traveling with baby

 
As I posted already this week, my husband and I took a weekend trip to lovely Vermont.  Of course we took baby Clara with us!  Everyone swears that it is so easy to travel with a baby Clara's age (nearly 3 months).

Boy was it an adventure.  It took us nearly 8 hours to make the 5 hour journey to northern Vermont.  The extra hours weren't really anticipated until the actual day of travel was upon us.  I knew I was going to have to breastfeed her - as I don't have the car adapter for my breastpump (in hindsight I should have bought that...doy.)  Well, we'd have to pull over and I'd sit there breastfeeding her for over an hour at a time....my baby is a slow eater at the breast...super slow.  Ridiculously slow. 

Anyway...our car was packed to the brim with items for the little one.  I took exactly the amount of clothes I would need (I usually take an extra outfit or two...just so I have options), plus my purse.  Clara, however, had 7 outfits, 3 pajamas, 5 bibs, 4 burp cloths, 3 pairs of socks, 2 long sleeve jacket options, 2 hats, 3 soothie pacifiers, 1 pack n' play (what she slept in at the hotel), 1 ergo baby carrier, 1 package of diapers, 1 package of wipes, 2 baby blankets, 1 swimsuit, 5 bottles, one package of formula, the bottle sanitizer, one bottle of baby soap, and a hair bow headband.  Add all that to the car seat and her stroller and our teeny tiny baby had more stuff in the car than Tommy and I combined x 5 (or x 10!).   We used almost all of it too - except the swimsuit (which I was bummed about!).  There isn't anything I would have left home either (I insist on changing her clothes immediately after she spits up because it smells RANK...so we go through a lot of onesies).   Actually, we could have used a few more burp cloths...like 10 more burp cloths.  And 5 more bottles (but the bottle sanitizer worked fine in the hotel...we use it a gazillions times daily here at home...it was just incredibly bulky to travel with.)

My mom laughed at me when I told her all the "stuff" we took with us.  She said eventually we will travel with little more than an extra diaper for her.  I'm dubious...but hopeful.

Thankfully, our little one was an angel over the weekend.  We held her in fancy restaurants with not so much as a whimper...took to to view breweries and farm shops and she just hung out in the Ergo baby carrier with no problems and no fussy fits.  *Sigh*  She is such a dream.  Poor thing only started getting stir crazy in the last 2 hours on the way home - and we decided that driving with a screaming baby in the car is pretty much hell on Earth. 

*I snapped these pictures of her while in Vermont...there are roughly 25 more.  I'm nearly out of control.