Auto Train with 5-month old -- Any tips? Pumping mom welcomes advice.

[hippie_mama]

My husband, 5-month old son, and I are taking the Auto Train to Florida. We did buy a bedroom both ways.

Does anyone have any tips for traveling with an infant on the train? I'm planning to wear him in my soft structured carrier, and bring a bassinet for night time sleeping.

Also, I exclusively pump so that my son gets an all-breastmilk diet. The room has outlets so I can plug in the machine. I'm bringing a cooler with ice packs to keep milk chilled.

All ideas/experiences/suggestions welcome.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

We went on the auto train when my DD was 9 months and still bf, and it worked well. The bedroom is a must for that though!! We had a great, relaxing trip, and would do it again in a heartbeat. A couple comments on your plans. The sink in the bedroom is really, really tiny (very shallow--hard to even wash hands without splashing water everywhere). That makes it very difficult to wash bulky pump parts and horns in, so I suggest buying some of the medela pump part cleaning wipes and using them to wash your pump parts while on the train. Also, I'm not sure that the bassinet will work. The bedroom is very very small, and once the bed is put down for the night there is just a teeny tiny bit of floor space left. I think a bassinet "might" fit there, but it's been a couple years so I don't remember for certain and it really might not fit. That floor space is also the space where the bathroom door opens out to, so if the bassinet did fit there, you probably couldn't go to the bathroom without moving it. The bottom bed is almost a double size bed, and I just slept with DD in it (I put her next to the wall, with me on the outside), and my husband had the top bunk. I had never coslept with DD before that, but that worked great for us. DD slept really well, and we had a really relaxed trip. There is an ice machine near the coffee and stuff, so you'll be able to easily refill your cooler with fresh ice as needed. To heat up chilled breastmilk, there is also hot water for tea and such by the coffee, so you can fill up a big cup with hot water and sit the bottle in it for a couple of minutes and that worked well to heat up breastmilk for bottles. We brought some of DD's favorite small toys (stacking cups, shape sorter, etc.) and that along with looking out the window and general exploring around the train kept her busy when she was awake. The most difficult part for us was feeding her baby food, just because the regular movement of the train made it difficult to get the spoon in her mouth rather than on her cheeks, but it doesn't sound like your child will be at that stage yet, which will make it easier for you. Hope this helps, and have a great trip!