fly: our toddler is 3.5 years old and enjoyed being able to watch hours of TV, and the baby is 6 months old, he has wake times of 2-2.5h which were very manageable and he wasn‘t crawling or walking yet, which made it easier for us to stay in our seats. Flights are not as relaxing as they used to be, with us watching movies, having a glass of wine and then resting when we felt tired. But all in all, it was definitely worth it. Because sometimes you just need to take a leap and book a trip.