Travelling tips with babies

We love travelling in our house! Well I do at least, Dann does as long it doesn't involve flying or really hot weather. And to be honest Henry doesn't have a choice in the matter, but I'm hoping he develops my love for travel too.

You may have seen that we took a trip up to Leeds a couple of weekends back for the Bloggers Blog Awards. As Henry is still young, it only felt right for him and Dann to come up with me, so we drove up for the weekend.

With that, we learnt a few things about travelling with a little one. Back in the summer, I blogged about car essentials for travelling with little ones, but this time I'm talking about the essentials for the trip, especially overnight with a baby.

Packing for a baby on just a general day out can be a mission all on its own, so packing for a weekend away was always going to be even trickier.

For travelling, we planned around Henry's feeds and naps for the journey. He tends to go down at around 8:30/9am each morning depending on when he wakes up, so we aimed to leave home in time for his first nap of the day. Luckily on our way up to Leeds, he decided he wanted to sleep loads. We planned to stop two hours into our four/five hour journey to feed Henry, ourselves and get Henry out of the car seat for a little while.
We also added a film to Dann's phone and played it for the journey home. This is going to be extra handy when Henry is older as it plugs straight into the car sound system so plays around the car.

I also sat in the back with Henry to help with hand holding and extra bottle feeding before we could pull over. I find it so much less stressful if I know I can get to everything in the back without a problem, especially for longer journeys.

On the way home was a slightly different, and mildly frustrating story, where we had to stop twice as Henry didn't want to sleep much, or be strapped into his chair. Toys helped, and lots of little milk feeds.

So what did we pack?
Sleepyhead - this is a literal life saver in daily life, as well as for our trip up north. We placed it on the spare bed, which definitely saved my back from having to lean over into the travel cot provided by the hotel (although this was a good thing to have for future reference I must admit).

Formula and bottles - we of course had to have our normal Aptamil formula, and the instant bottles are really great for travelling, although we made ours up with powder as Henry will take formula at any temperature.

For sterilising - we admittedly just washed the bottles in hot water, and then rinsed thoroughly in boiled water, but you could use cold water sterilising tablets or a cold water steriliser if you have a really young baby,or if you have access to a microwave, try steam steriliser bags.

Toys - Henry is a big fan of his Baby Einstein playmat and as it packs down and re-assembles really easily we decided to take it with us for play time in the hotel room. We also took our Lamaze dragon as he adores it, and it works as a normal toy and car seat entertainment.

We learnt that flexibility is the key to travelling with little ones. It can be hard and very frustrating, but being open to change is definitely the easiest way to cope.

What are your tips for travelling with little ones and babies?
Share in the comments below!