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I am so excited to be sharing a whole episode on traveling with a baby and Digital Nomad life as a family. This episode was inspired by one of my followers who dm’d me and said:
‘Hi, wondering how being a mama on the road has been. I know you’ve been in Brazil for a while, but would love a little insight into any challenges. We’re thinking of a similar journey next year.’
For all of you thinking to do the same or maybe even just toying with the idea or being introduced to the idea. I want to share everything that we’ve learned so far and all the plans we have going forward as a digital nomad family of three. I replied to her message saying:
‘Congratulations. That’s so exciting. Baby is only two months old and we’ve been in Brazil the entire time, so I don’t know if I’m the best person to ask, but so far it’s been great and we’re planning to go to New York and England in the next few months. I would definitely recommend staying in one place for maybe two months before and two months after the birth just to focus on delivery and recovering. It’s a lot of planning, like finding doctors, hospitals, Airbnbs, car rentals, baby stuff, but nothing you can’t handle, especially if you’re used to this lifestyle. We’re really happy. Our lives didn’t stop once baby came and are so excited to travel internationally with him.’
Choosing Yourself And Your Baby
This is a mindset that I want to share and really emphasize is that your life does not have to stop when you have children. When I was pregnant, so many people told me that I needed to stop traveling, that my whole life was going to change, that I should be prepared to basically give myself up for my child. And I give my child a lot, like I believe that I am a great mother, but I can have both. Right? There is an ‘and’ – I can be a great mother and live a freedom based lifestyle and run a freedom based business and have the time to do everything that I want.
In my last episode, I talked about ripping off the bandaid, so preparing to figure out how you’re going to manage it all and. Being okay with making mistakes, but as long as you have the destination, as long as you have the mindset that you’re going to be building something even bigger and better for yourself, that is how you’re going to be constantly growing and manifesting this big, beautiful life.
When I was pregnant, I also saw so many people on Instagram, so many influencers traveling with a family, traveling with not only a baby, but. A toddler as well, or even a bigger family. So if other people can do it, I can too.
Preparing For Long Haul Travel
And right now, where we’re currently at, like I said in my response, I’ve only been in Brazil so far, but we are flying to New York at the end of this month and then to England.
Next month, we are ready to figure out our routine for long international travel days. We have no idea what to expect. It’s probably going to be hectic at times, but it’s not going to stop us as a family. I’m viewing this whole process as taking baby steps.
Take Baby Steps
So our first baby step was to go outside with the baby. Then it was going to the supermarket and getting an errand done. Then our next baby step was to eat out at a restaurant, and then take our first road trip, and then we flew domestically. And so with all of these steps, you make mistakes and you learn. And believe me, I definitely made my share of mistakes.
Mistakes I Made
I made a mistake when I didn’t have an extra change of clothes and he spit up and pooped himself while we were getting his first shots. I made another mistake when I didn’t bring enough burp cloths and they were all smelly. So with all of these mistakes, I know for next time exactly what to pack and what to do.
We also created these grab bags where one of them is for changing and one of them is for feeding, so that we know that if we’re stepping outside of the house, we have these two bags that we must take with us at all times in case any accidents happen after our first domestic flight.
We also learned that it’s so necessary to pack multiple changes of clothes because you just never know how many changes of clothes they’re gonna go through and how many diapers they’re going to go through. So don’t check-in all of your diapers.
And during our first road trip, we learned how to find pit stops so that we could take breaks and that he didn’t have to be in his car seat all the time.
We learned about our limits back then and how far we’re willing to travel.
Accept It’s Daunting
So all of these things, they’re super daunting when you first think about it. Like now I’m thinking about our first international flight. It’s going to be 10 hours long, and it’s daunting. But I know that with every passing minute, we’re getting one step closer to our destination and also one step closer to our ideal as a travel family, we first went to Rema at seven weeks old, and that was before his two month vaccine, so we booked our first flight right after his two month vaccines.
And we’re going to be flying to New York from Sao Paulo at three months old. So far. We have his US passport. We got it at the consulate in Rio de Janeiro. We are applying for his Brazilian one right now and we will also be applying for his UK passport when we’re back in England.
Preparing For Our First Long Haul Flight With A Newborn
Next month, it’s crazy that the baby gets three citizenships when I, myself only have one. I had to give up my Chinese passport when I naturalized as a US citizen when I was a teenager, so I could have had dual nationalities, but China doesn’t allow that, so I had to give up my Chinese passport. Ragz also only has his British one.
So far, and so it’s just also really cool bringing in a new generation of multicultural kids and raising my child and future children to be super international On our flights to New York and London. I did request bassinet. Seats with the airlines. We are flying United back to New York and we booked the bulkhead seats, but they said they can’t guarantee a bassinet until we check in.
And then we’re flying Virgin Atlantic to London in June. And so we had to request bassinet seats, but they couldn’t even assign us seats until, again when we check in. This is all a learning process.
Future Travel Plans As A Digital Nomad Family
Our future travel plans are constantly changing, as always, so I love that. That hasn’t really changed between me and ragz. We’re still super spontaneous and even bringing Leven into this world, our plans are always changing because we have the freedom to do so.
As of right now, I feel like. Everything’s falling into place where we always wanted to establish bases around the world. And when people ask me about schooling, when my children go into school, what my plans are, I personally don’t think I would homeschool my kids, but I also want to increase our options.
Whatever life throws at us, I want us to have the choice to choose what is best for our family when the time comes. In that case, we are exploring currently getting our Brazilian citizenship. Because of Leven (and giving birth to him in Brazil), Ragz and I right now are already permanent residents, so we are really toying with the idea, do we want to also get our Brazilian passports, which is really exciting.
At the start of the year, getting permanent residency wasn’t even in the card, so for us to be saying that we might be Brazilian citizens, it just goes to show that if you develop being resilient and constantly just up for new adventures and open for new experiences, your life will continue growing and manifesting in the way that is most aligned to you.
So I will continue to update you guys on my travels as a family as we leave Brazil and explore different continents with Baby Leven. Thank you all so much for tuning in.
If you’ve found this episode inspirational, I would love it if you could share it with your followers on Instagram and tag @thewanderlover and @thewanderloverpodcast so I can repost you. Or If you found this episode helpful, don’t forget to share it with a friend and leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
I will see you guys in the next episode. Have an amazing week, my loves.
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