Van Life With a Baby: What It's Really Like, Twice Over

We’ve done van life with a baby twice. Spencer moved into our first van in early 2023, when he was just a few weeks old. Archie was born on October 22, 2025, came home from the hospital in our new van, and left on his first real trip at three months old.

The two were very different, mostly because of the babies, and because the second time we knew what we were doing.

We filmed a full day on the road with a 3-year-old and a 3-month-old: watch it here.

Quick answer

• Is it doable? For us, yes. Spencer moved into the van when he was a few weeks old, and Archie started sleeping in our new van at about 3 months old.
• The hardest part: the car seat. Babies cry when you slow down and stop, so we only drive 2 to 3 hours a day.
• Sleep: with Archie, all four of us share one bed, and he sleeps well at night.
• Feeding: bottles were the hardest part with Spencer (pump, feed, wash, sterilize, repeat). Nursing Archie made the newborn stage much easier.
• Doctor visits: we plan trips around them and drive back to New York.
• Gear: you need less than you think. Half of what people say you need, we didn’t.

Baby number one: Spencer in our first van

When we moved back into the van with Spencer, we gave up about a third of the space to him. His bassinet went right where we slept. We slept vertically next to it, and whoever was tending to him at night slept on that side.

The kitchen changed the most. The countertop held a bottle sterilizer and a bottle warmer, and the upper cabinets held bottles and the breast pump. Two drawers that used to be ours became his: one for diapers, wipes and cream, one for swaddles, blankets and bibs.

Bottles cost a lot in a van. The sterilizer ran up to an hour and needed the inverter on, so we switched to sterilizing in a microwave in about three minutes. It still used a lot of water. In those first weeks we ran out of water every two to three days, so we stayed close to a water source and plugged into shore power. It was a cold winter in New York, so we weren’t going far yet.

There was no dedicated changing spot, so we changed him on our bed with a liner underneath. We washed his bibs and clothes by hand in a wash bag: hot water, baby detergent, roll it up, scrub for 3 to 10 minutes, rinse, hang to dry.

We couldn’t leave until two things happened

Our first van had only two front seats, so I added a jump seat in the middle for his car seat. Until it was in, we got around in our sedan. The other thing was his shots. We waited for his next few at the pediatrician before we headed out.

Spencer’s car seat on the jump seat in our first van, 2023. Without it, we weren’t going anywhere.

By three months old he was stealth camping with us in Chinatown in Manhattan, riding on Rina in a baby carrier, the day after his 100-day celebration with Rina’s family. You can see that day in Van Life with a 3-Month-Old.

Spencer was not an easy baby

Feeding was the hard part. Spencer was bottle-fed, and each feed took 45 minutes to an hour. Then we washed and sterilized everything, he napped for about an hour, and it started again. It was non-stop, no sleep for anybody, and that cycle was just brutal.

He also wouldn’t sleep unless he was on Rina. She basically held him on her chest for nine months straight. If he slid off, he woke up and cried.

Looking back in 2025, I said that when he was younger it was definitely tougher, because it’s very draining.

The pregnancy and moving out of the van

We found out we were having Archie while we were traveling in early 2025. Rina was throwing up almost every day for weeks, and the pregnancy was harder than her first. She was tired all the time, her back hurt, and there were things she just didn’t do on that trip, like skiing and long soaks in hot springs. We also stopped all international travel.

The bigger problem was seats. Our first van only had three seat belts, so a second baby meant a new van. We flew back to New York for her checkups and kept traveling in between. In July 2025, Toronto was our last major stop before we had to, in our words, hunker down and get ready for the new baby. We moved in with my parents and I built the new van there.

Archie was born in a hospital in New York. The old van couldn’t carry all of us, so I made sure everything in the half-built new van was locked down and drove it to bring him home.

Archie’s first day home from the hospital.

Baby number two: Archie and the newborn stage

The second time was a lot more relaxed. I called Archie our second build: you already know how most things go, and you figure out what’s different.

The biggest difference was feeding. Archie fed easily from the start, so there was no sterilizer and no pile of bottles. For our lifestyle in the van, that made everything easier.

Nights got good quickly. At nine days old his longest stretch was about four hours. Rina had been waking him up to feed, until the doctor said she didn’t need to. By two months old he was sleeping six hours most nights, and once seven.

We also bought far less. With Spencer we were anxious and bought so many things. With Archie we got a pack of diapers and a few necessities, and we bought the bassinet last minute. It turned out to be useless anyway, because he wouldn’t sleep in it. Rina used it to hold the diaper cream.

One small thing Rina did that we liked: newborns need black-and-white books, and he only needs them for a short time, so she borrowed about ten from the library instead of buying them.

Sleeping four in one bed

We built an elevator bed in the new van because of Archie: Rina would sleep on the lower level, where she can sit up to feed him, away from Spencer’s kicks. It ended up roomier than we expected. It’s the width of a full-size bed, and all four of us sleep down there together. The upper bunk is for when Spencer wants his own space. There’s more on how it works in our elevator bed post.

Our biggest fear with a newborn in the same bed was Spencer. If Archie cried and Spencer couldn’t sleep, all of us would have a problem. It turned out Spencer sleeps right through it.

Once we were traveling, Archie mostly didn’t cry in the back of the van. He still woke up through the night, but he wasn’t screaming.

The car seat is the hard part

This is the honest answer to “what’s hard about van life with a baby.” Archie cried in the car seat when we started traveling. Every time we slowed down or stopped at a light, he cried. Spencer was exactly the same, so we used to say, keep it going and don’t make stops.

I said it on camera: managing their sleep schedule and nap schedule, and how far you can actually get in a day, is one of the hardest things about traveling with kids in a van. With Spencer we only drove about 2 hours a day. Now we plan on 2, maybe 3 hours.

It did get better. A few weeks into that trip, Archie was napping through 30-minute drives. At first every pothole or bang in the van woke him up. Then it stopped bothering him.

Two things help: the new van seats all four of us in the cab, and Archie’s car seat clicks out into a stroller, so we don’t carry a separate one.

Doctor visits, bathing and diapers

Doctor visits. We planned around them. Our first trip in the new van was timed to leave when Archie was 3 months old, and it was supposed to be two or three weeks because he had a vaccine appointment at the end of February. That trip turned into three months, and doctor visits were one of the reasons we went back to New York. The night before one appointment, we slept in the van parked in front of his pediatrician’s office so we could walk in early.

Bathing. On a warm day at a Florida campground, I hooked a shower head up to our water outside, set a foldable tub on a table, and we bathed Archie, then Spencer. Did Archie like it? Not really. For how we shower ourselves, see how we shower living in a van.

Bath night outside the van in Florida. Archie went first.

Diapers. Two upper cabinets in the new van are just for the boys: diapers, wipes and their things. When Spencer started potty training in summer 2026, that freed up space for more of Archie’s diapers.

Solids and the first year

Archie tried his first food, sweet potato, at about five months, in the van in Florida, and Spencer wanted to help feed him with his own spoon. A week later it was mashed strawberries. By spring, Spencer was spooning food pouches into his brother at dinner. By ten months old, Archie was crawling fast, standing on his own, and climbing.

Archie’s first food, at about 5 months. Spencer insisted on helping.

What we’d tell other parents

• The second time is easier. Some of that is the baby, a lot of it is you.
• Buy less. Half of what people say you need for a baby, you don’t need. We’re a minimalist family, and the van forces it anyway.
• Expect the car seat to be the hard part. Keep drives short and keep moving.
• Plan trips around the doctor. We always know when we need to be back.
• Trade off. When Rina needed sleep, Archie hung out with me while I worked on the van, or I napped with Spencer so she and Archie could rest.
• The newborn stage passes. Rina’s take: it gets easier once they can sit up.

One more thing. Spencer grew up in the van, and we never left him for more than a few hours. At almost 2 he was a happy kid who didn’t throw tantrums, and I really think living together in tight quarters had something to do with it.

For the toddler years, see a national park with a little kid. We have a whole video on a day with a baby in the van: What It’s Like to Van Life with 2 Kids (3yo & 3mo).