I survived two 12 hr train rides with two littles.

I think I deserve a glass, or bottle of wine for that. In all honesty, it went fairly well. Jasper is a pro traveler by now. We have been doing long road trips, international flights, long boat rides and cross country (countries rather) train rides since he was 2 weeks old. And yes, we took a 700 mile road trip (one way!) when he was 15 days old.) He does good. Or great rather. 

I've taken the train with Jasper from Denver to Des Moines (12 hrs) since Jasper was about 7 months. 6-7 times. Each time it's gone fine. The hardest was probably when he 1.5 And I swore after that trip I'd never do it again. Yet I have, many times.

The solution? Snacks. Lots of snacks. And netflix on iphones. And leap pads. And comfy blankets and pillows. For Tindra, apparently the solution is a boob. That was the only thing that kept her satisfied. 

I'm always afraid of having the crying/screaming child and everyone around wanting to kill me, so I try my very hardest while traveling to keep the kiddos happy so everyone around doesn't want to throw us off the boat/train/airplane. 

Jasper slept 85% of the way. He's the easy one now when traveling. Tindra is a creature of habit. She wants to sleep in her crib. In the dark. In her sleeping bag thingy with a fan on for white noise. Works great when we are home, but when traveling? Not so much. She pretty much refuses to fall asleep while being held, so I was super nervous about how she would do.

She did surprisingly well as long as she was nursing all night. Fun huh? I haven't nursed at night in a long time (7-6 sleeper here) but since she wasn't sleeping very well on me, she would startle and wake up every 20-40 minutes. The solution was boob. Luckily it was semi dark in the train and no one right next to us. On the way back we sat across the isle from a 90 yr old world war 2 pilot. He had so many interesting stories, including ones about being a prisoner of war, for at least a year from what I gathered.  He was such a sweet man and I felt so honored to be able to listen to some of his stories.

 Nursing T around 3 AM on the train.

And that's Jasper sleeping on the floor. He insists on sleeping there now for the last few trips. We have blankets, pillows and he gets to spread out pretty comfortably!

Anyone else travel long distances solo with your kiddo? Doable or a complete nightmare?



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