Space Saving Tips

 First a little explanation....

There is not a lot of space within the cab of a semi truck, especially for storage. With a baby on the truck this makes the use of that space to it's best ability essential so that you don't have clutter anywhere that could possibly cause harm to the baby. It also makes it easier to function more effectively within the truck because everything has it's own place. This is probably funny coming from me because I am or have been somewhat of a messy person.
The majority of truckers (men by themselves) do a fairly decent job at utilizing this space.  Men seem to have a fairly natural instinct in figuring out what is needed and what is not. They have one weeks worth of clothes, enough food for a week - usually something simple, some snacks, plenty of fluids, what they need as far as business paperwork and the rest of the space is used up for entertainment. What this entertainment is usually depends on the trucker. I have seen trucks with televisions, game sets, computers, etc. Also included is whatever items you have to use for cooking if you have them. (side note: with a baby you will need to be breast feeding or have access to some device for warming up formula and possibly storing it.)
Of course when you add a women into the mix suddenly the truck fills up with a lot of unnecessary items. I know because I am guilty of this myself and I have seen many other women, even those out by themselves have a lot of unnecessary items in their trucks that they don't use. These items include: An over abundance of clothes, an over abundance of food, utensils you never use, gifts, etc.

What kind of storage is there in a semi truck?

The answer to this question depends largely on the type of truck you have. I am familiar with the freightliner century and cascadia which should give an idea.

Both styles come with:

- Storage underneath the bunk.
- Side storage (for tools usually)
- A bunk bed (unless spec'd not to have one)
- Two smaller cabinets
- Two shelves
- A slide in and out desk (i have found that you can place an average size wooden cutting board on this making an excellent kitchen workspace).

Cascadias:

- cabinets have doors
-An extra large cabinet with shelves
-An extra smaller cabinet

Century:

- cabinets have netting
- the two shelves have a larger height

Flat bed trucks:

-Have extra side tool boxes (can be used as a refrigerator in the winter)

Side Note: In this example I am using a Freightliner Cascadia, box truck style (no tool boxes), with minimal under the bed storage (because of an generator and inverter) and half the cabinets torn out and replaced with a fridge freezer and microwave. The cabinets we do have are the two small cabinets, the in and out desk, on bed side table and the large cabinet (used for short term dry food storage). We also have a minimal amount of top bunk storage, because it is largely taken up by a large litter box for our cats, an oven and the baby bath tub. Therefore, you should have plenty of room left over.

How can I best use that storage?

The number one important principle to follow in any truck is:

***What do I absolutely need in one week?***

Within that week you should have time to do laundry once, make a shopping trip to walmart and grab a shower at least every 2-3 days. So there are a number of things that you can think about in order to reduce clutter.

Clothes

-How to make your selection
While at your home base wear one weeks worth of your favorite and most practical clothes. Whatever is in you laundry basket at the end of that week, plus a few extra pairs of socks, underwear and a sweater if you don't have on already is what you will need. Avoid knitted shirts and whites because doing seperate loads at a truck stop is expensive and their machines are old, over-used and not gentle with clothes. Also make sure you dress for the season.

-Storing them

When storing your clothes in the truck, assign a smaller cubbyhole for each person. Put underwear and socks in seperate bags so that they don't get lost. If you are in a cascadia with doors instead of netting you can turn the cubbyholes into drawers by using office crates from walmart. Depending on the time of year they run between $3 and $9. This allows for easy transport of your clothes, easy access to those clothes and makes it a lot easier and quicker when folding laundry.
Hang any jackets or sweater over the backs of chairs.
You should only need one pair of shoes - a pair of comfy tennis shoes or hiking boots (good for wet weather). Two should be the most you would want. I have tried various ways of storing an extra pair of shoes and found that the best spot is up by the front seats.

Food

Plan your meals.
There is no way around it and it is difficult. I would start your planning around the utensils you have. What meals can you make with them? I would refer to my earlier post of Finding food for more info. Next, work down in this order when planning my shopping list. Water, other liquids, frozen foods(if you have a freezer), refrigerated foods(if you have a fridge) and then move onto your dry foods. Keep ingredients that can be used for more than one meal. For example, don't buy a huge head of broccoli unless you use it for more than one meal. It will go rotten and wastes a lot of space.

 Gifts

If you really have to keep them small. Don't buy a huge teddy bear for a niece.

Baby

The Essentials


-Clothes
Likewise with your own clothes. Have him/her wear one weeks worth of practical clothes add in an extra 2-3 pieces for emergencies. If they are close to going up a size add in 2-3 larger sizes. Dress for the season, because you never know when that generator will go out
-Diapers
Think about how many diapers they go through in a week and plan accordingly.
-Formula
Even if your breast feeding you will always want to keep a supply with you just in case. If your using formula keep an extra can. 
 - Bottles
4-5. You really only need 2-3, but if you are unable to get to a spot to clean them an extra 2 become important. Bottle brushes can come in handy with really dirty bottles, but if you rinse them out after each use, they remain fresh for a day.
-Transportable changing mat
Great for all occasions
-Diaper bag
Good for outings, even better for clothing storage.
-Burp cloths
4-5. Useful for more than just burping
-Bedding
Refer to my earlier post sleeping positions to giver yourself an idea. I currentlyhave an extra pillow, 2 blankets and a quilt.
-Bathing
A bath with a holder, 4 cloths, baby soap (the fully closeable kind or it WILL leak everywhere).
-Baby back pack
For those awesome times when you are needing to transport your child, or just multi-task.
-Car Seat
Every moving vehicle needs one, and yes because your truck does not have an air bag you are able to put it safely in the front seat.
-Toys
Depends on the babies age. Car seat mobiles are the best.

Where does his/ her stuff fit in?

 I have found that the best side table is best for the food, bottles and diaper changing stuff. I store burp cloths, bathing cloths, diapers and our shower bag in the bath tub. Except for two outfits which I keep on the bed side table I store the rest in the diaper bag underneath the bed. Our backpack and carseat tend to move around depending on whats being used at the time. An open shoe box is good for storing bottles so they don't roll everywhere.


As always, I'm open for more suggestions. Safe driving!

Finding Food

How does it work?
As in my last post, let me explain a few things for you guys who aren't truckers:

Food has always been an issue for truck drivers.

You can just see the lack of nutrition that most truck drivers get and that is without running team and without a baby on the truck. Fast food and restaurants are so easy and convenient that the majority of truck drivers do not even take a second lot and this is understandable as many of them this is their life and this how they live it.
However, for those of you interested in keeping slightly better health on the truck and slightly more money in your wallet, it can be very simple to install a few things in your cab to enable you to cook.
For the less mechanically minded a microwave can be easily secured with some industrial strength velcro to one of the cabinet tables in your truck. Many truck stops also sell crock pots - these are crap. They don't heat very well and be realistic. You don't have time to slow cook a meal when you need to be driving. They also sell small ovens which do work, but you cannot cook very much in them other than pizza or toast. Then there's the toastie pie maker (grilled cheese sandwich maker) and the small electric sauce pan; these are awesome and fairly cheap. The biggest appliance that comes to mind is are the large coolers that run off the cigarette lighters. We used one for awhile, but they don't last long and they fail miserably in the Arizona heat. After awhile you will find your self loading it up with ice just to keep it working.
Now, if you are slightly mechanically minded and you want to invest a little bit of money in improving your living conditions you can quite easily install a refrigerator and an oven in your truck (best decision we ever made). First off all your truck must have an APU or generator. These pull fuel from your engine to run itself and does so more efficiently than idling (running your truck in park mode). Next you will need the largest inverter you can find, take a look at the wattage that it has rated on it and be aware that while your fridge/oven and microwave might only use a certain amount in general use they will draw substantially more when starting up or getting to a certain temperature. The inverter itself will need to be installed by a mechanic (not a truck stop mechanic) and then you can quite easily remove one of the cabinets in your truck and use some metal hinging from a home depot to bolt the fridge in place into the wall. A microwave can then be velcroed onto the top of it. However, if you want an oven you will need to sacrifice the top bunk as an oven cannot be safely velcoed. In order to plug all the devices in I recommend a large size power strip that can be velcroed to the size of the cabinet and that in turn can be plugged directly into the Inverter. Of course if you work for a company like my husband's then your truck would come with an 8 cubic foot fridge/freezer and a microwave bolted into the wall so all the hard work is done for you. Be aware that doing this sacrifices a lot of storage space, but is very worth it.

On to other things: Team Truck Survival
When running in a team truck and cooking your own food the best way to find food is to do a weekly run at Walmart and then stop for a period of 3-4 hours each day in order to cook something. If you are cooking with a microwave, box dinners and tv dinners are awesome. If you don't have access to a fridge you can get access to milk and butter from the truck stop restaurants. Of course if you have an oven you can be even more creative.

But what about the baby?
Now with a baby on the truck things become even more difficult, especially if you are using the scheduling system I mentioned in my last post. Those 3-4 hours that you originally used for cooking as a team are now used for sleeping, so you may suddenly find yourself eating out or eating whatever you can cook or make real quick (because face it that baby is probably hungry too).
While at the moment I am currently happy eating sandwiches and cereal I know that this is not something I nor my husband want to do forever so I am looking into a couple of various solutions.

Solution One:
Cook up a bunch of meat and freeze it whenever you have a day off. According to my own research the meat should be good for about a month and a half. Store it in smaller freezer bags so that you have enough in each for one day. That Way whenever you use the amount in the freezer bag in the fridge then you replace it with the next.

Solution Two:
Whenever one of the team members has time off. By this I mean is unloading and everyone else in the truck is asleep this is the best time for housework. Clean the truck, fold the laundry and make damn sure you have something cooking in either the microwave or the oven while doing so. As soon as it is cool put in a storage container and  store it in the fridge. Now you have a decent meal for you and your partner.

Solution Three:
Also, whenever you have free time, try and prep some cool meals that will give you nutrition. These include salads (potato/pasta/couscous/etc..), salads and hmm....salads. Oh, and if you can handle it refrigerated sandwiches. And if you don't like your sandwiches refrigerated like myself then slice and dice and prep your filling.

That's pretty much all I've come up with. I am open to more suggestions.
Safe Driving!

Finding Sleep

In doing a team shift with a baby there is one major question you have to ask yourself. Where in the day do I find sleep and how do I get enough drive time, and how will I get enough sleep time in order to function on the job? There are a couple of techniques and solutions that make this possible.

First of all there is one fact you will have to face:

You will mostly be cat napping.

This can take some getting used to. Be kind to yourself and realize that both you and your partner will both be short tempered, and in a 6ft by 8ft box this can be dangerous. Also, if your relationship is in the slightest bit rocky then do not even attempt to live this way; someone will end up hurt.
However if you are both strong and have a sturdy relationship you will pull through just fine. Now onto scheduling.

Scheduling
When scheduling your shifts you have to work around the baby. What hours of the day are they sleeping most consistently for the longest period of time?
My husband and I have found that our son sleeps best around the hours of 9pm and 3am with a short feed in the middle. So we each drive an 8.75 hour shift. My husband starts between 12pm and 2pm, and is on duty until midnight; if he finishes early he goes straight to bed. We both sleep between midnight and 3am. I take care of the short feeding at midnight, because I can feed him while I sleep (freaky right?). My shift starts at 3am and I drive through to between 12pm and 2pm. The 12pm - 2pm moves depending on who manages to get the most sleep.

Techniques
There are a couple of techniques that have come in handy:

Sleep Feeding:
You can either do this or you can't. It involves sleeping with you wrist up in the air while holding the bottle in the child's mouth.

The Auto-Feeder:
Wrap a receiving blanket or rag underneath a small size bottle so that it sits on an angle and will feed the child for you. The bottle needs to be full and some occasional correction is needed.

Utilizing your front seat:
Sometimes the baby can get bored spending all his time in the back in the bed, so I also recommend alternating between the bed in the back and the front seats (yes, it is safe to put the baby in the front seat, because semi-trucks do not have air bags). This can help out in a number of ways.
If the baby is crying out in one shift more than the other keeping him entertained with the world passing by can help with the crying and sometimes with helping him to fall asleep. This also allows the sleep-troubled driver to get some decent shut-eye while the driver on supervises. If the baby is auto-feeding the driver can safely reach over and correct the bottle in minor cases.


Taking a day off:
No matter what you do there will come a day where you will need a day off. It is absolutely unavoidable, just pick it wisely and use it to get some sleep, cook up and store some food in the freezer for your next couple of weeks.

Hopefully some of these ideas will help you out. Good luck and be safe! ;)

Sleeping Positions

Sleeping Positions

Let me start of by explaining a few things for anyone not familiar with the layout of a semi truck.

90% of semi trucks come with two single sized bunk beds.

For uncoupled team drivers this means one person has the top bunk and one person he bottom bunk, except when the truck is moving. When the truck is moving the member of the team not driving is also required to sleep on the bottom bunk.
Most husband and wife teams manage to share the bottom bunk when not driving and use the top bunk for storage.
Now the big question is how do you add in the child to a husband and wife team setting to this small amount of sleep space? There are a number of different ways.

Setting one:
Fill in the space at the head of the bed with blankets and pillows and the child sleeps in this space while the two adults sleep in the space below.
 This setting prevents the parents from rolling on the child, the child from rolling onto his/her front while the truck is moving and allows for "sleep feeding" a term I will explain next time. This is setting is good for most settings.

Setting two:
The child sleeps lengthwise in drivers side back corner, the taller adult sleeps next to the child and the shorter adult sleeps beneath the child. Please note, this only works if one adult is shorter than the other. While the truck is moving the child stays in it's position with the off duty adult sleeps protecting it.

Setting three:
Like in setting two the child and first adult share the same positions. However, the first adult curls their knees up so that the other adult can sleep curled up at the end of the bed. This is great for a driver coming to take a nap after a shift and for people that sleep scrunched up or diagonal.

Setting four:
The first adult sleeps up against the wall while the child sleeps on the outer rim of the bed. The other adult will need to stay up, however during feeding the second adult can hold the child, face the opposite direction of the first adult in bed while relaxing and keeping warm under the blankets if need be. This is great for an adult waiting to unload or staying up for time off, particularly in colder climates. It is not the safest position for the child while the truck is moving.

Setting five:
Two parents in bed and baby on the floor. The child is place between two evenly sized pillows covered with a pillow. This works for younger babies that do not move a lot and great for parents that toss and turn. Be very aware though if you have lowly positioned air vents because they can give the child a chill. If you must use this position then tilt any vents upward away from the child and cover him up with a blanket.

Well I hope this has been interesting for you guys and maybe helpful to some.