Carry-on for Momma

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This time last week I was relaxing on the beach in Hawaii!  Oh how I wish to be back there.  I had technical difficulties while in Hawaii that prevented me from posting while on vacation.  I'll be posting this week all about vacation and some tips for travelling with a baby.  Yesterday I showed you what I packed in my carry-on for Henry. My hands are pretty full when traveling with him, so I like to pack all of our carry-on essentials in one backpack.

Henry loves to play with my everyday necklaces. The sparklier, the better. I thought it would be nice to wear one that I don't mind him pulling on and chewing on. I packed an extra t-shirt for me in my carry-on in case of an epic blow-out, soak through, or spit up. 

Flying makes me dehydrated so I like to bring my own water bottle with me. I drink a full bottle before going through security, fill it up at one of the water bottle fill up stations and drink another full bottle before boarding.  During the in-flight beverage service I ask for two cups of water without ice.  Sometimes the flight attendants will fill up my water bottle for me before we land.  So much water also means lots of trip to the ladies' room, so I tend to be somewhat of an expert on where they can be found.  

I use this wallet as my everyday wallet. I love that it has so many spots for cards, has two zippered pockets inside, and zips closed all the way around so nothing can fall out. It's easy to grab and throw in my diaper bag or work bag. As a travel wallet it is big enough to carry my tickets and I can toss it in my backpack instead of carrying a purse. 

We flew United to Hawaii, which offers a large selection of movies and TV shows to watch through their app during the flight. I love hat I can use my own iPad to catch up on movies I haven't seen and that I can pause the movie if I need to. I watch Inside Out and Aloha on our flights. Inside Out was great! I'd love to buy it for Henry when he is older. Aloha was predictive, yet confusing. Although, I'm not positive I didn't fall asleep during part of it. 

Airplanes tend to be a bit cold for me. I like to wear a fun scarf that I can use to wrap up in. A scarf doesn't take up much room in my backpack either if I don't end up needing to wear it. 

I also brought a bag of toiletries for the plane, including lip balm and lotion. Snacks are also a must. I tried to stick to healthier options at the store, but I couldn't resist the Brookside Farms chocolates. They're dark chocolate and fruit, which makes them healthy, right? 

Carry-on for Baby

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We went to Hawaii last week to visit family and relax a bit. This was our second trip with Henry and it was great to spending some time with him on the beach playing in the sand.  When traveling I like to use a backpack as a diaper bag and carry-on since I can easily wear it on my back while I carry Henry in the Ergo 360 through the airport. I pack diaper changing essentials in a zippered pouch so I don't have to carry the whole backpack with me to the tiny airplane bathroom. I like to bring an Aden and Anis swaddle blanket because they are so versatile.  I can use it as a nursing cover, burp cloth or a blanket if the plane is chilly. Henry's favorite toys are with us too so we can keep him entertained. And, of course, we can't forget his monkey. 

Henry slept most of the flight to Hawaii and the entire time on the way back.  I guess there is a benefit to taking the red-eye.  We were lucky and ended up with an entire row to ourselves, which was awesome because we had more room to spread out.  Henry thought it was so cool to sit on the seat by himself for a little bit while we were at cruising altitude.  I read these tips in preparation for our trip, I found them really helpful, especially number 9. 

Unplugged in Paradise

I had great plans to finish up some blog posts in the morning while sitting on the lanai and enjoying my coffee. Our condo here is beautiful and peaceful, but I can't get my laptop to connect to the wi-fi. Best laid plans, right? So, change of plans, I'm going to sit on the lanai and enjoy my morning coffee while watching the sunrise with Henry. Because he is still on Colorado time and work up at 4 a.m. this morning. 

See what we're up to on our Hawaiian adventure on Instagram. 

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?

It's been a minute...

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Hello! It's been a while! I've been busy with lots of things and blogging ended up on the back burner. We've had a lot going on since we last chatted, here is what's been going on in our little world. 

Henry started crawling. Oh my gosh, so many things have changed in the ten days since he first became mobile. We have run around our house realizing we should have started baby proofing a lot sooner. He has showed us where all of the rogue cords are and is incredibly interested in the dog water. The latter will be a losing battle for me, for sure. He is responding to the word "no" (for now) so that's a positive. I have had a blast watching him figure out how to crawl these past few weeks. 

I discovered Bullet Journals and now I wish I had the time to make beautiful bullet journal pages every day. I've incorporated some of the concepts into my Simplified Planner and I look forward to filling out my stats section each morning. 

We're heading to Hawaii tomorrow to visit Ben's dad. We are really excited to spend some time on the beach in paradise. This week I'll be posting all about travel, so stay tuned!