Beach pictures with your infant are adorable, and the pictures of them sleeping on the beach are even cuter; but, what does it take to get there? Stress, preparation, and a lot of *stuff* to carry.
Last week, we were on our family vacation in Bethany Beach. I LOVE Bethany. Its a perfect family friendly beach town.
We went to the beach twice and at the end of both days I thought..”was all of that worth it with an infant?” Honestly, probably not. I loved being by the ocean, but I think I only actually looked at it like twice while I was sitting on the beach. It’s exhausting by the end of it and then, you have to pack it all back up and get the baby home for a bath.
Packing to prepare to head to the beach, I would suggest creating a list of items that you will need and keep in mind, you might not last longer than 2 hours with a little one, and that is not a bad thing.
The first day we went to the beach we had a really nice beach tent, but it lasted all of 5 minutes once it was set up because Bethany Beach doesn’t allow tents anymore, unless they’re 38 inches high. Just big enough for a little baby to sit under. So definitely check before you lug one out there like we did!
In addition to our beach chairs, umbrella, beach mat, beach bag with everything that Tim and I needed, coolers full of drinks, baby bottles, baby food, snacks, towels, toys for the baby, a baby pool, we had her diaper bag full of stuff, and a pack-n-play. The pack-n-play might sound like the most “extra” thing to bring, but it was probably the best thing we had for the babies. With three infants on the beach it was nice to get a few minutes to sit them in the pack-n-play so they can stretch out and play with toys…not in the sand.
Luckily, Lily isn’t crawling yet, so I was able to sit her down and keep her relatively in one place while I needed to. It’s definitely harder if your baby is on the move and trying to shovel sand into their mouths every chance they get!
I don’t know how we did it but the first day at the beach we were out there 9AM -4PM…a SUPER long day. I think I slept great that night after it all. Lily really liked sleeping on the beach that day, I just laid down a clean towel under the shade and put her sound machine next to her, gave her a pacifier and she was out. That wasn’t the case the second day…she decided she only wanted to sleep in my arms. It was hot, but I didn’t mind 😉
In the end, I am so glad we had a great trip spent with family and Lily got to experience the beach for the first time. The pictures of her playing in the sand are adorable (Check out my instagram for more! @KatieRyan5234), But I think taking her to the beach as she gets older will be much easier!
<3 Katie Ryan