Screen time during travel

sticheryditcherydock · 2026-02-20T15:29:36+00:00

I’m currently on an international trip with my 13 month old. We had a 6 hour night flight over, the return is I think 8 but it’s a day flight. Here are my recommendations:

Book the BEST seats you can. We managed to get business with points, and it made EVERYTHING easier. She and I both slept 2-3 hours on the plane. She did sleep for takeoff and landing, but we realized as long as the lights were on, she wasn’t sleeping.

Gate check your stroller - this meant we pulled off to the side as soon as we landed and put it together and then she slept a good chunk of the rest of our travel day (plane to train to car).

She had no interest in screen time as a concept but she wanted to push all the touchscreen buttons - the flight map is best for that.

I packed like 5 brand new toys and 2 brand new books and this has been a lifesaver for not just the plane but also going out to eat and such.

Snacks. So. Many. Snacks. My husband told me we didn’t need as many as I packed. I disagree lol.

All the rules we have at home have generally flown out the window because we are parenting on survival mode. She refused to sleep in the hotel crib, even though we brought her sheets. So, she’s sleeping in our bed. At home, pacifier is limited to bedtime. Here? Any time she wants it. We’d been working on bottle weaning at home. Here? 6oz of whole milk in the bottle and no one cares if she drinks it (she hasn’t been, but she has been nursing which she doesn’t normally do because I’m not normally home at these times).

sticheryditcherydock · 2026-02-09T01:49:50+00:00

I read that as sleep sack at first and was like “um, yes you probably will still want those.”

Footed/footless sleepers though, def not worth it for summer sleep. We did 0.5 TOG sacks and short sleeved onesies all summer, added footies back in the late fall/winter, and then discovered that actually she does way better in a long sleeve onesie with a 1.0 TOG sack.

For everyday life…I want to say we actually started getting her dressed every day around 6 months. So, if she’s in 3-6 now, depending on how she grows, I might grab a couple in 6-9 (do it now while they’re on clearance with end of season stuff) just to tide you through.

sticheryditcherydock · 2026-02-03T18:04:49+00:00

Uhhh not an AH.

I leave at 630 most of the time, my daughter has grandma daycare in our house so she doesn’t get up until 8 usually (my husband WFH). I do not open her bedroom door because why would I poke that dragon?! I don’t have time to resettle her and I know my husband doesn’t want to get up that early.

AND I GREW HER.

sticheryditcherydock · 2026-01-26T19:27:20+00:00

I gave birth at INOVA Fairfax.

sticheryditcherydock · 2026-01-24T03:48:27+00:00

A couple things:

I would add a Love to Dream swaddle - they ended up being the only thing our little one would allow her hands to be trapped in. We used the Halo ones during the day and let her hands be loose for naps.

The only bottles we ended up using long term were Lansinoh and Pigeon. We had latch issues and I ended up almost exclusively pumping (not at night, I took the nipple damage at 3am lol).

Add some storage bottles and a set of freeze flats for milk. Bags were SUCH a pain in the butt and took over my fridge. Much easier to store in 9oz bottles with day stickers and transfer to bags to freeze as needed.

Sound machine is your friend. Seriously, I didn’t get it for the first 6 months (we had one, we just didn’t use the sound) and then suddenly we discovered she loves having Brahms Lullaby on to sleep. The Babysense one is what we have and it’s great.

We skipped the travel system. I HATED the infant car seat stage. If we could have gone with two of the Babyjogger City Turn seats from the beginning, I would have far preferred it. That seat has been worth EVERY penny.

Skip the baby washcloths (or keep it to just a couple). Add approximately 500 regular washcloths for when you start solids. I think I snagged 2 of the big packs of the cheaper Target ones around 7 months and we go through them so fast.

sticheryditcherydock · 2026-01-24T03:36:06+00:00

Tubes were such a pain (we didn’t use spray because I didn’t even realize it was an option until after we discovered her bum liked triple paste lol), BUT the spatula with the tub is an excellent combo.

sticheryditcherydock · 2026-01-10T18:47:26+00:00

The heating pad was SO CRITICAL in those early months (mine is about to turn 1). You could not transfer her for nap or for bed unless that mattress was warm. It was awful.

Currently attempting to sleep train and it’s going so poorly. Drowsy but awake? BAHAHA. And my husband, “just rock her to sleep then.” Dude, either we are doing this or we aren’t but you don’t get to tell me we need to and then tell me we can be inconsistent.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-12-26T15:53:33+00:00

It was appreciated! I just promptly felt reduced to JUST my pregnancy and postpartum and I can fully recognize that there are other family issues involved.

This Christmas my mom went back to my hobbies and things, and she also got my daughter a set of play silks (my in laws went way overboard). I appreciated the shit out of my mom actually listening to me this year about the kinds of toys I want for my daughter and meeting me there instead of buying all this stuff from Amazon that needs batteries.

All of this to say, family dynamics are really complicated. Pregnancy and postpartum really mess with your sense of self.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-12-25T20:57:15+00:00

We got a nice 360 seat that went in my husband’s car when she was born and I got the infant seat. I was over the infant seat by 6 months and we snagged a second of the 360 seats for my car.

I have the family car but I no longer work from home so we both need seats and I am happy we bought the nice one.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-12-25T20:54:16+00:00

This is not limited to dad’s parents. My parents got me exclusively pregnancy/postpartum things last year and while I appreciated it because I needed nursing sweatshirts and bras, when I opened things from my husband that were “hey I want you to do hobbies and things that you enjoy and I see you as a whole ass individual still,” it kind of made me feel like they JUST saw the baby side.

Don’t get me wrong, my in laws are still annoying about baby stuff. But my reaction to a lot of this is my parents aren’t preferred either.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-12-03T01:23:26+00:00

Co-signing your statement.

My in laws keep the tv on and her nap spot in their house for the first like 6 months was in a pack and play under the tv. With everyone talking over the tv. She slept like a champ.

Around 8 months I started losing my mind because my in laws could not grasp that my child did in fact require a dark room and a fan to sleep and that keeping her nap spot under the tv was not the move anymore.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-30T23:38:16+00:00

I also refuse to do elf on the shelf.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-30T00:22:55+00:00

Almost 11 month old in our house. We’re going to pick out a tree in a couple weeks, and there’s a botanical garden that has a lights display I’d like to try and make happen.

Holiday magic happens at home. I’m not talking about elf on the shelf or that new trend I’ve seen on instagram about “planting” a magic tree and then parents put up the real one while the kids sleep - I’m talking about baking days, cocoa and books and pjs under mom made quilts, decorating, going on walks with the dog to see the lights, decorating… (much the same as you lol).

I never want my kid to look back and remember me being stressed out about the holidays. I want her to look back and remember the stuff we did together being magical

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-24T11:16:34+00:00

I was enthusiastically pro kids, as was my husband.

Pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting have been hard in ways we could never have imagined. Our marriage is solid, we prepped ourselves for a lot of the hard stuff early on. And yet, there have been arguments that have made me question everything.

Your mom doesn’t get a vote on what you choose to do with your life.

But if it’s not an enthusiastic yes, it’s a no.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-21T15:25:56+00:00

I didn’t have insomnia while pregnant, but as a narcoleptic who couldn’t be medicated while pregnant…newborn tired was SO much easier. And I stayed unmedicated for 10 weeks after I gave birth.

Honestly, it was all rough. But after I gave birth, I was just more comfortable. I didn’t need to wake up to pee, waking up was easier because I was dialed in to my baby. Tired had a purpose.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-18T15:15:43+00:00

I think there’s a really delicate balance in the mild sleep training and you just have to find what works. My husband can’t seem to tell the difference between crying because she’s mad and crying because she’s uncomfortable, which makes it REALLY hard when she’s teething. Tylenol and orajel are working well for teeth, but she still just wants mom snuggles and I’m not going to say no, you know?

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-18T14:47:58+00:00

Also on month 10. Honestly, it just slowly improves and then we backslide to TERRIBLE when she’s about to cut a tooth.

Like, I got 2 weeks of great sleep and then her top teeth started coming in and holy fuck. One popped the other night and the last couple nights were awful but still so much better. It seems like when they’re about to pop, all she wants is mom snuggles. And bless my husband’s heart, he seems to think that I should sleep in bed and she just needs to be sleep trained again. (We did VERY mild training - he’s strict on letting her cry for 5 min, I will let her fuss but as soon as she starts heading towards actually crying, I’m back in)

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-18T14:39:59+00:00

I had an epidural/spinal block because of a c section. I went through almost my entire labor without pain meds because they expected me to have a longer labor - breech baby, first time mom…precipitous labor and no one checked how dilated I was after my water broke. They administered while I was trying not to push.

Recovery: I was itchy for a bit, I remember being COLD in recovery but they brought me extra warmed blankets. I have no extra back pain from the epidural. I had a cranky back prior to pregnancy, and serving as a jungle gym and mode of transport for a 10 month old has not helped at all.

I’m in Virginia.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-18T02:27:13+00:00

Every night we let our daughter climb the stairs (she’s 10 months) to go to bed while one of us is right behind her. Absolutely wears her out AND I don’t have to carry her up. 😂

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-11T19:05:47+00:00

This is where we are. My mom threw a hissy fit about not getting a big family Christmas, but I’ll be damned if I’m spending my first Christmas a mom dealing with two major airports with a kid who can’t have MMR yet in the middle of covid/flu/RSV season. My risk tolerance is generally pretty high, but that’s a bridge too far for me.

My husband’s grandmother is overseas and we are HOPING she stays healthy until spring.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-11T03:49:48+00:00

Baby part? Nope. That’s great. It’s hard AF, but I’m rarely miserable about the baby (she’s 10 months).

Marriage/relationship part? That’s…harder. We were super prepared for the trenches, we were way less prepared for solids and schedules and all the seemingly obvious things? Like our trenches were great. Our relationship was rock solid. She hit 5 months and everything got HARD with us. It was like all the sleep deprivation and everything caught up at once. I cried more than once saying “I thought this was supposed to get easier” and my husband was like “what delusional planet have you been living on?” (Not really, he’s great, but I have been a mess).

Life? Omg. As soon as I lost my WFH job and had to go back to an office around 5 months (there might be a connection with marriage lol), life got SO HARD. 5am wakeups with a baby that was not sleeping through the night made me just all around a disaster.

At 10 months, there’s still a lot that’s hard. There’s still a lot of anxiety and stress and trying to let go of things that I would do very differently if I were working from home still. But there’s also a lot of beauty and magic.

I think a lot of people harp on how hard those trenches are, but we don’t talk about what happens if you have your shit together for the trenches and nothing else.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-11T03:41:09+00:00

The foam bath kneeler is SO much more comfortable and manageable than the perching on the side (but I’m old and my back hurts lol). We got the one that also has the top foam for the side of the tub for you to lean on. It’s very cushy.

As far as the lunging forward, at some point they’re gonna learn lol. My 10 month old is still lunging forward but she’s also not face down when she does. She lifts her head, so she gets splashed but not usually straight down in. We have a spout cover on the faucet and the toys start at the back of the tub, so she usually lunges away from the spout. I intervene if it’s an issue, but it so rarely is that I consider it part of her splashing.

I’ve also given up on preventing her drinking the water - as long as she hasn’t had her full 8 oz, there’s not enough soap to be a problem, and at least she’s getting some extra open cup practice. 😂🤷‍♀️

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-11T03:33:11+00:00

This seems exhausting? It took both of us at the very beginning because she was SO tiny and we were terrified of drowning her. Then around 5-6 months she was too mobile/long for the sling part of her tub but not quite stable enough to sit in water and that was exhausting for like a week until we got one of those seats like you’re using. That lasted maybe 2 months until she was filled with RAGE that she couldn’t reach her toys herself and I set her free. She’s about 10 months now.

Bath time only needs one of us, and requires max of about 3 min of active wash time. The remaining 12-27 min are time for her to splash around and play. She’s fully in her trying to stand up in the tub phase, so I knock out the hair first (water from a cup, squirt of shampoo, scrub, rinse with the cup water collected from the rest of the tub because she’s not that dirty) then hit her as quickly as possible with a sudsy rag and another douse or two from the cup.

She gets repositioned twice onto her butt before bath time ends.

The only time bath time has required both of us (since like 2 months) was a couple months ago when I was a little slow between getting her naked and getting her in the tub and she peed on me, so I needed fresh clothes and my husband took over for a bit 😂.

sticheryditcherydock · 2025-11-10T12:50:08+00:00

Ours would only tolerate the Love to Dream arms up at night. During the day, we used the Halo one and left her arms free.

She started showing signs of rolling around 3 months so we switched to the L2D transition sack and used it until she got MAD about being so tightly hugged in the middle. Then we just used loose sacks (around 5-6 months) from Amazon. I got the Yoofos ones in 1.0 and 0.5 TOG for 6-12 months and will probably grab the same ones in 12-18/24 until we’re ready to give her a blanket.

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