Weee～～～Hello!!!! The Trolley from Airport!
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Picture: At the Airport!
So we are back from our 5 days Bali trip! A trip of great learning experience for my hubby and I and a great learning experience for my little baby to stimulate his senses and make him more versatile! Of cuz from the sound of my happy tone, I did have a good trip. I decided to reward my hubby a bali trip, sadly not so relaxing because my son still needs constant attention. But it definitely makes us feel happy because you wake to a pool outside your room, and there’s more serenity than being at home because of the villa setting. So the first thing to our minds were - THE PLANE RIDE. It is 2hour40min ride on the plane. We paid for infant but not the seat. So it means one of us needs to have our boy on our laps.
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Picture: On the plane!
But somehow the amazing thing was, we had all 3 seats (means one extra seat) to and fro for our trip on the plane. It really really helps because you need all the space you can get when your baby is a 9months extremely active boy. Time the Time. It is important to time your baby’s feeding; be it milk or food time. Our flight was 1020am, so I knew I had to prep his food in advance because his meal will be at bout 1230am on the plane. Pack fresh fruits. And some of his favourite tidbits like puffs for him to be entertain through eating. ESP; for my son when he starts whining a little, one small fruit puff will make him stop for 7secs. I packed ready Pureed Food in Jars for the trip. You can get them easily at Cold Storage or you can purée the food yourself and put them in Jars if you have the time. You can get the aircrew to help you heat the food up! And lunch will be served! The airport gives allowances for parents to bring bottles more than 150ml up the plane. Because they understand that our babies are very troublesome! Haha! So feel free to pack milk bottles, milk powder, hot water thermal flask etc... all the bottle bottle necessities in your hand carry luggage! Toys! Babies are a handful but they are also easily distracted and attracted. So prep diff kind of ‘toys’ for them. I know my son won’t be interested in his toys. So I will let him play some items which will occupy him from time to time on the plane.
Know What Your Baby Likes!
What does your baby likes? My son loves playing with drawstrings, those little nuts and bolts which my son loves fiddling with. So understanding your babies will help you a lot.
Harness! Prep your harness with you. Our babies need to nap. So understand how your baby naps. The cue to nap. Some babies can nap just clinging on like a little koala. But my son is extremely easily distracted by sounds and people, so a harness will work better. However my son needs some walking around to fall asleep in the harness. So I will harness him; seatbelt signs off, and walk up and down the aisle. It is a bit embarrassing but at some point I couldn’t care less. I rather a sleeping angel then a wailing one. So mommies, just walk up and down if you need to. One of the factors which helped me survived the plane ride, was people and children. My son is very personable. So there were a lot of people around us in the plane whom kept playing with him during the flight and it made him really really happy! And it made others happy too! And it made me very happy too! Haha! Remember to prep for Airport Transfer. You don’t want to figure how or what to go to your lodging. Don’t be cheapo and arrange the driver to pick you up from the airport. If you get a driver, you easily can tell the driver to drive you to a grocery store, like a supermarket to buy fresh foods for your baby. Pepito supermarket is one of those I went and it was near my Villa. It is one of the more premium supermarkets where you will see familiar premium brands you see in our cold storages or NTUC. The fresh foods like fish are definitely fresher than their usual supermarket. So don’t go to the wrong one. Do some research on the selection of supermarkets near your Villa. I also prepped some dried ingredients like ‘red dates’, ‘dried anchovives’, ‘Goji berries’, ‘white rice’ to cook his porridge. So all you need to buy is fresh fish!
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Picture: At the supermarket! Villa or Hotels?
If you select a Villa, you can cook your baby’s food. If you select a Hotel, you can get the kitchen to personalize your baby’s food. Steamed, puréed food, without oil, salt nor seasoning.
We chose to stay in a Villa so that we can cook for him (Not pro allowing him to eat restaurant food) and at least we wont feel confined in a room as we planned on resting and relaxing in the villa. Importantly, the pool in the villa can allow my son to play in the water under supervision and he can tire himself out! Remember to request for Baby Chair and cot! And prep a lot of insect repellent and patches! One patch for day and one for night! And spray repellent around the sleeping area!
Remember also to prep water. Drinking water is also washing water in Bali. People do not use their tap water to even brush their teeth. I am not so particular. So for brushing, I just took water from the tap for myself. You need to remember to use drinking water for everything for your baby. And gallons of drinking water was available in our Villa which was great!
I do use hot water to rinse his bottles etc to help kill any bacteria. But you need to bear in mind that your baby will inevitably drink some pool water esp during their water activities. You can refrain but you cant stop that from happening. So have a little faith that your baby can have strong immunity.
Prep medication like for diarrhoea or vomit or fever for your baby, just in case of any reaction to perhaps dirty water.
So activities!!!
So before you plan any activities, you will need to plan based on your baby's schedule. Day 1, I arranged a BBQ in our Villa because Daddy requested. So I fulfilled my Big Boy's request first! Touched down, do grocery, and reached Villa at 4ish. So I prepped the Jar Food I brought from Singapore for my son's 5pm dinner. Because you will feel so tired, you wont want to cook and you need to unpack some necessities etc... so something more ready? -is good.
My son's bedtime is 7pm. So I prioritize letting him change into swimwear and swim first. So sunscreen! Loads of sunscreen for the baby’s delicate skin. Then about an hour later, he eats his dinner. We showered him, apply aloe Vera and moisturizer changed him into his PJs.
We altered his sleeping area.
Basically a cot is not appropriate for our baby. He has never slept in a cot before. And he is used to sleeping on a big bed at home by himself. So my hubby and I moved the huge mattress from the bed frame to a corner of the walls. And we barricade his surroundings with pillows etc... I forgot to take a picture but I will try to take one on our next coming trip! But parents, be creative!
We try not to let our baby sleep with us. So we book a Villa with 3 rooms with ensuite bathrooms. One room for our couple friend. One master bedroom which we took, then one bedroom for my son. And yes, feel free to get trusted friends or family to go with you. So that just in case, you still have friends to be around to give some form of support!
So we brought our iBabyCare to monitor him from room to room. So you can bring your own baby monitor as well. I brought our diffuser- YL EO to purify his room and to give him the same ‘feeling’ at night when he sleeps. Give your baby the same night light or scent will help settle better. Of cuz, his little ‘chou chou’ will help also...
Day 2- we booked tickets to Waterbom park! It is one of the famous 🚿 arks. So I brought my baby to the children play area. For babies this age, they will love the colors, the little and big sprinklers. And for my son, it makes him feel very excited seeing so many children playing around. You just need to make sure you watch your babies. Because there are different water levels. My son don’t know how to walk yet. So if he accidentally plunge into the waters, he can be traumatised as well. So parents, do your due diligence and don’t get distracted by your phones or etc... be responsible.
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Picture: My little baby playing at the park!
My son enjoyed the park very much, made some friends of his kind... there were babies even younger than him!
And he really tire himself out! The exploration level is very good!
So went back and fed him his dinner finally at 6pm. 🤗🤗🤗
On subject of baby food, you can feed your baby coconut juice! It is cooling and definitely great for hydration. I know babies of this stage might hate drinking plain water from sippy cup. So I feed my son water and coconut by straw.
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Picture: His Big Coconut! Dont drink all!
We order Minimunchers in Bali for our 3rd day. It was a disaster. You need to order one day in advance. The next day, the rider was late for 1 hour. And the food came frozen in jars. And the looks of the food sent hardly looked like what you see on their site. It did not look pro nor as hygienic as how they should looked. They are prepared food and froze for not sure how long.
So I officially banned them. Go to the supermarket and buy fresh food, it would be better.
So Day 3 was a little of a disaster. We met up with a friend to go Ubud to visit the Padi Fields and giant Swings.. but the travel from Seminyak was about 2 hours.
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Picture: The giant swing where they have these cute nests for you to climb into!
The 2-hours won’t a problem except that my baby suddenly cried very loudly. Basically we concluded that 15min of crying could be due to hunger and tiredness at the same time, else could be a painful stomach. So actually pooped twice within 2hours. Who knows?
But the learning lesson is the same rule of thumb; if your baby is well-fed, napped, and no stomachache or any discomfort, it is like a breeze.
Other than that 15min disaster, and a long car ride, it was still a good day although my hubby and I were almost flat out by the end of the day.
So in the end Day 4 was just walking around for couple of hours. Enjoying the little retail shops around and walked to the beachfront at Potato Head Folk where we had our lunch there and stopped for the baby to eat. It is good to spend time doing nothing at a holiday. Learn to relax and not rush from place to place. Take time to slow down your pace, and enjoy quality time as a family together.
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Picture: At the Beachfront! Experiencing sand and seawater!
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Picture: My little one at Potato Head Folk. Enjoying and playing!
Day 5 was filled with packing. My suggestion is to pack most things a night before you sleep. Because if you have like a baby like mine. 9months old and active and quite a super glue, you will have difficulty trying to even fold one Tee. And your baby will slow down the process. SO.. pack the night before most of the items and be ready to leave for home!
Finally, always try to reach the airport slightly earlier than usual. If your baby poops or etc, you will need extra unplanned time. We reach the airport like 1.5hours earlier to Changi Airport to take the flight to Bali and had quite a bit of cock up. We needed more extra weight despite buying 15kg.
So my suggestion is bring a big luggage and put 1 small extra luggage inside the big one. Avoid too much hand carry. Because a baby can be a handful!!! And buy at least a 30kg even for such short 5 days trip. The baby is a small thing with a million items. Just a big can of milk powder can dispense quite abit of weight. So reach the airport 2hours to 2.5hours so that you don't have to run to the gate like us! Haha!
Flight Delays. We had unforseen flight delay on the trip back home. We had to stay around the airport for extra 2.5hours. Hence, we realised that we did not enough food for our baby on the flight as he will need to have his dinner on the plane ride due to the delay. So, we went to Hard rock Cafe at the Airport, and thankfully, they were willing to listen to our request to grill the Salmon without seasoning, pureed my baby's vege, and did mash potato; properly wrapped for him. We were very thankful for these kind gestures. So feel free to request special food requests for your little one!!!
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So in the end, we reach Changi Airport at 7pm rather than 4.20pm. But this very much sums up our Bali trip with alot more experience points!
I hope you enjoyed this read. I am still really new with all these travelling with a little baby. Write to me and share with me your experiences too!
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