As you may be aware, we traversed the 700 miles from Georgia, to Pennsylvania, and then back to Georgia by way of North Carolina at the beginning of the month. We had a great, if exhausting, trip. I was in absolute disbelief about how well Miss Iz did on the trip! I think mommy needed a bit more recuperation than she did afterward, in fact. ;-)
It was great to see everyone back home including most of my cousins! I guess the baby was a big draw because I honestly saw more relatives than I have in probably six or eight years. It's really a strange experience now that I'm a mom, it's like I got an official welcome into the "adult's" club. Not that I wasn't treated like an adult before, but there's a certain level of shared experience after having children that seems to be instantly relate-able to other parents.
I also learned a few things about taking babies on the road. In no order of significance, if you are planning a road trip with a three month old in the near future, you may do well to consider the following:
1. There is nothing more exciting for a baby than to have mom sitting in the back seat with her ready to attend to her every need. That said, it can be so exciting nap time is therefore impossible.
2. Just because your baby might sometimes make it four hours without eating doesn't mean that the best time to test the possibility is one hour outside of your destination. Sometimes it's just better to stop at three hours and feed her as anticipated, or you might have to stop anyway due to a baby meltdown.
3. Even if you don't use them, it's a good idea to have planned stops where you can stay for the night if either you or the baby just can't handle any more road. We didn't end up using ours, but it gave me peace of mind to know they existed.
4. Bring your baby monitors. Even if you're going to be staying in the room with her while she sleeps, you might want to hang out for a while with other adults after she goes to bed.
5. Bring as many things as possible to keep her bedtime routine going during the trip. It was a seamless transition for us because I had been training her to fall asleep with a certain routine and I brought everything to facilitate that.
6. Sometimes baby needs a break from people. It's okay to tell people "no" and to hold her yourself or set her down and let her have some autonomous time.
7. It's a good idea to have some essentials packed in the back seat with you. Diapers, wipes, toys, spit cloths, a change of outfit, toys, and a back-up formula bottle were in my stash. They ALL got used. Although most of this is probably in your diaper bag, a separate stash is nice so you don't have to compromise the contents of your diaper bag which will also be getting heavy use running in and out of rest stops.
That's about all I can think of right now. It really wasn't bad. We only had one car meltdown and the rest of the time she was an angel. I actually think this is a great age for traveling since babies are only used to a little autonomy and aren't bored or frustrated by sitting still so long. =)
