5 Things You Need on a Road Trip With a Toddler

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Well hello everyone and welcome back to my little blog!

Today I am going to start a baby series. These are the things I wish someone had shared with me when I asked for advice on the days I truly didn’t know what to do as a new mom. Some of these things will be centered around my experience with a complicated pregnancy and birth, NICU stay, and having a tiny baby who needed some extra help in the beginning. So if you aren’t interested in posts about babies and toddlers, don’t worry I have tons of other content that has nothing to do with tiny humans. 

Alright, let’s jump right into it!

Today I am going to share the five things that have kept me and my now toddler sane whenever we go on a road trip.

A Travel Crib
The number one thing you need for an overnight trip is a travel crib or pack and play. Even if your baby or toddler isn’t sleeping in their own bed yet, you need somewhere safe to put them down. The last thing you want is for Baby to roll off the couch or bed when you’re just trying to brush your teeth or find your deodorant. 

Also public floors are probably super disgusting. You never know how well the room was cleaned before you got there and will probably feel so much better if Baby has their own place to hang out so they aren’t trying to crawl around or trying do Tummy Time on a floor that at best can be described as suspicious and gross. 

This isn’t an affiliate link, but you need a good travel crib that won’t break your vacation budget, I have used this Graco one for two years. I have used it on every trip I’ve been on with our daughter and it is super easy to assemble and safe for Baby, so its pretty much perfect.

Infant Tylenol
This is so important! You never know when your little buddy is going to get a fever or start working on a new tooth. The last thing you want to do is forget the Tylenol and have a screaming infant or toddler. This is especially true if you are staying in a hotel. Some hotels actually have quiet hours and even if they don’t, you’ll probably want to be as courteous as possible to the other guests who are most likely there to recharge not be bothered by an upset baby. 

Also if you are driving when Baby starts to not feel well, please remember that a distracted driver is a dangerous driver. You could literally put your whole family and others in danger if you try to tend to your child while you are driving, so make sure you can pull over safely before you start helping your little one.

More Clothes Than You Think You’ll Need
This is probably the most obvious thing I will ever put into writing because if you’re a parent you probably already know that babies and kids are incredibly messy. There will be blowouts, your child will be wearing most of their food any time they eat anything, kids get sick when you least expect it, and let’s not forget about the potty training accidents. So just bring all the clothes you possibly can for Baby and yourself because somehow parents seem to end up nearly as messy as their kids. 

Teethers/Car Toys
It doesn’t matter how old your children are, when you’re on the road you will need age appropriate toys and activities. If you have younger kids, they will need something besides their hands and their older brother’s shoes to chew on and if you have older kids they will only be able to peacefully play car games like “I Spy”, “The Silent Game”, and “See How Many Telephone Poles You Can Count” before they start playing “Slug Bug” which every parent knows will eventually turn into punching each other as hard as they can. So to spare your kids their arms and keep the morale in the car up until you get to Grandma’s house which is still about 200 hours away, bring car toys that can’t be used as missiles and maybe even a tablet so they can watch Frozen…again.

Breastmilk Storage/Premixed Formula
This one is especially important for the Mamas who are still breast feeding or using formula to primarily feed their tiny humans. I remember our first road trip with little Holly. She was two weeks old and had just been discharged from the NICU. We were literally just driving home from the hospital and it was over two hours away.

I knew I was going to need to pump because I was on a two hour schedule and my milk had just come in so your girl was about to explode all the time. Our daughter was on a three hour feeding schedule so I knew she would need to be fed the second we got home, and even though it wasn’t the most modest choice I really had no choice but to pump in the car.

After I pumped, I had all this fresh breast milk and nowhere to put it bottle because my storage bags were packed in my suitcase. Now if you know anything about breastmilk, you know that you kind of have to throw it away if its been unrefrigerated after four hours which I did because by the time we had gotten everything unloaded from the car it was all expired. So to prevent pouring it all down the drain when you get to your destination, make sure everything you need to pump is easily accessible including storage bags and a cooler with ice.

After we switched to formula I had a different problem which was trying to measure out exactly 4 oz of water while we went around a corner and then trying to get exactly 2 scoops of formula into a bottle that seemed to have a shrinking mouth while going through an unexpected construction zone. It went so terribly that I have never tried it ever again. Now when I just grab some premixed formula simply because it is so much easier and less messy. 

And that’s all I have for you for this post!

Thank you for joining me today!

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