Should you take a baby to the beach? Good question. I hope this hope helps but it may just confuse you more. In the end, y0u really won’t know how it will be until you get there.

**Traveling with a baby is a trip (or a change in location), NOT A VACATION. Make sure you drill that through your head before you go!

I have to start by reminding you that every baby is soooo different. Your baby could react completely opposite to how Miller did!

I don’t want this post to deter you from traveling. I just want to talk about the experience we had with her! We are new parents and did NOT think it through before going. We don’t regret going at all, but who knows what we would have done if we had some hindsight.

Traveling Internationally With a Three Month Old

Before You Book..

Check with your pediatrician. Mention where you are going and ask their opinion.

Ours looked up Belize and made sure she wouldn’t need any additional shots.

She said we were find to go and did recommend that we started her (and us) on probiotics two weeks before we left.

She also recommended that we spray everything around her (stroller, blanket, etc) with bug spray but try to limit the amount we put on her. We did this every night and Miller never got bit.

The Flight/Travel

Make sure to check out my ‘Traveling with a Newborn Post’ that I wrote after we traveled with Miller to Omaha for Christmas when she was 7 weeks old. We used a lot of these same practices.

Booking Differences:

-When traveling internationally, your baby will need a passport.

– You will need to call the airline and add your baby once the passport is ready. You will have to pay a tax% for the flight for your baby (so the earlier you can add them the better since the flight price goes up as the date gets closer!)

Other than that, the airport experience is pretty much the same as it is in this post.

What we did differently on the flight:

Troy and I brought the Dockatot. We had never used the dockatot before so she wasn’t really used to it, but it served a great purpose on the plane. We laid it across both of our laps and she stayed in it the entire flight (except takeoff and landing.) We used a blanket and made a little tent for her to make it darker so that she could sleep. It worked sooo well!

**The flight attendant said you have to be in the window and middle seat to do this because you cannot block anyone’s exit to the aisle. Made total sense to us so I will make sure to book window seats from now on. That is also the case when traveling with a car seat.

A super light stroller was also clutch. We hung the dockatot on it and it was easy to fold up and carry when needed.

*If it is just you and your husband traveling with the baby, do not bring a carry on and make sure the diaper bag is a backpack. You will need to be hands free!

The Beach

Make sure to read the ‘Miller Packing List‘ post. We used every item in this post at the pool & beach and would definitely recommend you pack it all!

We took Miller from a cold and dry climate to a hot and humid one at three months old. I didn’t even consider this when we booked it. It took her at least week to adjust.

Everything was way too bright and she refused to wear the sunglasses and really hated her beach hat. So even when she was shaded it was still really bright for her.

The pool was really cold to her. The only water she was used to was a warm bath. She wasn’t fond of swimming until at least a week after we got there and we would have to have her in the water for a little while before she actually enjoyed it.

We would bring her out to the pool and she was good for about 30 minutes and then would start crying so we would bring her back inside.

Luckily, our monitor reached the pool so we could be out there while she was napping and still see and hear her. Without that Troy and I would have had to take turns being inside!

I read a lot of blogs before I left and everything said don’t expect her just to nap at the pool or at the beach and that was so true. She only wanted to be in the cool room in her pack n play.

EVERYTHING took almost a week of adjustment for her.

-We were able to put baby sunscreen on her because the AAP came out with new research showing sunscreen is now fine on babies over 1 month old.

Leap 4

She was also going through a leap at the time (still is in the same leap.) She was overly fussy and was sleep regressing the entire trip from this leap. If you haven’t heard of leaps, check out The Wonder Weeks.

Week 4 is supposed to be the worst leap they have in terms of length and fussiness.

I would definitely recommend staying home during this entire leap.

Witching Hour

Her witching hour didn’t miraculously go away because we were on vacation. If anything it was worse because of the climate change and just being in a new location. We COULD NOT take her to dinner with us. My parents had to go early and when they got back Troy and I would go. Without my parents we would have been confined to the room all day and night. If your baby has a witching hour, then make sure you realize that they will be crying during dinner on your vacation which no one around you will like because they are also on vacation!

Would We Recommend It?

Should you take a baby to the beach? That is tricky. We don’t regret the trip and we are glad we went. But we also had my parents there to help and it was huge that the monitor reached the pool. Without these two things the trip probably would have been a nightmare for us and not worth it at all.

And it definitely wasn’t a vacation.

If you only get to go on a couple trips a year I would make sure:

1 Your baby isn’t in a leap when you go.

2 You aren’t taking them from one climate to another.

3. They don’t have a bad witching hour.

4. TRY TO BRING YOUR PARENTS OR A NANNY if you can! It will completely change your trip.

and 5. Make sure you have plenty of time where you are going. It will take your baby a few days to adjust!

We are waiting until she is 8 months old to take her on another trip. This will be a family trip to Isla Mujeres, so we will have plenty of people there to help!

Posts to visit after this one:

Traveling With A Newborn

Miller’s Beach Trip Suitcase

xoxo Amanda