I think I forgot to pack the Sippy cup!!!

[articulate]

Louis,
Since you'll have a newborn on your hands, figure out a place to change diapers and feed. Brooke breast fed Chloe until she was about 8 months old - if your wife does the same, she'll need a place to do so. Sometimes the front seat of the rig is the most comfortable and quiet, but get her take on that one.

As for diapers, the tailgate was wonderful in good weather (and a changing pad). But the front passenger seat in our truck folds flat in one motion, which rocks. It's the perfect height. See if your seat does something similar.

Now that Chloe is 11 months, we use the Kelty pack for feeding her (spoon-fed meals). It's perfect. Well, also for the hikes and walks. That's a given.

Sleeping space . . . oh God. Chloe moves all over the place before she finally sacks out. This makes the sleeping arrangement different every night in the roof tent. I wish you the best of luck in this department, bro.

 

[Sloan]

These are just some of my tricks that have worked for me.
1. Some sort of clip that attaches to the car seat for the binky.
2. Mustela wipes, expensive but in 19 months we have only had 3 diaper
rashes
3. We have had 5 diaper bags and finally have one that works from Lug.
4. Pampers Swaddlers for reducing toxic blow outs.
5. Dr. Brown's bottles awesome.
6. American Apparel online for kids clothes (In general our philosophy has been spend more money for better fabrics and have fewer clothes)
7. We got these bibs from a local lady Huckleberry Baby with a chenile fabric on the back. By accident we discovered that by putting the design in the chenile makes that vomit stick when it hits.
8. Don't cheap out on the crib, the stroller or the high chair. These are things that you use constantly and if they are a PITA, well. I have a Bugaboo stroller and would buy it again at twice the price. The nice thing about the Bugaboo si that it comes with the stroller attachment and a bassinet that Abby lived in for the first few months of her life.
9. Skip Hop makes a small diaper changer thing that is awesome for quick runs. It holds 3 diapers, some wipes and the thing unfolds into a big surface to lay Jr. on.
10. Take the swaddling blankets form the hospital. They expect it and no commercially available swaddling blanket will wrap a baby for... Also grab a bunch of the shirts that have the pockets to fold the hands inside. Disclaimer: Our nurses bundled up large quantities of the mentioned items for us.
11. Tell everyone to send flowers and gifts to your house NOT the hospital.
12. We use the Diaper Dekor and love it.
13. We bought a pack of disposable plastic spoons when Ab started eating baby food and just washed them. We ended up using the same 10 pack until she started using real silverware.

For starters.

 

[Fergie]

I'll let you know what doesnt work, that way you'll have a few months lead...

 

[Robthebrit]

I have a kelty kid carrier that I'll give to you, it was only used a couple of times and is in perfect condition. We are packing the house for our move and I know exactly where it is.

PM me.

Rob

 

[slosurfer]

Congrats on the "will be here faster than you think" little one! We've been camping with my son since he was 6mo. old and a few of those trips have been 3 week adventures.

Ditto to what everyone else has already said:

My favorites:
1. Pack and play (just in case you missed all the other reccomendations for it )

2. A portable high chair like THIS ONE. Very useful for camping and other times you need an extra highchair. We would set my son in it with a pot and wooden spoon to keep himself entertained while we broke down camp and loaded up the 4runner.

3. He's now almost 4 and we never got him a kid's sized sleeping bag after he was out of the pack n play. I already had an extra down sleeping bag. The worry when they are small, is that they will burrow to far down inside and suffocate with the bigger bags. I just had him lay down on top of it so I could see how long he was, and then I tied a knot in the sleeping bag at his length. Worked great, and he'll be able to use the same good bag till he's an adult.

4. A tent with a shaded/screened front vestibule is great when they are small. It's big enough for them to play if it's buggy out or you need the shade.

5. Once they can have solid foods, for traveling always have a "snack bag" that is reachable by the drive/passenger that has a variety in it. Comes in handy when you're on the road and need to get a little farther before you can stop to let them out.

6. My wife would go to the dollar store and pick up random things and wrap them up for the road trips. When the little one would be having a melt down and we couldn't stop and pull over, or nothing was helping, my wife would pull out a wrapped present. Between the unwrapping and the newness of the item, he usually forgot all about being cranky. When they are small, it doesn't even have to be a toy, we used plastic cooking utensils like a soup ladle and spatula once, lol.

7. Find kids music that you can actually stand listening to. Before my son was talking and picking up on words, we had him convinced that one of the They Might Be Giants cds was his CD. It had some choice words on it, so that only lasted till he hit that age where he might pick up on that. They Might Be Giants actually have a couple kids cds out now. My son loves them and they are not too bad to listen to. The only bad thing is when you catch yourself singing them at work.


That's all I can think of now, congrats on the little one.

 

[MaddBaggins]

Louis

You're going to find it's a lot of trial and error. I say this because alot of things said above, I could say the opposite. We used cheap wipes from Costco with great success, never used a crib and rarely used a high chair. She hated pacifiers, so we never had one. She refused to be swaddled, so there was no point in trying. Every parent and every child are gonna be different. You will have to find out what works for you and your child.

When it comes to camping gear for infants, the only special item we had was the Kelty carrier. Everything else was everyday items. You will need lots of changes of clothes. Infants can mess up lots of clothes real fast.

 

[Maddmatt]

Louis

You're going to find it's a lot of trial and error. I say this because alot of things said above, I could say the opposite. We used cheap wipes from Costco with great success, never used a crib and rarely used a high chair. She hated pacifiers, so we never had one. She refused to be swaddled, so there was no point in trying. Every parent and every child are gonna be different. You will have to find out what works for you and your child.

When it comes to camping gear for infants, the only special item we had was the Kelty carrier. Everything else was everyday items. You will need lots of changes of clothes. Infants can mess up lots of clothes real fast.

Well put - every family, and every kid within that family, is different - but the general consensus is that the Kelty back packs rock. I concur.

In the spirit of "some folks do it differently", here's my take on the stuff question:

Don't fear overpacking. Here's a picture of what 2 adults, 2 kids (one still in diapers) and a 60+lb Golden Retriever bring for a 10 day trip that will include driving from Denver to N. Minnesota, 5 days in a tent and driving back. Granted, one of the larger bins was never opened as it contained games, toys and books in reserve for rainy days which luckily didn't happen, but if we had experienced a few days of rain we would have been glad to have it all.

I started out with the "less is more" mindset, but gradually accepted my fate and embraced the "happy family is more" mindset. Now, a couple years later with the kids at 7 and 4, my kids are experienced travelers. They can handle everything from overnight airplane trips to 10+ hour days in the car with very little fuss. Each is allowed to pack their own backpack with diversionary items (subject to approval of course) and they, for the most part, carry the packs themselves.

But we started by bringing it all. Better to lug around a waterproof container that you never open, then to subject a 2 year old (and everybody around them) to 3 days cooped up in a cabin/tent/hotel room/vehicle with nothing to do but whine.

Also, don't fear the little portable DVD player when they get older. We paid $149 for ours at Best Buy, on our last trip we were trying to figure out exactly where its been - the list includes several long (10-12 hour day) road trips, airplane trips, etc.... We established the rules early on - in the car it only comes out AFTER lunch, on airplanes it comes out AFTER the flight has leveled off. Honestly this little made in China thing has been one of the best travel related purchased we've ever made.

But that's just my opinion.
-Matt

 

[FourByLand]

These are just some of my tricks that have worked for me.
1. Some sort of clip that attaches to the car seat for the binky.
2. Mustela wipes, expensive but in 19 months we have only had 3 diaper
rashes
3. We have had 5 diaper bags and finally have one that works from Lug.
4. Pampers Swaddlers for reducing toxic blow outs.
5. Dr. Brown's bottles awesome.
6. American Apparel online for kids clothes (In general our philosophy has been spend more money for better fabrics and have fewer clothes)
7. We got these bibs from a local lady Huckleberry Baby with a chenile fabric on the back. By accident we discovered that by putting the design in the chenile makes that vomit stick when it hits.
8. Don't cheap out on the crib, the stroller or the high chair. These are things that you use constantly and if they are a PITA, well. I have a Bugaboo stroller and would buy it again at twice the price. The nice thing about the Bugaboo si that it comes with the stroller attachment and a bassinet that Abby lived in for the first few months of her life.
9. Skip Hop makes a small diaper changer thing that is awesome for quick runs. It holds 3 diapers, some wipes and the thing unfolds into a big surface to lay Jr. on.
10. Take the swaddling blankets form the hospital. They expect it and no commercially available swaddling blanket will wrap a baby for... Also grab a bunch of the shirts that have the pockets to fold the hands inside. Disclaimer: Our nurses bundled up large quantities of the mentioned items for us.
11. Tell everyone to send flowers and gifts to your house NOT the hospital.
12. We use the Diaper Dekor and love it.
13. We bought a pack of disposable plastic spoons when Ab started eating baby food and just washed them. We ended up using the same 10 pack until she started using real silverware.

For starters.

Holy crap!

Thanks for getting us started!

These are some great tips and pointers.

How have you guys had to adjust your vehicles?

car seats and such.

 

[Lynn]

Congrats! Much joy ahead!

One thing that doesn't work, is the 12v bottle warmers. We tried a couple. Neither one warmed very fast or very well, and the second one MELTED.

I second the recommendation for Dr. Browns bottles, but for travel (if you are using powdered formula) one thing that really worked well for us is these U-Mix bottles:

The formula is loaded in the top section and kept separate from the water 'til you need it. No refrigeration, no heating, simplified mixing. Buy several, load 'em up ahead of time, and then twist and shake when your kiddo needs one.

We had first gen bottles, and with room temp water the formula was usually a little chunky, but the girls never seemed to mind. And they may have improved the design since then.

For fussy kids, proper swaddling is something to learn. It does take oversized baby blankets to do it right, though. My wife just bought some sheet blanket material and hemmed it in 3’ X 3’ squares. Oh, and wrt the previous advice about loading up on the blankets at the hospital: that may be expected at some hospitals, but don’t just assume that they are yours for the taking. My wife has been a Pediatric RN for over 15 years, and one good way to get on her bad side is to swipe all her supplies.

Beware the standard hospital pacifiers. For some reason babies really like them, which is great, but they can be really hard to find outside the hospital. It’s pretty common for a tike to be introduced to the pacifier at the hospital, then loose it and refuse any other type. My recommendation is to take a variety of readily available ones to the hospital with you. Both of our girls liked the ‘Nuby’ silicon ones.

 

[Lynn]

Couple other thoughts:

I like the bug net alternatives mentioned above: you can’t use bug juice on infants. We had a mosquito net that fits over the removable car seat / carrier combo, and it paid for itself. You might also want a battery-powered fan blowing on it, though, as it can get pretty toasty under there.

Like Sloan said, a good crib is important. Make sure and get one that you can drop the side with one hand, yet the kiddo can’t. On ours you grab the top of the side with your hand and pull up, then push in on the bottom with your knee. Whoever designed the cribs that take two hands to drop the side obviously never had to put a baby into one...

Don’t fall for the marketing on the Babee Tenda feeding tables. Yeah, their pretty cool, but a pain in the butt to keep clean. A simple plastic tray is much easier.

Oh, and the ‘experts’ that put red dye in Pedialyte (or any other product you give babies when they are puking) should be shot. No, drawn and quartered, then shot. Don’t ever buy cherry flavored anything.

 

[Lynn]

How have you guys had to adjust your vehicles?

car seats and such.

Other than replacing the vehicle?

We sold a sedan and bought a minivan! Like many others we thought we could get a sport-ute, and not have to do the minivan thing, but then we had to put the combo carrier/car seat in the back seat through swing-open doors in a crowded parking lot. Sliding doors rule. Even now that our girls are bigger, it's nice not having to worry about them opening the door into the side of someone's car. Oh, and 25 mpg isn't bad for a big box full of baby stuff.

Get the best car seat you can find, but beware that you have to upgrade it every other month (OK, not quite that often, just seems like it). From the infant seat to the rear-facing seat to the forward-facing seat to the convertible to the booster...

If I had to do it again I wouldn't get the combo kid carrier/car seat/stroller. After we bought ours we were at a yard sale and found one of these universal stroller things:

Much more convenient (smaller, lighter) than the big combo stroller.

Then when the tyke gets big enough, ditch that for a simple stroller.

Like most parents we have/had a collection of strollers, but really only two got used. One stroller that has lots of room for hauling 'stuff' (this is my wife's 'going to the mall' stroller), and umbrella strollers that get used all the time.

Of course that's after we graduated from the universal carrier stroller I mentioned above, and our 'hauling stuff' stroller is a Sit-and-Stand since we also have a toddler.

 

[HMR]

So my wife and I are expecting our first child

CONGRATS!!!:wings:

Hmmm... I thought I heard some rustlin' in your tent while I was sleeping next to you in DV. :jump:

 

[FourByLand]

CONGRATS!!!:wings:

Hmmm... I thought I heard some rustlin' in your tent while I was sleeping next to you in DV. :jump:

HAHA, I thought I heard some rustling in yours too...

:ylsmoke:

Thanks!

 

[absolute]

Before we had our first child, we went camping with a group and one couple had an infant, and needless to say it wasn't a pleasant trip.

That trip scared my wife about camping with a baby, so I went out a purchased possibly the best piece a new dad could get for his loving wife....

 

[Gear]

Louis - Outstanding news!! The two of you are going to be great parents. I like to keep things simple, my wife takes everything. All kids are different. Trial by error. Sit back, get lots of sleep and look forward to the ride. My .02, be yourself, modify your own bag of choice into a diaper bag. I also put one of those zip up ditty bags under the seat with a spare set of cloths, diapers and wipes. Again Congrats!!