#FamilyTravel with an Infant: Not as horrifying as you might think
We recently completed a 1000 mile road trip with our five month old daughter. It was our first time traveling with her, and we were nervous considering she’s been known to go bonkers in the car after 15 minutes. Based on what worked for us, here are some tips to help your next family road trip go more smoothly:
1. Formulate a game plan! That’s right, you and your husband are a team, and it’s important to agree that you’re actually on the SAME team. Discuss your strategy ahead of time. How long will you let the baby cry? What “degree” of crying warrants an ASAP stop? How often do you plan to stop for feeding/changes/exercise? Etc…
2. Take turns riding in the back with the kiddo, especially during awake time. Infants can’t exactly help themselves when it comes to picking up a dropped toy or pacifier. It helps when this sort of situation can be immediately rectified before the kiddo finds herself stuck on the crying channel. Not to mention, you can feed baby while on the road to cut down on time spent at the rest areas.
3. Have baby feeding and entertainment essentials close at hand so you can safely access them while cruising down the road.
4. Print a list of the rest area locations. That way, if baby starts to cry, you can determine if you can make it to the next rest area, or if you need to pull over sooner.
5. Drive while the kiddo sleeps! We hit the road by 5 AM so we could get 2-3 hours of driving while the kiddo finished up her sleep. It’s a good way to cover some ground early in the day.
6. Plot your course ahead of time! If you’re using a GPS, plot your course before your travel day and make sure it does, indeed, go the way you want to go. If you have an iPhone or iPad (or other smart phone), I highly recommend checking for traffic updates. We used our iPad to check traffic patterns via Bing maps. Nothing is worse than being stuck in traffic with a crying baby. Check traffic flow as you go and adjust your route accordingly. There’s a ton of summer construction projects going on out there. Don’t let one of them ruin your day!
7. BE PATIENT! Accept that traveling with a baby is going to take longer. You just can’t strap a kid down for 17 hours. What you once could do in one day is now going to take two. Stop for breaks every 2-3 hours. Just relax and enjoy this time with your family! One thing’s for sure, it’s going to be a memorable trip!
#HowTo Line Dry Your #WetBag
If the waterproof interior of your wet bag didn’t agitate itself inside out in the wash, go ahead and pull it out. Then attach the waterproof end of the bag to the line as shown in the picture. This allows any water stuck in the bag to run out as it dries. If you attach the cloth end to the line instead, you’re likely to end up with a pool of water at the bottom of the bag. That’s it! Easy peasy!
The totally unnecessary, but way too cute to pass up for 75 cents #yardsale find of the day!
#Yardsales: The BEST place to #buy #baby #clothes
It’s yard sale season again, and I’ve never really been pumped about them like I am now. Now, I scour the classifieds on Thursdays to look for the sales that say “baby and kids clothing”. Why Thursday? Well, some of the sales aren’t posted until then, and some sales start as early as Friday. Yet another score for the Stay-at-home-mom: I can get to the sales on Fridays before most other people can and REALLY snag some good deals.
Today, for example, I went to two sales, filled two plastic grocery bags, and spent a grand total of $10. Score! Two weeks ago, I went to one really awesome garage sale, STUFFED two paper grocery bags, and spent $22. I even scored stuff that still had the tags on it!
Seriously, it’s silly to buy your kid brand new clothes. Let everyone else do that! For $32, I’ve nearly completed her wardrobe from 6-12 months, and scored a few 18 months items that were too cute to pass up.
And the extra super bonus? I can save these clothes for a possible future sibling, and them sell them at my own garage sale at some time in the future.
Babies grow so fast, it’s nearly impossible for them to wear out clothing. Save your cash and shop the yard sales!! If you can find a mom-to-mom sale, even better!! They’re like hitting 20+ garage sales all at once! It’s an endless treasure trove of baby clothes and supplies. I’ve also hit the jackpot on craigslist, so it’s also worth scoping out, especially in winter time when yard sales are non-existant. Used baby clothes: worth every penny you didn’t have to spend!
Click the link above to check out some awesome alternatives to storing your fruits, veggies, and herbs. I love the science behind the design of each of the storage options. These all look pretty simple to build at home. It’s definitely worth the read.
Simplify #FamilyTravel with a Hotel Bag
On our recent road trip, I packed one bag with all of our overnight essentials to cut down on the number of bags/things we would have to lug into the hotel from the car. Now that we have a baby, we tend to come with quite a bit more “stuff” than we used to. So, I decided it would be smart to consolidate all of our hotel essentials into one bag. My hotel bag inventory was as follows:
Pajamas for mom, dad, and baby
Two outfits for baby (in case one got…..soiled)
Clean shirts for mom and dad (can wear yesterday’s jeans again)
Clean socks and underwear for mom and dad
Toiletry items (toothbrushes, toothpaste, face wash, etc)
Two overnight cloth diapers (for me this meant two double-stuffed BumGenius diapers)
Hair brush and comb
Wall chargers for iPad and cell phone
Blankets for the pack-n-play
With all of that in one bag, we just needed to lug in that bag, along with the Graco pack-n-play and the diaper bag and we were set for a night in the hotel. We were actually able to carry the baby and all of our necessary “stuff” in one trip from the car. It worked out well!
No clothes pins? No problem! Use the snaps or the aplix closure on the diaper to attach it to the line. On a warm, sunny day, they’ll dry no problem. I used this technique last week while vacationing and it worked great. Traveling with cloth was easier than I thought it would be!
The Dangers of Blogging While Breastfeeding
So, my last post was cut short by my kiddo who, while breastfeeding, reached up and slapped the touchscreen of my iPod and hit the “Post” button. Unfortunately, the tumblr app is being rather finicky and won’t allow me to go back and edit it. Doh!
In any case, I’ve been planning a road trip and I was seriously considering the Flip system with the disposable inserts. But, I twiddled my thumbs and couldn’t commit to buying them. Ultimately, my purchase window closed - as in, by the time I talked myself into it, there was no way they would deliver in time for the trip. So, I bought a small pack of Luvs at Target in case we need disposables. Though, now that I’ve re-evaluated my fluff inventory, I’m not sure we’ll have to use very many disposables. Fortunately, we’ll be able to do laundry once we get where we’re going. I just wanted to have a disposable option in case we need it while we’re in transit.
So, lessons learned:
1. Start planning at least 3 weeks in advance in case something needs to be ordered and, consequently, delivered.
2. Be mindful of iPod placement while breastfeeding. :)
This is another great sale by Cotton Babies. The Flip system is a hybrid diaper system, which means you can use cloth or disposable inserts with the covers. You don’t need many of the covers because you can remove the soiled insert, wipe out the cover, put in a clean insert, and you’re good to go. Definitely a neat concept. If these had been on sale two weeks ago, I would have been all over it. I was considering the Flip
Click on the link above to check out the clearance sale on Tiny Tush One Size Elite diapers. They are normally $20, but are on sale for $13. Shipping is free! I’m not sure I can pass up this one….
