Loooooong road trip with 12 month old

Shoecrazysarah

We will be traveling 24 hours by car, days after our LO turns 1! Fortunately, we will be staying in our destination for 3 months before having to return.

Any tips? How many hours we reasonably expect to do in a day? I'm hoping at least 6... maybe 8? Leaving at approx 3am so LO will sleep the first 4 hours?

JENandJEH

We did 14 hours when DS2 was 11 months old.  We broke the trip up into 10 hours the first day and 4 hours the next.  Looking back, 10 hours was a LOT and he would have done better (and slept better that night) if we had only done 8 and let him run around and burn off some steam after we got to our stopping point.  

Our best road trips have been when we leave about 2 hours before bedtime.  We eat, load up, he plays in his seat, we stop for gas and change him into pajamas then continue on.  He usually falls asleep within about 30 minutes of his normal bedtime and then will sleep until we have to stop for gas again.  He goes right back to sleep as soon as we're away from the bright lights of the gas station and we've never had any problems putting him to bed once we arrived at our destination since he's so sleepy.  

I think you could definitely do 8 hours, especially if you're leaving at 3am.  I would even push for a longer day if you and DH can handle it on that first day.  Leave at 3am, stop when she wakes up for breakfast, then push on through lunch, stop somewhere with a play area or find a park for a picnic and then hope she naps that afternoon while you keep driving.  Stop for the night at dinner and let her wander/explore until bed.  

Shoecrazysarah

Good ideas! Thanks!

hopefulmom81

We did 14 hours with a 14 month old.

We left at 4AM, it was PERFECT!  She transferred right to her carseat.  We stopped at 9AM for breakfast, got her up and walked around for about 1.5 hours or so, put her back in her carseat, she was up for a bit with one of us in the backseat then she took a morning nap, we stopped for lunch and walked around for a while, put her in, she took her afternoon nap and we stopped for the night at a friend's house halfway.

We repeated that general schedule the next day.

Then, after our trip, because it was so easy, we did all 14 hours in one day.  She had one half an hour meltdown, but I would HIGHLY recommend leaving in the wee hours of the morning.

hopefulmom81

BethAndBen said:

We took an 18 hour road trip a few days before DD turned a year. We broke the trip up into one 13 hour driving time day and one 5 hour day. Of course, that's driving time, so we were actually traveling a lot longer than that each day. We left early each morning to get extra drive time, stopped at parks and indoor playgrounds often, and drove during all naps. We didn't care how hungry we got or how bad we needed to go to the bathroom, if the kid was sleeping we did not stop. If she was awake someone sat in the back with her. We took games, books, music, DVDs, snacks, etc. I stocked up on new small toys, books, color wonder markers, and cheap things from the dollar store to entertain her. Surprisingly a sticky lint roller entertained her for almost and hour at one point! She is a good car napper and the trip was actually WAY better than anticipated. We were only on vacation, so we drove that same distance coming back home just a week later. One tip would be to scout some parks and mcdonalds or indoor playground places out along your route before you leave.

OMG. Your siggy pic is too cute (and funny)!!  The caption had me cracking up at work.

aibrean

We did 6 hours this past week. She was a bit backed up the way there and then had a mega poo about two hours after arriving. She was fine on the way back. What we did was break up the trip so we could stop, change her diaper, and let her move around a bit. One place we stopped at was a visitor center (very nice) so we let her crawl around on the floor and stretch her legs a bit. We did clean her hands afterwards