…and how you can do it too!
So, it finally happened in 2016: we became parents to our sweet baby girl! The world seemed very small in those first couple of months. It seemed to consist solely of leaky boobs -I remember lively conversations with friends about how to protect the bedding-, bags under my eyes, and walking around the house like a zombie, with a colicky baby in the carrier.
But when the dust settled a bit, the ol’ travel bug bit again, and we started planning our next trip. And we wanted to go big! For reasons Michael will explain in a separate blogpost, we’d never gotten to travel to the United States before. And we decided that was where we were headed. Also because we didn’t want to go somewhere that required extra vaccinations. Plus in the US, we speak the language, and in case of emergency healthcare is somewhat decent (if you have insurance, which we have).
Here ‘s how we went about it!
- We chose to rent an RV. That way our surroundings would start to look, smell and feel familiar to our baby. We figured by 8 months she wasn’t that mobile yet, so she wouldn’t really mind being in close quarters. Also: traveling in an RV means that diaper changes and naps are only as far away as the nearest parking space.
- We brought a Deryan baby tent with us as a cot. It’s really small when it’s folded, and extremely ligt. We placed it on the second bed in the RV, and folded it when we didn’t need it. We brought a couple of sleepingbags for her that smelled like home. Our daughter slept pretty well, in her cosy little pod.
- We bought some jars of baby food at the local Whole Foods; the RV had a microwave to warm them. (At home we gave her big chunks of food from the beginning, and she ate them herself like a boss, but since we were in such a small space, we thought it was better to spoonfeed her…to avoid blobs of pureed broccoli on the ceiling and crushed peas under our feet at night, ewww) Of course she could nibble on bread or some fruit!
eating snacks obviously not for the little one.
- At that time, breastfeeding was over, and she drank her milk from a bottle. We brought her “own” formula with us, and A LOT OF IT, because we weren’t sure how she would react to a different brand. In the morning, I measured out the portions of formula for the day, and warmed some mineral water in the microwave, to put in our thermos. That way we could make her a bottle in no time!
- We brought enough diapers for the flight and the day of arrival, and then bought a bunch at a convenience store.
- We stayed at mostly on KOA campgrounds, very cool. They have an app for your phone and it’s easy to plan your stay. The locations are beautiful, and the facilities are nice, with playgrounds, sometimes even a Jacuzzi, and good showers. We haven’t used the shower in our RV once: much too small. The baby was small enough to be bathed in the sink of our little kitchen.
- If you travel, you have to be flexible! We started in Nevada, and wanted to drive to the Grand Canyon and to Yosemite National Park. We changed our route when the weather turned out to be too cold.
It was way too cold in the Grand Canyon.
- We decided to drive south, and take highway 1 along the Californian coast instead!
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