Baby Business

I've talked about flying with a baby on my personal blog before. Yes, I've taken my baby on business trips before as well. But as babies become toddlers, mine is 17 months now, they become more opinionated and want certain things.

Let me first say, my kid was awesome on the flight to Chicago last week. But I wanted to share the steps I personally took to travel on business with a toddler.

I brought work on the plane, hoping to plan some of the SphinnCon Israel event while in route.  Those plans did not work out.  But I do recommend come prepared, just in case your toddler does fall asleep in route.

We arrived to the hotel and I asked if they can give us the room they gave us last year, when she was 8 months or or so. That room was larger than a normal room.  Again, it didn't work out, the room we got was a standard small room for $259 at the Hilton Chicago. It was small for wife, baby and dad. I wasn't going to spend more than $259 per night, so we made do.

We set up the pack and play in the corner away from the door. The last thing I wanted was someone from the hotel knocking on the door waking up the kid. But we also positioned it behind the TV and away from the bathroom door.

At bed time, we did the normal routine. I had Barney videos on our iPad (instead of the DVR), did the bath, and the mom put her to sleep. During the putting to sleep routine, I hung out in the bathroom working on my laptop. I didn't come out until the wife gave me the okay.

The rest of the night, normally 7pm on - we tip toed around in darkness until we went to sleep. We had light from the far window, my computer screen and a small desk lap. Enough light to see but not wake a sleeping baby. So I worked the remainder of the night, in silence. Later on, we watched TV on mute. :)

My kid normally wakes up a bit early (4:30ish Chicago time) and then goes back to sleep soon after. So when my kid woke up, I took my laptop into the bathroom and worked there for normally two hours until she woke up again. By then, I was able to work outside, in the main room on the computer desk. Trust me, working from a bathroom and sitting on a toilet for two hours with a laptop is not pleasurable.

I probably put in about 4 hours of work per day while sitting on the toilet.  

But that routine worked out well. I worked, they slept. When they woke up, we hung out for a bit and they went off to have fun and I went to the conference in the hotel.

Tips:

• Bring videos on iPad
• Have laptop battery power
• Prepare to work in places you don't expect to work.
• Make the best of it, heck - you get to see your kid while doing business travel.

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