Travel Travails

So a couple of weeks ago I left my new-mom cocoon and took Ian on his first big trip. We decided to accompany Paul (a.k.a. Daddy) on a business trip to Texas.

However, I was terrified. What if I forgot something? What if Ian got sick? What if I refused to get on the plane because I’m scared of flying Ian had a hard time on the plane?

As I mentioned over at Finn’s blog, I decided to do a practice run first. I took Ian on a grand expedition 30 minutes away to my parents’ house so we could practice being away from home. That was a great way to see how he slept in a different place AND to see what I would most likely forget. That was very helpful; more than anything, it helped my nerves to do that practice run.

Experienced momma Nancy also sent me her packing list, and I gleaned an especially useful item from there — ziploc bags! In fact, I decided I didn’t have enough ziploc bags on the trip and ended up buying more, but I was very thankful that I had seen that item on Nancy’s list and brought a few for starters.

I also followed The Musician’s example and stopped saving the earth for that particular week. Yes, I bit the bullet and used disposable diapers. I’m really glad we made that decision, because I really didn’t want to put baby poop in somebody else’s washing machine. Plus, disposables meant we could pack a few diapers and then buy the rest when we arrived at our destination.

My friend Katie shared a few travel tips as well, and I took her advice on taking (or buying on arrival) the dish soap and laundry soap we used at home so things would smell familiar for Ian.

So….the trip itself…..

I’m writing this now, so you know we survived — but the first few days of our travels were pretty rough. We arrived at our hotel (at 11:45pm due to a delayed flight) and found that our room didn’t have the promised mini-fridge (essential for breastmilk!), so we moved to a mini-fridge room the next day. The day after that we drove a couple of hours to see family, and we stayed with them that night. Then we drove back to our original hotel a day earlier than planned. So we stayed in a different place each of the first four nights. I think Ian was fine, but I was fairly grumpy and sleep-deprived, especially since I got to do most of the packing while Paul was at work.

Also, it turned out that we did forget something — our wonderful stroller, which we left at home in the trunk of our car. Trying to carry a baby through the airport without a stroller but with several large suitcases and a Pack n’ Play is NOT my idea of fun. Incidentally, the next time I stay somewhere without a Pack n’ Play or baby crib, I’ll be tempted to order one of the cheap ones online and have it shipped to my destination. The $60-$70 is totally worth the hassle it prevents, especially considering that we had to pay an extra luggage fee on this trip for having suitcases above the maximum weight. Ordering a Pack n’ Play and taking more, smaller suitcases probably would have saved us $30.

Anyway, frustrated by our lack of strollerness, I decided to get to know the local baby consignment store. While they didn’t have any good deals on strollers, I did find a super-cheap baby carrier that made moving around a little bit easier. Plus, browsing baby stuff was a fun, relatively hassle-free activity to do while Paul was at work.

Once we were able to settle into one place for several days, the trip went smoothly. Ian was a real champ, adapting super-easily to whatever changes came his way. He did wake up crying at least once a night and occasionally during naps — I think it confused him to wake up in a different place, and his schedule got turned around due to dining out, meeting with family, etc. Normally during night awakenings (which are rare these days), we check on the little guy periodically but don’t rock him back to sleep. However, for the sake of our hotel neighbors, we were all about rocking and shushing on this trip! That didn’t seem to form any permanent bad habits. though, and Ian quickly went back to self-soothing after we got home.

With the night wakings and all the other daytime activities, I was a tired cookie by the end of the trip. I remember one night toward the end when I was waiting for Ian to go back to sleep. Paul rolled over in his sleep, and I wanted to turn to him and say, “STOP THAT YOU ARE GOING TO WAKE UP THE BABY DON’T YOU KNOW I NEED SLEEP OH MY GOSH.” Fortunately, my remaining sanity intervened and reminded me that since Paul was asleep, he probably wasn’t doing that on purpose to keep me from getting rest.

One final lesson I learned about travel is to plan for a few recovery days. I expected to be perky and ready to tackle housework the day after we returned, but that was a rather unrealistic expectation. Things got back to normal eventually, though, and I now feel a little braver about venturing out with my little one.

I know some of you have great travel tips, since you gave them to me. Feel free to share your ideas with the rest of us! United we sleep!