Erin Akin Carroll

We’re in the Vail/Beaver Creek, Colorado area this week visiting family for Thanksgiving. We’ve had our fair share of long distance travel lately. This post is part of the series for Huggies.

We have always lived very far away from my parents. For the beginning of our marriage, they lived in Dallas, which is 17 hours away from us. Now they live in Indiana, which is a short 11 hours away from us. Not bad in comparison!

Unfortunately, none of these trips are a quick drive away, and we have to plan our trips when we want to visit them. I wish we could drive over twice a month and spend the weekend with them.

When Hudson was a baby, I would fly to Dallas to visit my parents as often as I could. And I could go without Todd. Managing one baby on a plane without any help is easy! When Hayes was born I realized it would be a while before I’d fly alone with the two of them.

So with Hayes here, we make the drive to Indiana. I wanted to share my road trip tips and my flying tip with you!

Road Trip Tips with a Newborn

1. Start your trip right after the baby eats. Lots of people like to drive through the night, but Todd and I just get way too sleepy to attempt that, so we leave really early in the morning. You should be able to make it three hours before needing to stop and feed the baby again.

2. When you stop, go somewhere that you can sit, get a bite to eat, and comfortably feed the baby. If you have an older sibling, try to make sure there’s somewhere that they can run around and burn off some energy.

3. If possible, ride on the side next to, or behind, the baby. I needed to be able to get to Hayes if he cried, and sometimes I would hold a pacifier in his mouth or even feed him a bottle while we rode.

For the most part, newborns sleep constantly, so as long as their bellies are full and their diapers are dry they should be happy. It’s good to let them stretch their legs and arms during stops so they don’t get too uncomfortable sitting in their infant seat for so long.

What road trip tips would you add?

Flying Tips with a Newborn

1. If you bottle feed, pack plenty of bottles and formula. You do not want to run out of your baby’s food and nourishment while you’re stuck in an airport.

2. Try to wear your baby if you have a baby carrier. It will help him or her feel close to you and they’ll be more likely to sleep.

3. Feed during take off and landing to help them pop their ears and prevent any ear pain.

4. If you swaddle your baby, do it on the plane. We always swaddled Hudson as soon as he was fed, and then he’d fall asleep within ten minutes.

5. Travel light during the newborn stage. You won’t need much to “entertain” a newborn, but you will need to have your hands as free as possible in case you need to run change a diaper or you have to rush to get to a connecting flight.

6. Bring your stroller to the airport but check it plane side. If you’re traveling alone, you’ll likely need a stroller in case you need to use the restroom. And your baby may not want to be held the whole time.

As we’ve traveled more and more long distances with our babies, we’ve realized that it’s much easier than we ever imagined it would be. While I’m sad that our family is so far away, I’m so thankful for the opportunities to go visit them when we can.

What are your best long-distance travel tips?

I’m not much of a beauty product tester. I find a favorite product, and I continue to buy the same things over and over again because I know they work. I wouldn’t call myself adventurous when it comes to makeup.

However, when I was given the opportunity to try some new products and some bestselling products from Mary Kay I jumped at the chance. A sorority sister of mine did a Mary Kay party at my apartment ten years ago, and that was the last time I tried Mary Kay products. But I remember loving them then, and I was excited to try them again.

I opened up my box and was so pleased to see such a huge variety of products to test. I removed all of my makeup and moisturized my face and got to work!

I applied my every day tinted moisturizer and then opened up the Mary Kay® Compact Mini that had three Mary Kay Mineral Eye Colors in Golden Vanilla, Lavender Fog, and Truffle, and a Mary Kay Mineral Cheek Color in Shy Blush. This little compact has every single thing I need in it. And the little brushes fit right underneath the colors. It’s perfect for when I’m on-the-go and need to reapply when I’m not at home.

To finish off my eye shadow look, I also used the Mary Kay Mineral Eye Color in Sweet Plum. This color is so pretty and the perfect color for the crease in my eye.

After I finished up the eye shadow, I applied some of my own eye liner and then opened up the mascara from Mary Kay. I am such a fan of mascara. I really need to always use waterproof mascara, but decided to try the Mary Kay® Ultimate Mascara™ . It creates a bold and dramatic look, and it creates longer looking lashes and lasts all day long! I primed my lashes with the Mary Kay® Lash Primer, and I can’t say enough great things about Lash Primer. This is the key to having my mascara stay on longer and show up bolder. It also helps lashes stay curled longer. The Lash Primer and Ultimate Mascara™ duo is one of the best combos I’ve ever tried.

I finished with the Mary Kay® NouriShine Plus™ Lip Gloss in Café Au Lait. I’ve never been a huge fan of lip gloss because I’ve only tried really sticky glosses. With this lip gloss, my lips felt moisturized, the color appeared to stay in place, and it was not at all sticky!

I’m so pleased with the very natural look I achieved with all of these colors. The makeup is light and actually feels good on my skin.

And now for one last very important review. The Mary Kay TimeWise® Microdermabrasion Set was sent from the heavens. It’s a two-step set that fights fine lines, refines pores, and leaves my skin feeling so smooth almost immediately. Really, after one week I saw visible results. And it smells wonderful and is just a great way to end a day, in my opinion. I will always use the TimeWise® set now that I know how great it is! What about you?

Tell me the greatest beauty tip you’ve learned for an opportunity to win a fabulous Mary Kay gift basket, courtesy of BlogHer.

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Be sure to visit the Mary Kay page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

I was provided with Mary Kay products to use and review, and was compensated for this post, however all opinions are my own.

It seems like the way we get our babies to sleep can be a controversial topic. But it really shouldn’t be. We all do what we feel is the best thing for our own children.

This post is just my way of telling you the way we did it, and some of my tips. If this isn’t for you, that is perfectly okay with me and  it doesn’t bother me a bit if you choose to do things differently with your baby.

It’s fun to me to read different tips from all different mothers, because I think we all like to put our own spin on things based on our children and their specific needs. It’s important to keep in mind that each child and each family is different and this isn’t a list of advice, but just a way to tell you what we did, and what worked for us.

Swaddle

We were big swaddlers. Before Hudson was born we watched Harvey Karp’s “Happiest Baby on the Block” DVD for a complete swaddling lesson, and Todd and my mom mastered it. It took me about a week longer before I could get the tight swaddle down. We used a flannel large square blanket, and made sure their little hands were down at their sides. This helped keep them from waking themselves up and they loved it. Of course, the first few days they didn’t love it at first, but after about a minute of fussing, they’d fall right to sleep. And then they got used to it.

White Noise

There are so many different machines, Sleep Sheeps, tracks for your iPod, etc. that you can use for white noise. You can use a fan or just “shhhh” in your baby’s ear. But it was important to have some noise in the room that was a soothing sound, but kept the room from being too quiet. I read that our babies are so used to so much noise from pregnancy that having a home that’s too quiet will make it difficult to sleep. For me, personally, white noise is a must. I know I can’t sleep in a room that’s too quiet.

Schedule

Around the two week mark, we were on a good schedule of feeding them every 2.5-3 hours and having them awake for one hour and then napping for two hours. They naturally sleep so much when they’re newborns, so after being awake for one hour, they’d start to yawn and we’d swaddle them and put them in the crib with the white noise playing. Establishing a flexible schedule helped the baby know what to anticipate throughout the day. As they got older, they’d be able to stay awake for longer periods of time, but giving them the opportunity for quiet, uninterrupted naps helped establish nap times and helped them adjust to sleeping longer periods of time during the night.

We love our sleep in this house!

What tips would you add to helping your baby sleep?