Flying with Twins

A few things we learned while flying with twin 13-week-olds:

1. Take the minimum amount of "stuff" possible. If possible, avoid taking strollers on the airplane. Carrying the girls with a Moby Wrap and an Ergo worked out just fine and made for easier getting around the airports. The TSA folks were very "family friendly," and we didn't even have to take the girls out of their wraps.

2. Have extra outfits for the babies and yourself in the carry-on. We had an extra outfit for the babies, but K got to wear his poop-smeared shirt for the entire trip. Thanks, Lia for having your biggest blow-out just as we arrived at the gate before leaving in Dallas. It could have been much worse--she could have blown out ON the airplane, making for a very difficult diaper change. Nonetheless, we left home in cute, festive outfits, but Lia was in footy pajamas before we even left Dallas. See pics below.

Here are the outfits we were wearing when we left home.

Here are the outfits we were wearing when we left Dallas--post blow-out.

3. Family boarding is not really early boarding. They board all of the people who paid extra money for their boarding passes first. After about 45 people have boarded, the families get to board, which really doesn't do much in terms of seat selection. We wanted so badly to go sit right next to a bunch of the "business-class" members just to be spiteful...but we didn't.

4. There are only 4 oxygen masks in a row. We learned this because our first flight attendant was doing her best to help us sit together. We could either sit in two aisle seats, or hope that the flight had an extra seat or two and have one of those empty seats be in our row. Lucky for us, both flights had an extra seat--which was right between us, making for a very comfortable flight.

5. Feed the babies at take-off and landing. I don't think this is a secret, but it worked well.

6. Smile and give treats to those around you. See pics below. While we had planned for the worst, we found that our lives will be much more difficult on airplanes in the next few years so we need to enjoy the easy flights now and save the "we're sorry" treat bags for when we have toddlers.

7. Don't plan on reading or doing anything on the plane other than sleeping and holding babies. We can't complain too much about this, as they were pretty sweet babies during the entire flight with only a tiny bit of fussing.
8. Jetlag and timezones don't seem to affect the babies nearly as much as it affects us. In fact, the timezone change may be just the thing that got both girls sleeping all the way through the night at the same time.
9. The anticipation, planning, and packing for the flight is much worse than the actual flight itself.