Essentials for Traveling with a baby

Claire and I just returned from a girls trip (mom, grandma & sister) to New York City. Traveling takes on a whole new side when you are taking an infant along. For the last couple weeks I've been doing my online homework about what to take/have when traveling with a baby. Aside from the essentials that one needs to have when staying somewhere other than home, the following is a list of necessities I found useful when on plane with a baby for five plus hours.

* ziploc bags (for dirty clothes, diapers, etc)
* antibacterial wipes (to wipe down anything the baby might touch)
* toys
* baby medicine (we had tylenol, mylicon drops & teething tablets)
* baby wipes (plenty of them)
* diapers (way more than you think you'd need)
* three or so changes of clothes (you might not think you need that many but after Claire blew out two of her outfits in one plane trip I was grateful to have the third set of clothes)
**a note about the clothes, I clothes that are super comfy for baby and easy for diaper changes
* changing pad - I'm sure the people in our row were thrilled (note sarcasm) that I was changing Claire's diaper on my lap but the bathroom was not big enough to accomodate a rolling baby.
* Carseat (even though we didn't purchase a seat for Claire, we were fortunate that our flight was not completely full and we were able to use her carseat on board the plane. She didn't spend a ton of time in it but it was nice to have)
* birth certificate (they never asked to see it but I had it just in case)
* food
* something for baby to suck on for takeoff and landing (landing seemed to be more of an issue than takeoff).
* blankets to keep baby warm if temperature is cool onboard the plane.