Planning your baby’s first trip can be an exciting, yet daunting time for any new parents. It’s so easy to travel alone, but with a baby on board, it’s an entirely different story. It’s OK, though. With some careful planning and preparation, your baby’s first trip will go off without a hitch.

Here is a pregnancy checklist for preparing for a baby’s first big trip on an airplane.

1. Arrive Early

Arrive at the airport early to give yourself a little more time to get your family situated, checked in and at the gate on time. The last thing you need to do is rush because it could cause you to forget something important.

2. Stay Fit

All those workout classes you took during your pregnancy to stay fit will really pay off while you’re juggling all your things through the airport. Getting exercise is so important before, during and after your pregnancy. You’ll quickly learn just how much energy is needed when you’re traveling and trying to juggle multiple things like your luggage, your baby and a diaper bag through the airport.

3. Get Organized

Before making your first trip, research any rules and regulations the airport has when it comes to bringing liquid items, such as baby formula, on a plane. Once you’re at the airport, get your luggage taken care of right away. Make sure you’ve got your carry on bag with you when you board the plane. In your carry on, there should be things like a bottle, pacifier and anything else your baby may need during the flight.

4. Remain Calm

Between the crowded airports, having to rush and get to the gate on time, it’s pretty easy for you to get stressed out. It’s important to hide any stress you might be feeling. Babies have a great way of knowing when people are upset or mad, so always remain smiling and use baby talk to keep your little one completely happy and not at all scared.

While preparing to board the flight, show your child how exciting the flight is going to be. Some kids will be scared of the planes, while others will enjoy it. Not only will bringing your child’s favorite toy help make things a little less scary for him, but it will also distract him while the plane is taking off. Take off is normally the scariest part for kids.

Planning a baby’s first trip can be a tricky task, but staying organized and being fully prepared will help make the trip go smoothly. While you will remember this trip, your baby won’t. This is where your amazing skills as a photographer are going to come into play. Taking lots of pictures will come in handy later down the road when you can talk to your kid and show the photos you took during their first trip.

BabySafeTravel.com

BabySafeTravel.com was born after a family’s bad hotel experience.

“The hotel brought us a foul smelling and beat up bed for our baby,” said Megan Radke, co-creator of BabySafeTravel.com. “I was disgusted as a mother to have my baby sleep in this filthy play-yard. So I called the front desk and requested another more suitable play-yard. The hotel staff brought us another one that was in worse condition and they said they only had two. We were also given a king sized sheet for this tiny baby crib, a strangulation hazard!”

The idea for the site came over breakfast the next morning.

Different sections on the site include the Baby Boutique, baby travel tips and baby blogs. It’ll also help you book your trip with hotel selections in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe.

Baby Blog Addict readers can get a 10% discount when shopping for baby travel products in the Baby Boutique.  Use the coupon code ‘summertravel’ at checkout to have the discount applied to any purchase.

My boss handed me a fortune cookie on my last day of work. “Ideas that may seem absurd ultimately lead to success,” read the tiny slip of paper.

It was an omen for what was to come. Just days after cleaning out my desk, I began an around-the-world trip with my wife, Amber, and our 16-month-old daughter — something that sounds crazy but turned out to be quite the opposite. After our daughter, Ediza, was born, I started getting the itch to travel, and Amber agreed that’s what we should do — although many people told us our days of freedom to travel were over.

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We refused to accept that and began planning our cross-continent trek, which took us from hiking pristine mountains in New Zealand to running a marathon along the Great Wall of China to swimming in the turquoise waters of the Greek islands.

All with a baby.

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We used to lug around a portable DVD player, but the ultra-portability of the video iPod makes the whole process much easier. We load several of Jack’s favorite shows (Ratatouille, Super Why, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, etc.) and he stays occupied for quite a while.

He also likes to play with our GPS unit, which would explain why our home address is now labeled a rest area.

Here are a few more tips to keep in mind when traveling with a todder.

Related: Toddler Travel Quiz, Five Toddler Travel Problems Solved

I own an iPhone. It cost a lot. So why on earth would I let our toddler put his grimy little fingers all over it? First, he only plays with it in a “safe” area. That means one of us is watching him and he’s sitting down on the sofa, carpet or some other harmless surface and can’t walk around with it. Jack is almost three and, like me, he loves gadgets. On a recent two-hour flight we kept him entertained by ditching the portable DVD player and “upgrading” him to our video iPod. At his fingertips he had access to his favorites: Ratatouille, Super Why! and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

On the iPhone, it took no time at all for him to learn to scroll through the hundreds of pictures by sliding his finger across the screen and double-tapping them to zoom in. Pretty incredible to watch, actually. Outside of the pics, his favorite thing to do is play around with the bubble wrap application. A couple of other good ones include bubbles and iDoodle2Lite. There are sure to be a lot more in Apple’s App Store soon.

Which gadgets work for you?

“We took our daughter to Chicago when she was 4 months old, then again when she was 7 months old,” says Tina Dzikowski, 30, of Eastpointe, Mich., whose daughter is now 3 and son is 1. “It worked out fine. I haven’t tried it yet with two. But I’d say, go.”