Life is a beach..I'm just playing in the sand.
To all my new parents this blog is for you!
... Wow that song was released in 2010. If you know you know.
Anyways, HELLO HELLO! I wanted to share my experience bringing our 4 month old kiddo to the beach for the first time. Things we needed, things I wish we had brought and how hubby and I, as parents navigated challenges.
1st- The car ride. We went to Nags Head Island which was about 5.5 hours from our house. We decided it was a good idea to leave a day prior and stay at a halfway point.. we are SO glad we did! Not only did this give us a break from the long drive, but we got to explore a bit where we stopped. Our halfway point was in North Carolina's Capital city, Raleigh. We stopped at the Museum of Natural Sciences and I would recommend stopping by there if you have littles. The place was clean, didn't feel too crowded and we got to see everything from dinosaurs to labs next door where they did research in the research center.
* Plan to stop about every 2 hours to feed and give baby a break from the car seat!*
On our trip back home, we unfortunately had to do the drive in one go..I would not recommend this. We stopped every few hours and even with our good- tempered baby, he protested being in the car after a while. If you're not going solo, It's helpful if one person drives and while baby is awake in the back the other person can try and entertain.. toys only go so far.
2nd- The actual beach. We are minimalists so these were the bare minimal items that we felt we needed to have a successful trip. (I linked some items, these are not affiliate links, nor do I make commission.)
*Mineral sunscreen- Talk with your pediatrician as it is not recommended for children under 6m to wear sunscreen.
*UV bathing suit- I found the cheapest and best options at Walmart. Little boys have such a rough go at clothing.
*Swim diapers- I got a pack for free off of FB marketplace.
*We also had a lined blanket and beach chairs.
You want to make sure that you are avoiding peak sun rays, so we did something else between the hours of 12-3pm. Along with avoiding those times, babies under 6 months cannot produce (enough) melanin so keeping them in the shade is key!
3rd- Navigating. Not only are we learning day-by-day how to parent better, figure out his "language" and help to develop him.. on this trip we were figuring all of that out in an unfamiliar location PLUS we had to work around a set schedule.
*This trip wasn't only vacation, but it was for my husbands work*
We had to attend lunches, dinners and seminars during our week and this made things a bit more complicated. If you learn something from me in this blog it's that I am a very organized person, I like to go with the flow.. however, I most always have a plan. So Kirsty, how is this challenging? LEMME TELL YOU! I loosely follow a thing called "wake windows" for our son. In general, it is a range of time where your child should be awake between naps. The system of wake windows has been working very well for us at home and I wasn't gonna just throw that out the window on vacation. For example, our little ones max wake window is around 2 hours.. so that means if we had to attend a dinner at 6pm and I wanted him awake through dinnertime, he would need to nap around 4:45/5pm so sleep for an hour before his next wake window from about 6-8pm. Make sense? Anyways, I'm not a sleep expert, but I have found a lot of free information about recommended wake windows helpful! ...so if you're a new parent and you feel like your kiddo gets fussy after staying awake or isn't napping or sleeping well, wake windows may be something to look into.
4th- I learned something before going that I want to share.. baby will nurse more often in warm weather! Just like we, as adults, get thirsty on hot days.. so do they! Be prepared to up your fluid intake to provide your baby with some extra milk and feed them a bit more often. (or pack more formula if you go that route!)
Lastly, As much planning and research we could do, the main advise I would give for a trip with a new baby is to GO WITH THE FLOW. Need to order and bring your meal back to the hotel because its kiddos nap time, do it. Need to breastfeed him while you're out to eat, do it. Being a mom has taught me many things, but I think the most important thing that surrounds it all is just listening and being there for my little boy.
I recently posted this quick guide on Instagram, but I wanna paste it here in case ya missed it!
Hope this was helpful in some way,
until next time.
Kirsty
On another note, I am accepting 1-2 new female clients starting next month and would love to work with ya! Send me a DM on Instagram ( @tiny.kirsty ) or click below to schedule an initial call with me!