Europe with the baby - 5-6 months

Our little girl had her 6 month birthday in Amsterdam. We had a 13-day trip (15 days total - 13 plus one to go and 1 to come back). I greatly enjoyed the last 15 days of my labour licence.

 We travelled from Rio to Amsterdam, had a daytrip to Maastricht, went to Brussels and then to Brugges (Belgium) and finished with The City of Light, Paris.

 I wrote everything about it on a website that I really love: mochileiros.com http://www.mochileiros.com/amsterdam-bruxelas-bruges-e-paris-meu-amor-nosso-bebe-e-eu-13-dias-t73628.html?hilit=bebê#p760103

Parent-to-parent tips:

1-Hand luggage

 Take an extra shirt to both parents. Babies drool, can easily leave you sticky and smelly (this case we both used our spare shirt).

Extra baby pacifiers

Very warm blankets

Small umbrella

The obvious: changing outfits, diapers, baby wipes, nappy rash cream, cloth nappies.

Analgesics. It´s very common to see babies crying during the flight, because most times parents dont´t realize the pressure variation effect that occur in the little babies ears, and forget 

that the trauma caused by this pressure variation (barotrauma) can be very painful (as soon as possible I will make a post about it). As a otolaryngologist, I took all the measures to avoid it, but if it did, I would have easy access analgesics to give her.

 Plastic case (small) with tickets, hotel reservations, documents (I always scan the most important ones - including credt cards, I take it on a pendrive - that I keep in a safe place - and send it by e-mail to myself (better safe than sorry).

2-Bagagem

 Travelling with a baby takes bag packing to another level. We picked basic outfits (for me I took some acessories, like colourful scarves, hair holders... things that were small, but changed my look on pictures), the minimum necessary. For her we picked darker clothes, that didn´t show much stains... Disposable diapers only for the first days.

 The master trick: vacuum bags (here there is a video that hows how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orvbcQD_e8w&noredirect=1) . I bought some at Kalunga, but I saw them the other day at Casa & Video. I organized all clothes in bags, that would be open as days passed by (ex: I organized a little bag to use during the 3 days that we would spend in Belgium, when we got from Amsterdam to Brussels we kept our bags in a locker at the train station and left free as a bird with a little case. This way, we mamaged to leave Rio with a single big bag (we put another inside this one, as it would be hard to compact all our belongings again). We took 2 backpacks (with compacted jackets, netbook, cameras... besides the baby bag and an umbrella buggy (MacLaren). At the Amsterdam hotel we borrrowed the vacuum cleaner and compacted stuff. But we left with 2 bags (we also did some shopping).

3- Protecting the baby from the weather

 We chose to go during the spring, but still it´s cold (my baby is carioca!). It was 6oC in Amsterdam. I had red the best is to dress the baby in layers. So I took clothes 1 size above hers. One day I dressed her with 6 pants, one over the other. She always had a hooded jacket and I took a bigger coat made of impermeable weatherpoof cloth. Protect hands and feet is essencial. Little fingers are in danger of freezing the most. Many socks, in layers. On the hands, little gloves. But this part is tricky. Babies drool over their hands (over the feet as well, but not so much). Even washing and putting over the radiator, sometimes i was out of them. The way out: socks on her hands.

If you take the buggy, don´t forget to take the raincoat. Evev if not raining, it´s essencial to cut the wind.

 At the train to Maastricht - Cold day, 6 pairs of socks

4- Walking by

 Whenever possible, take the train, not the airplane. It´s much easier to board with all that stuff. There´s no check in, the seats are bigger... much better.

 We took an umbrella buggy, it was grat. We used it a lot, but sometimes we got lazy...

 We forgot our kangaroo carry baby. But in Brugges we realized it was a first need item. We bought a new one, much more comfortable for us and for her. Brand: ErgoBaby. The 100 euros best spent ever. The slogan siad: babies favourite. She loved and our back loved even better (that one is really very good. Now that she´s 11 month old, I can easuly carry her, as for the other one it was impossible, my back really hurt. This one is really ergonomic, distributes better the baby weight. Comfort for her and for us).

 With the Kangaroo carry baby ErgoBaby, at Paris Opera.

 Little babies like to be held and routine. Travelling is nice for them only because they get to be held longer than any other ordinary day. But routine gets disrupted. Try to keep the feeding schedule as if you were home, and if possible, the bath and bed time. In our case, brestfeeding wasn´t a problema, neither morning bathing time, but she would always sleep later.

 Our daughter is a little fish. Loves water. Her daily treat was a long, warm, fun bath, every night. She´s used to take a shower with me since she was 3 months old, what made it a lot easier. Whenever I can I choose a room with a tub (as most babies, she loves it) but sometimes it´s not possible. In Brussels I chose a hotel that had a water spa: I woke up and took her there, we played for a long time (oh, yes, I took a sowimming diaper), we only spent 1 night there (99 euros a day), but I know that if she could speak, she would say that´s the place she liked the most.

http://www.booking.com/hotel/be/novoteltournoire.en-gb.html?label=gog235jc-hotel-en-be-offgrandplace-unspec-T002-0;sid=f32f735fbc3d3d16e406f77cd63cd76d;dcid=2)

Our trip was perfect. We didn´t have any trouble. She was great and behaved really well. I was extremely cautious while programming our trip and everything happened as how it should have. We loved it!!!!