Diary of an Overpacker

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In April we took our first trip as a family of three to Florida.  It was so much fun to have Henry spend time with my aunts, uncles, and cousins and to take him to Disneyworld.  This was Henry's first flight and I was very nervous about being prepared for everything and anything.  We definitely overpacked.  Seriously.  We brought so much stuff.  I'm sure we looked like we were moving to Florida, not just going for four days and three nights.  I've notoriously been an overpacker my whole life but adding a baby to the mix made it much, much worse.

This is the packing list I created in OneNote:

(The asterik is item we packed in our carry-on)

Looking back at the list, we did use most of the items we brought.  We just brought too many of certain things.  These are the things I would bring with my on our next trip:

In addition to the baby staples (diapers, wipes, car seat, etc.), I found these three things the most helpful on our trip and will definitely be packing them again in the future.

Swim Diapers

We borrowed two reusable swim diapers from a friend and they were awesome.  We didn't spend a whole lot of time in the pool, but Henry was much more comfortable in the swim diaper than a regular diaper.  I have since tried disposable swim diapers at our local pool and they work great too.  We did try using a regular diaper once, and it was not very useful.  It immediately absorbed full of pool water and poor little Henry didn't look too comfortable.

Car Seat Bag and Stroller Bag

Ok, so these are technically two items from the lists above, but they're both bags so I can group them together, right?  The car seat bag we have is amazing. It works for both infant carriers and convertible car seats and has a lot of extra room for you to pack other items.  It also has backpack straps to make it easy to carry from the parking lot to the terminal.  This stroller bag is made especially for our stroller and protects the stroller from the manhandling bags go through when they are checked.  We did bring our stroller through security (more on that here), and packed up the stroller in the travel bag at the gate to be plane side checked.  A huge bonus with this stroller and bag is that UppaBaby has a travel warranty and if the airline damages your stroller UppaBaby will replace it.  

Ergo

I love my Ergo 360 and use it all the time.  It seems to be the best way for us to get things done around the house on the weekends, but it was also great for travelling.  I wore Henry onto the plane in the Ergo, which was awesome because I still had my hands free.  We also used it at DisneyWorld when we would go on rides with Henry.

Looking back on all of the things that we brought to Florida, I feel like I must have thought we were going to the middle of nowhere instead of Orlando.  Orlando has Targets.  In fact there was one less than ten minutes from our hotel, and I definitely could have made a quick trip for anything we would have forgotten. 

Clothes

I know that Henry definitely needed clothes on our vacation (even though he is super cute rolling around in just his diaper).  But, I brought way too many clothes.  We did not need five sets of jammies for three nights.  We did not need seven outfits for four days (and I actually ended up packing closer to twelve).  Next time I will bring one outfit for each day and one extra outfit just in case.  If he manages to go through all of his clothes before it is time to go home, I will just run to Target.  Who doesn't love a Target run?

Blankets

I had originally packed blankets because I wanted Henry to have something to lay on if he wanted to play on the floor.  The hotel room floor didn't seem too clean to me, so I never ended up letting him play on the floor anyway.  If he wasn't in someone's arms, he was in the pack 'n' play.  Next time I will only bring one blanket (if any).

Have you traveled with your baby yet?  What are some of the things you packed that you couldn't live without?