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The New Mom Podcast is a Christian motherhood podcast for women navigating pregnancy, postpartum, and early motherhood.
Whether you're a first-time mom, expecting, or in the middle of sleepless nights, this show offers real, honest conversations about motherhood, marriage, identity, and faith. We talk about birth stories, postpartum recovery, relationships, mental health, and trusting God through every stage of motherhood. If you're looking for encouragement, practical advice, and a reminder that you're not alone—this podcast is for you.
Our prayer is that New Mom leaves you feeling seen, strengthened, and a little more equipped for the beautiful calling of motherhood!
New episodes weekly.
Hello, and welcome back to New Mom. In today's episode, I have Connor on. We are in our permanent New Mom studio, finally. Yay. Yay.
Carrie:Yay. We're so excited. So I have him on to talk about, gosh, just our life update, moving across the country with our sweet baby and all that comes with that, including a lot of travel tips, hacks, lessons. We kinda just share what we learned from the last year of traveling cross country with our baby and going from place to place, and now we're officially settled here in Nashville. So we hope you guys enjoy this episode.
Carrie:If you're pregnant or maybe if you have a little one and you're nervous about flying or driving for the first time, I know I was, I hope that this episode is super helpful. And if you're not, then I hope that you just enjoy hearing a life update and thank you guys so much for being along for this ride. We're so excited to be in our permanent studio and welcome back to the show. I hope you have fun with this one. If you are loving new mom, take a moment to rate and subscribe to the show and maybe even leave a review.
Carrie:It helps us to get the word out to more moms like you. Thank you for listening. Hi.
Connor:Hey, honey.
Carrie:We're back.
Connor:We're back.
Carrie:We are back and we are in our permanent studio, which is a
Connor:giant studio. Yay. Tell them tell the people why. Gosh. Why are we in a new studio?
Connor:We are in
Carrie:a new studio because and I know I hinted about this in in one of my episodes or shared a little, but we just moved across the country from LA to Nashville. Finally just got into our place in the last month.
Connor:In the last week.
Carrie:Oh, you're right.
Connor:We've been here a week.
Carrie:Feels like a month.
Connor:We've been
Carrie:doing a lot of moving.
Connor:Yeah. Had a lot of people in and out of town. Well, we moved here two months ago and we lived in our friend's basement for two We we just decided we were gonna get out of LA and we knew we wanted to come to Nashville and our friends let us live with them until we found our spot.
Carrie:Bless them. It was actually so much fun. We lived Yeah. We lived in their extra unit.
Connor:We were roomies. Were roomies. We
Carrie:shared a kitchen. We did coffees together every morning. It was great. They watched Arch a little bit for us. Yeah.
Carrie:It was it was very sweet. They don't have babies yet, so I think that was fun for them too. But Yeah. Anyway, we didn't know how it was gonna go. It went so well.
Carrie:But we kinda just yeah. Like you said, like, we moved here knowing that this is where we wanted to land, but not knowing where our home was gonna be. And also we didn't, like, know Nashville incredibly well. So we found our spot, found our area.
Connor:Now we're And
Carrie:it's good to be here.
Connor:Now we have a new studio.
Carrie:We have a new studio. So
Connor:A permanent space. I mean, new makes it sound like we had an old studio.
Carrie:There was no studio. There was a couch and
Connor:a room. There a living room in our two bedroom apartment that we would dismantle and destroy every week and set up a makeshift studio And by way, just him. Just him. Yeah.
Carrie:He did all of that. I was I was 100% host, like, conversation duties of this podcast, and you were a 100%.
Connor:We were also, like, taking care of our child while I was there. And mom is Important.
Carrie:And you were a 100% the production side of this podcast and still are. But we literally how many places do we have we done this? I'm thinking, we did we did our LA location. We did Ohio. We did Summit in the other Nashville house, our friend's house.
Connor:And then
Carrie:this is our fourth place, our
Connor:fourth set. We took the show on the road with Chanel and We know in Ohio.
Carrie:Oh my gosh. It's been it's been an amazing Yeah. Few months, but really exhausting. And I feel like since I first started that we first started this podcast, we've been like, wow. We just keep praying toward and getting excited about when we're we didn't know what our house is gonna be, but like whenever we get to our home, having room to have a home studio and for sweet con to not have to set up and tear down 45 times.
Connor:Yes, please.
Carrie:Because that was the worst part. And so it just feels like a giant exhale. If we we're vibing right now, it's because it just feels so good to be here.
Connor:And so, yeah, it's a work in it's a work in progress, but, you know, it's gonna be awesome. We're gonna keep enhancing and making it better.
Carrie:I'm so excited.
Connor:We're stoked. You have some awesome guests lined up.
Carrie:I know. I'm so excited. Was gonna say, like, this feels it's not we're only doing seasons on this show, but it feels like season two in a sense. It's like, here we are, like, we've landed. That was, like, I don't know, just the launch pad or the kind of like, the mom on on the road, but now we're here.
Connor:Crank them out.
Carrie:Yes. We're gonna
Connor:crank them out. It's gonna be
Carrie:so much fun. And I I genuinely am so excited about the moms that I have on. So there should be plenty of mom talk in the next few months. Yeah. We've got some great conversations.
Carrie:But I wanted to have you on first because one, you had You couldn't get anyone else. Nobody else was yeah. Nobody else
Connor:is gone. No. I'm just kidding.
Carrie:But because we we set this up and I feel like it's fitting that you'd be Yeah. My first guest. And also, I think we just kinda wanted to, like, just sorta, like, share our life update, debrief a little bit, and kinda just catch you up. Because I feel like on socials and even on this pod, I'll be like because so many so many friends are supportive of this, which is so sweet, but there are also people that I don't know that listen to this, which is awesome. And I don't wanna just give little hints and
Connor:little things realize. Yeah. Let's give a full life update.
Carrie:Full life update. Okay. So I kind of wanna
Connor:Before we start. I was
Carrie:just gonna say, woah, major life update. The life update the reason I say this is I wanted to give a life update. So much of it that I talk about on socials lately has been just how much we traveled since we had a baby that we just weren't And so I kinda think we just take it back to the last year and kinda like walk through briefly because I also wanna get into, I feel like we've learned a lot in this last year. God has taught us a lot. We've learned a lot of practical tips.
Carrie:We've literally lived in four different cities with our son, two homes and lots of other people's houses and so many of friends.
Connor:Lot of pack and play sleeps
Carrie:A lot. And so it's not that we're experts, we're new parents. Hello. The show is about New Mom. Friends have been like, how are you guys doing that?
Carrie:Like, honestly, maybe someone is also living a life on the road or in transition or whatever it is. And so if you are as a new parent, we're like, we might as well share what we what we do know and what we know that we don't know. Yeah.
Connor:If that
Carrie:makes sense. Yeah. But let's take it back. I don't know. So I guess it would start with when we The
Connor:had birth of our son.
Carrie:The birth of our son, May.
Connor:Yeah. So we had Archie May. And then we the first two months were quiet.
Carrie:I think we had a normal postpartum period of of peaceful. We knew for a while I think we knew for a few years that we were kinda praying about where we were gonna move. We met in LA, lived in LA, you know, the our entire relationship and marriage, but
Connor:we knew that we would Eventually. Yeah. We probably Gonna land
Carrie:somewhere else.
Connor:Like, it works for a lot of people. It just wasn't something that we wanted to do. Like, we didn't wanna stay there long term. Mhmm. We didn't wanna
Carrie:Be a small place.
Connor:Be in a small place and raise a family there, like and we knew, like, like, there's kind of a magnet back towards home.
Carrie:Yes. And your parents are back this way. My parents are moving back this way.
Connor:And so
Carrie:it just kind of felt like
Connor:It was the time.
Carrie:The the prayer, the dream, and the time was to it was the time to just be able to, like, get in the
Connor:car and drive to our
Carrie:whole family. That's kind of what we're how we're feeling. So, anyway, that's like the heart behind why.
Connor:But I say that because when
Carrie:he was born, it's not like we thought we were like LA for life. Like we knew a move was potentially coming, but we did We didn't give told me it was gonna be the first year. No way. I would not.
Connor:No
Carrie:way. No. I did not think so.
Connor:Now it just kinda happened.
Carrie:It did. So we had him in May, had our postpartum period and then you'd been on a show the year before, before we had him, before I was even pregnant is when you did it. And so he was working in Charleston the year before. And then when we had Archie, we ended up You went back out there for work. It was in Charleston.
Carrie:I
Connor:Maybe think it was August?
Carrie:I think you first went out late July and then we joined you in August.
Connor:Okay. Well Yeah. Yeah. I remember for, like, a couple days in July Yes. And then and left you guys in LA?
Carrie:Yeah. When I was triple feeding. Whoo.
Connor:Sorry. Sheesh. Sheesh, girl. And then Yeah. Stop.
Connor:You ended up coming out for, like, a week. You and Archie Yes. Came to Charleston for a week.
Carrie:Well, we we planned.
Connor:You planned for a week?
Carrie:Yes.
Connor:And that turned into
Carrie:Ten weeks?
Connor:Ten weeks?
Carrie:It was over two months. I do know that.
Connor:Yeah. Basically, like, while while I was there, I found out that I had more work to do than I was told initially Which was awesome. Which was amazing, but, you know, we just hadn't planned for that. And
Carrie:And Archie was, like, three months old. And
Connor:Yeah. And, also, it wasn't like it I had some almonds earlier, and almonds are my cryptic. That.
Carrie:Have some water.
Connor:I don't know what it is with, like, almonds. Every time the Water is stacking for, like,
Carrie:three hours after his almonds. I don't know. I don't understand. Is could it be that an allergy that would make you cough like that? Or just
Connor:No. It's like it's like the skin.
Carrie:But why doesn't it make everybody cough?
Connor:Because it's
Carrie:Just gets stuck in your mouth.
Connor:I don't know.
Carrie:But anyway, so we that was like our first time traveling with him. We'd I had planned in my mind as a mom to travel for ten days, which was already a really big feat. So we went there and we're like, okay, we're gonna travel and then we're gonna come home after ten days. His his work got extended and so we kind of had, like, the choice to make as a family. Are we gonna continue to do this together?
Carrie:And am I gonna try to stay here? I wasn't really working at the time, so it was sort of a toss-up and we decided to stay. So we stayed actually in Atlanta with really sweet friends. They let us stay in their additional unit, kinda like an ADU situation. Mhmm.
Carrie:And so we stayed there for the duration and then went back and forth road trip to Charleston every time you worked, which was awesome. So I wanna say Yes.
Connor:From that trip alone, it was a flight out and then it was a hotel for Archie and us. Yeah. And then we went to Atlanta, stayed with my dad for a little bit.
Carrie:Yes. Yes.
Connor:And so we put him up there. And then we went to Friends, put him up there.
Carrie:Yes. And then back
Connor:to Charleston. Like it wasn't us and him. Yes. And then went back to Charleston a couple times,
Carrie:then back to Atlanta. Charleston. Atlanta. And then back to LA. So that
Connor:was that travel experience.
Carrie:That was one travel experience. And we got back
Connor:Our XP is growing.
Carrie:This is what's funny about it. We got back, and we were like, okay. We did it. We were exhausted. We're not leaving again for
Connor:a long time. We just not going anywhere. We're like, we're not talking about leaving ever again.
Carrie:Yes. LA rocks. Our life here yes. And so anyway, the crazy thing is without getting into too many of the details aren't relevant to the parenting topic, God made it pretty clear pretty quickly that our plans were different than his and that it was kinda just time to go. And numerous things happened.
Carrie:Like I said, my parents are moving back there. We just had a couple of things click in at once that made it feel
Connor:like
Carrie:actually
Connor:We were supposed to go.
Carrie:We were supposed to go. Yeah. And so I think we decided in November at the same time we were launching this podcast, which was like a whole another thing. So we're like, oh, okay. Yeah.
Carrie:And then Yeah.
Connor:We decided, like, Thanksgiving.
Carrie:It was November. It was like late November we decided Uh-huh. That we were gonna move. And like we said, our friends, shout out to Lee and Philip, they they already lived here and they they told us, which was so kind. They called us around Thanksgiving, like if you guys come, just come.
Carrie:Just just come to Nashville if you think this is a spot for you and and pray about finding your house and there's no rush and just come live with us, which was so kind. And then that was another wink of, okay, we've been talking about this for a long time. Let's do it. So we did.
Connor:So that that cues in, like, the next travel period, which was destroying our home
Carrie:Moving across the country.
Connor:Also getting some podcasts in there while we're moving, and there's boxes everywhere.
Carrie:You guys. Yeah. It was literally, like, our couch stacked up to the wall with, like, boxes
Connor:and then it's, like, we
Carrie:pack up was learning crawl right then.
Connor:He started moving.
Carrie:Yes.
Connor:He's mobile for So the first then, like, we leave our apartment, but then we went to your parents' place down the road for a couple nights, so there's another move.
Carrie:Oh, yeah. You're right.
Connor:And then I drove across the country with our most of our well, some of our stuff. Yeah. And then you flew alone with our
Carrie:I flew alone. So moms that fly alone, I see you. You are heroes.
Connor:You are.
Carrie:True heroes among us. Flu is like three and a half hours. It's nothing crazy. It's doable.
Connor:But This is the kid that wants to move.
Carrie:It was right when he learned to crawl too. It was like the week that he learned to crawl. And everybody said, hey, when you travel, just do it before they learn to crawl. Like, get your flying in because they just wanna be down once they're crawling. And it was so crazy because it literally went from flying with him when he was not mobile, because he was three months and, like, five months when we traveled for all the Charleston stuff.
Carrie:That was hard enough, but it's really just, are they crying? Are they fussy? Did he poop? Like, it's that kind of a thing. But it's completely different world once they're mobile.
Carrie:And it's like, I wanna get down. I wanna get down. I wanna get down. So I'm talking I was pulling out, like, that particular flight. It was like, okay, a wrapper.
Carrie:Okay, a different wrapper. Okay, here's my credit card. Okay, here's my finger. Like, anything that would possibly be For
Connor:five seconds.
Carrie:For five seconds and then switch. Yeah. But anyway, I made it through that flight. Also, my mom had offered to fly with me. I kinda set myself up for that one.
Carrie:Was like,
Connor:I got
Carrie:this, mom. I got this. But anyway, we made it through. Yeah. Got here.
Carrie:Lived with sweet friends. But then I wanna say once we got here, we were like, okay, until we have our house, let's take this opportunity to see family and friends.
Connor:Forgot about this chapter. That's what I'm saying.
Carrie:Oh. So not only we got to Nashville, we moved across the country
Connor:New home.
Carrie:With our sweet baby who's just so along for their guide. We're like, let's see family while we're here because once we're in our home, we're gonna be settled and we're not settled at the moment. So let's, like, take the time to see Yeah. So we drove to Ohio twice. We drove to Saint Louis.
Carrie:We drove to Atlanta for a work thing. Is that it? I feel like we were gone so much in So the first few
Connor:here let me see if I can map it out. So we're in Nashville. We go from Nashville to Dayton. Dayton to Saint Louis. Saint Louis.
Connor:To Nashville.
Carrie:For one night. Nashville. To Atlanta.
Connor:To Atlanta. Atlanta?
Carrie:And yeah. Oh.
Connor:You you skipped in Ohio.
Carrie:Oh, you're right. You're right. Sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry.
Connor:So we go Saint Louis to Nashville, Nashville to Dayton, Dayton back to Nashville. Nashville. And then that same night
Carrie:We got
Connor:Nashville to Atlanta, Atlanta back to Nashville.
Carrie:And then we stayed. And we found our place.
Connor:And then we moved.
Carrie:And I wanna say I wanna say we got our place, like, that same week. And we signed you know mean? Because we're like, we're gonna move.
Connor:And then we had, like, fees. That's exhausting.
Carrie:That was
Connor:That was exhausting.
Carrie:Was exhausting. All the while, we did two shows on the road. We did two we did a couple episodes in Ohio. We did a couple episodes at our friend's house. You just set up and tore down a good bit even once we were here.
Carrie:So anyway, thanks for
Connor:your long drive on that. Crazy. It was, like, part of us is crazy and we wanted to go see family and just, like, enjoy being driving distance.
Carrie:Yeah.
Connor:But, like, there was a funeral at one point that we weren't expecting. Yeah. There was a work thing in Atlanta that we weren't expecting. Yeah. Life Life things just all happened at once.
Carrie:Came in, and we just would laugh. And it was it's so fun because I don't know. I feel like being parents, when you're just along for the ride with God, that you have to laugh. Everybody gives that advice. Advice.
Carrie:You hear it so often. You have to. I remember we got the email that we had to go to Atlanta. We were in Ohio. We had to go to Atlanta the next day.
Connor:We were
Carrie:back hours the away. And I just we started laughing
Connor:We're like, need you in Atlanta tomorrow. We were
Carrie:like, great. Awesome. So we can kinda get into the travel hacks because I just wanted to start with that one. People say, do the road trips when your kid is asleep. If you have a good nighttime sleeper, that was helpful.
Carrie:That was mean, we were tired. But what we did was gave him his nighttime bottle, cozied him up, had him, like, with a blankie, whatever, and then put him in the car super tired. And I wanna say within after we made our Taco Bell Yeah. Pit stop yeah, or, like Yeah. 9PM pit stop, 8PM pit stop, whatever it was
Connor:Yeah.
Carrie:He was out, and then he actually did sleep until we got
Connor:to Because I would say most of those road trips for us were, like, five hour drives Mhmm. But they ended up being more, like, eight.
Carrie:People that road trip with kids know Yeah. It's not just I mean
Connor:yeah. You gotta stop and and, like, they're little babies. It's like you want them to get out and crawl and play Mhmm. And have some time for mom to hold in.
Carrie:I was gonna say, I feel like we found a flow with that for those who do, like, a five to seven hour drive. The flow really was for us, every kid's schedule's different. But if if they're on a schedule at all and they tend to do most babies that age kinda do two ish naps. Mhmm. Other friends have said this too.
Carrie:It's like, it's it's kinda nice to be like, okay, wake up, feed them, get on the road while they're happy, let them kinda conk out, take their morning nap. When they wake up, stop. That's a great lunchtime for us. Lunchtime for him. And then let him play for a bit Yeah.
Carrie:Back on the road, and then and then kind of let him take that afternoon nap. He wakes up, and then there was always like an hour where it was dicey and it was like throwing crackers and puffs.
Connor:Yeah. You're like, we just gotta get there. We gotta get there. But for
Carrie:the most part, you can kinda make
Connor:it work with their little schedule because they sleep they
Carrie:still sleep a decent bit. Yeah. So that that worked pretty well for us. Like, I don't dread dread road trips, though we did a lot of them there. I mean, I'm enjoying not doing them currently, but
Connor:like just kinda have to just know what's gonna take longer than you want it to Mhmm. Or than the map says it will.
Carrie:Yeah. And also get the teether crackers. Those
Connor:little That's a nice
Carrie:little package. Things were
Connor:Those saved us.
Carrie:Yeah. Yeah. Puffs are great too, but for the for the road, yeah, those are those are nice and helpful. Okay. So I kinda wanna get into, like, just the practical travel tips.
Connor:Practical ones? Okay.
Carrie:I think so. Mean, it could be it could be any travel tips. I just think there's things that we we learned that I'm really glad we did for baby number two. Not that there's baby number two yet, but when that comes.
Connor:Yeah. I think just never travel. I'm just kidding.
Carrie:I have a good one, actually.
Connor:Which I will say is easier. Knock on one. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Connor:It's a one. Some people need to travel or want to travel Mhmm. And it is possible.
Carrie:And you do hear the the whole the advice or the negativity of you'll never travel again, your life will never you'll never get to do any of those things again. It's not true. I mean, we we've had so much fun as a family with these chats. You just have to know going into it.
Connor:I'm yawning just even thinking about it. They're like
Carrie:You just have to know going into it. Okay.
Connor:Consciously came out.
Carrie:Yes. I'm just saying, like, you just have to shift the mindset to this might take longer. This might be a little bit of a nightmare. We had sweet friends that said they got to the point where they were just like their kid was crying in the car for so many hours and they just had to get there where they just said they had to just start laughing to keep from crying. And I think sometimes you get to that place.
Carrie:And as I say that, there have been moments you've witnessed where the tensions get so high that you wanna cry as a mom. She's like, there's nothing there's nothing I can do. My kid just doesn't want to be in the car anymore And there's nothing that I can possibly do and they're okay. And they were just out and had a snack and they just had their diaper change and we just have to drive the next forty five minutes, like whatever it is. So I'm not saying we laugh at their expense.
Carrie:I'm just saying there's times we have to be like, guys.
Connor:Yeah. Laugh so you don't cry.
Carrie:Laugh so you don't cry.
Connor:But that being said, the nighttime hack is good when you have to get somewhere.
Carrie:That's true.
Connor:And that was the one time we we had have to get to Atlanta. Let's just go at night.
Carrie:Yeah.
Connor:And that way, we can just keep going. We can just kick back some coffee and go.
Carrie:Yeah. You know what we should've done? This is a hack that we didn't do. We should've put air like, one AirPod in each so we could've listened to a fun podcast because we were silent so he could sleep.
Connor:It's kind of illegal.
Carrie:Oh, it is?
Connor:You can't drive with headphones.
Carrie:Oh, never mind.
Connor:Scratch that from the record. Well, I could've. Good thing we didn't do that. I could've. I was just joking.
Connor:Yeah. Yeah. What we should do next time, honey, is I'll drive for nine hours Listen at night to a really good time podcast. You should put in both headphones and have your tunes going.
Carrie:Listen to my, yeah, my crime podcast of choice. Goodness. Okay. I guess you're right.
Connor:You honestly should do that, though.
Carrie:I should.
Connor:We shouldn't both sit in
Carrie:silence, and I'm like, I will stay awake. I will stay
Connor:awake. With the with the white noise machine? Yes. Oh, there's a hack. There's a practical The
Carrie:travel the travel white noise.
Connor:These aren't hacks. These are just tips. Yeah. The the travel
Carrie:Mhmm. White Yes. That
Connor:Not a bad thing.
Carrie:A really good thing. Mhmm. I I appreciate the
Connor:What is it?
Carrie:Like, brand? Yeah. I don't know. Maybe I'll link it in the show notes. I don't know.
Carrie:I mean, I'm sure there's a few of them. We like the one we use. I do appreciate like, I think it's great that our son doesn't require a a noise machine. Yes. But I will say he slept sound like, the older they get, just the the more they're aware.
Carrie:It's super helpful.
Connor:That way if, like, you know, we need to say something Mhmm. Or I need to scream at someone in road rage.
Carrie:Just the practical matter.
Connor:The practical, you know, the the everyday things. No. But that way, like, a little bump or something isn't gonna just completely startle them away. Yeah.
Carrie:That's true. Also, guys, everybody says it. We said it so much. At least I did. I won't speak for you.
Carrie:I'm not gonna play the goofy kid music. I'm just not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. We're gonna he's gonna love worship music. Do remember he used to say that?
Connor:I thought it was so much cooler than those playlists.
Carrie:I was like, this is just not gonna happen. Like, are kids gonna, worship? Or he's, yeah, he's gonna, like,
Connor:get it. This is blue. The color blue. Blue blue blue. Boom boom.
Connor:Boom.
Carrie:Boom. Boom. Boom.
Connor:It A million times.
Carrie:A million times. The theme
Connor:songs of
Carrie:our road trips in life have been the, like, the color song. But
Connor:it was We have such a love hate relationship with them because
Carrie:Sometimes we jam
Connor:to are really helpful, but we've heard them so many times
Carrie:Can't do it anymore.
Connor:That alphabet song. Like, the the female vocalist is, like, my biggest
Carrie:pet peeve. Be AI? We don't know.
Connor:She might be AI. We don't know. But it's, like, you just hone in on every weird pronunciation Well, it's usually weird thing. And I'm like Why is she saying that? Why is she saying it that way?
Connor:Why is she saying that way? And, like, after, like, five road trips, I was so over her. But it works. But Archie wasn't.
Carrie:Also, friends of ours recommend the happy song, which didn't really work for Arch. I don't know if you even know
Connor:that one. Don't know.
Carrie:It's like, do do do do Okay. Anyway Stop.
Connor:I'm gonna run out of here.
Carrie:Sorry. Triggering. I kinda like that song, personally. Anyway, people recommend that song too. But but they do work when you need them and that was also helpful.
Carrie:It's like between snacks, toys, obviously, like if he's holding something he Gotta
Connor:hold some toys.
Carrie:Gotta hold some toys, water bottle. You know, he can sip the water, and then and then the music. Those are good These are all good road trip hacks. Okay.
Connor:We have
Carrie:using hacks. Tips.
Connor:Yeah. These are tips for you. We are so not reinventing the wheel. Some basic things that we're gonna call hacks.
Carrie:Ever talked about this before. Nursery rhymes. Yeah. They work.
Connor:Yeah. Know. You know something that is a hack? Okay. Listen up, folks.
Connor:I don't know what you're saying. So we have this issue where Archie loves to have all of his toys and then throw them to the ground and then cry.
Carrie:Oh, yeah.
Connor:So I had this big block of foam that was from the inside of a camera, like travel case, like a pelican case, and I put that piece of foam wedged up between the door and the car seat. And so then when he would throw stuff, it wouldn't fall down.
Carrie:It was just stay right to his. Just stay
Connor:right there.
Carrie:Arm's reach. That was actually
Connor:That was That's a hack. Right?
Carrie:I I think that's the definition of a hack. Clearly, I don't know the definition of a hack is. But, yeah, I think that's a good one. I had another one I just thought of and I'm and I'm like, oh, I was gonna say, some moms are awesome and sit in the back with their kids. I want it to be I clearly don't.
Connor:Carrie will be puking.
Carrie:Was just gonna say I'm very carsick.
Connor:Fifteen
Carrie:minutes. I promise I'm not just heartless. I'm very carsick. I also do like to sit up front. I like to hold your hand and still, you know, be a couple.
Carrie:But I the one time I did that, remember on the way to Ohio? I was like, I'm just gonna do it. And we got to Guitar Center and I was like, I
Connor:am Oh.
Carrie:Ill. So ill. So anyway, I can't do it. So hence the toys and the nursery rhymes and like everything like that. Yeah.
Carrie:So those are road trip things. Something that I don't even know who told us this. Somebody someone told us this right when we had him. But it's really true whether this is just to do with your baby not sleeping in their own room or their own crib. Could be if you're traveling, could be if you're one of those people that wants to go to a friend's house, put your kid down.
Carrie:Oh. We put Arch in the pack and play to sleep and got him used to it really quickly. Yeah. Like, the first week. Yes.
Carrie:Very, very quickly in his little life. And we didn't do it all the time, but enough that like, I think he took naps there. That was a good starting place. We do some naps in the pack and play.
Connor:Just to get him ready.
Carrie:It's never been an issue. I don't say
Connor:He was always comfortable.
Carrie:I'm just gonna say, I'm not gonna say he prefers it over the crib, but he likes it just as well. Yeah. And I mean, it was his crib when we were traveling for a
Connor:can't talk, so we don't know. Yeah. Well, he sleeps fine. Yeah. He can't tell us either way.
Connor:Yeah.
Carrie:He's like, this thing stings, guys. No. But that I think that's kind of a hack. That's a tip. I don't know.
Connor:Yeah. Okay. So now we're we're getting off the road, and we are getting into
Carrie:Where you're staying.
Connor:Where you're staying.
Carrie:Okay.
Connor:So that brings us into things like this. Yes. Okay. So that's one. One one that comes to mind, laughing at things we've done,
Carrie:is trying to blackout his room with different, like, items.
Connor:Oh my gosh. You know what we settled on?
Carrie:What? I don't remember.
Connor:Is the the covering thing for the Pack and Play.
Carrie:Oh, that's a good I could put that in the show notes too. Yes. Getting a blackout there's the tents that are the really we don't have a tent. Those are the really fancy ones, like big black tents that go Yeah. Through Pack and
Connor:Yeah.
Carrie:Booj. But anyway, those are amazing. So I've heard from friends. But we just went for the black slip that goes over it, the blackout slip, and ties at the bottom. It it worked.
Connor:Pretty good.
Carrie:It was pretty good. I mean, it's not like
Connor:It's not full proof.
Carrie:Full proof or or we're doing it wrong. One of the two.
Connor:Yeah. I'm not gonna lie. I just got tired of tying those little things I was like, yeah, we're good.
Carrie:But, that that actually was really helpful when you don't have blackout curtains, which obviously we didn't have in a lot
Connor:luggage. Which brings me to my next point since we're talking about pack and plays. Yes. I would say spend the money and get a good pack and play.
Carrie:I think that's valid. We
Connor:I've experimented with a couple and there is nothing more frustrating than getting off of like a ten hour road trip. Mhmm. We've never done a ten hour road trip.
Carrie:Yeah. Definitely haven't.
Connor:But A six hour, seven hour road trip, eight hour, whatever. You're getting off a road trip. You're so tired. Everybody's a little testy. And now you've got to take the pack and play and go set it up.
Connor:And there's nothing more frustrating than a poorly built Pack and Play Yeah. That has stupid parts
Carrie:Mhmm.
Connor:And it doesn't work. Mhmm. And the and the, you know, like the, the mattress folds up in all these weird ways and you can't straighten it out while you're trying to put it.
Carrie:Shout out to Nuna.
Connor:We will shout out the Nuna one.
Carrie:Yeah. We love our Packet Play.
Connor:It's a little bit more pricey, but it is so good.
Carrie:It's so great. It's easy. I can even do it and I'm not the most
Connor:Yeah. I don't know. There's a lot of things I think you can cheap out on. That's one if you plan to travel. Mhmm.
Connor:Make your life easier. Also, I think
Carrie:I think it's comfy because he has slept in some others that Yeah. He doesn't It's comfy. It's cushy.
Connor:It's
Carrie:clean. It's easy. Yeah.
Connor:He also slept in Santa Barbara. I'm forgetting about that trip.
Carrie:Oh, yeah.
Connor:Another road trip.
Carrie:That was another road trip. That was pretty
Connor:Poor kid.
Carrie:Pretty quick too. Know this this kiddo. No, he's good. Yeah. He's fine.
Carrie:But he that being said, he's very chill because of all of it. Like, he'll kinda just
Connor:Just go with the flow.
Carrie:He'll sleep where you put him down. What I what I would say is for moms listening who have any sort of a structure and are curious about this, I was anxious because of that. Cause we kinda have a routine. We have a schedule. Kinda loose, but we have one.
Carrie:And I was really nervous about how it would work with having him not in his room and and having things, just be different, like him just not be used to stuff. And I think that keeping him on the schedule as much as possible in different locations was key. So if you're gonna road trip, have him nap when he would nap if he can. Or when you go to the new location, keep him on the same like, it's like his routine was the same every day. His body was used to the routine.
Carrie:So whether we were in the car, whatever the setting was, he had the same things happening. Does that make Yeah. That's And we were big on that. I also was big on the shifting his time zone. If you're traveling with a baby and you're going time zone and you're shifting time zones, I did fifteen minutes a day forward or backward as needed for maybe a week.
Carrie:And so that really helped. It didn't get us fully there because we did a three hour jump the first time he traveled, but it got us halfway. It was like an hour and a half. Like, slowly move him toward
Connor:It's the right not a huge jump
Carrie:on the other. And then you're not waking up at 3AM with your child or like whatever it is. So that was also a big thing. I think it's just kind for them because then they don't know the difference. They're staying on their same time and you kind of just pivot accordingly, then you're also not getting up at a crazy, crazy time if your kid sleeps.
Carrie:So, yeah. Those were some things. What else?
Connor:What other things? I know that there's more.
Carrie:Well, we haven't touched on flying. We did fly a lot as well.
Connor:And you were breastfeeding when we were flying.
Carrie:I was breastfeeding. So I didn't do the nursing pod room pods, whatever they're called.
Connor:Oh, the pods at the airport? Like, the nursing
Carrie:But I have had a lot of friends say those are amazing. What I think they're two separate things. There's nursing rooms and then there's like the little pod you can rent and just go sit in.
Connor:Yes. I don't know
Carrie:you have to rent it. Maybe it's free. Yeah. You just go sit in there.
Connor:Yeah.
Carrie:But apparently there's rooms at each airport that has has that and offers that. And a couple friends that travel a lot told me that's a must. I just didn't breastfeed that long after that first trip, so I didn't have to do it. But, that's great for pumping too. I was pumping then.
Carrie:But, yeah, I would say something that I didn't get that I I know they're kind of like people go back and forth on them. I just had the Spectra, which I loved as a pump. When you were traveling, I really longed for the portables. I longed for the yeah.
Connor:Oh, don't do the sound.
Carrie:Don't do the sound. But I longed for the ones that you could just slip under your shirt. I don't even know the brands.
Connor:That would be that would have been nice.
Carrie:Willow. There's a couple of them that people like.
Connor:Mhmm.
Carrie:I don't know. But that's something if you if it's in your budget, I think that's worth it if you plan to fly a lot and travel. If you're somebody who's gonna be going to Europe or doing whatever with your kiddos, I think that that's a worthy investment because that was really hard to travel and I have spilling bottles and
Connor:Yeah. Yeah. You remember that. That was wild.
Carrie:That was tough.
Connor:You can
Carrie:make it work. Like we made it work for sure.
Connor:Anyway, like that You had to bring the cooler.
Carrie:Yeah. So
Connor:Any travel tips for like food, baby food? Well, I was gonna
Carrie:say breast milk chiller is great if you're talking about breast milk. We almost brought a legit cooler. We did not know what we were doing, guys. The first I was like, should we just bring this beach cooler, babe? You're like, no.
Connor:I bet you people do.
Carrie:I they probably do. I mean, it's Just roll
Connor:up with a Yeti.
Carrie:Yeah. I mean, probably. But I looked it up and I literally searched basically what this podcast would be like, just travel tips for first time moms. I so was anxious the first time we were gonna fly with him. Yeah.
Carrie:So anxious. Someone recommended that, like the breast chiller. And so it's so easy. You just literally put the pieces like the in the freezer so it keeps it nice and cool. And then you put your pump bottles directly, slide them in there
Connor:Mhmm.
Carrie:And it keeps it cool all day. So that's great if you're pumping or if you're Yeah. I guess if you're pumping. Yeah. And then food wise
Connor:Oh, here's a quick one.
Carrie:What?
Connor:Bring a backup outfit. I'm sure we've talked about this on other podcasts.
Carrie:Guys.
Connor:Just bring a backup outfit for honestly, the baby and for you. Yes. Because It's true. If the baby needs a backup outfit, there's a good chance You might as you might need one as well. Yeah.
Connor:And we've run into that a couple of times.
Carrie:Few times. And and, you know, we just really don't learn
Connor:how Do yourself a favor and don't put it in, like, the checked bag. Mhmm. Just, you know
Carrie:Also, our child is 10 old and we still try to bring a backup outfit because and I'm not talking about just for travel. Just leave
Connor:Yeah. Your When you leave your house, he is testing the limits of diapers and Let's just say
Carrie:there was a hose used today.
Connor:I yep. I was really grateful to be in a home that had a hose so that I could take care of some problems.
Carrie:That would have gone differently if
Connor:you weren't for us.
Carrie:God. Oh my gosh. Anyway, yeah, that's a big one. Mhmm. Flying oh, I was gonna go back to food for a second.
Carrie:Yeah. So you can travel with baby food. You can travel with purees. You can travel with physical, like, little whatever snacks you need for your child, they can't They have to let you go through, I guess is what They might wanna swab them, but they can go through. And I had people tell me, they're gonna try to fight you on it, maybe, but just so you know, like, you can.
Carrie:And I did have that happen. Someone was like, I'm sorry you can't. And I was like, I I've been told I can. I hate conflict. It was but we made it work.
Carrie:We got through it and I
Connor:was like, I really I
Carrie:really can't. It's funny how any mom, even if you don't like conflict when it's for your kid, you're like, listen.
Connor:I know.
Carrie:This food's coming through. Mama bear can I will Google this for you if I have to? But I was
Connor:I will Google this.
Carrie:We'll show you.
Connor:Yeah. I don't wanna have to do this,
Carrie:but I will Google this. I I love dancing. They were fine. But, yeah, she she let me take it through. But seriously, even if they fight you on it, you can take the baby food through.
Carrie:I had little Tupperwares. Like, it was homemade baby food, and I still was able to take it through.
Connor:And also show up a little bit early in case, you know because sometimes when they make you step aside
Carrie:Mhmm.
Connor:To do that stuff, they might take their sweet time.
Carrie:Yes. That's true. Yeah. Especially when you have a stroller. Oh, bring the stroller.
Carrie:Take your stroller and put your baby in the carrier. So walk in the walk walk around the airport with your baby in your carrier so you have the stroller as, like, a little cart, almost like the smart carts. That was helpful for us cause we keep the diaper bag and then put like my carry on and everything in the
Connor:And if you have a few $100 just laying around that's burning a hole in your pocket, just just check all your bags. Oh, yeah. Except for what you need for the kid.
Carrie:Connor just kept saying, can we just we could just
Connor:check
Carrie:all
Connor:the bags. It'd be
Carrie:so much easier if we could just check
Connor:all the bags. Or, like, if you're, like, bougie and you have, like, Delta Plus or whatever those are called.
Carrie:Yeah. Sky Point, Sam Ellis?
Connor:I know. Don't know.
Carrie:Clearly, we don't have any.
Connor:Yeah. Clearly, we're members at Zero Airlines. But if you're like a bougie airline member person and you get free bags, just take advantage of it and check everything. Yes. It's just it's so hard running around running around an airport with, like, stroller, kid.
Carrie:Yes.
Connor:You know, you're you're over there filling up your water bottle. There's two bags with you two with me. Especially when I was coming there.
Carrie:Was a sweaty mess. I was
Connor:so Sweaty.
Carrie:So grumper, so sweaty.
Connor:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Carrie:Yeah. I would say that's a big one. Also, toys, when your kid gets older, I mean, all my friends we've all tried the toys on the plane. They don't want the toys. I don't I don't know if I would invest in too many travel toys.
Carrie:I think you could save on that. It's like, spend here, save here. Everybody's like, this toy, that'll be so entertaining.
Connor:All they want is a wrapper anyways.
Carrie:They just want your wrapper.
Connor:Yeah. They just want
Carrie:go for snacks, I guess. Yeah. And then I kinda wanted to get into if there's are there any other specific ones that you think are like practical?
Connor:I haven't flown with them in a long time. Okay. So those ones aren't coming to be as quickly.
Carrie:Yeah. Other thing I was gonna say is a receiving blanket.
Connor:If you're trying to get your baby
Carrie:to sleep and they're not the easiest sleeper on a plane, I didn't have like a blackout blanket or anything. Obviously I'm not gonna suffocate him, but I kinda did a receiving blanket over my shoulder that he could easily breathe through and it just got it dark enough that he unfortunately did cry for a few minutes and I felt like absolutely the worst mom in the entire world. But once you get through that five minutes of screaming and fighting, I noticed that when it was darker, he would kinda conk out on me. So I would have a blanket even if your baby's a bit older. I was kinda surprised that I used it, but I did.
Connor:It helped. It definitely helped. It makes me think.
Carrie:They don't want the light.
Connor:Aisle seats Aisle seats. Are the best. Important. Mhmm. And this is a half joke, But also, if your mom or mother-in-law offers to fly with you, you should
Carrie:say no.
Connor:You should probably take a muff on it.
Carrie:Myself in the face.
Connor:It's really nice. Like, poor you. I've only flown with them once and I had you. But and your and your mom. Yeah.
Connor:But if you if you have someone to pass him off to and just entertain him and someone can walk the aisles
Carrie:It's helpful.
Connor:Soak it up. It is helpful. That's kinda what wanted get into. Yeah. Yeah.
Connor:You can
Carrie:do it by yourself.
Connor:You can tell it to I'm telling everyone they can. I haven't done
Carrie:it. Mom.
Connor:I'm just, like, on a Yeah. Twenty four hour road trip by myself.
Carrie:Yeah. That's true.
Connor:I kept saying sorry. I like, I'm
Carrie:so sorry. You have to drive across the country by yourself. And you were like, are you kidding?
Connor:I was like, this rocks compared to what you're doing.
Carrie:It was fine. We it was we we made some sweet memories. But it's also special, like, landing in Nashville. You picked us up. I'm like, we live here now.
Carrie:Like, it was it was just the three of us. And I think it was really symbolic and and sweet to get in the car and have you pick us up and take us. Yeah. Was that was that the feels like forever ago. It really wasn't that long ago.
Carrie:It's crazy.
Connor:It's been a wild ride.
Carrie:It really has.
Connor:I'm tired. I know. Me too. Are you tired?
Carrie:We should take a nap today.
Connor:Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Anyways, I'm just saying, at this season, the season has been has
Carrie:been Oh, it's been exhausting. Exhausting. Yeah. It's like every single night at 7PM, I could absolutely hit the hay. Oh, yeah.
Carrie:And I'm I'm socially tired. I'm just tired. Cool. But anyway, the one other thing that I wanted to touch on was travel and how stressful it is on the marriage because it that's real.
Connor:Yeah.
Carrie:And we love each other. I mean, we've done great, I think. All things we haven't had, like, knock down drag out fights or anything.
Connor:No. No.
Carrie:But there the tension is just high.
Connor:Sorry. My brain just went. I was like, oh, yeah. I gotta cut the grass today. Well, brain goes babe.
Connor:And so I'm raining it back in.
Carrie:Raining it back into marriage and travel. But those tensions
Connor:I'm a suburban dad now.
Carrie:Yes. Those I gotta cut the grass. Those tensions are high.
Connor:They can be.
Carrie:Yes. What do you think has helped us or what do you think would help us? Because we're still I mean, guys, we're in the thick of it too. Again, we're still new parents. Yeah.
Carrie:But what do you what do you think has been helpful? I think expectations are huge. I think the you cannot over communicate with your spouse. The worst, I love you so much, is he's kinda deaf, guys.
Connor:Tell him what I did.
Carrie:He's a worship leader. He can't hear because he always says in here too.
Connor:My ear drums are, like, blown out.
Carrie:So I'll be like especially on the planes, but also in the car, Faye, would you pass the whatever? What would you pass the what would you pass the and it gets louder and more intense because he can't hear, what? What? What? And so he's irritated that he can't hear me.
Connor:Mean, airplanes are loud, dude.
Carrie:Airplanes are loud, but also
Connor:Don't whisper to your spouse.
Carrie:Don't. That's the lesson.
Connor:The lesson is don't whisper to your husband.
Carrie:No. But I'm just saying, like, this is the funny tension of, I'm trying to say something subtly. And then you're like, wait, what? I can't hear you. So then you're annoyed with me.
Carrie:And I'm like, why are you saying what? I'm with you. And there's a sweet kid screaming. And it's a lot. But I was just gonna say, I don't think you can over communicate.
Carrie:Like, I think expectations going in with road trips and everything, we're getting better. Even today, like, we were kinda good about getting out the door. I'm like, okay, when you do that and I do this and these tasks
Connor:When we assign jobs,
Carrie:it's really so well. Because we we work really well together. I think I think it's why it's blurry.
Connor:We get stressed when, yeah, there's like five things to do.
Carrie:Nobody really says who's doing what.
Connor:And like they're all in your head and you haven't told me. Oh, yeah. So then I'm just not meeting any any of the expectations.
Carrie:Yes.
Connor:I'm like, I didn't know the wording.
Carrie:Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. That works really well.
Connor:And like, we're getting out the door to go to this place. We're gonna leave at this time. Would be helpful. I'm gonna do this and this and this. If you could do this and this and this Yes.
Connor:Meet you in the car.
Carrie:I think what's often That's helpful
Connor:really helpful.
Carrie:Yes. What's often helpful is like and some of it's unsaid, unspoken. For instance, you always do the pack and play stuff. You always do when we were coming and going house to house different days, you were always in charge of taking the pack and play, taking the gear. Uh-huh.
Carrie:I mean, dads are just it's mostly gear. But when it comes to getting out the door and there isn't gear involved, I actually love when you're on arch duty, like today. Yeah. You're like, I'm putting his shoes and socks on. I'm getting them in the car seat.
Carrie:I've got a and then I was able to pack the diaper bag, get my thermos filled up because let's be real, hydration always. And do you know what I mean? And do my last few things. Mhmm. Because also girls tend to take a little longer to get out the door.
Carrie:So
Connor:Mhmm.
Carrie:But, yeah, would I say that's like one marriage What?
Connor:They do. What are talking about? Well, this girl does.
Carrie:I do okay. I'm not
Connor:that high in face. No. You're not that way. But,
Carrie:yeah, I would say that's like communication.
Connor:Communication, man. Communication. I think I think one thing that's maybe simple but important is to remember that when things are stressful and, like, you're in the car and there's a screaming baby to, like, remember the reason you're stressed and don't, like, put your frustration on the wrong thing.
Carrie:Yeah.
Connor:Like, if we're driving down the road and there's a screaming baby, you're just stressed out because your nervous system is shot because there's a screaming baby.
Carrie:Mhmm. You're not mad at your spouse.
Connor:You're not mad at your spouse. And so it's it's it's really easy though to, like, let your frustration come out at the wrong thing. And it's like, sometimes you just need to recognize, like, there's a crying baby. My nervous system is shot. Mhmm.
Connor:That's okay. It's not my wife's fault.
Carrie:Yes. And so
Connor:You're not the cause of this. I don't need to, you know, get short-tempered with you or Mhmm. We're on the same team. It's just a crying baby, know, like things like that.
Carrie:Yeah. I was gonna say there's nothing more convicting and refining than becoming becoming parents. Be like, wow, I can get angry really quickly. Like, I'm I am quick to anger more than I realized or I am snappier than I would like to be. You just yeah.
Carrie:That's why it's important who you pick as a spouse. I love you very much.
Connor:Me too.
Carrie:Because, yeah, you need someone that has a lot of grace for each other because we both have had moments where it's like, that was uncalled for. Yeah. But we're pretty good at communicating through that. And then also just don't stay in the frustration of I think you and I do a pretty good job of regrouping after if we get him down or something and it's like, that was stressful. Okay.
Carrie:Hi. Yeah.
Connor:Hi. How are you? Let's have a hug and let's go make let's go make dinner. You know?
Carrie:Exactly. Man. Yeah. Good. Well, I I hope this was helpful for you guys and I I hope you enjoyed our
Connor:Yeah. We're not experts. We're just sharing No.
Carrie:No. No. This is
Connor:But what we went through and hopefully, you know, a little, you know, thing that we've learned along the way.
Carrie:Yeah. And hopefully, you guys have some practical, maybe takeaways and also just enjoyed our silly
Connor:Filler episode. But,
Carrie:yeah, we're we're so excited. I'm so excited about the show. I'm so excited to be in the studio.
Connor:And the future of No Mom is bright. Yeah. It's gonna be so guests. I won't be here as much.
Carrie:You will always be in the studio, but you won't be yeah. Behind the mic. Yeah. But I love you. Thank you for being on.
Carrie:And guys, I hope this episode was fun. I hope you enjoyed it.
Connor:And helpful.
Carrie:Yeah. I hope it was helpful.