Moving with a newborn

Poppy0419

My SO just got an amazing and very unexpected job offer. He has to start April 4th so we're packing up and moving from Texas to Mississippi with a one month old (on March 28th). Packing up the house has been challenging to say the least, but I'm terrified of the drive. It takes me 7 hours doing it solo, but with a newborn, two big dogs, and a uhaul trailer...I have no clue how to handle it. 

Any advice?? How do you handle traveling long distances with babies? Any helpful packing advice? 

smushi

Are you nursing or bottle feeding?  In my experience with nursing and long car rides, it's nicest when they're this size because their sleep schedules aren't fully formed, and you're likely to get longer naps which makes for smoother car rides.  Just realize that when baby cries and needs to eat, it's ok to pull over, take a breather, and nurse/change/soothe the baby for 30-45 minutes.  Usually this happens for us around every 1.5 to 2 hours when on the road (even though LO nurses more frequently when we're at home).  So while it may take longer to get there, just shrug your shoulders and assume it'll take the whole day and plan accordingly.  Make sure to have the diaper bag handy with two outfit changes, two blankies, a few spit rags for quick cleanups, a good 'spot' to change the baby (even if this is your front seat) with a waterproof mat and maybe even the changing pad (we've done that several times while traveling), plus diapers, and you should be good to go!  Newborns are still so much at the potato stage that they don't need a whole lot.  I might recommend putting a thin and folded receiving blanket under baby's bottom in the car seat, just in case of a blow out, so you're not needing any major cleanup on the road.  Take a few zip lock bags to put poopy diapers in for changes when there aren't trash cans readily available.  Beyond that, you should be good.  Enjoy!  Don't stress, just go with the flow, newborns are not predictable or timeable creatures.

amaniupendo

We took a long 10hr-turned-12hr drive at 6 weeks. Just take it slow and be patient. Stop and feed as needed. It'll be fine and stress-free as long as you accept ahead of time that'll be longer. Babies that age sleep a lot so it's actually a decent time to travel. 

CalebsHabibi

I'm from Mississippi and now we live in Texas. I can't wait to move back! What part of MS if you don't mind me asking?

Anyway, all my family are in Mississippi. It's about a 6 hour drive sans baby. I haven't done the drive yet, but I agree with PP about the frequent breaks. When we do plan on visiting, we're going to just take it slow and stop when needed. Do you BF or bottle? I BF and have occasionally had DH give expressed milk via bottle. Bottle is much faster. If you have a pump, you could bottle feed to speed breaks up a little. 

Poppy0419

Thanks so much! Im just going to accept that it's going to take quite a bit longer and enjoy the ride. I bottle feed because DD is already an incredibly slow eater. We're just going leave after she eats in the morning and stop and feed ourselves when she wakes up to eat. I think with packing being such a hectic situation, I was panicking that the actual drive would be just as difficult. 

@CalebsHabibi We're moving to Ridgeland/Jackson. I'm actually from Mississippi and went to Ole Miss! My family all still lives there and my stepdad owns a very popular restaurant in Ridgeland. So luckily it's not new territory, which makes this a little less stressful! 

irenewslee

I did a 6 hr drive with DD when she was around 100 days old (from san jose, CA to los angeles). It took us about 8 or 9 hrs and a few stops to change diapers and feed DD. I did one bottle feed and one BF if I remember correctly. The bottle feed we did while DH was driving to speed things up a bit but stopped to burp her and get food. Towards the end she got very impatient and started crying. We let her cry in the carseat for the last 20 mins or so of the ride. She wanted to be out of the carseat and I couldnt blame her. We could have done another stop but we decided to keep going. Overall it was ok and I would say she slept for about half the time. If your LO is only a month old, most likely they can sleep longer. 

Poppy0419

Well, we made it. And it SUCKED! We tried bottle feeding her while we were driving (and planned on just stopping to burp/change) and that was an epic fail. Motion and eating were not kind to DD, so every time she was hungry we had to stop for at least 30 minutes. Going into it without a time frame to get there helped tremendously. Had I not mentally prepared myself, i think I would have totally lost it. But it was a painful 12 hours. 

I'm supposed to go back to Texas for 5 days to finish packing and putting things in storage. I'm seriously considering taking my mom up on her offer to keep DD and cutting my trip way shorter. I'm totally comfortable with her staying with my mom, her nursery is set up in my mom's house since we're staying here until we close on our house, but I don't want to be away from her. I just don't know if I'd even get anything done if she comes back with me because it's a solo trip. 

smushi

Oh Poppy that is a sucky arrangement Can you pay a company to pack and move it for you?  That's a long time to be away from a newborn.  Can anyone else go and do it instead?  I'd fork over the money to hire a group, honestly.  If you still have to go by yourself, try flying (for a quick trip) then rent a uhaul to drive back.  Have your mom send photos and videos or LO (especially rooting/crying) to help with pumping (if I remember correctly you are nursing?). 

And I'm sorry to hear the trip sucked.  I can sympathize.  We took a 2.5 hour trip down to see my grandparents yesterday for Easter.  He did fine on the trip down, just one 30 minute nursing stop.  The trip home was another story (almost 6 hours).  4 stops to nurse, a huge wreck on the freeway so we were stopped for 20 minutes and then detoured for almost another 40 minutes of screaming   I felt terrible but DH was so stressed at that point he was not stopping.  LO's screaming also cut short DS1's nap after just 30 minutes... 

irenewslee

Oh I am so sorry to hear that! And I totally agree on hiring someone to pack for you, if not doing a quick flight. Packing while you have a newborn with you is definitely not an ideal situation. If you need to take the baby with you, can your mom come along too so she can help with packing as well as taking care of the baby? On another note, are you physically ready for all that activity? Just thinking that your body probably needs rest right now and all that stress and hassle may too much to your body.

smushi

Yes, take your mom along!

Poppy0419

Oh man, @smushi! That's rough. I never understood why moms didn't want to travel even close distances until now. 

I decided to leave tonight when DD goes down for bed. I'll pack the rest of the things I can't live without for a few months and then my dad is going to put everything in storage for me. I have a moving company lined up to pick up everything and bring it out when we close. I'm going to come back either tomorrow night or first thing Wednesday morning. I'm not nursing anymore, or there's absolutely no way this would even work. So very most 2 nights away...way better than the 5 I originally planned for. 

My mom has to take her exam to get her real estate license on Wednesday so her coming (which would have been ideal!) isn't a possibility. She put it off when I went into labor to come out and help me and the next time she could take it is in August if she misses this one. 

Moving is stressful enough when planned, but having 2 weeks notice to pack up and go with a newborn is basically impossible! 

smushi

That sounds stressful but at least you've got lots of help!  You can do it!