Ok ladies, this post is for all you mamas and mamas-to-be out there! I’ve taken two road trips with Ayla so far, one when she was five weeks old and the other when she was seven weeks old, and I’ve come to realize there are certain items you don’t want to leave the house without, because a road trip with a newborn is no. joke. Seriously, I’m about to leave in the next couple days for road trip numero tres, and you better believe I will be bringing ALL of these items with me this time!

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My first road trip with Ayla was super great. We went and surprised my parents for the weekend and we did pretty good. Ayla slept most of the way down (always leave in the morning, that way you have all afternoon for baby to adjust to being somewhere new before bedtime) and the weather was beautiful. You know those perfect fall days where the sun is shining, it’s 70 degrees outside and you notice how amazing all the trees look? Yeah, it was one of those days. THEN we got to my parents and I realized 1.) where was she gonna sleep? and 2.) how the heck was I going to give her a bath???

Second trip rolls along and we’re headed to Pullman to visit my husband’s parents. I’m feeling pretty #supermom cause I actually brought my pump equipment so I was going to get to go out on the town. Only to realize I didn’t pack enough clothes for Ayla (or myself) and she had to wear poopy pants.

Hence, the list.

10 Items You Need for a Road Trip with a Newborn

1. Bassinet mattress and sheet – you don’t need to worry about packing up the whole bassinet. If you just bring the mattress and sheet you can stick it in a drawer and voila, makeshift bassinet.
2. Extra, extra, EXTRA swaddles and onesies – did you read the part above about poopy pants? If so, then this should be pretty self explanatory.
3. Diapers and wipes – cause duh, babies poop a lot, we’ve been over this. Plus, who wants buy them on the road? Or worse yet, be stuck on the road without them??
4. Stroller – we went back and forth about whether we’d actually need this on our road trips. Turns out we did so THANK GOODNESS we brought it. Car seats are heavy.
5. Baby carrier – I have a weird fear of Ayla getting a flat head, so I try and carry her in this harness thing. It works pretty well and she actually loves it!
6. Portable white noise machine – lots of babies sleep better with some background noise and I actually forgot our white noise owl on my first road trip. I tried downloading an app on my phone and just using that, but then I couldn’t use my phone starting at 7:00pm…so I ended up grabbing this travel sized white noise owl and I LOVE IT. It’s a life savor for sure.
7. Car seat mirror – trust me, if you’re in the front seat and all of a sudden your baby starts crying, gets too quiet, or gags on her own saliva, you’re gonna want to be able to check what’s going on back there. Save yourself the stress and just get one to keep in the car.
8. Grip water/gas drops – gripe water is great at getting rid of hiccups and the gas drops come in really handy if you’re baby has trouble with gas pains. Both are two things I have on hand at all times.
9. Bath lounger – you may not feel like you need this one but I love having it for Ayla’s bath time. It’s so much easier to use this than to try and hold her while she’s all slippery and struggling.
10. Individually wrapped nipples – these are great because they fit right on the bottles that come with most pumps. Plus they’re individually wrapped so you can just pop one out when you need it and it’s already sterilized and ready for use!

Taking all these 10 items definitely makes for a packed car, but it also makes for a much easier and less stressful road trip with a newborn. What do you guys think though? Are there any items I missed? Let me know in the comments, and wish me luck on my upcoming trip!

xo,

B

Photos taken by Rachel Cossette Photography and edited by Brittany Nicole