As a long overdue update, I thought I would write a bit about travelling with Matteo. With it being the holidays, there are lots of scheduled travels, which is a completely different scene with a little one. From having to travel home to Kingsville through university, I had mastered packing my life into a carry on, and leaving to the airport or train station at the absolute last minute... neither of which are possible when you are travelling with a 2 or 3 month old! So today I'm going to write a little about our weekend trip to Toronto, and over the break I will follow up with an update on our flight (!) home for Christmas (wish us luck...).
Mid November Matteo, my sister and I took the train down to Toronto to meet my mom and other sister for a little family time and shopping. Since Matteo was only 2 months old and still had an unpredictable schedule and temperament, I was nervous to be travelling. Matteo does not like car rides, or being stuck in anything resembling his car seat. The good thing about the train though, is that I could feed him whenever he was getting upset and I could get up and walk around with him if he got restless.
In the end he did so well on the train! On our way into Toronto he slept a lot of the ride (we left in the morning and the train ride was around his nap time). We played with him a little bit until he fell asleep and then he only woke up to eat a few times. The only thing I wish I had had for the ride was a nursing cover, since it was a little tricky to maneuver a blanket around so that no one would be able to see us - I had to recruit my sister to help hold it to block the view from every direction... (I have since ordered a real cover). The way back we were majorly delayed... and even then he was so well behaved! We were travelling in the afternoon which is his awake time, but he well entertained babbling away to me and Victoria and then playing with his rattle. About 20-30 minutes away from Ottawa he started to get fussy, but I think only because our 4 hour ride had turned into 6.5hrs and it was his bed time!
Our first day in Toronto we went to the Christmas market! It was beautiful, though it was very busy and difficult to get around anywhere especially with Matteo. We brought his stroller/carseat which was a mistake. He gets fussy when he is in the stroller and not moving, which the market was so busy we couldn't push the stroller hardly at all! I ended up carrying him a lot of the time, and I wish I would have brought his carrier instead. Another lesson learned, was that we should have done more research on the market first. We went not having had dinner, and when we went to look for somewhere to sit and eat every place was either outside or had a 3+ hour wait time. Even though Matteo was in his snowsuit, and the four of us were bundled up we didn't want to sit outside and eat. We ended up ordering in when we got back to our AirBnb and watching Christmas movies.
Another instance of wishing we had done more research was the next day, when we tried to get to the Eaton Centre. It was about 10 minutes away from our AirBnb but we had decided to drive since we had to check out. All of the streets to get downtown were blocked off! We ended up just parking, walking around the city and finally finding a place to eat brunch instead of going shopping. Overall from this experience I would say that when travelling with a baby you can't expect everything to go exactly as planned. If you go into a trip with a rigid schedule and high expectations of doing exactly as planned you will only be disappointed! Things might not have turned out exactly as we planned or expected, but it was a nice weekend away and we were able to spend some time with our family - which is what the trip was really about.
In terms of packing, I was able to fit Matteo's daily necessities in a small tote bag which I used as both my purse and his diaper bag. This had a changing mat, his wubanub soother, diapers, wipes, extra clothes, his rattle, my phone, charger and wallet, along with some of our other necessities. As I mentioned before I brought his stroller and carseat with us as well. He slept with me in bed so we didn't need to bring anything for sleeping except blankets! I also had a suitcase which had our clothes, extra diapers and my regular toiletries. For myself both days I wore my trusty mama outfit - jeans, a nursing cami and a warm cardigan. Since we were outside a lot I wore my favourite black booties and my new black coat from H&M. Scarves, mittens and a hat were also imperative!
I there was nothing that I ended up needing that wasn't packed (except my carrier). I definitely had extra diapers and outfits but better safe than sorry! Matteo actually had a mini blowout on the train ride back and I ended up needing one of those extra outfits. Overall, I would say it was a successful first trip!
Check back later in December to hear about our first plane ride home for Christmas! As always hope you enjoyed.
- Alix
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