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Back from Vacation!!! - Thoughts and Tips for Road Trips!
We had a GREAT time. We spent two nights at a luxury resort on the beach outside of Portland (I grew up outside Portland) - so nice!! Weather was high 60s and sunny - so gorgeous! We ate great seafood, played on the beach, and walked/played on the piers. So fun.
We were then supposed to spend 2 nights in Bar Harbor- but it became one night. It was pouring rain and was expected to do it the following day as well. Plus, being 3 hours north of Portland- it meant an even longer car ride on Monday. How did I not think that through? I'm such a planner that I can't believe that didn't compute. Stupid. So we decided to cut our losses, left after one night (we had to pay for the second night but decided it was worth it to save the vacation!) and booked a night in downtown Freeport- had a great time outlet shopping and eating- perfect place during the rain- you can spend hours in LL Bean if need be!
Here are some tips/thoughts from the trip:
1. We woke the girls up 2 hours early to leave. This helped them to catnap a bit for the first couple hours of the trip. They napped on schedule later in the morning in the car. We stopped twice at their normal meal times so they could walk/crawl around- brought a blanket so we could throw it on the ground. Brought the booster seats so they could eat on the blanket. The trip is normally 6.5 hours with some traffic. We did it in 7.5 hours because we hit no traffic at all- a miracle!
2. Think through good car snacks. We brought string cheese, whole wheat bread, and mum mums (which they don't eat normally anymore but are great for the car). Things they can hold on their own and munch on and relatively easy clean up.
3. If you have/can borrow a car DVD player - do it. We have one- but we only hooked it up when necessary. On the way there we only used it the last hour of the trip. I brought Baby Einstein and Sesame Street 40 Years of Sunny Days (I love this DVD set- it's musical skits from 1969-2009. It has all the skits I grew up watching in the 80s!). We brought lots of touch and feel books (they LOVE them and they are a great car item), small toys, etc. that kept them occupied.
4. Keeping the girls on a schedule their whole life only helped traveling! Their bodies knew when to sleep and eat, and it was no big deal to work with those times since we knew what to expect. Oh and for napping in the car, we would blast the air in the car for the sound, and we'd put on the Baby Einstein music wake/goodnight that we have. The goodnight tracks are calming.
5. Keeping the girls on a bedtime routine helped with traveling also. They get a seahorse, buddy, paci every night in their crib. It helped to put those same things in the PNPs - it signaled bed time.
6. We stayed in suites. The girls slept in the living room area, and DH and I had the bedroom. It was perfect. At the beach resort, we snuck creeped past the living room after they fell asleep to go to the patio and enjoy some wine.
7. Be flexible enough to change your vacation plans if need be. We would have been miserable in Bar Harbor in the pouring rain and it was too big a drive to take on Monday - especially when we would have been hotel bound the whole two days prior. We had to eat the cost of the second night in the hotel we left- but it was worth it. It saved the vacation!
8. Pacifier clips are great. I got some at BRU and clipped them to their sweaters. No need to search for pacifiers- they could have them whenever they needed.
All in all it went better than we could have expected. It was a good lesson learned not to take on too much though. We should have stayed in one location for 4 nights - or at least in the same area and not tried to tack on another car trip. But we corrected the mistake, so all was good!
Here comes Baby #3!
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Re: Back from Vacation!!! - Thoughts and Tips for Road Trips!
Thanks for sharing your experience, I am already stressing about a 12 hours roadtrip we are taking in December to spend some holiday season time with my dad! Mine will be a few weeks younger than yours and I am guessing with stopping it will end up being a 15 hour plus drive.
Thanks again for the tips and glad you had a great time!
THANK YOU!!! We are taking an 8-hour one-way car trip in July and I have been sweating it bad. They are SO used to a routine and have never ever slept anywhere other than their crib (or PNP the first 5 weeks). We are already planning on getting the DVD players. Glad to hear they helped.
I also already started them on a blankie in their cribs and of course the seahorse they have used their whole lives. 
I am still really nervous about how they will sleep in PNPs in a rental house for a week. We'll see.....
After 2 rounds of IVF & 2 rounds of FET, we were blessed with identical twin girls!
The fact that you will be in one place for a week will really help. We go to our lakehouse in Maine every year for a week and did it when the girls were 9 weeks old, and will do it again this summer. Being in one environment means less to get used to. I'm sure they'll do great.
What an awesome trip! I especially like the part about you and DH sipping wine outside while the girls slept. Sounds incredible!
Do you think that the girls being older helped? Could you have done this (with the same success) when they were younger?
We traveled to our lakehouse for a week when they were 9 weeks old. It was a great car trip both ways- and at the house my familly was there to chip in and help with the baby care.
This particular trip I could have done with them when they were probably 9 months and up. I say this because at 9 months they were taking 2 set naps a day, and eating 3 meals a day and 3 bottles a day. So it was easy to get out and around to various places- they could sit at high chairs in restaurants, etc.
Thanks for the tips! We are going on vacation at the end of June and have a probably 7-8 hour drive (if not more) and I have blocked it out of my mind so I don't have to think about the logistics of it. Good plan, right?
So, question about the DVD players. I guess I don't understand how you set it up when your kids are rear facing. I could see if they were forward facing, you could put it on the center console or something but how did you set yours up so they could both see it?
ETA: I should probably clarify my question. I meant to say, if you only have one monitor, how did you set it up? I have seen ones that have dual monitors that you can mount on the headrests on each side but I don't get what you do if you only have one monitor that you want to put in the middle so that they can both see. Is that what you did? If so, how did you work it? Thanks!!
DH rigged it up. I call him MacGyver. But I also call him "Safety First." He rigged it up where we were comfortable with its security.
BFP #2 10/13/2009 on our 2nd Wedding Anniversary
Discovered TWINS during the 6w u/s - what a shocker!
Delivered on 5/19/2010 at 34 weeks due to pre-e and HELLP syndrome
The Bump MoM Recipe Collection
Oh good! It's really awesome- I LOVE it. We watched Sesame Street a lot growing up, so it's fun for me to watch with them. Amazing what your brain retains...some of the skits came on and I started singing along without even realizing!!
Thanks, my husband is also a MacGyver but not always the "safety first" kind. ;)Good to know though, thanks!!