A quest

Before leaving on our trip, I wanted a new diaper bag. Don't get me wrong, I adore the one I have (thank you stephanie!), but it doesn't have a zipper and I needed something that would close. Seemed like an easy request.

As a little background, before G-man I rarely carried a purse and certainly didn't buy them for myself - my friend always knows when I need a new one and surprises me with the next model. Needless to say, I've never purchased a diaper bag. I have three - my go-to bag that was made for me as a gift, a free backpack from the maternity center and a bag from Similac they gave me at the hospital. The backpack is losing its charm as the velcro at the top no longer wants to hold and the Similac bag is a bit small for hauling around multiple sippy cups, wardrobe changes, band-aids and whatnot. 

My needs were simple - large enough for all of our stuff on the plane, easy to close but still easily accessible, pockets for organization and maybe even one that looks good. A visit to diaperbags.com quickly showed that this was not going to be an enjoyable experience. A quick purchase turned into a time-sucking, money-stealing quest. Only the search for the holy grail has taken longer and produced more false hope and frustration.

Turns out, my original diaper bag is perfect, except for the zipper. It's got everything I want and need and no other one was coming close. I found good size, but no pockets. Tons of pockets, but not big enough. Great bag except for the hard to get into main compartment. Looks good online but so different in person. Ideal in almost everything but the straps are terrible. And of course, the realization that I truly did not understand what the measurements would look like when one got here.

I purchased bags that I have to return. I borrowed bags that I ended up not using. I traded a bag on the playground - dumping our items out and swapping on the spot - and it still didn't quite work. I visited stores I didn't even know sold diaper bags. I polled friends for advice. Something was fundamentally wrong with all of them (the bags, not the friends).

And then, I found it. A Vera Bradley that isn't even a diaper bag, but was perfect nonetheless. Pockets, a zipper, soft sides, good straps, washable. I owe so much to the nice ladies that helped me and listened to what I was trying to achieve, realizing that maybe a diaper bag wasn't the answer, but a good bag was. I love it. It did everything I dreamed of on the plane and beyond. 

As for the others, well, turns out no matter how big a bag I got, I still needed more for the trip so a backpack from JuJuBe now replaces my old one (so cool, with tons of compartments and insulated bottle pockets on each side and it's black so Scott can carry it) and a pretty shoulder bag from Fleurville rounds out my collection.

Yes, yes, that's three bags for the trip. As carry-ons. And trust me, they all got used. By the end of the return flight, I'm sure the other passengers were wishing we'd had a fourth - perhaps one big enough for the G-man during his monstrous scream-fest. Maybe I'll start planning that for next year now.