BABY Roadtrips

Olive has traveled somewhere north of 6,000 miles since she was born just 5 months ago.  She's done GREAT and seems to enjoy our family road trips.  Well, she doesn't know any different and I'm sure she thinks long car rides are the norm.  We plan to keep it that way :).  She's sleeping less and less in the car as she gets older but the road noise still does an amazing job of lulling her to sleep.  

When we travel, I do the following things to ensure we are ALL happy travelers.

1. Bring one bag with her favorite toys, board books and extra batteries.  Her glow sea horse is a must if we are traveling at night because she wants to see what's going on and gets mad if she's awake in the dark.  I also have a flashlight app on my phone that I can use too.

2. Bring several snuggly blankets.

3. Pack several pacis.

4. Dress Olive in something comfy/pjs.

5. Bring extra outfits.

6. Load up her diaper bag with the usual items and make sure it's easily accessible to me.

7. I usually ride in the back with her - which is something I didn't think I'd ever do - but it keeps our stops down to a minimum and I can help maintain a nice level of happy for everyone.  I found that if she is out cold then I can move up front but it makes me car sick to keep turning around and trying to get her paci, feed her, etc.  Plus, I basically dislocate my shoulder while trying to keep her happy and then I'm a grouch.  So, really this set up is best for everyone.

8.  Feed her bottles on the go.

9. We stop every few hours to change her diaper, burp her and give her a chance to stretch.  Plus we usually stop for gas, coffee and/or a quick bite to eat.  It seems like we only eat at McDonalds when we travel.  I guess the consistency is nice, they are open late and sometimes fast food just tastes good.

10. I pack snacks for the grown ups and Kevin keeps them up front so that he can easily reach them.  That way we don't have to do a lot of passing things back and forth.

11. We also take baby selfies, talk about all of the sights we are driving through and make some great road trip play lists to pass the time.

 12. We mapquest round trip directions in advance, print out a hard copy along with having the maps on our phones and bring car cell phone chargers for both of our phones.  This step is crucial to keeping the adults on the trip happy.

13. Make sure to give her plenty of down time once we arrive where she can play and stretch out.

We are looking forward to many more road trips so I will have to share what works best for kiddo travels as Olive gets older.