Traveling with a baby

…Was so much more complicated than I had envisioned in my non-mom days.  Or did I just make it complicated?  Originally, Guy was supposed to come with us but after packing the car I realized he wouldn’t have fit.  And I drive an SUV. 

Maybe I should have down-sized, but there was nothing packed in that car that I didn’t use.  In fact, I didn’t even pack enough clothes for Brady and had to go buy more diapers.  For myself I only had one, small, travel suitcase and my camera bag.  For Brady I packed:

-2 diaper bags with all the basics
-car seat
-stroller
-travel swing
-breast pump
-gallon of nursery water

In order to get my non-car riding baby to cooperate on a 2.5 hour road trip I did the following:

-got everything ready to roll early and waited for him to show signs of getting sleepy – no scheduled time to leave
-when he started to get tired I filled his belly with 6 oz. of formula (yes, I said formula, more on that later.)
-after he was done and had burped I quickly got him in the car and he was asleep within minutes

On the trip there he slept the entire time and I even had to wake him up to pull him out of his car seat once we arrived.  The long nap was great for him, he doesn’t usually take long naps like that.  On the way home I followed the same plan but unfortunately couldn’t go without stopping at a restroom.  Of course he woke up but I got him settled again and back in the car, but 10 minutes later he filled up his diaper and we had to stop again.  But we made it home and I definitely considered it a successful drive.