Newborn On Board: Take A Baby Bed, Sense Of Humor On Your Trips

Looking back on it, it had the makings of a situation comedy.

We had gone to Whidbey Island - Jack and I and 3-week-old Stephanie - and it was our first evening of our first trip with our new baby.

I had been feeling fine and it was a balmy evening.

But then a sudden and heavy bout of post-pregnancy bleeding made necessary a call for medical help.

About 15 minutes later, the medics had started an IV dripping into my arm and were loading me into an ambulance.

Meanwhile, Jack was in the car, driving in anxious circles around the ambulance, trying to calm our wailing baby with the car's motion as he waited to follow the ambulance to the hospital.

Instead of strolling the beach and watching the moon rise, I ended up breastfeeding our daughter under harsh emergency-room lights.

I was able leave the hospital a few hours later after some tests. But we scooted back to Seattle the next day, unnerved by this medical misadventure and wanting to be close to my own doctor.

Short as it was, this trip taught us a lot about traveling with a newborn baby:

-- Make the first trip short and nearby. That makes it easy to get home if the new baby or new mother has problems traveling. And choose a destination where medical help is easily available.

-- A short trip also will reveal how well your baby travels. Some babies can't stand long hours in their car seats; better to find that out on a short trip instead of on a cross-country odyssey.

-- A car trip is probably the best way to go since it's a more flexible way to travel than by plane or train. Also, a car is the easiest way to lug around all the baby's gear.

-- Take your doctor's telephone number and details on your medical insurance with you. (Also check with your doctor before embarking on a trip within a few weeks of the baby's birth, especially for long trips or trips outside the U.S.)

-- Take a baby bed (and bedding) with you - a bassinet, portable crib or whatever. That way you don't have to rely on hotels and motels to provide cribs and the baby will be able to settle down in a familiar bed.

Perhaps it was the rather unusual baby bed we took with us that helped make our second car trip with our baby - to the Canadian Rockies - such a success.

Stephanie was 6 weeks old when we embarked on what turned into a 2,000-mile trip. And our car was so jammed with camping gear and baby gear that we couldn't fit in her bassinet.

So we decided to have her sleep in a box - an oblong, low cardboard box lined with a foam mattress.

By day, we stowed the box in the trunk, packed with her clothes and bedding.

At night, when we camped in our tent, the box kept us from rolling into her. When we stayed in motels, her box was a safe and cosy haven that we could plunk in the middle of a bed. ``Baby in a box'' became our pet name for her.

While the box took care of the nights, the long days of driving and sightseeing demanded other solutions. And there were some low points along the way, such as the time when the deck chair in which I was sitting to nurse Stephanie collapsed, depositing us both in the dirt with a thump.

``Great trip,'' I muttered sarcastically, longing for the comfort of my living room armchair.

While probably the most important things to take on a long car trip with a baby are a sense of humor and flexibility, here are some practical tips:

-- While traveling with a newborn may seem daunting, it can be one of the easiest times since they sleep so much. And they can't crawl or toddle into trouble.

-- Reduce your mileage expectations. You'll have to stop a lot to change diapers, feed and comfort the baby. Most days on the road we drove about 200 miles, although one day when we started at 6 a.m. she slept her way across 500 miles of British Columbia. If you can figure out your baby's sleepiest periods and drive then, you'll make the most miles.

-- A good car seat is essential - legally, for your baby's safety and for the baby's comfort. Make sure there's enough padding to cushion the baby and keep the head supported. Some car seats have adjustable cloth hoods for shade -invaluable since the sun always seem to sneak through the windows to find a baby. Window shades of a dark, but transparent, film can be bought at hardware or baby stores and stuck on the car's side windows to protect the baby from sun.

-- If you're breastfeeding, be

prepared to breastfeed almost anywhere when baby's hunger strikes: by the side of the road, in gas stations, on buses, in cafes, in the woods. We tried to avoid interstates; too few places to pull safely off the highway when hunger struck.

Gas stations were about the best places to stop to nurse the baby since they offered a place to park, snacks for us, fuel for the car, garbage cans for disposable diapers (which are a godsend on long trips), and water for washing. We carried a big piece of cotton cloth that, when hooked onto the roof rack and draped over the car door, turned the front seat into a relatively private - and shaded - place to breastfeed wherever we were.

-- Your car will have to serve as the diaper-changing table. We used a rubberized sheet (designed to be used to protect a baby's crib mattress) to protect the front seat; it was also very handy in motels to protect the bed when we changed her diapers.

-- Other than her box for sleeping, our most valuable piece of equipment was a front-pack. Strapped to her father's chest, she slept contently for hours while we hiked mountain and lakeside trails and rode tour buses. (We used a Snugli front-pack, but there are other brands available.) It freed us from having to be in the motel when she napped.

-- Whenever you travel with a baby, expect the unexpected. One day the baby will throw up all over you, get ravenously hungry when you're stuck in a traffic jam, and be wakeful and cranky. The next day, everything may go like clockwork - and she'll be an easy traveler who sleeps like a baby.

Sunday in Travel: Readers tell their stories about traveling as, or with, a child.