Have baby, will travel

Dear Interwebs,


Can I just ask ya'll something?  K thanks.


How on earth do you travel with a baby/toddler/child?


I'm just asking, because Chris and I tend to do a lot of traveling.  With my family scattered literally ALL OVER the United States, we spend the majority of our vacation time traveling.  Before we had kids, I swore that I would never let kiddos impede our travel plans - we still have so many places we want to see, not to mention family we miss!


Ha. Ha. Ha.  Then I actually HAD a child.  And the first few months weren't too bad, actually.  No better or worse, just the added amount of STUFF to bring along.  But then Cole became aware of his surroundings.  and realized when they were unfamiliar.  and then the "No Sleeping When Anything in the Universe is Even Slightly Off-Kilter" chapter of our lives began.


We're pretty lucky that Cole really does quite well at sleeping most of the time when we are home (actually, that's not luck.  That's months and months of hard work and sacrifices to make that happen).  But the instant we hit the road and try to put this little guy down for night-night time in any place that is not his Very Own Crib, we regret it.


It's gotten so bad that I literally do not ever want to leave home again.


Every single vacation in the year 2011 has been fun and exciting, but the strongest memories that are etched in my mind of each one is me crying while Cole refuses to sleep.  Bend for a job interview?? Frantically walking Cole around so he'll stop crying long enough for Chris to sleep.  Portland with Gram and Great Grandma BB? Spending all night holding Cole so he'll hopefully sleep, when in reality he just cries all.night.long.  Epic Yellowstone vacation?  We finally had to just give up and let him sob himself to sleep (this after 2-3 hours of trying to soothe him) - and he still would wake up at 4 am!


It never fails, people.  This kid is a creature of habit with his sleep, but it's throwing a kink in my traveling plans!  So what do you do when traveling with baby?  Suck it up and try to nap when you can?  Or are you like me, and resign yourself to the fact that you won't be traveling till baby goes off to college (assuming, in fact, that he'll actually sleep in a strange dorm room and won't be commuting so he can sleep in his Very Own Bed?)?