Seasoned travellers...help please!

[ckelly]

My father passed away unexpectedly in New Zealand and I am travelling there Saturday with my dh, just 3 year old and 6 week old. With all the other million things we have to do I am trying to figure out my stroller situation. The 3 year old needs to ride if possible. I'd prefer to not have to wear the baby but could if I had to. I also will be travelling with a radian and chaperone car seats.

My stroller options currently are:
B-ready used with chaperone on top and bottom seat. Problem with this set up is that Air New Zealand won't let me gatecheck it and it would have to go with luggage for some of the trip (fortunately not the parts I'd need it for). I'm worried it will get destroyed if it goes with baggage. I tried to find a bag for it at bru but its too wide.
OR
Silver cross dazzle with the chaperone attached (not recommended but totally works!). 3 year old walks.
OR
3 year old rides dazzle, I wear baby and I try to rig the chaperone to the handles of the stroller.
OR
I take the dazzle/chaperone combo for the baby and buy a cheapo umbrella stroller for 3 year old.
In every scenario dh will carry the radian on his back.

So, what should I do? I'm just really overwhelmed by everything and would appreciate some help. Thanks so much!

[legaleagle]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I would probably have the 3 year old ride the dazzle and wear the baby if you only need a seat for the 3 year old in the airport. I have a starck and the radian worked perfectly hung on the back with the 2 backpack straps, if it's easier to do that and have your DH carry the chaperone.

[swissair81]

I traveled with my 2.5 year old and 10 month old earlier this month. We were traveling through multiple airports. I ended up taking my Swift and a baby carrier. We switched off between my 2.5yo riding and me wearing the baby and the 2.5 year old walking and the baby riding. The major determinations for switching were when my son was tired of walking or needed a nap or when my back hurt and I couldn't carry the baby anymore. I would take a single again if I needed to. I'm becoming not such a fan of double strollers. Are you taking the car seats on the plane? When we went, I put my son in a CARES harness, I wore the baby during the flight, and I put the carseats under as luggage.

[dragop21]

If I was you, take the lightest, easiest stroller you have. babywear baby. check infant carseat/brothers car seat. the stroller will carry the stuff you have.........
sorry for your loss mama.

[roseyloxs]

Bringing the B-ready sounds easiest if it will be available for your most needed times and you are too nervous to check it. I would check the toddler seat if you think your 3 year old can nap on the plane without it. Then I would pay to check as many bags as possible and just bring one carry-on per adult. Usually one with extra clothes for emergencies or if they lose your bags and the other with toys and distractions for the flight.

If you want to bring the toddler seat I would check this out. (http://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Toddler-Seat-Travel-Accessory/dp/B000JHN3AS) If that worked out you could possibly check just the extra seat of the B-ready and then maybe it could make the whole trip with you since you would only be gate-checking the frame.

Good Luck.

[jerry_mishkata]

I am so sorry for your loss :-( May God give you strength to comfort your family.

About the strollers, I second the suggestion of checking the car seat as luggage. You can get a bag for it and car seats are very sturdy so unlikely to break. You can hang a tag saying "fragile" and another saying "infant car seat, please handle with care" and the people handling it should be more gentle. I am not sure if the luggage compartment or the gate check will be rougher on it -- gate checked things come back pretty beat up sometimes.

I would wear the baby and either have the 3yo walk (and put the diaper bag and your husband's hand luggage in the stroller) or push the 3yo and hang said bags from the handles depending on what the 3yo feels like doing. I would not try to argue with a 3yo at the airport especially given the really long flight(s) you have to go on.

Also, get extra food for the 3yo. You can endure the large gaps between meals on the plane but he/she won't be able to and will fuss and drive you nuts. Non-messy food. Try to always get up (make your husband get up with toddler) when the seat belt sign is off so that he/she can walk around and doesn't feel as constrained when the seat belt sign is on. My husband likes to wear himself down so completely that he sleeps through the whole flight and is no help in addition to blocking our way out of the row -- do not allow that if you can. Last time we flew, I told him if he did that we are NEVER going to fly home again and his parents will never see their grandchildren in person again. As long as you have your DH help, you should be fine.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

am so sorry for your loss.

i agree with pp that i would take the lightest stroller you have. use it mostly for the 3yo and babywear the baby. when ds was little i didn't babywear much either, and wasn't so much a fan of it. when we traveled by air with DS though i did and it made things 1000x easier. going thru security was soo much easier when baby is being worn so you have both hands free (to attend to another child, help another child remove shoes and get thru security, load luggage etc). for a baby that young i would suggest some sort of wrap.

if it were me i'd also check the Radian in. maybe my husband is just weak but there is no way he could physically walk thru a major airport with our Radian on his back, it is soooo heavy. we travel a fair amount and bought a cosco scenera specifically to use for traveling. it's so light it easily hangs off any stroller, plus don't have to deal with uninstalling/reinstalling the radian from our van. and if something happens to the seat it's no biggie, as it was only $40 and not our primary carseat.

[ckelly]

Thanks for the kind words and suggestions. Here's what we're ending up with. A car seat is a must for my toddler. She sleeps really well in the seat and in her mind if she is in the seat she stays put. If she wasn't in a seat she'd be trying to get in my lap, down the aisle, etc. I'm going to try the radian tomorrow on DH's back and if he's unsure about being able to carry it comfortably I think we'll swing by Walmart and pick up the scenera. But this is going to be our set up based on the suggestions:

- 3 year old in the Dazzle
- 6 week old worn in a moby (which will be good as lights go out as soon as I put her in the thing)
- Chaperone puzzled with the back of the dazzle and bungied on
- Radian on dh's back.

I hope that this will work for us. Thanks again! :heartbeat:

[rin]

Just chiming in; have him walk around with the radian for 15-20 minutes, just to get a sense for how it'll feel trekking from one end of an airport to the other. We traveled once with our radian, tried it out at home first and it felt fine, but 26 lbs for 2 minutes is one thing, 20 minutes is another. I'm never flying with that thing again! We've got a scenera now that we use for all our travel, which we're very happy with (well, it's a bit of a pain to get a good RF install, but it only takes a few minutes and for the price/lightweightness I'm still happy with it). One caveat: the FF weight limit is 40 lbs, so depending on how heavy your toddler is it might be a close fit.

[gamma]

Can you borrow or purchase a light weight single for the trip? I would then put the infant in the Chaperone on the Dazzle and your older child in the light weight with the Radian hanging on it. That way each parent is responsible for pushing one child contained in a stroller and a car seat attached to it. It would make getting through the airport much easier. GL and I am sorry for your loss.

[MamaBear]

I'm too late to be helpful for the trip, but I wanted to send you my condolences. I'm sorry for your loss.