Baby Travel Tips

After spending seven days traveling with a baby, I have all sorts of tips running through my head. Even though, admittedly, it may have been too early to do a real vacation, these are the things that worked for us and kept us sane.

1. Stay on baby's schedule as much as possible. Sounds like a no-brainer but we tried to spend afternoons in our hotel for quality nap time and always tried to get back again for an on-time bedtime routine. This often meant meals "to go" or eating dinner very early. Once we were in a different time zone, I still kept the baby on Central Time because I didn't want our week away to throw off our bedtime or wake up time once we were home.

2. Keep it simple. We only planned one or two things every day so that we weren't over doing it. This helped to keep Claudia from getting too worn out and too overstimulated.

3. Pack items to make life easier. Buy things that you wouldn't normally to simplify your trip. For example, we brought disposable plastic spoons and disposable paper bibs with us for meal time. I would never dream of using disposables at home but on the road, it was necessary to make things easier. Also, once we went to Mackinac Island and didn't have a car, we didn't want to pack around anything unnecessary so instead of bringing formula, bottled water and bottles, I brought pre-mixed "to go" bottles of formula to simplify life for those couple of days.

4. Have a weather plan. It rained several times while we were gone and since we were using our stroller so much, the rain canopy for the stroller was a life-saver. I remember thinking while I was pregnant that if it was raining, I probably wouldn't have the baby out in the stroller so why would the canopy be necessary? It was definitely necessary for us on this trip. One minute it was fine and the next minute raining. We never had to miss out because Claudia was always dry and happy.

What are your baby travel tips? Any recommendations or anything we are missing for next time?