Well we took the plunge, we went to Hawaii with a 12 month old! It wasn’t the easiest thing but it certainly wasn’t the hardest either. We traveled on Hawaiian Airlines and my son sat in our laps. Luckily it was a faster flight opposed to the regular estimate of 5.5 hours, due to a a tail wind which got us there in about 4.5 hours. I read Shelli Rivoli’s book, Travels with Baby: The Ultimate Guide for Planning Trips with Babies, Toddlers, and Preschool-Age Children which I found quite helpful but in all honesty, you’re going to find you could have brought more of this and less of that and well, since every baby is different, how one baby responds to traveling, another probably won’t be so good or bad. You won’t necessary know what best works until you do it, but Travels with Baby is certainly a good jumping off point.
I would say overall, it was good. Since it’s our first vacation with a child there is obviously a learning curve, as with anything being a first time parent is. I would say the most exhausting thing was keeping him entertained on the way back. My son traveled better to Hawaii than on the flight home. One thing that kept my husband and I from losing our minds was we talked my mother into going with us and with her there, it was a great, great help to have another set of hands. I certainly would say if you plan to travel and if you are on good terms with your mother or mother-in-law, have them tag along as when you’ve sang, “The Ants Go Marching” or “The Wheels on the Bus” for the 100th time, it’s nice to have someone else sing and dance with your baby while you catch your breath.