Our First Trip with the Baby

Hey y’all! I can’t believe our beach trip was nearly a month ago! It was our first trip with the baby & one we will never forget. I was totally clueless when we were planning to travel with her, but we learned so much over our week away. I am by no means an expert on traveling with little ones, but can’t wait to share what we learned & share more of our trip with you!

Hilton Head Trip with a Baby / Glitter & Gingham

We were so excited to venture back to Hilton Head, and taking Vaughn on her first beach trip there made it even more special. For as long as Tyler & I have dated, we used to always vacation in Hilton Head. Covid & hurricane evacuations made it so we haven’t been as a family since 2018! It was so nice being back! Like I mentioned before we learned a lot traveling with V, but we’d do it again in a heartbeat. It is worth noting that we spent the week with Tyler’s family so we had extra hands to help us with the little lady.

Traveling from LEX to HHI::

We opted to fly for this first trip with Vaughn. She had just turned 4 months, & opted for a less than 2 hour direct flight over a 10+ hour drive. I am SO glad we ended up flying y’all. Because she’s so young, & obviously not mobile yet, it made for a much easier travel day.

I got some AMAZING tips from y’all on Instagram when it came to traveling with the little lady. One of the most helpful tips was booking her a seat & bringing her car seat onto the flight. We flew Allegiant, so the flights were pretty cheap & ended up booking her a seat. This was SO helpful. It gave us a place to put here so we were hands free, & she was able to squeeze in a little nap. We would definitely do this again if we travel while she still fits in her infant car seat! *Make sure your car seat is FAA approved for airplanes. There’s a little airplane sticker on it if it is approved. Numerous people checked to make sure it was FAA approved. We didn’t realized this when booking our flight but thankfully hers was. We have the UppaBaby Mesa (the sticker is on the bottom of the car seat btw).

Since we were carrying her carseat on the plane, we brought her stroller & just gate checked the base. We put it in the bag it came with & didn’t have any issues with the base getting damaged. The stroller was also super convenient to have while walking through the airport!

Don’t get it twisted though, it was all a BIG learning experience. You should have seen us trying to get on the plane with alllll of our stuff, V in her carrier, while stuffing the stroller in the bag & trying to gate check it, all while juggling two coffees. We were a shit show. LOL. We didn’t make the coffee mistake on our way home. Thankfully the majority of people were so kind & helpful in that instance. I just kept saying, “first baby, first flight, thank you so much”. HA!

first trip with the baby / glitter & Gingham

What an average day looked like:

We went with the flow! Everyday was different! She isn’t on a super strict schedule, & although she would sleep through the night, some mornings she sleeps till 7 & others she sleeps till 8. Once she was up we would take a walk or have Tyler’s parents watch her while we worked out, went for a coffee run, etc! After that we pretty much just set up camp at the pool.

It was cooler while we were there, highs of 70s, so the beach was typically too windy & chilly. But we’d hang at by the pool, she’d nap by the pool, we’d have lunch & some cocktails & just enjoy the day with family. We’d come up around 4 & we’d get ready for dinner. Some nights we took her out to restaurants with us, we got take out a few times & then my in laws babysat one night so Tyler & I could have a date night.

Some days were better than others, & there were several times we’d tried to do too much & she was not having it. But we’d just reset & give it another go the next day! We like for her to be on a loose schedule, but we also wanted to enjoy this vacation & wanted our family to get to spend as much time with her as possible, so we definitely loosened the reins a bit & I’m glad we did!

Must haves for our first trip with the baby:

We kind of had the best of both worlds because even though we flew, Tyler’s parents drove so we got to send alllll of our baby crap down with them. Many people said that airlines will check all sorts of baby equipment for you & I know there tend to be companies in beach towns that do rentals for things like cribs, etc. Because Tyler’s family was driving we just sent everything with them, which was so helpful! We definitely overpacked & didn’t necessarily need everything we took, but now we know for next time!

Pack & Play: she slept in this all week & did great! We have the 4moms Breeze Go. Had she still been sleeping in her SNOO we would have 100% brought it with us (it breaks down & isn’t that cumbersome to travel with). But we started weaning her off of it a few weeks before we left in anticipation for this trip.
Slumberpod: THIS IS A GAMECHANGER. She was sharing a room with us & would go down for bed while we were still up, this is like a tent that goes over the pack n play (or crib) to make it pitch black for them. We didn’t have to worry about lights or the TV waking her up. Definitely won’t be traveling without this.
Sound Machine: self explanatory & a MUST HAVE. We brought a few little travel ones with us so we had one charged at all times.
Baby Bjorn Bouncer: We love this thing & use it nearly every day at home. It collapses flat, which made it super easy to bring along. We even took this down to the pool one day.
Sit Me Up Floor Seat: I love love love this little seat! & V loves it too. It gives her some independence & allows us to be hands free for a bit. It also collapses flat, & we took it down to the pool for her to hang out in! I wouldn’t say you need to bring both this & the bouncer. At her age we’d opt for this over the bouncer if we had to choose one.
Metro+ Stroller: this is a bit unnecessary since we also had her vista, however, I was so glad we had it & would repurchase. It’s worth noting that Vaughn isn’t big enough for the seat attachement for the vista, so when we use that stroller she either needs to be in the bassinet (which we didn’t travel with) or her car seat that attaches. This stroller works from infancy & on without a bassinet attachment which is amazing. There are better videos online, but basically the seat back drops & it functions as a bassinet. What really sold me is that it collapses small enough to fit in an overhead bin! We didn’t take it on the flight with us because we had her big stroller, but we sent it with my inlaws & it was the only stroller we used all week. It’s much lighter than the vista & was great for beach walks! Oh & she also took some amazing pool naps in this!
Travel Bassinet: this was a good place to put her by the pool, but we ended up using the stroller bassinet more because it blocked out more light. We probably won’t take this on our next beach trip in June, but it is also great to have with a newborn if you’re just hanging outside this spring & need a confined & portable place to set the baby.
Bottle Brush Set: V is strictly bottle fed & this portable bottle cleaner is so handy!
Formula Dispenser: in hindsight, I wish we would have brought our Brezza (& probably will when we go to the beach in June), but this little guy is great for on the go! We filled these up for our travel day as well! If you formula feed it’s a must. *V get’s room temp bottles, so we don’t make pitchers ahead of time or anything.
Artripoppe Carrier: I didn’t use this as much as I thought I would, but it was still nice for some walks on the beach when it was super windy.
Her favorite Toys: We probably packed too many, but I wanted to make sure I had all so her favs with us.
Toy “Leashes”: These are amazing to keep her toys from falling on the floor. Just attach to a stroller or carseat.
Anything that helps you & your babe! I was packing things & thought several times how silly it was I was packing all this stuff, but I operate on the “better safe than sorry” camp & I’m all for bringing all of the things that make your life easier.