Our first stop on this trip is Beijing! We’ll be in Beijing for about 9 days to spend time with family and squeeze in some sightseeing thats more baby friendly. We then head to Xian for another 9 days, followed by Chongqing and Chengdu!
The Flight Over
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- Our luggage (one whole bag is full of gifts!)
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- Checking in for the flight
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- Traveling in taxis
Our biggest fear was probably the flight over. All of my friends told me babies are super easy at this age and they were all right! The flight and overall travel was pretty easy – it helps that Noey prefers being outside vs. at home. She slept during check in, boarding, and the entire time after we landed in Beijing. She slept for about 5 hours on the flight out of 12 and was super happy when awake. She cried maybe twice and even then you could barely hear her over the airplane noises.
I was most nervous during takeoff because I’d read how the change in altitude could hurt babies’ ears and make them fussy. I had crazy anxiety as we slowly left the gate but once we began taking off, I nursed and we had no issues :D. I’m much less nervous now for our return flight.
Surviving Jet Lag
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- Our Airbnb in Beijing
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- Our Airbnb in Beijing
I started reading how to help a baby with jet lag after we landed in China lol. We didn’t think to prepare her beforehand. We knew it would probably be rough going though so we didn’t make any plans for the first few days.
A couple of days before we left San Francisco Noey started going through the “4 month sleep regression” and honestly I think this helped us survive the first night. It was rough but we were already used to choppy sleep. That first night though legit reminded me of the first night we brought her home from the hospital lol. I’m happy this trip will be a long one too. I now know to plan any international trips with her with ample time – any trip a week or less wouldn’t be worth it.
Family Time
While we all recovered from jet lag, we also spent the first few days just enjoying family time. Noey was able to meet her great grandmother among other relatives in Beijing. My great grandmother has a special place in my heart so I can’t wait to share the photos and memories of this trip with Noey once she’s older 😀
