Traveling with Baby, or not?

Haven't we all gotten the pang? The feeling deep in your belly when you see an adorable baby and want (another) one of your own desperately? Their delicious scent, adorable smile and seemingly edible tiny feet are captivating.

I traveled home from  Istanbul yesterday, and saw many cute babies in the airport.  I was kid-less (my two are away at sleep-away camp) and I breezed through the airport with Ayelet Waldman's book "Bad Mother" in one hand, and nothing but my purse slung over the other.  Ms. Waldman's has a chapter in her insightful and funny book on motherhood entitled, "Baby Lust".  Ms. Waldman is a mother of four, yet she still fights that urge to have another she says, "Never again to feel the sandbag weight of a baby slung over my shoulder? Never again to hold miniature, translucent starfish fingers in my hand? Never again to match my breath to a baby's shallow wheeze?"

Yes! I have had those feelings many times.  Probably hormonal, but very real feelings of wanting another. I give a talk a few times a year to groups of new moms called, "Traveling with Baby".  I advise moms on which strollers are easiest for travel,  to ship "gear" ahead if possible and give tips for fussy babies on airplanes among other things.  I am enmeshed in the baby world because of City Baby, yet my kids are teens at this point.

I watched young moms struggle to get through security--folding strollers, showing liquids, passing the baby back and forth like a hot potato.  Part of me is envious, but truthfully a larger part of me is relieved that I don't have to do that again.  The endless amounts of "stuff" and packing and naps and spit up.  I am grateful that my husband and I can travel with our rolling bags and that our kids can pull their own too.

Original NYC Moms Blog post. Pamela is the co-author of  City Baby: a resource guide to having a baby in New York and is the co-founder of Mind Your Own Business Moms (MYOBMoms.com) a business dedicated to helping moms re-enter the workplace.