The first time my husband and I traveled with our firstborn, she was about 10 weeks old. I was attending an all day conference out of town so the three of us drove out the night before and stayed in a hotel near the convention center. It was the type of hotel you’d expect in this situation… a small room with a single bed, tiny sofa and a bathroom just large enough to turn around in. Before we drove out we thought, “what could we possibly need to bring other than diapers, wipes, clothes, and bottles?”
Oh, how naïve we were. I would have given my left pinkie toe for a bassinet, a play mat, or a soothing sound machine. The hotel bed was the kind that made just enough noise and motion when you rolled over to wake the baby (my poor husband slept on the tiny sofa). The freeway traffic and busy 24 hour parking lot was oh. so. loud! There was nothing of the comforts of home to make her feel relaxed and we completely underestimated how much that would affect her sleep, and thereby our own. Sitting through the 8 hour lecture the next day was really rough. The questionable cleanliness of the room led my husband to spend the day walking around a local mall with the baby in the stroller just to keep her from crying. Let me tell you, lessons were learned on this trip!
The next time we went somewhere overnight we brought everything. Much too much. Trust me when I tell you there is no need to pack diapers for your whole trip. Buy them when you get there and only pack what you need for the journey. And DO. NOT. pack your whole highchair. Maybe I’m the only one who needed to learn this obvious lesson the hard way, but now I know!
My husband and I had already launched a successful rental company for recreation equipment before we had kids, so after a few family trips and a few more rounds of learning things the hard way, I realized a few things: we couldn’t possibly be the only parents to struggle with this, and our business experience uniquely suits us to solve this problem for others coming to our slice of paradise in the Southern California desert.
So, here we are! We hope we can take a little bit of stress out of your next trip and help you make some awesome family memories.
– Elisa