Driving trips with babies

Mrs.Ram

So we may have made a critical error in our travels to NJ this weekend, and I wanted to get everyone's thoughts. The drive from us to the ILs is about 4 hours, give or take. We also have to stop at some point to feed DD. We left about 9:45 and reached our destination about 2:45. It occurred to me in the car that it's unfair to DD to do that drive during the day because she's stuck in a car seat for so long, so we are now debating driving back at night so she will (hopefully) be sleeping.

What do you ladies do when you have long drives with the babies?

doggylovr

no help...but interested to hear the answers! We are driving to NY (6hrs) in 2 weeks by car.  

jenndreier

our drive to OH is 8 hrs.  usually one of takes a day off work and sleeps all day.  We leave around dinner time that night.  The well rested one drives while the one who went to work sleeps, until the first driver gets tired.  We get to OH around 2:00/3:00 am.  DD usually watches a movie or 2 and then sleeps.  She's usually excited when we get to my moms but will go to sleep after unpacking the car.  This has worked very well for us.  Usually no traffic.  I would certainly do this for 4 hrs.  Good luck, Jenn

babypuplove

We drove to OBX last summer, and left early in the morning before DD's normal wake up time (we left around 5am, and she usually gets up around 7:00 or 7:30).  She literally slept 4 out of the 5 hours.  It was wonderful.  :-)  When we do shorter (but still semi-long) hour or two drives with her, we try to time it so we are leaving the house right at nap time, and she usually sleeps the entire way. 

emack

Like PP's we've left both at dinner time and let DD fall asleep in the car or we've woken up at 3 am, put her in the car, and done a lot before she even wakes up. Both have worked well. We're doing it again to OH this weekend, so we'll see how she does. We end up a little tired, but usually grandparents are willing to cover a little daytime for us to take naps. 

vml14

Whenever we drive to Philly (about 3 hours), we leave around 730 pm, just after feeding LO, and we put her in her carseat like it is bedtime.  She usually stays up for about 30 min, and then falls asleep and sleeps the whole time.  When we get there, I just nurse her again and put her right back down. 

We've come home during the day before, and I just make sure I feed her right before we leave, and try to leave right around naptime, and then she has slept most of the ride home.

mek10976

If you have the option of driving at night, I would do that.  Put DD in her jammies and let her snooze.  I have a friend who has driven her son to Boston a couple times.  The first time they went during the day and it was hard on her LO being stuck in the carseat for so long.  They did their second trip at night and her DS slept the entire time, so it was easier for him, but obviously hard on her and DH since it was 8 hours.

AgrippaRidesAgain

We drove to WI when DS was 6 months old and made the 14 hour trip primarily overnight.  However, at that age DS hated his car seat, so if we hadn't gone during prime sleep time, he would have screamed the entire way.

When we go on longer trips now (nothing compared with that length though) we typically leave earlier than DS's normal wake up time in the hopes that he'll sleep for part of the drive.  Even if he doesn't, he's pretty content to just sit quietly b/c he's still tired.

Sofka

the last time we took a longish trip was when DD was 14mo old. We have never driven at night, though. It was about 4.5hrs one way, we have to stay w/ DH's grandparents and arriving in the middle of the night would not work out (they are in their 80s). When I was nursing, I'd pump and give DD a bottle in the car to save time, only stopping to change her. We always tried to have her take at least one nap in the car. She is a horrible car rider, so we'd probably have to make a stop after 2 hrs and walk around a bit now. She is still rear-facing and does not watch TV yet.  We don't even like to drive for an hour, I always admire those parents who can take long car trips with their babies/toddlers.

DCtoLowcountry

I guess we're the only ones who throw DS in the car and go.

Our families are 8 and 14 hours away respectively, and in small town destinations so if we flew it would only cut a couple hours off the trip, and we'd need a car anyway when we arrived. So we drive. We've made the trip twice - drive to my family (8 hour drive), visit, then drive 6 hours to see his family.

We put DS in the car, feed him by bottle, play in the seat, he takes a nap, when he wakes up we pull over - we eat, he gets a diaper change and gets out of the seat, repeat every 3-4 hours. I'm not sure this will work when he's older, but it's worked so far.

 

Hey Jellisy

We always drive during DD's sleep times.  If we are going 3 hours or less, we time it to her naps, if we are going longer (like NJ this weekend for Easter) we leave after dinner.  Yes, we get home later, but it is a far more pleasant trip all around.

rnin02

DCtoLowcountry:

I guess we're the only ones who throw DS in the car and go.

Our families are 8 and 14 hours away respectively, and in small town destinations so if we flew it would only cut a couple hours off the trip, and we'd need a car anyway when we arrived. So we drive. We've made the trip twice - drive to my family (8 hour drive), visit, then drive 6 hours to see his family.

We put DS in the car, feed him by bottle, play in the seat, he takes a nap, when he wakes up we pull over - we eat, he gets a diaper change and gets out of the seat, repeat every 3-4 hours. I'm not sure this will work when he's older, but it's worked so far.

 

nope, your not! our longest trips with DS have only been about 3 hours, but we've never done anything special...feed him before we leave, bring along some little snacks and drinks and off we go. he has a couple of books and toys to play with, and we just make the best of it. he's usually pretty good, and frequently takes a nap. the worst trips were when he was little, i remember one horrible trip, he was crying and crying, the dog started puking, meanwhile we are going 70 mph down 81 with no safe stopping area...it was awful! fortunately that trip never repeated itself.