I’ve heard and seen how much new parents bring on road trips for their baby. I made a special point to not be one of those that bring everything they practically own (my attempt is seen in the photo below).  I wanted to be prepared, but bring the minimum!

Thursday night before our trip I had the list in my head and began piling all the necessitates on my bed. I already prearranged to borrow certain things from my sister in Ohio (the big things).

My son and I woke around 4:30 a.m. and did our feeding routine. I put him down for a quick cat nap while I showered, ate, and finished cleaning the apartment. My husband got the car and we were on the road by 7:15 a.m. My son had never taken a paci before (the hospital I gave birth at made the suggestion), but I packed one just in case. Naturally, he began to fuss as soon as we got into the car, but then something happened…he took the paci and fell into a deep sleep! The sleep lasted till around 9:30 a.m., when we stopped for his feeding. We found a Panera Bread with clean outdoor seating that was perfect to nurse my son and grab a bite to eat. We sat next to a family with six kids under the age of eight. It didn’t take long for us to decide that we wanted to wait awhile before having another baby.

Back on the road again he resumed his sleep, while my husband did business calls and I answered e-mails. We stopped two other times, once to nurse again around 1:00 p.m. and another for a bathroom break before arriving at my parents house at 4:30 p.m. We didn’t make great timing like we used to, but I’ll take a no-cry ride with an extra two hours of travel any day!

Written by our Founder & CEO, and new mom, Lindsay Bell!