Roadtrippin...

"Roadtrippin with my two favorite allies/Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies..." -Red Hot Chili Peppers.

We have now been on two road trips with our son, who is now 6 1/2 months old. The first in February when he was only three months, we loaded up and headed from our home in Kentucky to Tampa, Florida. Nothing like a nice 11-12 hour car ride with an infant.

Our son travels pretty well overall. He slept most of that trip down and good deal of it back. (Car rides are like Thanksgiving dinner for babies...a tip that will serve new parents well.) That is not to say the trip was without incident. It certainly was not.

When your child is breastfeeding, long car rides are difficult. We did our best by parking in the back corners of parking lots and trying to stay mostly out of the way so my wife could have some privacy. (Note to self...get windows tinted in the car.)

The most fun on the first trip was the poop explosion. Of course you know its going to happen. Our worst one occurred on the drive home. I had ran inside of a convenient store while my wife was feeding our son in the back of the parking lot. As I walked back to the car, she popped the trunk without saying a word. Cleaning off a child and changing his clothes in a Ford Taurus should be an Olympic event. As should the Tetris like effort of stacking luggage, play yards, extra diapers, wipes, etc in the back of said Taurus.

Road trip number two was a relatively short jaunt to Birmingham just two weeks ago. The key to roadtripping with a baby is let that baby sleep. I don't understand the parents who are so schedule oriented that they'll wake a baby up and make him eat, or change his diaper. Here's some knowledge for you parents: When babies are tired, babies will sleep. How would you like your spouse waking you up at 3 AM and saying, "Honey, don't you want to go eat a snack right now?"

RT2 was completely without incident, and for that I'm thankful. We conquered our fears of roadtripping with a baby. So if you're scared, don't be. Just take lots of diapers, tons of wipes and always have an extra outfit handy for the poop explosions. The rest is cream cheese.