Guest Post: Road trip with a baby under 3 months old

Road trips are meant to be fun right? 

I personally love taking them every chance I get. I like packing up, wearing my sunglasses and singing songs on the highway like I’m the artist on stage while driving to my destination. It was all so simple before our daughter Juliette was born. Now I try my best to plan it all out before hitting the road. Our first road trip as a family was to Atlanta, GA luckily for us Nashville, TN is only 4 hours away by car. I must admit I was a bit nervous to take our 3 month old on a road trip, but she really enjoys car rides. We decided to leave early in the morning to beat the morning traffic here in Nashville and arrive before the after work rush home from the Atlanta drivers.

I nursed Juliette at 5:30am then got her changed into a clean diaper. I dressed her in a sleep and play onesie to make sure she would be comfortable. This outfit also helped make diaper changes on the road swift. Afterwards, I checked her diaper bag to make sure I didn’t leave anything out while my husband loaded our luggage in the trunk. Anytime we head out the house I always make sure Juliette has her 3 favourite items a soft blanket, a WabbaNub and her lovie. Juliette’s lovie is a small bunny with a tiny security blanket attached. I tend to keep them in her car seat so we don’t have to go on a wild goose chase searching for them. She loves holding them all while traveling in her car seat.

An hour later it was finally time to hit the road. My husband Johnathan loves to drive and I sat in the back with Juliette. We closed our eyes and prayed for safe travels and opened them to see we needed to get gas. I highly recommend getting gas the day before. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and was on the highway by 7:00am. Literally, 7 minutes later Juliette was asleep. Two hours later we stopped in Chattanooga, TN to change Juliette’s diaper at a restaurant nearby the exit ramp. I like stopping at a restaurant so I can eat a snack, if needed and nurse her at the same time. After Johnathan got a few good burps from Julie it was time to it the road again.

Once we made it back to the car about 40 minutes had gone by. We also lost an hour because we went from a Central Time to Eastern Time zone. At 3 months, Juliette wasn’t really interested in playing with toys but, she was starting to look out of the windows in the car. While she was awake I pointed out the bridges, lakes and mountains we passed. Before I knew it I was asleep. We made it to our hotel in Atlanta, GA at 1:00pm. After checking in, I changed her diaper and she stretched out across the bed. It was so cute, it was as if she knew she took her first road trip and just wanted to relax! A win for me was planning the trip around her nursing times.

Her next feeding was at 2:00pm so I had plenty of time to unwind a bit myself before nursing. For our next road trip, I will definitely make our breakfast at home and save that money. This road trip went so smooth and I cannot wait for our next one!

SHOP FOR YOUR ROAD TRIP: