Thursday, May 30, 2013

Packing For A Weekend Away With Baby

Echo likes to help pack
This weekend I will be photographing a wedding out of town and the lovely bride I am working with was kind enough to invite my husband and baby to the wedding as well so I don't have to be away from them! Since becoming a parent packing has turned in to a 2 day event, I miss the days when I just threw a few clean pairs of underwear in a backpack and took off! Here is a list of what I'm packing for baby Echo. Hopefully it will prove helpful for those of you who will be traveling with your little ones in the near future. 



1. Travel baby shampoo and a little washcloth. This is for Echo's nightly bath. We started doing these in an effort to get her to sleep more. She has been a really bad sleeper from about 4 months to now (8 months) but over the past week she has been sleeping better and better! I don't know if it's the baths or the fact that she recently started crawling but I don't want to take any chances and mess things up now that she's finally sleeping through the night. Therefore we will continue nightly baths while we're on our trip.

2. Swaddle blanket. Another sleep aid that we can't do without. I know it's unusual for an 8 month old to be swaddled at night but my daughter CAN'T sleep without it! I asked the pediatrician and she said I can swaddle her for as long as I want as long as it helps her sleep. So for my own well being the swaddling will continue for as long as possible.

3. Sippy cup. Echo just loves her sippy cup, it has a fun rubbery tip that she likes to chew on and drinking water in the car helps to keep her from fussing.

4. Plenty of toys. Again, this is to entertain her in the car. We will only be going 3 and half hours away but she does not like being restrained in her car seat so the toys will help distract her (we hope).

5. Snacks! I have this great set of bowls with suction cup bottoms (making them impossible to tip over) and lids that I use for packing all her snacks. This bowl contains chopped watermelon. I'll also be packing bowls of sweet potato and mango, some of her current favorite solid foods.

6. Books. Echo is finally at the age where she enjoys looking at books instead of chewing on them (although she still likes to taste them too!). Her favorites are the kind that have different textures in them, she enjoys feeling the different pages, especially the furry ones.

7. A big blanket to play on. Echo is a crawling machine these days and wants to have lots of space to move around. There aren't a lot of great places to crawl at rest areas of roadside gas stations so I wanted to have a portable area she could move around on and stretch her legs. This lovely quilt is a baby gift from my friend Maru over at Mursaki Creates  and it is both beautiful and durable.

8. Lots of clothes. This time I packed some dresses for the rehearsal dinner and  wedding she will be attending but I also packed lots of play clothes since I know she won't want to wear the dresses for long. Sadly since she started crawling dresses are pretty much a no go but she looks so cute in them that I want her to wear one at least for a little bit. Also since she is eating so many solid foods now her outfits get dirty quickly. Lots of outfit changes might be a necessity.

Not pictured are plenty of diapers, wipes and pacifiers. You know, the obvious stuff.

Echo isn't too sure about this whole road trip thing
I'm so very excited about the wedding this weekend and hopefully Echo will think the car trip is worth it once she gets to try the wedding cake :-)

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