1. Buy the right car seat.
There are no actual guidelines for what constitutes “right”, so be sure to read lots and lots and lots of reviews on Amazon. 200 at least. And don’t bother reading the 197 positive 5 star reviews – sort by 1 star and be sure to take VERY SERIOUSLY the three people who HATED that particular seat because their baby got stung by a bee while sitting in it. What kind of MONSTER doesn’t buy a bee-repelling car seat? Also take into consideration what color your baby’s eyes will be and order a seat in a color that really makes them pop. Since you need a car seat to bring your infant home from the hospital and cannot actually SEE your baby’s eyes before it is born, you will definitely buy the wrong seat. Wow, you didn’t even make it to the end of the first tip. You should probably stay home.

2. Pack lots of snacks.
You will have to stop a lot of times to feed your newborn, because newborns are lazy and refuse to just feed themselves pretzels and Twizzlers like everyone else does on road trips. But don’t expect you will actually get to eat or drink ANYTHING when you stop. This is not your time, this is BABY’S TIME. It doesn’t really matter what kinds of snacks you bring, since you’ll be blindly shoving it into your mouth while keeping your eyes on the road. I recommend crunchy things – the sound of yourself chewing helps drown out the screaming from bee stings.

3. Avoid traffic.
Since I am sure usually you enjoy sitting through construction, accidents and other acts of God you have no control over, actively avoid those things when you have a newborn traveling with you. If you cannot see into the future and/or predict traffic slow downs, invest in a psychic or perhaps a hoverjet.

4. Wear your baby.
OBVIOUSLY not while you’re driving, but at some point you will need to pee. It is easier to do so when you don’t have to also hold a baby with your arms and hands. Just like the car seat, it is important that you buy the RIGHT baby carrying device. Check out the lively world of online parenting message boards, which are not at all full of people screaming at each other over which kind of baby carrier is the best. Remember, a $600 organic hand woven sling is clearly superior to the kind you can just borrow from a friend, because the more something costs the more babies like it. This is why all babies prefer those wooden black and white educational toys to the car keys you just dropped in the parking lot.

5. Bring help.
Consider hiring the following people: nanny, wet nurse, car seat installer, personal chef, therapist, barista, and driver. Since bring ALL those people would require a much larger car than you probably own, try to find help who can multitask – there’s no reason someone can’t make you a latte while nursing your baby. If you have to bring just ONE person, your spouse will be fine. I guess. Can they make coffee?

6. Order the correct baby.
Did you get one of those newborns that hates riding in the car? An unreasonable baby that doesn’t sleep in 4+ hour chunks right from the beginning? Does your infant take hours to eat instead of efficiently chugging their milk/formula? Unexplained screaming? Poopsplosions? Colic? Clearly your baby is defective. Check your warranty paperwork to find out where to get your baby repaired. If you cannot locate your paperwork (people often seem to misplace it) send me $500 and I can get the Department of Perfect Children to mail you another copy. It’s no problem, happy to help.

Now you are ready for your road trip! It should be a very fun and relaxing activity, with lots of good opportunities to take and share beautiful Instagram photos of yourself in your adorable yet casual driving clothes standing on the beach or in front of a quaint farm stand or local landmarks. Remember to take at least one where you breastfeed in a field while staring peacefully into the distance, to prove you are a good mother. Good luck to you and your baby!

My favorite feature on Pinterest is the “also from…” option you see when you click on a pin. For example, if you click on a picture of a delicious looking recipe from Tasty Kitchen, in the bottom left hand corner of your screen you’ll see “also from tastykitchen.com”. It’s a great way to instantly get more from a site you’ve just discovered.

One of the things I’ve noticed about my traffic is readers often click on the suggested similar posts at the end of each new post. I use the LinkWithin widget to display thumbnails of posts with similar key words and topics. I find myself doing the same thing on other people’s sites and spending hours reading archives and links. I thought it would be great if I could combine those two ideas with a button right in my sidebar . Now you (and I) can see what people have pinned from my blog instantly, plus it’s a quick way to see the best of my crafts and party stuff with direct links back to their original posts without having to search.

And because I’d like to see the same thing on YOUR blog, here’s a quick and easy tutorial on how to make a button of your own.

How To Make A “Stuff Pinned From Your Blog On Pinterest” Button

1. Create a button sized blank graphic in your favorite graphics editor. I used Photoshop Elements, but you could use any program that lets you size the document to 175×175 pixels. Some sidebars are a little smaller (150×150) and some are a little bigger (200×200) so use whatever works best.

2. Add your blog name. I used the color and font from my blog design to keep it recognizable. I also spent WAY too much time choosing a font/size for the word “on”.

3. Download the Pinterest logo graphic from their “Goodies” page (it’s at the bottom) and insert it in your graphic. They have two options available, so you can make yours look like mine or use the “P” logo.

4. Add a graphic. I went to my “stuff pinned from bebehblog” page, took a screenshot and cropped it in Picasa. That way the images in the button are actual pins from my blog.

5. Tweak it – resize your text and graphic, center everything, make sure you like the screen shot you used. I ended up adding a border to mine because it was too white against my background. You want it to be clean and eye catching but not too busy. Save your image as a JPG.

6. Upload the image to a free photo-sharing site. I like imgur but Flikr and Photobucket are also popular. Find the sharing option that gives you the direct link to the photo – it will start with “http://” and end with “.jpg”.

7. Insert this code into a widget in your sidebar where you want the button to go:

<center><a href=”http://pinterest.com/source/bebehblog.com/”><img src=”http://i.imgur.com/x1xlL.jpg“></a></center>

Replace the RED text with your blog address.com and the BLUE text with the direct link to your image.

8. Save the changes to the widget. Refresh your site and you should see your new button!

Because the link will update as people pin more things from your blog, you should only have to make one button and the most recent stuff will always show up on top when people click through.

Any questions? Feel free to leave a comment or email me at bebehblog@gmail.com and I can try to help.

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