The Question of the Week  over at Multiples….and More was “What are you best traveling tips?”. I thought  this would be a fun one to participate since we have been traveling by car since they were tiny.

In the beginning it was all about timing with feeds and naps. I would try to schedule our drive right after they ate and while they were usually napping. Sometimes this worked and sometimes it didn’t. There is nothing worse than hearing your baby scream and not be able to reach him because you are driving and the car seat is facing backwards. I invested early on in the mirrors that are installed on the back of the seat so you can see them in the rear view mirror. I placed one in front of each of them. I played music for them, talked to them and as they got bigger gave them toys to hold. Around 7 months we were going on a 4 hour road trip and I knew it was going to be a long one. That is when I first started playing Baby Einstein DVD’s for them in the car. I only put them on when we were going to be driving more than an hour and it made a HUGE difference. We stopped frequently and tried to go with the flow.

Once they turned 1 years old and were able to turn the car seats around traveling became so much easier. I could see them and reach them which made for much happier babies and Mama. The items that became indispensable at that point were the “snack traps’ and board books. I found if I handed them their sippy cup, a snack in their “snack trap” and a book we could go an hour for the most part. I continued to use the DVD’s but graduated to “Baby Signing Time” and “Elmo” at that point. When we are going on a long trip I try to take a trip to the library and get some DVD’s that they’ve never seen before, it helps. We also sang songs and “talked” about what we could see outside.

Today at 2 years old the snack and sippy cup are still a must. We watch “Imagination Movers” and “Little Einsteins” these days and they have a number of toys they like to bring with them. I also have uploaded a number of kids cd’s that have songs they are familiar with and they each have a travel size “mag-na-doodle”  that they enjoy. I find frequent stops are still necessary and I try to have one of the places we visit be an area they can burn off energy. I have found children’s museums and indoor playareas to be great for that.

As for staying places we have stayed both at peoples homes and hotels with little trouble. Up until recently I would bring a pack-n-play for each of them and their favorite blankets. I tried to keep their nap and bedtime routine consistent. Usually they had no problems but a few times ended up in bed with me. Now they have grown out of the pack-n-plays and we have kids “aerobeds” that they really like. They have a lip on the sides of them so they can’t roll off and they came with their own pumps. So far so good with those. I try and pack foods that they are guaranteed to eat and I always bring their milk with us. I find that keeping these things consistent  allows them the ability to be flexible in other areas. Traveling still takes a great deal of planning and packing but I am finding it is getting easier as they get older. One of my goals when they were small was to expose them to lots of travel so they could be flexible as they got older and we would be able to do more things. I would say that is happening for us.