Traveling with Cloth Diaper - Road Trip - How to Travel with Cloth Diaper on Road Trips!

Life is too challenging.  Hubby lost his job end of January and finally has an offer and starting his job beginning of June.  It is hard to move the family especially with my parents living with me, taking care of my boys and brother is recovering from cancer.  My oldest son is so attached to his dada and we wanted him to spend every moment with his dada before he starts his new job.  Since my hubby has to bring his car there, we all went with him, so, instead of traveling on a plane with 2 boys + cloth diaper, this time, road trip + cloth diapers.  Again, I have my check list.  From my previous traveling experience, base on my lesson learnt, I remembered to bring EXTRA Diaper Inserts and laundry detergent :)

1. BubuBibi Bamboo Cloth Diapers(16)
2. Diaper Inserts (24) - Enough for more than 3 days :)
3. Remaining of my diaper liner roll
4. Large Wet bags - 3 of them
5. Lotion
6. Detergent
7. Thermometer
8. Medications

Day 1: It took us 11 hours the first day from Dallas to El Paso. We had to make several stop, milk, diaper change, snacks, lunch, etc.  We first went to to Laynce's (DS1) swim class.  It starts at 9am and ends at 9.30am.  After that, we went straight from there.  We made sure that Laynce has his DVD player, that way, he can watch all his cartoon and his favorite WWW.  I always call it world wide web :)  But it's actually Wow Wow Whubbzy :)  That is one of this favorite cartoons, of course, we won't forget about Barney, Wonder Pets, Nemo, Bug's Life (he watched twice) and etc.  As for little Laynden, he was doing great.  He wasn't that fussy except for when he was about to sleep, he was just fussing a little but he would just fell asleep himself.  Yes, I did bring another DVD player for him to watch his little Einstiens BUT.... instead of watching, it became a bouncing ball for his cute little toes and he wasn't watching.  So, we decided that he did not need to watch anything.  He did great.  We stopped by near Abilene, TX for lunch.  That was our first stop.  Perfect time for diaper change.  We ate Subway.  Unfortunately, we I went in there, there wasn't a diaper changing station and I know that he has poopy diaper, I didn't think it was appropriate to change his diaper while eating.  So, I ended up having to change his diaper in the car instead.

Before diaper change

 

During diaper change in the hot car

 

Playful little baby after diaper change in SUBWAY! Finally, after 11 hours, we made it to El Paso, TX. Since I stay in the hotel 3 nights out of a week, I had a lot of hotel points, I managed to get a free night stay at the Double Tree with some nice view, check it out.  We were too tired and lazy to drive out, so, we ordered pizza in and little Laynden held on to his food and put it in his mouth the first time :)

 

Day 2: Started our journey at about 9+, headed all the way to Phoenix.  Yes, we saw a lot of In and Out burgers on our way, we just recently had 2 In and Out in Frisco and Allen, TX, so, it was a big the Texans but as we pass by AZ, there were quite a few of them with short lines, compared to TX.  DS2 did so good until towards the end, we were about 20 miles from Chandler, he started fussing.  Had to do almost all of the diaper change in the car.  Thank goodness for the wetbags, I almost filled up wetbag 1 as I have been putting his wash cloth, dirty clothes in the bag too.  So, after a total of 18 hours in the car, we are FINALLY there in the hotel.  I was very excited because Charity is right, Chandler is a really nice place and it reminds me of Dallas.  We were just in Williamsburg, VA a few weeks ago and it seems to be very different compared to Dallas but I feel right at home when we were in Chandler.  We did not do much that night. 

Little Laynden was so happy to finally be OUT of the car.  He was tired.  We ordered Chinese to go and came back to the hotel as we were all exhausted.
So, here are the cloth diapers for the 2 days.  Not too bad.

Day 3: Since it was Memorial Day and we were exhausted from the long drive, we slept in that day.  Though, we still managed to go out in the afternoon, we went to Ikea to check out some necessities and I went to craigs to look for furniture, so, we stopped by several places, I think we even went to Mesa, Scottdale and finally ended up at a place that had floor models that wasn't too bad and best of all.... it was Tax Free! 

I wanted to share with mom that Ikea provides excellent services to mommy and babies.  They have a really nice changing area and they even provide FREE DIAPERS!  Too bad, they were the disposables but I would like to thank them for providing such clean and nice place for us mommy to help change poopy diapers.

Check it out, the nice changing table and my husband even got to rest on a nice cozy chair while I changed little Laynden.  Yes, I always use the BubuBibi  Biodegradable/ Flushable Diaper liners especially when I go out.  Check out the next pictures why I am so thankful that I did.  Though.... in order to save $$$, for those diaper liners that does not have poopy on it, I usually reuse them a couple of times, at least 2 for sure.

Yes, this is a bad bad blow out!  Even with the liners, it was pretty bad, see the flushable liners (Sorry, I know it is a little gross!)

We got back to the hotel and yet, we managed to bring the boys to the pool.  Silly me, guess what, I forgot the swim diaper for little Laynden so, I used his regular cloth diaper without the liner.

Yes, it's true, there are some people who advise not to use the cloth diaper as swim diapers.... sorry, I was very desperate and I didn't want him to not be able to go since his older brother gets to be in the pool. 

Yes, he is done with swimming!  Though... day 3 ended with everyone super exhausted, baby Laynden was fast asleep with his brother!

While the kids were knocked out, it was time for mama to make sure that we have enough diapers.  I figured out that if I do not wash them, then, we will be out of diapers.  I laid them all out to soak because some there were a couple of them had some poopy stain. Yes, thank goodness we used the BubuBibi Diaper Liners, if not, there will be even more stains.  I let it soak for a while before bringing it to the laundry room to wash and dry them. 

Yes!!! I finally remember detergents this time!

Day 4: I had to work from the hotel on day 4, but since baby Laynden and Laynce were exhausted, they continued sleeping till late but my husband had to go to the leasing office of the apartment to get the keys. 

Yes, while the boys are still sleeping, I took the opportunity to fold the laundry. 

Check out my cloth diapers - No stains because I usually like to soak them for a bit first and also thanks to the BubuBibi Diaper Liners!

Ok.... yes... they were having fun in the room after they got up. 

When their daddy came back, I had to quickly rush out.  I brought over 15 diapers as I was supposed to meet with a customer, her name is Charity, she has a pair of twin girls and I was supposed to meet her and her family in an In and Out Burger.  Yes, it is my first time.  That's why I got to take a picture and post it to show off! 

My First In and Out Burger!

Ok, I got back from meeting my customer and saw more dirty cloth diapers.  So, I decided to hand wash them, since there was just 2-3 of them and I just hung them in the room like we did with the other trip. 

Day 5:  We finally moved into the apartment. I managed to get some good deals in Ikea and furnished his apartment in about $1,000.  Yes, I have another blog that shows what I did to furnish his 1 bedroom apartment within $1,000.

BEFORE

AFTER

Day 6:  The boys are starting to get a little bored at home, so, we brought them to the mall.  We brought them to the Chandler Fashion Mall?  It reminds me a lot of the Stonebriar Mall here in Frisco, TX.  There, the boys played at the play ground and guess what, we met another cloth diaper mama.  I had some pictures of the little girl behind the background with her leggings.  So cute!

Day 8:  Time flies when you are having fun but of course, it's time to come back to the real world.  What is the real world?  Well, 3 of us were to leave Arizona while my husband will stay there going forward.  He drove us to the airport early that morning.  Yes, we were all feeling so sad and I just didn't know how Laynce would react.  He lived with his dada all his life and now, it's time to leave him and only see him once every 2 weeks?  I feel so bad :( 

He waited for our flight to head back to Texas!

The boys were sad but it was time to head back home!

Conclusion with my Road Trip with Cloth Diaper:

It really isn't that bad at all.  Yes, compared to disposables, it was a little more trouble since you don't have to bring a lot of the disposables, you can keep on buying as needed but then again, it is so much fun traveling with the cloth diapers.  There are things that is a MUST HAVE to travel with the cloth diapers.  First of all, my advise is to make sure that you find a hotel with laundry services if you are staying in a hotel, if not, check with your friend/ relatives if it is ok to do your laundry at their place.  Remember to bring your laundry detergent, yes... that was one of the thing that I forgot the last time.  The diaper liners were definitely a great help when it comes to poopy diapers and of course, the wet bags to store the diaper diapers.  Then, we still have not come out with the BubuBibi Wet/ Dry bag, therefore, we didn't get to use the wet/dry but I definitely think it is a plus since it is better for me to bring that to the mall.  Even though the cloth diaper took up more space in the luggage but since he can just wear the cloth diapers, it saved me from having to take his shorts, so, I guess it's just a wash in terms of space. Other than that, it is really a fun thing to have a road trip with cloth diapering!