I haven’t been posting for a bit because sometimes living life gets in the way. My son had a cold and is still a little congested so he’s been needing more attention than previously, but I’m going to try to start writing while he’s napping.
Before I start, I wanted to say that since my husband joined the military it’s been a whirlwind. I planned our wedding in 3 months (we were engaged for a bit before then), he went to bootcamp a month later before heading to Texas for job training. He ended up having more training that was separated into 2 parts (part 1 in Texas and part 2 in California).
We moved to California when I was 5 months pregnant which was a lot because we drove and I had to stop every 2 hours to get out and move around. Fast forward maybe 7 months later, when our son was 4 months old, we moved again. Moving with our cat and 4 month old son seemed like a lot, and we were lucky that both my mom and my husband’s mom were able to come help us. I think having 4 adults with our cat and son made it go so much smoother.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it was easy. We were all exhausted by the time we got to the hotel in Virginia that we were staying in until we got housing. I woke up at 1 AM Pacific Time and didn’t go to bed until maybe 10 or 11 PM Eastern Time (which is 3 hours ahead of PT).
Before I go into tips of moving across country with a baby and a cat, remember that every experience and trip is different. I honestly think we got lucky but we’ll see as we continue to travel with them.
Tips for moving with a pet and child:
Be prepared for things to go wrong, and just go with it. It’s hard to predict the things that will go wrong but it helps to be prepared for the worst. I was expecting our trip to be a disaster, so I was really surprised.
Animals and kids make noises and that’s ok. I got really lucky where my cat only made noises as soon as we boarded before takeoff. We did let her poke her head out to get pets and provided treats which I think helped. It also helps that she’s been traveling with me since I got her. Our son slept pretty much the entire flight except to eat or he changed. We did have a seat for him which was good because he felt safe in his car seat and we felt more comfortable with him in there. He was a little more antsy on the second flight as we had a layover. He was hungry by the time we got on the second flight because we had to speed walk from one gate across the airport to our next gate. You could tell people on both flights were nervous about us having a cat and a baby, but honestly they did so good which leads me to my next tip…
Don’t let other people’s opinions stop you from traveling. It’s hard to ignore the annoyed stares and rude comments when you’re waiting to board your plane. This doesn’t just apply to traveling, because living your life still is important. In the image above at Disneyland, my son was getting fussy and I knew he was getting hungry and hot. People around us started looking, but babies cry. Similarly, getting on the second plane I could tell he was getting hungry so I started prepping a bottle. I wasn’t making it “fast enough” for him so he got a little more fussy and people appeared to be annoyed. It was time to board the plane so I couldn’t feed him right then. I took a deep breath and told myself that my priority is my family and if other people want to spend their energy being annoyed that’s on them.
Prepare to carry a lot of stuff, especially if it’s your first time traveling. I had no idea what I would need on the plane, so I had extras of everything just in case of a layover. My son never ended up needing a change of clothes, but I had 2. I had 4 bottles of water that I brought because of the powder formula and I was prepared in case we got stuck at the layover airport. That’s something I’ve learned about traveling. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. I also pack an extra pair of comfy clothes just in case after being caught overnight in Philadelphia when we were flying for my mom’s birthday trip in the winter months out of New England.
Bring comfort items for your baby and your pet. For my cat, she loves her harness so she always travels wearing that. I then put 2 toys in her carrier that she likes at the time. It’s usually one toy mouse and either her banana or carrot toy. For the baby, I had his usual toys (a ball he likes right now), his lovey (a small blanket with a lion head), a paci (with plenty of extras) and a comfy blanket. This is just to make them feel as comfortable as possible. We were lucky enough to have a seat for my son, so we had his car seat and space for his things. It was also helpful that we had extra sets of hands for this trip, because we were moving so we had a lot of stuff.
Lastly, try to pack minimally. We did NOT do this. Moving with a 5 month old and having a husband who works full time, it was really hard to figure out what we’d need to bring. On top of that, we didn’t have to pack or move our things which was helpful but also meant if I decided later I didn’t want to bring something it was either throw it out or pack it anyway.
If you all have any tips, let me know! I love to learn and think that there’s always things we can do better as a part of living life day by day.
Adventures by Begley 