Traveling with an infant is a trial.
The packing alone is astonishing. We were only out of town for one night, yet I swear I packed half of my house.
Here was my list for overnight with an infant:
– Bottle warmer
– Bottles
– Breast milk supply for 24 hours (I took 40 oz to be safe)
– Small cooler and several ice packs to store the milk. (Before coming home since the ice packs had melted we filled the cooler with hotel ice twice. Once last night and once this morning.)
– Rock and play sleeper. (We co-sleep, but own a king-size bed. I knew our hotel room was a queen and I was worried we wouldn’t fit. We did, though uncomfortably.)
– 4 outfits (just in case
– 1 set pajamas (1 night)
– Diapers (My husband didn’t want to cloth since we’d have to drive 6+ hours with dirty dipes in the car.)
-Wipes
-Bath essentials in case of a blowout
– Wet bag in case of a blowout (He only leaks in disposables!)
– The blanket he uses every night to sleep.
– Binkies.
– Toys.
– Tylenol & Gas drops
All of that was on the list, and I still don’t think I quite named everything I took. For one, I took soooo many diapers. Way too many. At least they are more compact to pack than my fluff stash.
The packing aside, the trip was something else. I posted yesterday about my son being difficult while I tried to pack due to his routine being interrupted. His upset mood continued through the day. What is normally a 2 1/2 hour drive turned into a good 3 1/2 hours (after taking out the time that we spend stopping for dinner). He DID let me eat at the restaurant, but while I waited for our food I changed him and took him for a lengthy walk around the attached gift shop.
My son, who normally enjoys car rides, did not enjoy our ride yesterday. I had to ride in the backseat with him for most of our trip. He only slept for 30 minutes of the ride, and we stopped several times to change barely wet diapers because he refuses to sit in them for any length of time (hopefully he potty trains easy!).
When we arrived at our hotel (finally) he was still upset. It wasn’t the room he knows, the bed he’s slept with us in for the past 8 weeks (we didn’t begin co-sleeping until he was 3 weeks old), and we made the mistake of putting him in his rock-n-play when he initially went to sleep. He woke up 10 minutes later. Our neighboring room was also unfortunately loud. We could hear raucous laughter, banging, and their t.v. for a good portion of the time we were trying to get him to sleep.
After giving up on the sleeper, my husband and I compromised. We gave up having a comfortable amount of sleeping space in order to sleep at all. As a parent, that’s what you do. Or at least, what WE do. We are a perfect example of parents who will and do everything to make our baby comfortable. As attachment parents, or freestyle parents, we believe we aren’t spoiling our baby. He’s only 11 weeks old (tomorrow)! He is incapable of manipulation, he lacks communication. We believe he cried and wanted us because he was in a strange place, in a strange bed. I am okay with giving in, because I believe establishing this trust now will help him trust us later when we say, “Just a minute”. We want him to believe that in a minute help will come.
Our return trip today went much smoother. We made it home in 2 hours, 15 minutes! He slept the whole ride. I believe this is because we established trust yesterday. He knew that we would stop driving, and that Mommy and Daddy were going to hold him, cuddle him, and cover him in kisses.
He woke up allll smiles today!
The Freestyle Momma 