Thursday, May 01, 2008

Traveling Life Savers

I'm sure this list will grow, as our number of trips increases...but these are some items that really helped it go as smoothly as possible. I will start with two of the most important items!

I cannot tell you how many bibs we dirty up a day (at least 16)...lots of laundry. These bibsters were great b/c we could just throw them away after every feeding and didn't have to worry about gobs of dirty laundry to carry around.


Absolute life saver. No worries about bringing bottles or bottle preparation...it is all done for you in these convienient 8 oz. single bottles! Just throw on a nipple and ring and you are good to go!


I'm sure many of you have this or have seen one, but my kids LOOOOVE this little guy. Its cheeks light up and it makes little cooing sounds every time you jiggle it. The quads would stop crying for like 1 minute when I had this out...(one minute of sanity? I'll take it!)


The quads LOOOOVE these books. They get quiet every time I read to them...they also love to munch all over them.


Ahhh...good 'ole Ziploc baggies. Okay, here is where my super organized anal side comes out. I packed 4 sets of onesies, complete with matching socks in each bag. So, when I needed to grab outfits for the little ones to change into for bedtime, etc., I just reached inside and grabbed a Ziploc bag that had everything in it! I had already picked out what the babies would wear each day and packed them all together in bags. It really helped and cut down on space!


Yes! Thanks Goerlich quads for the heads up on the big tub-o-quad-stuff! It really helps to have all "quad items" in one big tub: feeding supplies, diapers, wipes, bibs, etc.


As I said earlier, Larry & Peggy let us borrow their cargo storage! We are currently looking into getting our own, seeing as how it will almost be impossible to travel with 4 babies and a dog without one! It helped SOOOO much! Thanks again guys!


Mom & Dad needed this ipod to play tunes! First, we were trying to play songs that would soothe the babies (didn't help)...then we listened to our own stuff--trying to drown out the screaming!


Come to find out, every time a Bob Marley song came on, the quads would get quiet for a few minutes...we thought it was just coincidence, but noticed that it kept happening every time our shuffle would land on a Bob song. Crazy, huh?! In the words of Mr. Marley: "...Don't worry, about a thing, cause every little thing, is gonna be alright..."


So, all you fellow Waconians...we heard the weather is going to be gorgeous this weekend--we will be taking the quads to the Cameron Park Zoo on Saturday morning! Should be a fun time...bring your little ones out and come play with us!!!

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37 comments:

Anonymous said...

YOU ARE MY INSPIRATION!! I will remember all this when we leave. I am so OCD too i love the bag idea with an outfit in each all put together. YOU ARE ONE SMART MAMA!!

Anonymous said...

Happy MAY 1st by the way!!

Krystyn @ Really, Are You Serious? said...

All such great ideas. I love the Bibsters for travel, too.

I'm laughing at your Bob Marley fans. That is too much.

I wish I lived in Waco so I could go meet you guys at the park!

The Mom Jen said...

Great tips!

*note to self, get some Bob Marley music!* ;)

The Murray Crew said...

Thanks for posting this for me, Suz! Best of luck at the zoo - we went last week and were SERIOUSLY our own exhibit. Gotta blog about it sometime..I'm sure our pictures are popping up all over the net since everyone had their camera phones, DSLRs, etc. and kept taking pictures of us like we were a herd of elephants! =) We had fun with it, though. Gotta laugh with them!

GlitteryKitchenTable said...

Love Bob Marley-that is what we have been listening to in our car for a while now. Ben Harper is another personal favorite! Thanks for all the travel tips-I think I need to go get that light up toy-looks fun! :)

Christie said...

We have triplets and have traveled quite a bit with them. The tub o' stuff is a lifesaver, isn't it? Definitely purchase the Thule and, they are a bit young now, but start saving to have a DVD player installed in your car, if you don't already have one. It is TOTALLY worth the money. We would have died without it on our drives to/from Denver and Southern California. And, by the way, I went to Baylor so I can't be happy when I see ATM stuff, even though it looks adorable on your beautiful babies. :) Have fun at Cameron Park!

Christie
mcgoverntrio.blogspot.com

Janelle and Ella said...

My husband is from Waco. If this was one of the weekends we were visiting his family, we would definitely come play with you guys.
I LOVE your ziplock baggy idea. I will use that with the next one.

The Bullards said...

I am a fellow blog reader and love to read your updates. I am expecting my 4th. Not all at once like you, but 3 in 3 years, pretty close, right. We are heading on a trip and even though I have been a mom for 5 1/2 years I am steeling the idea of the outfits in the bag. Anyway, I would be at the zoo to meet the famous family, but we have our last soccer game. Have a great weekend here in Waco. You will need to try the museum with the quads when they are able to walk.
Shannon

Unknown said...

good idea to save space by using the ziplocs! will have to try that next time we're on the road again!

Melodie said...

The Zip-loc baggies will ALWAYS come in handy with traveling! When I sent my girls away to Girl Scout camp last summer, I packed each day's outfit (t-shirt, shorts, socks, & underwear) in a different zip-loc baggie for them. That way they could just grab a baggie and have everything they needed to wear all together without having to worry about matching or only finding one sock. They also didn't have to worry about getting their dirty clothes mixed up with their clean clothes, since all of the clean clothes were still in the baggies.
It worked out brilliantly! Kudos to you for figuring this all out early on!

Melodie said...

Oh, and I also utilize those plastic bins to keep all of my girls' camping supplies in. That way, whenever they have to pack for camp, all of their supplies are already together, and all they have to worry about packing is their clothes. Total genius!

Mom Guide said...

"Three Little Birds" has been my son's favorite since before birth. He would kick like crazy to that song. It helped us keep our sanity through reflux and teething. Instant peace.

Recently he was singing it while playing and his buddy asked who were the three birds. He calmly answered "The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit. That is why you don't have to worry about a thing."

:-)

Anonymous said...

HeeHee! When my daughter was four months old we went on a 2+ week trip to London and all around Poland - I packed each outfit, complete with socks, etc in its own ziploc bag - with a label listing what was inside - so I could re-pack dirty clothes into them and make sure we had all the pieces. Plus, then DH knew what went with what.

I hope your next trip goes well - can't wait to read about it!

Marta said...

That's awesome that your babies calmed down some when Bob Marley came on! When our now-4year-old daughter was an infant she HATED her carseat and would always stop crying when "No Woman No Cry" came on. We thought it was hilarious!

Anonymous said...

Gotta love Bob! My 19month twins LOVE him and can't help but dance whenever we play him. I'm not sure why they love him so much, but it makes us laugh!

Meg said...

Ooo! Love your tips!! Here are a few of my own!!!!

We have been using those huggies washcloth wipes (http://www.amazon.com/Huggies-Disposable-Washcloths-Soap-Cloths/dp/B00013HCSY)
for bathing on trips. It is like my biggest fear to open the baby bag and find a mess of baby shower soap stuff all over the place!! (And those lids don't close well!!) These are really nice and it makes for very quick bathing with lots of suds, you can wash body+hair, and is under $3 at Target.

I agree with a previous poster about the DVD player - we borrowed an already cheap one and played Baby Einstein on our trip - it was AWESOME for my 11mo son who is not a good traveler. We just strapped it to the back of the seat. Baby Mozart is great as is Baby DaVinci.

Our son takes two naps - first is 2hr and second is 1.5hr. We have to take some long trips so we leave 45min before first nap and turn on Baby Einstein 20min of entertainment. Then we give him bottle and he zones and falls asleep with music. We get 2 good hours. Then, he wakes for about 20min and I interact with him and we stop at a shopping mall and eat at the food court and tour the mall for an hour so total time out of car is 1.5hr. By the time we get back in the car, we are back to being 45min before his nap and repeat the previous routine. After the second nap, we just stop at every rest stop and make it a 30min walk around the rest stop and it is much less fussy doing it that way.

(Mostly Lurker) -Meg

chellekay said...

I never thought about packing the outfits in its own ziploc bag. we go on trips often and I definitly do that this next time around!

Kelly said...

I wanna go to the zoo!! :o) It is funny what babies like. Jenna would stop crying for "Journey." and Ash likes "Hotel California" by the Eagles. Haha I may put some Bob on my iPod!

Kelly said...

P.S. Once the quads get more toys with tons of pieces the ziploc things will get really bad. With Jenna - I use them for everything and she even said, "Ziplocs are the best things ever!" :o)

Heather B. said...

How fun will it be to take them to the zoo!!!! We live in Temple and oh how I wish we could come meet you guys. I enjoy reading your blog so much and just love all your quad stories. I hope y'all have the best time!!!

Thanks for the traveling tips. I don't have quads but I do have 3 kids who will definitely benefit from this!!!!!

Oh and Bob is the best!!!

Rachael Schirano \\ Rachael Schirano Photography said...

what a great post, thank you so much for sharing all of your tips. the ziploc baggie idea is just genius!

have fun at the zoo!

Forrest and Elizabeth Williams said...

Hey Suzanne! We've been to the zoo once in Dallas but it wasn't anything great since it was 30 mins. til closing time and all of the animals were being put away.
:( BUMMER! We live in Waco and have not been to the zoo yet with our 6 mos. old Walker, but tomorrow is the day that I'm getting my wisdom teeth out! Goodness...wish we could meet all of you and the precious babies. Let us know when you'll be back. :) Good Luck and try to have some fun along the way. ejw

The Running Couple said...

I have twins and we have that little toy and they love it, I am as intrigued by the noises it makes as they are. We are going out of town with family at the end of this month and again in July and your suggestions really helped even though we only have twins.

Thanks!

The Running Couple said...

I LOVE the outfit in a Ziploc bag by the way, I think I may do that for all of us!

Jaci said...

AMEN on the Bob Marley! My 20 month old twins will stop everything they are doing to listen to him...another suggestion...Jimmy Buffett. He has the same calming effect. Keep up the great parenting! You're an inspiration.

HotMommy said...

One of my friends from high school is a designer for the Bright Stars toy company, so we try to buy as many as we can. They're awesome toys. Our terriers like to eat them as well.

My DH and I calls Bob Marley happy car music 'cause my daughter gets quiet for it too. Recently she has started talking softly to herself and clapping her hands during a Marley song. Really cute stuff. Who knew a rasta would be a baby whisperer?

Anonymous said...

I actually read in a book that Bob Marley/reggae is perfect music for babies because the beat timing is similar to the heartbeat from the womb (or something). I guess it's really true that it's soothing! I'll have to try it on our twins next long distance trip!

Anonymous said...

Hi suzanne,

U dont know me-so dont think im some psycho crazy lady posting on ur blog.. but I just have to say that u are one STRONG mama! I have a 6 month old of my own-and she had colic really bad up until 4 months. I thought I was going to just die dealing with it, and then I found ur blog! My world is nothing compared to what u go thru! U truly are an inspiration! I seriously dont know how u do it- but I believe God blesses those mothers who can really handle it with muiltiples!!! Thank u for sharing~and I hope u have a wonderful Mother's Day~u deserve it!!

Blessings From Above said...

Great tips! Thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

Our house goes thru so many ziploc baggies. Such great organization that way. Gotta love the Bibsters and if Bob Marley soothes..then play on!

mrsgingergrl said...

What is that toy? I will have to try and find it... it looks very cute, my girls would love it i bet... I need to get that and a Bob Marley CD I guess. I mostly play Kanye and Jay-Z which does not seem to calm them down (though they do like Justin Timberlake:). Glad you had a good trip! Babies are adorable, as usual.

Unknown said...

The Bright Starts Butterfly cracks me up! My parents bought one for their house and my dad now calls it the devil bug. It has waken them up in the middle of the night making it's noises. You can walk by it and the thing will go off! I love the idea of the ziploc bags as well, I will be borrowing that form you!

Stacey said...

Suz, We are going on a 16 hour trip to Daytona Beach in July and I have already been trying to figure out things to help get me together. The bagies thing "Love it!" We will defanitly have a "tub-o-triplet stuff" also. Oh, and tell me your favorite Marley cd so we can add that to the mix.

Anita Ann said...

Rock-A-Bye records have Bob Marley Lullabies check them out!

Anonymous said...

Hey Suzanne. I am so sorry we missed you this weekend - while you were in Waco, we were out of town. Hayley would have loved playing with your babies.
Have a great week!

Moni Graf said...

The Graf Quads are HUGE Johnny Cash fans (and pretty much any classic country as long as mom or dad are singing along to them). He (Mr. Cash) never fails to quiet them down! I love Bob Marley, but have never tried him out on them...yet. Thanks for all the great tips. We'll be making our first road trip from KS to CO in July and I'm a little apprehensive. It's gonna take some serious planning! Anyway, love your blog.

Moni Graf

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