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Many links in this post are affiliate links. If you choose to use them I may make commission off of purchases, thanks for supporting our family if you do.
As baby items are ever changing and updating I tried to include the link to the same or similar as we own.
Please note the info I share in this section is personal experience and not meant to be medical advice or otherwise. Please use proper discretion and take correct safety measures for you and your children if you use any items.
The month of September and October found our family busy traveling. And not just traveling, but road tripping, to be precise. We drove up to the U.P (Upper Peninsual) to go camping, we went down to visit the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum in Kentucky, lots of fun and lots of driving. With a baby around four months old during this time, and in the midst of the trips a toddler who had just finished potty training, we wanted to plan well for the best road trip experience possible.
We have family that lives out of state, so road trips are not foreign us and we have been doing these for many years even before kids. With our son turning three this fall, we feel like we have started to know what some of our favorite traveling items are. We like to keep things as simple as possible, but also include things that will make a big impact for us and the kids.
First up, is a…
We love our Grayco pack and play for many reasons. Not only does it provide a bed for baby or small toddler, but ours also doubles as a changing station. The wheels make for easy moving around the room. And the little shelf on the side of the changing table keeps wipes, diapers, or toys, organized and quick at hand (see picture below). I have even used the bottom for storage when the bed is in the upper position.
Next up is our…
This potty is so awesome and we leave it in our car on the regular-not just for road trips. It folds down flat and can be kept easily in the back of a vehicle. It comes with a little bag to store it in. All you have to do is unfold the potty up onto its’ stand and place a special potty bag over the seat and down into the hole. Mess free – you don’t touch anything.
The liner at the bottom of the potty bag is some special absorbent thing and it’s amazing, and makes for super fast, easy cleanup. The pad on the bottom is so absorbent that I have left a pee bag in the back of my car until we got home from an outing before (actually for a couple days if I’m honest.)
There are many stroller options out there and we actually own a number of strollers, collected through the years. A jogging stroller, umbrella stroller, double stroller-each great for a number of reasons. But the most used and most practical has been our normal car seat stroller.
Why is it our favorite when it comes to travel? It can hold the car seat or a big kid, and it folds with one hand and doesn’t take up much space. When traveling and walking a lot, being able to keep the baby in the car seat is so nice, especially if you’re flying and need to take the car seat with anyways. And when we are in and out of the car a lot being able to fold and put away the stroller often needs to be quick and easy.
I LOVE to baby wear, and just like the stroller scenario, we have a few different options at our house. My current favorite is the Boba Sling Wrap! I’ve been working on healing some ab separation from pregnancy and side wearing (for me) in the sling helps me work on protecting my core.
Secondly, it’s super easy to get on and off quickly.
Thirdly, unlike my other two styles of baby wearing devices, this one can hold toddlers of a certain weight, where the other two are really designed just for babies. So not only can I wear our baby, I can wear our three year old. And why do I like this for traveling? Because it’s just fabric and rings, you can easily stuff it into the diaper bag and have one less thing to carry around! Another item I keep in the diaper bag on the regular.
Now, this one sounds a bit silly, and honestly I almost didn’t keep it as it was a baby shower gift we didn’t register for. But after road tripping to Florida when our son was only 7 weeks old and NOT using it, I’m sure glad we have it, and it now stays in our car-I should have just put it in from the very beginning. We keep ours hooked up right in front of the baby seat, and just take the car seat out and fold it down for quick and easy changes. Because you can leave diapers, wipes, extra underwear in it, I love keeping it stocked and in our car at all times in case the diaper bag runs out of something. Is it necessary, no, but if you are traveling all those extra minutes unloading everything out of the diaper bag and trying to balance the baby on the changing mat on the front drivers’ seat really start to add up in both time and extra energy spent-trust me on this one.
When I was still working while breastfeeding our son, my job was pretty irregular in terms of meetings and even location. I found myself pumping in the car on the go sometimes. I still really like this pump, especially for traveling as it’s so easy to bring along and pump just about anywhere, even in the car. At the time I bought mine it as one of the more affordable wearable pumps. There are now other styles as well, the thing with this one is just watching to not to bump the pump off the collection cup, but the cost difference in this style seems significant, so just keep that in mind when making your decision.
Though this one is pretty basic, I love my nursing covers. I have two different colors, and just swap them out in the diaper bag when it's time to wash one. I use my cover not only for nursing but getting my wearable pump on and off. The hard piece around the opening allows you to prop it and check on baby or even keep it more open, which I appreciate for airflow for baby. I even have used mine on our recent trip to visit the Ark Encounter as a little cover to allow sissy some privacy when she was napping in the sling. I just wore it right on top like I would nursing to allow for air flow the same way and to check on her. She found it quite cozy.
Yes, we take the actual sound machine with us. It wasn’t a conscious “decision” at the time, but our natural style of parenting led us to in effect “sleep train” our children. Our son uses the hatch light to know when it’s time to stay in bed, “red, stay in bed” and get up when it’s green. Sleeping in new places traveling can be harder on everyone especially littles, so having something familiar, the soothing sound they’re used to, and a light to help them know if it’s awake or sleep time help us all in our travels.
Links in this post
All links are affiliate links. If you choose to use them I may make commission off of purchases, thanks for supporting our family if you do.
As baby items are ever changing and updating I tried to include the link to the same or similar as we own.
other styles of Mom Cozy
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