red eye flight tips with 1 year old

Hi!
My husband and I are taking a red eye flight to DC with our 1 year old for the 1st time in a week. I'm so worried that she won't sleep because she'll be stuck in her carseat for almost 6hours. She sleeps through the night now (8-7) The flight was empty when we booked 2months ago but now its almost full. We fly Jet Blue and have the option to grade to "more legroom seats" for additional money of course. I was thinking that My daughter and I could take up a row (hopefully!) if I book aisle/window and my husband can get the seat behind us. The more legroom rows are all empty now but....

So any suggestions? I'd love to hear what others do.

Thanks in advance!

Karen

Tags: flying, toddler

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Permalink Reply by Samantha Brook on May 30, 2011 at 9:51pm

An entire row for the 3 of you should be ok. I flew just after my daughter's first birthday on a red eye to NY. What worked for us was having a carrier (ERGO worked for us). My daughter laid between us or slept in my arms and when we got on/off the flight, I snuck her into the ERGO and she stayed asleep because she was "cuddling" with me.

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Permalink Reply by Samantha Brook on May 30, 2011 at 9:55pm

OH & we didn't pay to have the entire row. The gate attendants were nice enough to give it to us. :)

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Permalink Reply by natalie garcia on May 30, 2011 at 11:07pm

With a previous discussion of flying with babies on ocm, someone had suggested to take a regular size sleeping pillow with. You use it to put it on your lap and let your LO lie/sleep on it. I did this for a few flights with my 1 year old and will do it again next week when we do a red eye again. It works so well! The pillow naturally stretches over the arm rests too and then when we did have an extra seat open it was really easy to transfer my sleeping baby too. Beats having to hold them in your arms for the whole flight and my LO seemed to snuggle and sleep better too. I hope your flights go well!!! :))