12 hour car ride w/a 3yr old and a 6 week old. Am I crazy? Need advice!

butterbeansmama

Am I going to be able to do this?

DS2 has been "okay" putting down for bed, but sometimes (like all the time lately), he has been an absolute task to put down (and I know he is tired), but it's almost like he fights and fights it. I don't know how I'm going to deal with putting him back to bed (4 times in a row) and have ds1 trying to sleep in the same hotel room. UGH! One thing I'm thinking of using is, we have an alarm clock that has an option to listen to the ocean, rain, forest, etc., etc. sounds. DS1 is a very light sleeper, so I was thinking of puttng it down next to him to drown out any noise that ds2 will have throughout the night. Plus I'm hoping that the hotel has the kind of fan/air that is on ALL the time and not intermittent.

DH will not even be there most nights, so it will be me doing it all solo.

Any advice for any of the trip (daytimes and nighttimes) would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

Zenya

At 6 weeks my kids don't leave my arms/boobs.  I could not put them in a car for 12 hours or have any concept of putting them 'down' for the night.  I could fly with them... stay in a hotel (sleep with me in a hotel bed) no bother.  But they are an extension of me at that age.  So I would only worry about the car trip part.

MelandJeff

Oh LORD no I wouldnt do that. I would rather give myself an unmedicated hysterectomy.

 

katie277s

I'd be more concerned with the drive.  12 hours is a long time to be in a car.  I think for the trip, it would be best to have H sleep with you or right next to you so when he wakes you will be right there to help P stay asleep. 

butterbeansmama

katie277s:

I'd be more concerned with the drive.  12 hours is a long time to be in a car.  I think for the trip, it would be best to have H sleep with you or right next to you so when he wakes you will be right there to help P stay asleep. 

On the way there, we will be driving through the night, so I'm hoping that baby will be pretty good at sleeping a good amount of time. P has been on many road trips like this, so I'm not too concerned with him. I know I'll have to change/nurse during the drive, but I'm not too concerned with that.

I'll definitely have H close enough to me that I'll hear him before he makes too much noise (I'm a pretty light sleeper though anyway and can hear  him at night even before DH can), but sometimes when I'm trying to get him down (at the beginning of the night), he grunts/whines so loud that I'm worried P wont be able to sleep until H is sleeping. Oh well, I'll deal with it as best I can, I guess.

katie277s

butterbeansmama:

katie277s:

I'd be more concerned with the drive.  12 hours is a long time to be in a car.  I think for the trip, it would be best to have H sleep with you or right next to you so when he wakes you will be right there to help P stay asleep. 

On the way there, we will be driving through the night, so I'm hoping that baby will be pretty good at sleeping a good amount of time. P has been on many road trips like this, so I'm not too concerned with him. I know I'll have to change/nurse during the drive, but I'm not too concerned with that.

I'll definitely have H close enough to me that I'll hear him before he makes too much noise (I'm a pretty light sleeper though anyway and can hear  him at night even before DH can), but sometimes when I'm trying to get him down (at the beginning of the night), he grunts/whines so loud that I'm worried P wont be able to sleep until H is sleeping. Oh well, I'll deal with it as best I can, I guess.

What about getting P some headphones and turning on some lullaby's for him to listen to while going to bed?  Does he listen to music at night?  Or maybe put P to bed a little earlier and keep H up a little later so that P is sleeping by the time H is ready for bed.  

shopgirl78

DS2 was 12 weeks when we did something similar.   DH drove us to halfway to my parent's house, then we stayed in a hotel and my parents met us at the halfway point and drove us back to their house and vice versa on the way back.  It's 12 hours each way, so we split it up (6 hrs one day and 6 the next). The drive wasn't that bad however they were so wound up after getting out of the car...they were so loud in the hotel luckily it wasn't too early or too late.  We had a suite the second night which was nice to be able to put the big kids in one room to go to sleep and had J in another.  

I brought bottles for Jacob to eat and pumped when we got where we were going.  We had to do more stopping than usual due to the kids.  J is pretty easy to get to sleep so it wasn't too bad in that respect either

I don't think it would be that bad if you had something to do other than hang out in the hotel all day.