Baby’s First Road Trip

Since we’ve always had family several hundred miles away, each of our babies have been in the car and on the road within the first few months of being born. Here are a few things we’ve learned along the way:

1.) Plan to stop. A lot. You’re not stopping only for five minute bathroom-and-gas-up breaks anymore. You’re going to have to stop to feed them. And stop to find the dropped binky. And stop to let them get out and wiggle around. You’re just going to do lots of stopping. Enjoy the journey and give up trying to be somewhere quickly…it’ll save you a lot of mental energy.

2.) Have something new. If your baby’s old enough to play with toys, have a few new toys for them. If they’re too little for toys, have some new music for them to listen to. Even at a wee young age, my babies always loved music sung by children. We had two go-to songs that we’d play on a loop for hours because it always calmed them down (drove us crazy. But it was better than hours of crying babies.)

3.) Put diapers, wipes, and a change of clothes somewhere accessible. When you’re packing the car, it’s easy to fit things in, Tetris-like, wherever they fit best. Make sure you leave the diaper bag…or at least a change of clothes and extra diapers…somewhere on top. You don’t want to be hunting for diapers. And bring some plastic bags for dirty clothes.

For more tips for road trips, check out this post…and this one…and check out my Road Trip Printable Journal Pages for older kids.

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