Toddlers: 24 Months+

Driving Overnight with 2.5yo

So I will be joing this board tomorrow - hard to believe DD is going to be 2!!!

We are planning a trip to Florida from Ohio in late August and since we will have to pay for a ticket for her this year we are considering driving the 15 hours and doing it overnight. 

Has anyone attempted this with a toddler?  Were they able to sleep in the car the same as in their crib/toddler bed?  Is this idea totally crazy?  Fill me in with any tips you have :)

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Re: Driving Overnight with 2.5yo

  • We often drive from Ohio to Mass and Quebec.  We always do these drives overnight.  We did an 8 hour drive to Kentucky during they day recently and it was horrible.  Overnight allows her to sleep the whole way (we set her carseat in the

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  • I'm sure some kids would be fine, but I personally will not drive overnight with our kids. I know they will not get enough sleep or as good of sleep that way, and we will all be miserable. I also know that DD1 has become increasingly worse at sleeping

    Mama to two sweet girls
    DD1 Feb 2010
    DD2 Sept 2011


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  • It is totally kid dependent. Does your kid ever sleep in the car? If yes, then they likely will. My DD will not sleep in the car, rarely ever did it even as an infant. The one time that we tried driving at night around the age of 2 was a disaster. Horr

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  • I took a sixteen hour trip from Idaho to ND back in Oct of last year, right before my LO turned 2. I suggest lots of snacks, movies, books and coloring books. Stop as much as they need to, which may make your trip longer but it also keeps a child happi

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  • We took a 17 hour car trip last summer.  We did one way all the way through and at night.  It was horrible!  We left around LO's bed time (8pm).  Instead of sleeping he screamned until mindnight when he passed out for 3 hours. 

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  • We did a 15 hour drive spanning 3 days there and 2 days to get back. We made the drive part of the vacation. We were really flexible about when and where we stopped. And when we did stop, we pulled out the travel guide and found something fun to do. W
  • Driving with DS is a piece of cake!! It's actually really easy when he is awake. We have a TV monitor in the car so he can watch movies. He sleeps really well in the car too. We just make sure we pack lots of snacks, toys, movies, and fun stuff to keep DS
  • imageshaw:

    I just flew to Florida last minute (last week).  I bought one seat and carried LO on my lap.  He i

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  • I can't do the overnight trips because I feel so terrible afterward that I never can recover, but thats just my two cents I understand why people do it.  We just do trips like that in two days :)
    DD (8/12/09), DD (2/8/11)
    BFP 12/16/14| EDD 8/19/15 |MMC 1/15/15 (9 weeks 1 day)
  • That would be a no go for us.  Callum would probably actually sleep but I doubt Eleanor would.  We've done multiple 12 hour trips and it's worked best when we've left super early and gotten there by dinner.  The times when we haven't got

  • When we drive up north for vacation, we always leave close to bedtime. It's about a 4 hour drive. DD2 is rfing and sleeps well in her carseat. DD1 will sometimes sleep. She's in a high back booster, which actually gives more head support for sleeping than
    Annalise Marie 05.29.06
    Charlotte Ella 07.16.10
    Emmeline Grace 03.27.13
  • We made an 8 hour drive overnight and realized it was a horrible mistake for us. When we transferred her to the car she had trouble going back to sleep. She woke up constantly crying and saying she wanted her crib. She was so pitiful. I honestly though

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