On Long Car Rides With Babies

I have been kind of MIA lately!  Life has just been a little on the crazy side (in a good way fortunately!) with visiting family in Chicago, working, writing up reviews for This Flourishing Life (ps- if you haven't checked out Erica's blog, you should!  She has some of the yummiest gluten free recipes on the web), parenting, and trying to keep my disaster of a house from collapsing under the weight of the mess.

Ok, so I'm failing at that last one, but hey, no one can have it all.

This past week we ventured back up to Chi-town to visit our families and give them all some Eisley time.  I was a little worried terrified that E would scream her pretty little head off the entirety of our 8 hour car ride, but she did so well!  I suppose it helped that we got on the road around 3:30 am so that she would sleep three or four hours for the first part of our trip, but even after that there was barely any fussing!  Thank the Good Lord.  Seriously.

Here is what I learned about traveling with an infant.

1.  There is no such thing as packing light when you are traveling with a baby.  Pack 'n Plays, toys, food, blankets, clothes, baby carriers, et.  So much for loading our car at our traditional Ikea trip.  No room!  boo!

2.  Bring a lot of toys that your baby has never played with.  It is a lifesaver when they start to get a little fussy.  We got one of these and waited to put it on her car seat until the morning we left.  It was a big hit, and kept Eisley busy for quite a while.  yay!

3.  Be willing to stop.  A lot.  Diapers will still need to be changed, babies will still need to be fed, and little legs will need to be stretched.  Nick and I were all about just pushing it and getting to Chicago quickly before Eisley cam along.  We'd stop to pee, or get some lunch, but that was it.  We had to stop a lot more often with Eisley to keep her happy, and it was fine!  Not a big deal at all.

4.  Cloth diapering on vacation really wasn't hard for us at all!  Granted, we weren't staying at a hotel, and my mother in law was fine with us washing E's dipes at her house, but it was easy peasy!  I was grateful that we have quite a few travel-sized wet-bags, but otherwise we didn't really need to do anything all that differently.

5.  Bring your noise machine.  I don't think Eisley would have napped at all without that thing.  My parent's house is like a petting zoo (my mom rescues injured and abused animals, so there are always foster animals around.  Check it out Dire Straits Animal Rescue) and my in-laws also have a dog.  Not only that, but you just can't expect everyone to tip-toe around like you do in your own house every time you put the baby down for a nap.

6.  If your baby is able to safely munch on snacks on their own, I would highly recommend Baby Mum Mum snacks or something similar.  Eisley was a total mess every time we gave her one of these, but she loved the fact that she was feeding herself, and it kept her totally entertained.

7.  Take lots of photos.  Of course.  Someday I will upload them and brag about all the fun we had.  =)

I think driving 8 hours with E was a little stressful for my hubby, but I didn't think it was all that bad.  It's certainly not what I would cal relaxing, but it also just wasn't as bad as I thought it could be.

Thank goodness.