Trying to get myself, a 3 month old baby and a bag for 5 nights out of the house by a certain time to make a train was giving me major anxiety. I was so tempted to just sack off the idea of going to London on my own, stay at home and just hide on the sofa. Had we not been off to see ‘daddy’ for the weekend, I would have done just that. Thankfully, preparing to travel with a baby is far more stressful than the actual traveling part!

It wasn’t until we were sat on the train waiting to go that I could actually breath. For the most part, travelling with a baby is ok because they just want to sleep, eat, look around a bit, then go back to sleep. But getting out of the house seriously deserves some sort of medal or at least a huge bar of celebratory chocolate. Oreo Dairy Milk, please.

I’ve since done the journey a few times with only one absolute stress bomb in the shape of Virgin taking the train out of service in Preston en route back to Glasgow, giving approximately a two minute warning to catch another train on the other side of the station, and combining two train loads of people. But hey, I lived to tell the tale with only one angry tweet sent. And actually, it really showed just how lovely, kind and helpful people can be. People on the packed train bent over backwards to help me squish myself and the pram on. Plus when things go wrong, it gives you the confidence that you can handle whatever gets thrown at you. Because instead of dwelling on it or worrying about it, you just have to get on with it.

So now with a wee bit of hindsight, I wanted to share my tips for travelling long distance with a baby by train.

Pack strategically

Seems obvious but funnily enough I didn’t do this the first time I travelled. Always best to learn the hard way, right?! I was just hellbent on getting everything out the door that I didn’t even think about what we would actually need easy access to on the train. That’s why I put my changing bag in an impossible to reach place. I’d definitely recommend taking a backpack with all the essentials – food for you, toys, wipes, muslins and a couple of nappies so you can change bubs easily. Little A spent a lot of the journey napping so having something to read (I love my kindle for when you’ve got one hand free) or your phone to hand easily helps give you a little bit of downtime to relax.

Prebook your seats

For some reason when you book direct with Virgin online, they love to preselect you seats with no view which is rather irritating. But you can very easily reselect your seats. The preselection is brilliant because when you go into the booking page, you can see all the seats available – plus you can see where the wheelchair space is for the pram (obviously give it up if it’s booked for a wheelchair!). They are happy for you to leave your pram in the space but the train guard has always let me know whether they’re expecting a wheelchair to come on. If someone were to get on, you would have to move the pram but they have always said they would help me to do this. The baby change toilet is also just next to this space too which is handy so you don’t have to traipse through the whole train.

Ask for help if you need it

When people see you with a pram they generally want to help if they can. Nine times out of ten, someone will ask if you want a hand before you need to ask them. I’ve been so touched by people’s kindness when travelling by train with people offering to help me on and off, offering to buy me a hot drink (massive thank you to the lovely guy that bought me a cuppa after the Preston stress bomb!) chatting to the baby and just offering smiles when it gets a bit stressful.

Move around if you need to

One of the big advantages of travelling by train is that you can move around if you need to. When Little A gets restless, a little walk to the vestibule and a look out of the windows is a good distraction for a while. There’s usually plenty of space on board to have a wee wander where you’re not getting in anybody’s way. The little seats outside the toilets are a godsend when the baby just needs a distraction. Pick the carriage near the buffet car and you have an endless supply of people passing by for the baby to smile at and chatter to.

Pre-boarding

I didn’t actually know this was an official thing until recently but you can apparently request assistance and board early if you are travelling with kids/ a pram. At Glasgow Central I’ve always just got there early so I can be one of the first on to get settled and get everything into my seat for the journey. At Euston, it’s usually a free for all. As soon as the platform is announced, there’s a stampede, you’d honestly think the train was leaving that second. This can be kind of stressful. At least with a pram though you can clear your own path through and another bonus is that there is always someone getting to the train door with you to give you a hand on. But pre-boarding if possible would be a much more relaxing experience.

Take a suitable pram

Virgin Trains official guidelines are that a pram should fold up on the train but when your bubba is tiny and fast asleep this is easier said than done. The first time I travelled I was terrified I would be asked to fold the pram up. I’ve got an Uppababy Vista so it’s not the smallest pram in the world and certainly wouldn’t fit in the overhead but possibly would fit in a luggage rack. In case I was asked to fold it, I wanted to ensure I wouldn’t then have to faff with tons of luggage too.

If you know that you’re going to be travelling a lot on your own using a pram, make sure the basket underneath it is big enough for a holiday-sized bag. The Uppababy Vista has a brilliant amount of space underneath to get a large backpacking bag in it. By just loading your pram up it means you’re only juggling one thing rather than a pram and a suitcase. Anything to make life that little bit easier.