Coming for a reccie in 8 days!!!

[Guest Murphy642]

Hi

 

We finally got our visas after being told "nothing til 2012". Need to validate before 6th Sept so we are coming out to explore 17th August, with the plan of moving to Adelaide in the New Year, before school starts.

 

Am very excited but am dreading the flights with a 6 year old and a 1 year old (and husband!!), but really interested in exploring Adelaide and all it has to offer.

 

Wish us luck!

[Diane]

Good luck - bring layers in terms of clothing, not all that warm here at the moment, although hopefully warming up soon (please!!!)...

 

How long are you coming for?

[Riponian]

I agree bring layers and the flight will be fine the babies have it easy they tend to just sleep in the cribs but you will be fine.

Hope you have a good trip

 

Michelle

[Guest Murphy642]

Hi thanks, we are coming for a couple of weeks as we hope to be back out for good in January before the school term starts.

 

I keep looking at the weather in Adelaide and it is not much colder than here at the moment!!

 

Christine

[Guest kas17]

Hi, good luck with your reccie. we are coming out on the 17th too, who are you flying with

[Guest Murphy642]

Hi We are flying from Heathrow with Qantas, 10pm. Are we on the same flight?!

[Guest kangomik]

The kids will be fine on the plane, the hubby will act up though.

Have a great flight, and please bring some clothes

 

I saw a couple of new arrivals 2 weekends ago at mile end shopping complex, tee shirt, shorts thongs, white white skin looked really happy. We all had coats hats and scarfs on LOL it was blowing and bloomin freezin at 15 degrees

[Guest kas17]

Hi We are flying from Heathrow with Qantas, 10pm. Are we on the same flight?!

Hi we are on the 10 pm flight to singapore then transfer to adelaide

Karen

[snifter]

If you have a child under 2 you can book your seats (all of them) as soon as you've booked your tickets. if you've not done so already I'd suggest doing so asap. It means you don't have to worry about waiting till you get to the airport to request a bulkhead seat with the drop down cribs. It may be you have to have 2 blocks of seats so one adult and older child are sat behind you, not in one long row as the cribs are needed by others and there are only 2 to a row of 4 seats. Otherwise they'll probably ask to move those taking up the bulkhead seats and not using the crib anyways. But tbh the blocks of 2 & 1 are handy as I find it easier than having to pass stuff down a row. Also you and your hubby can rotate from the seat behind to give each other a break.

 

I'd also suggest (well this is what I do as am well used to long haul with kids so have learnt from past mistakes ) getting your youngest ready for bed before you board the plane. Bring sleepsuit/PJ's and get all ready so this signals to baby that its nightime and can really help settle them. We also bought sons baby sleeping bag when we flew out on the last flight. He was wide awake when we went down to the boarding lounge and we got him changed down there on the floor, let him run around some more and then as we were lining up to board we popped him in his sleepiing bag and he was asleep before we took off. Was great as he had to sit on my pap during take off and then we just popped him into the crib and he slept for 8.5 hours Result. We popped a dark shawl over the crib so to block the lights out till the turned them off for the night.

 

He also then slept on the flight from Singapore to Adelaide as we were flying out at his bodyclock late afternoon and their night (10pm) and he conked out for about 3.5 hours of the 7.5 hour flight then. Which wasn't bad all things considered. Again we got him ready for bed before we boarded and he was asleep during take off and then woke half way into the flight.

 

Also invest in some Earplanes (earplugs) for children and use them for 1 year old if you can. It can help loads in equalising ear pressure during take off and landing (especially if child is a bit sniffly or has a cold) and also take a few sachets of Calpol on the plane with you just in case.

 

If you've got a layover in Singapore for anything longer than an hour or so investigate grabbing a shower (its upstairs in the Rainforest Lounge, easy to find as its right slap bang in the middle of the terminal) and only costs $8 Singapore. Well worth it. They provide towels, soap, shampoo and hairdryer Blissful after 13 hours on a plane I can tell you. There is also a great little play area for kids (check airport map) not far from there and so your 6 year old can play or watch some TV and your 1 year old can crawl round.

 

Good luck

[Guest Murphy642]

Amazing advice, thanks so much. I have booked our seats so that is taken care of, I am hoping for bulk head when we check in tho my 1 year old is massive so we can't use the crib anyway so not sure what to do there.

 

I will def take his sleeping bag, great idea - thinking of swim and shower in SIngapore as we have a 4 hr lay over so hopefully it will all go to plan - however the little one has had a temperature today so am a bit worried about him and the flight. I'll see how it goes tonight and I might book an emergency appt at the docs in the morning so I get some just in case medicine.

 

Wish me luck, don't want a poorly child.

[snifter]

Amazing advice, thanks so much. I have booked our seats so that is taken care of, I am hoping for bulk head when we check in tho my 1 year old is massive so we can't use the crib anyway so not sure what to do there.

 

I will def take his sleeping bag, great idea - thinking of swim and shower in SIngapore as we have a 4 hr lay over so hopefully it will all go to plan - however the little one has had a temperature today so am a bit worried about him and the flight. I'll see how it goes tonight and I might book an emergency appt at the docs in the morning so I get some just in case medicine.

 

Wish me luck, don't want a poorly child.

 

Glad it's of use You should be able to book a bulkhead seat for the crib. We knew from the day we booked our tickets exactly what seats we would haven flying out. Although that was with BA, Qantas will request you get a bulkhead but they won't tell you which one. They also prioritise by age if there are more requests than cribs. They are pretty big cribs so your 1 year old should fit fine. They take up the length of 2 seats almost. Our almost 2 year old fitted in one, although his legs were a bit bent up. And he is on the larger/longer side.

 

FWIW I took our son to see the Doctor 2 days before we were due to fly as he had been off colour over a weekend. He was then diagnosed with a bad ear infection. That Doctor advised us strongly not to fly and to delay our flight out by at least 3-4 days. As this would have landed us slap bang in the middle of the BA strikes and no hope of getting on a plane then I took the executive decision of putting him on the antibiotics straight away and going back 24 hours later for another check up. This time I saw another Doctor (a lady and a parent) and she said the bad ear was looking better, the good one, worse However, she did say if it was her travelling out she'd chance it and fly. A woman with my way of thinking.

 

We'd heard the worse case scenarios (ear drum perforating or a pained screaming child the entire flight) and hubby and I talked it over and decided to fly anyways. If it had been to Spain we'd have delayed, but out to Australia, it wasn't so easy to do that. He would have had 48 hours of antibiotics in his system by the time we took off and they work really quickly in kids. We kept him on Calpol/Nurofen every 4 hours for the flight also. And earplugs. He was fine. Slept loads as we flew overnight, didn't scream, cry or fuss at all. Was amazing all things considered. In fact, easiest flight I've ever had with a kid :v_SPIN:

 

Hope your little one perks up by the morning

[Guest Peachie]

The crib will be fine

my son was 18months and staff said he was too big I argued so they let me try his bum to head fit and his legs were over the side (he always slept in daft lookking positions!!) he slept brill only prob was the baby food they gave him was a sour looking porrage he wanted normal food a kids lunch would have been fine but cos he was under 2 they gave him a baby meal (suitible for 4 month old ) he ate all our snacks and fruit so was fine but he scoffed loads of toast at singapore airport PS the toast stand is brill dead cheap my kids have been 3 times now and love it toast followed by huge slabs of banana cake !!

x

[snifter]

That's a bit crap Peachie. About the food for your son. Our son was 21 months last time we flew out and we ordered a childs meal for him when we booked our tickets. Got them all the way through both legs of the flight. Didn't have any problems ordering or anything.