Traveling with Baby Part III - Top 5 "I wish I hads"

OK - last part for this topic!

Top 5 things I wish I had...

1. More wipes - at home we use cloth wipes and I didn't realize HOW MANY disposal wipes it takes to clean a dirty bum that it does cloth wipes! We had to go to the Dominican version of Wal-Mart for more!!

2. More Cheerios/Puffs - crabby baby loves these... plus they are great if you can't get regular food right away. We should have brought a whole box!

3. Clothes for the ride home - yes, I forgot clothes for the way home. I had no long sleeves or warm things and we went from 85 degrees to 0! I ended up spending $30 on PJs in the airport!

4. A day/evening flight rather than early morning - for our trip down we had to wake up at 3:30 am... this majorly screwed up Lacey (she never went back to sleep till nearly 10am and was miserable all day). It was much easier to have her up later and fall asleep on the way home than it was to wake her up early.

5. Laundry detergent - luckily my mom brought a little bit... we were able to wash Lacey's diaper covers in the bathtub along with other small items rather than paying for laundry services.

Traveling with Baby Part II - Top 5 Packs (but didn't need)

Top 5 things we packed and never used...

1. Clothes, clothes, clothes... we just packed way to many clothes and really she just ended up being in her diaper and a top most of the time!

2. Diapers... we packed too many! I had nearly 20 extra (but we left them for the maids to take to their families).

3. Fruit cups & other misc. food - we didn't know what type of food the resort would have so we brought a bunch of fruit cups and baby good. Well, she ended up preferring the fresh buffet fruit and foods. We also donated our leftovers to the maids since Lacey didn't eat it.

4. Changing supplies - I packed a diaper bag and travel changing pad/case thing... too many unneeded accessories. We really just needed the diapers and wipes!

5. Burp clothes & bibs - I don't think we used them once. It was so warm we just let Lacey eat topless (!) and wiped her down afterwords!

Traveling with Baby Part I - Top 10 Favorites!

Since we just got back from our first major trip with Lacey, I thought I'd do a post on "traveling with baby" and how we managed and what we brought along that we needed and didn't need.

(FYI - Lacey was just shy of 10 months old for this trip).

Here is my top 10 favorite things we packed for the baby:

1. TWO sets of Grandparents! (He he he...)

2. Graco metro light stroller... we went back and forth multiple times on whether or not to bring this (our big stroller) versus and umbrella stroller. Ultimately we went with the bigger stroller and are SOOOO glad we did. It really makes traveling through the airport so much easier (you can put all of your luggage on it!) as well as it creates a great napping place for the baby (the back reclines flat).

3. Babyhawk Mae Tai - this is my new favorite carrier! Lacey has just gotten too big for the Moby Wrap so we've upgraded. We used the wrap to go through airport security (remember all of our luggage was on the stroller!) for the airplane (she napped in it for almost 2 hours while I sat hands free), around the resort, on the beach... everywhere!

4. Eddie Bauer Booster seat - I purchased this the day before we left because I found it for $20 at BJ's and figured "what the heck". Well it was awesome! We never found a chair that it didn't work with and Lacey loved being able to sit at a real table. It's very small and easy to wipe clean!

5. Pack and play - we were able to fold up and put our pack and play inside our largest suitcase so that we wouldn't have to check it and pay extra money. We loved having the pack and play because it ensured us that Lacey would have a safe sleeping and play place. At night she slept great in it (maybe because she sleeps in it at home though?) and we also brought it by the pool and on the beach!

6. Flip Diapers and disposable inserts - I'll post more about these another time, but they were are diaper of choice. It made my happy to still partially cloth diaper while on vacation and keep our baby free of chemicals and bad things for the earth! I LOVE, love, love the covers... the inserts... egh... they are just OK.

7. Medela steam bags - it's a good thing that I packed a few of these because it ended up being the only way to clean my bottles and pump parts! The tap water was not suitable for drinking, much less cleaning bottles and it would be a pain to use the filtered water (plus it wasn't hot). These saved the day!

8. Puffs and Cheerios - these are our solution to a crabby baby! It was too bad that we ran out with two days left!

9. Snuggles - we brought along Lacey's blanket, bear lovey and glow worm (the things she sleeps with at home). They seemed to really help her settled down on the plane and at nap time.

10. PJs - perfect for traveling! Lacey wore PJs on the way there and on the way home. Even though we were going to a warm place, the plane and airport were cold. Who wouldn't want to be comfy in the plane?

Winter Break!

This past week we went on a nice little family getaway to Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic!

First off, we spent most of our time right at this pool. In fact, we had one of those rooms you can see in the back of the pic. We literally walked 20 feet outside our patio to the pool... it was heaven!

Lacey was a little fish! She LOVED swimming in the pool and splashing!

Since we had TWO sets of grandparents come with us on the trip, we did get a little time to ourselves... it was nice.

Three generations! I wish Lacey would have looked at the camera instead of playing with my necklace :p

On the trip, Lacey learned what CHEESE means... probably because I took a ridiculous amount of pictures of her!!!

I have more photos on Facebook and even more on my hard drive :)

Overall the trip was very relaxing. We did a whole lot of sitting by the pool - Lacey was an angel and was content with either napping, floating in the pool or playing in her pack 'n play next to the pool. We only have a few rough moments!

Unfortunately the 2nd last day we were there Lacey got some sort of allergic reaction. She got a huge rash, her eyes were all swollen and she got a cough. She is doing better but still has some side effects. The Dr. checked her out today and said it definitely looked like an allergy to something, but that she is doing ok.

We did take a few hours to go on a town tour and visit a rum factory. It made me sad to see the living conditions in this country... and worse yet that right next door they are even worse. At the end of the trip we donated all of our remaining $, diapers and toiletries to the people working at the resort.

Our resort was the Occidental Playa Dorada... it was ok. Since we got an amazing deal I really can't complain! We liked the all inclusive because there were no hidden costs (ok, except in all the jewelry I bought from vendors on the beach) however we did not find the service and food to be as great as on a cruise. I think Brian and I both agreed that our next vacation (January 2012?) will probably be back to a cruise!