Everything AND the kitchen sink!

We recently went away for the first time with our little Angel!  Exciting!  It is the longest journey she has been on so far!  

My parents own a Bed and Breakfast in the beautiful Bay of Islands, Appledore Lodge and we stayed with them for 2 nights in the Suite.  Well, I was in a slight flap about what to take, how much to take and when to pack, given I needed to get into Emily's room to get her clothing etc and of course I couldn't do that if she was asleep!  This was taxing enough, planning for this weekend away, but I have friends who have recently been overseas with their babies, the same age and stage as Emily and I don't know how they have done it!  The amount of stuff we had to take was incredible.  Previously, it was throw a bag in the boot and hit the road - it took about 15mins to get ready and go.  

Now, however, I wrote a list and methodically checked everything off it - well, actually, I have to admit I would usually do that!!  But imagine arriving up North (4 hours' drive) without the porta-cot?!?!  Disaster!!   I began packing on the Friday morning, gathering all the items I could but there were a good many to pack on the Saturday morning as we took things like Emily's cot monitor etc, which we could only grab once she was up on Saturday.  But we got there in there end!  You could barely see out of the back window, but we got there!  We literally had the kitchen sink plus some!!  

I had visions of, after stopping to feed Emily on the way up, sitting in the back with her and keeping her awake so she didn't fall asleep after feeding, but there was literally no space for me to do that, so she had to hang in there by herself! 

She is also now in her car seat - big girl now - which was great.  It is well padded and secure, and for such a long trip we thought it was time to upgrade her from the wonderful capsule we have used until now, to the car seat.  The day before we trekked off, I got the car seat installed by Plunket - that link is to there special car seat division, and they are so thorough and only ask for a gold coin donation, amazing, and you can travel knowing it is installed correctly as it's not as easy to do as it looks!  It's in for the long haul now!

Emily did so well, sleeping on and off for both legs of the trip and being quietly awake playing with Gerry the Giraffe, and waking only once per night when we were up there.  She usually sleeps through the night at home (and has done so since being home again, yay!), so I was pretty impressed.  It's a lot of change for a little baby, and she did so well!

We clearly took way too much stuff, mainly Emily's clothing, as I unpacked most of it into her change table when we got home, unworn!  Oh well, you can never be too prepared with a baby!  Plus with having started solids, you just never know just how much mess there will be!  But the trip was really successful and has given us confidence for future get-aways :)

Enjoying my pumpkin (more goodies we had to take with us!)

Lunch time stop on the way home at Warkworth - beautiful sunny day!