Take your time and be patient. Know you will have to stop.
A pacifier helped us on ours even though DS doesn't take one.
Pack snacks and water to save time.
We took about 9.5 hours to do an 8.5 hour drive around Memorial Day when DS was 9 weeks. It took longer on way back but we let DD play at a playground for a while at our first stop.
I took Autumn and my 2 year old on a 12 hour round trip when she was 6 weeks old. We stopped every 1-3 hours depending on who needed fed and who needed changed. Just plan for several stops. I couldn't sit next to her with a pacifier on the way there, but my sister was with me on my way back and her keeping a pacifier in Autumn's mouth really helped.
@SweetBriarBee holding the pacifier in helped us a lot. I moved into the backseat on trip home to do this. I thought for sure he'd be into the pacifier full time after that.
We've taken two long roadtrips since LO was born, one 9 hour roadtrip when he was 3 weeks and another 9 hour roadtrip when he was 6 weeks. My DH is a trooper and drove while we slept, we left the house at midnight both times and I fed LO right before we hopped in the car. This maximized LO's sleep time in the car and we only had to stop once. We pulled over at a rest station and I BFed for an hour--we're lucky that LO doesn't seem to mind a dirty diaper. Limit the number of bathroom breaks if you can, I know my little guy absolutely prefers the car to be IN MOTION haha.
I have nursed DD1 in a moving vehicle while we were both strapped in. I shudder to think of what would have happened in the event of a collision, but desperate times.... If your LO will take a bottle I would pump while riding and then feed the bottle. Otherwise, it will be a lot of breaks for you all.
I have to do this on Tuesday. It's a Sven hour road trip. We're planning on leaving after his first morning feeding. So that will give us a good 12 hours to get to where we are going.
Cwyatt2571
member
Re: Road trip, Exclusively breastfeeding
A pacifier helped us on ours even though DS doesn't take one.
Pack snacks and water to save time.
We took about 9.5 hours to do an 8.5 hour drive around Memorial Day when DS was 9 weeks. It took longer on way back but we let DD play at a playground for a while at our first stop.