Lake Powell is a beautiful place to have a vacation, not to mention fun. Colter has gone down for a week on a houseboat every summer for his entire life. However, taking a baby down to the Utah-Arizona border in early July takes a bit of thought and preparation. Here’s how I handled it!
HOW LONG WE WENT FOR
Typically, the Lake Powell trip lasts from a Monday to the following Wednesday. This gives us about seven days out in the water to play. We go sometime around the last week in June or the first week in July and the temperature ranges from the mid-sixties at night to the high nineties in the middle of the day.
This year, Colter went for the full ten days, and Calvin and I drove down for the last five of the trip, if you include our travel days. I knew that it was going to be somewhat challenging to keep Calvin cool and out of the sun, so I figured that three days on the water would be plenty and I was right.
One full day of travel, three days on the lake, and one more full day of travel was a plenty long vacation with a five month old. I felt like we were able to enjoy the family time and get a full vacation in without getting burnt out or over exerting ourselves. Plus, I only had to bring enough formula and diapers for five days, rather than ten.
PACKING
Going camping in the backwoods or spending a few days out on a houseboat in Lake Powell is different from other trips you may take with a baby because your access to stores is pretty limited. I knew that whatever I took out to the boat was going to be all I had to work with for the trip. In a real emergency, we could have taken a boat back into the marina, but it would have been an hour of traveling each way to get to the Walmart in Page. That being said, I also didn’t want to overpack or bring anything that I would be devastated if it got wet or dirty.
Here’s what I ended up bringing onto the houseboat for Calvin:
- Life Jacket
- 1 Reusable Swim Diaper
- 2 Swim Suits
- 1 Short Sleeved Onesie
- 1 Long Sleeved Onesie
- 1 Footed Sleeper
- 2 Pacifiers with Clips
- White Muslin Blanket
- Sunglasses
- 40 Disposable Diapers
- 1 Pack of Wipes
- Sun Hat
- Baby Acetaminophen
- Gas Drops
- Thermometer
- External Battery
- Burt’s Bees Diaper Rash Cream
- Lotion
- 2 Boon Nursh Bottles (8 oz.)
- Zipadee-Zip
- Pack N’ Play
- Hushh White Noise Machine
- Diaper Changing Clutch
- Toys
- Carseat (I actually left this in the car at the marina)
Everything that I brought for Calvin and myself (excluding my sleeping bag, pillow, towel, and the Pack N’ Play) fit into two backpacks. And that includes all the diapers and formula that I brought. I was actually able to carry everything, except for Calvin in his carseat, out the car in one trip.
KEEPING COOL AND HYDRATED
This was my biggest concern about going on this trip. There is not much shade out on the Lake during the middle of the day and it gets very hot. For the rest of us, this usually means slapping some sunscreen on and jumping in the lake to cool off. That wasn’t an option for Calvin (see below). Calvin prefers to be hot rather than cold, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have to worry about him getting dehydrated or overheating. I did five main things to protect him from heatstroke and dehydration:
The first thing I did was keep him in as little clothing as possible. Whenever he was inside the houseboat or in adequate shade during the day, he was stripped down to his diaper. This helped him let off heat and ventilate as much as possible.
Second, I made sure that he was getting lots and lots of fluids. Cal hadn’t started solid foods yet and water isn’t recommended for infants younger than six months. Calvin is exclusively bottle fed and typically eats 28-32 ounces when we are at home. During the Lake Powell trip he ate 36-40 ounces every day. I know that doctors don’t recommend feeding your infant more that 32 ounces of formula in a 24 hour period, but when I considered the risks of dehydration against the risks of a few extra ounces of calories for a couple of days, I decided that the extra calories weren’t going to hurt him as much as dehydration would.
Third, I mixed Calvin’s bottles with chilled water from the refrigerator. This isn’t an option if you are nursing or if your child will only take a warmed bottle, but Calvin will take any bottle, no matter the temperature. The cold bottles helped to keep him cool by giving his body something to do with all the extra heat. For me, there’s nothing like an ice cold Diet Coke on a blazing hot day. For Calvin, it’s a chilled bottle of formula.
Fourth, I would let him kick his legs in the lake for a few minutes. You lose the most body heat through your head and through your feet, so keeping those areas warm in the cold and cool in the heat helps regulate your whole body’s temperature. Calvin loved cooling his feet off in the lake.
Fifth, I kept something damp nearby. I would often dip his sun hat in the lake to cool his little head. The other thing I did was bring a plain white muslin swaddling blanket. I would dunk it in the lake, wring most of the water out, and use it to keep Cal cool and shielded from the sun. The cotton muslin can hold a lot of water, but also dries quickly went hung out on a line. I used the blanket all day every day and for every boat ride. Usually I just laid it across his legs and that was enough to keep him chilled off and comfortable.
SUN PROTECTION
Calvin turned five months old on the day we drove down to AZ. Sunscreen (whether mineral or chemical) is not recommend for infants younger than six months of age. When I took Calvin in for his four month well baby visit, I asked his pediatrician if five months was close enough to use sunscreen on him and if using sunscreen early was worse than my baby getting a sunburn. The pediatrician told me that he wouldn’t recommend sunscreen of any kind earlier than six months, but that it was my decision to make. He recommended using a hat, long sleeved shirts, and if he needed to be out in the sun, to limit the exposure to no more than ten minutes.
I did not end up using sunscreen on Calvin for this vacation. Instead, I kept him covered with light clothing and kept him cool with water (see above).
Anytime Calvin was out in the sun he was wearing a brimmed sun hat that protected the top of his head, his ears, forehead, and the back of his neck. He also wore a long-sleeved swim suit made with UV protective fabric. The areas I had to worry the most about were: 1) his face, 2) the tops of his hands, and 3) his legs and feet. I kept him in the shade as much as possible, but while out on the ski boat, I took his white muslin blanket, folded it so it was several layers thick, soaked it, and laid it across Cal’s lap, covering his legs and feet. The water kept him cool and the layers of the blanket protected him from the sun.
It was crucial that I folded the muslin several times. It is a very thin and breathable fabric, so UV rays can easily pass through a single layer of the fabric. Having multiple layers was the key to protecting Calvin’s skin from the sun.
As for his face, I kept a towel or a large hat in my hand while he laid on my lap and would use that to shade his face while we were out boating. It worked well, but I had to be sure to pay attention and move the shade as we made turns through the water.
DIAPERS
We cloth diaper 100% of the time when we are at home. However, we did not use our cloth diapers for this vacation. I have enough cloth diapers to last me three days maximum before I need to have a wash day. While out on the lake I didn’t have access to a washing machine. So, I would have had threes days worth of diapers for five days, had to keep them all in a stinky bag, drive all the way home with wet smelly diapers, and have them sit soiled for far too long. For all of these reasons, we used disposable diapers from the last diaper wash before we left home to the night we got back.
I typically change Calvin’s diaper 6-8 times in a day. For five days, this would mean anywhere from 30 to 48 diapers. I brought 50 because the last thing I wanted to happen was to go through all of them before reaching land again and be wrapping my babe in a dish towel. I ended up using about 35 diapers while we were gone, because he did wear a swim diaper some of the time, but this was one thing I would rather have too many of than not enough.
The biggest things to remember with diapers on a lake are to make sure you are always putting a clean diaper on a dry bum to minimize diaper rash, make sure you are seeing a wet diaper every couple of hours (sign of proper hydration), and to make sure that if baby’s bum is being submerged in the water, they need to either be in a swim diaper or bare bummed. A regular diaper will soak up all the water it can and then dissolve. It’s not pretty. I do not recommend it. We threw all our soiled diapers away in the trash can that was outside and didn’t have an issue with smell.
GETTING IN THE WATER
Calvin loved kicking his feet in the lake but was not a fan of floating around in his life jacket in my arms. I think that the water was just too chilly to be comfortable for him. When he would get too hot and bored inside the houseboat, we would take him out to the back swim deck to let him splash around. Usually this meant taking his diaper off and having me sit on the edge of the deck with my feet in the water, holding Calvin securely under the armpits, and holding his legs in the water so he could kick. He didn’t wear his lifejacket for this because I was holding him tightly and he was safe from falling into the lake. I always made sure that I was giving him 100% of my attention and was not distracted with my phone or anything else. He loved kicking and splashing and it really helped to keep him cool.
Other than that, we really didn’t get him in the water all that much. He just didn’t really like it this year. I’m sure he’ll have much more fun swimming around next year when he’s a little older and more tolerant to colder-than-the-bathtub water.
OUT ON THE BOATS
Calvin loved being out on the boats. If we had him in his life jacket with a cool blanket he would go right to sleep. We also had a swing attached to the boat called the Kiwi Baby Swurfer that he really loved whether the boat was moving or anchored. The motion of the boat gently swung him around. The swing actually absorbed all the bumps and commotion of the boat and made it a very pleasant ride for Cal.
Because Calvin could not wear his life jacket while in the swing, he was not in compliance with Coast Guard regulations. To try and ensure his safety in the case of emergency or accident, Colter and I wore our life jackets, fully zipped and buckled, and stayed close to Calvin so that we could rescue him if needed.
SLEEP
Calvin is a pretty good sleeper, and I think that having a good sleeper at home is the key to have an alright sleeper while on vacation.
NAPS
While at home, I try to be pretty diligent about him have full wake windows between each of his naps. However, while on vacation I let him sleep when he started showing signs of sleepiness and this lead to him taking quite a few more naps than he does at home. I did this because I knew that the heat, sun, and excitement were going to tire him out way faster at Powell than at home and I wanted to be flexible and enjoy vacation, rather than spend the whole time worried about his nap schedule and trying to push him to stay awake longer than he wanted to.
He mostly napped in the Pack N’ Play but he also took naps in my arms and on the ski boat. One night he desparately needed to take a little cat nap to hold him over to bedtime and he would not go down. I was stressed, he was crying, and we were both hot. So I threw his life jacket on him, and my father-in-law just took us for a ride to put him to sleep for 30 minutes. It worked like a charm. Is that an option at home? No. Did it work on vacation? Yes. And that’s all that mattered.
NIGHTTIME SLEEP
The first thing that I did actually started about two weeks before we left. Calvin kinda sorta had a bedtime routine, but I knew that having a solid one would help us put him to bed easier while on vacation. So, every night, I would strip him down naked, turn on his white noise machine, use a specific lotion all over his body in dim lighting, put a clean diaper on him, feed him a bottle while just in his diaper, put his pajamas on him, zip him into his zipadee zip, lay him in his Pack N’ Play, give him a pacifier, and say “Goodnight Calvin, I love you,” kiss him on the forehead, and leave him to sleep.
I did everything I could to continue this routine on vacation. I brought his Pack N’ Play, white noise machine, lotion, pacifier, and zipadee zip all with us. Every night I did the same routine on the boat as we did at home, and he went down well every night we were away.
The other change I made for vacation nighttime sleep was almost immediately offering him a bottle when he woke at night. Even while at home, Calvin will randomly wake up somewhere between 2 and 4 a.m. some nights. It doesn’t happen consistently and I can’t figure out what triggers it, but some nights he just decides to wake up once in the night. At home, I will go through a checklist of things to try and calm him down and get him back to sleep, and my last resort (at home) is a feeding. However, this often leads to 10-20 minutes of fussing or crying.
Since we were all sleeping on the roof of the houseboat and I didn’t think that the other 25 passengers would appreciate a fussing baby for 20 minutes at 3 o’clock in the morning, rather than go through my checklist when he woke, I simply gave him a bottle, changed his diaper, and laid him back down.
It worked like a charm. No one heard him or woke to his crying in the night, I was up for 30 minutes tops, and honestly, four nights of vacation night feedings weren’t going to undo all of the work we’d been doing on his sleep OR make him think that he needs to eat in the middle of the night until the end of time. Vacation is a perfect time to chillax.
All in all, having our first overnight trip be a seven hour drive away on a houseboat, on a lake, in July, was very adventurous. We learned a lot about traveling with a baby and I would recommend maybe making your first overnighter to a grandparent’s house or to a local hotel. But if you wanna go big, or go home, a few days in a place like Lake Powell is a great way to do it.
BARREL OF MERRELL'S 
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