Traveling with LO and beach mamas

LowTalker23

I know a lot of mamas traveled over the holidays so I'm seeking your advice. We'll be heading to the beach next week and it's an eight hour drive. We can't check into the condo until 4 pm so we were originally thinking of driving at night, say leave around midnight and get there 8ish am (the day after we're supposed to check in). Is this what you would do or would you drive during the day? I will say DS isn't the greatest in the car, and does generally SSTN so that's why I was thinking of driving at night. 

Also, I know we won't be swimming at all but I am hoping to hang out on the beach with DS a little. Any particular sunscreen you like for your LO? Pedi told us it was safe after 6 months, and while he'll be pretty covered up, I want to make sure there's no way he'll get burned.  

LexGator

We have done six 12-hour drives with DD since she was born to visit family. We've tried all sorts of schedules, and the one that has worked best for us is leaving very early in the morning (like 5 a.m.) right after a feeding (we break the drive up into two 6-hour days). She isn't great in the car, but she sleeps almost the entire time when we do it that way. Good luck!

MommaG123

We went 8 hours when C was almost 4 months old. 

One way we left at 7 at night and drove through the night and she slept the whole way.  She woke up once when we stopped for gas and I fed and changed her and then she fell back asleep as soon as we got on the highway.

The trip down there we left at 6am and she slept a good portion of it.  I took my pump and would pump while we were driving and just feed her bottles of pumped milk while we were driving.  It worked well for us.  She got a little fussy here and there but we had a paci and rolling the windows up and down would calm her.

I also recommend a sunshade or blanket over the seat if you are going to drive during the day.  C would get pissed when the sun would shine in her eyes.

As far as sunscreen we bought California Baby (Target) but haven't used it yet.

cassoppea

My LO is not great in the car either.  Driving during her sleep time worked best for us (night time).  She slept through the whole drive.

We took her to Florida when she was 5 months and used sunscreen even though she was in the shade most of the time.   Our pedi recommended the Neutrogena pure and free baby sunblock, so that's what we used. 

LowTalker23

Great! Thank you ladies!!

Bran_ham

I would definitely have done an overnight driving trip, the closest I've come is flying overnight and DS slept the whole time, it was great. I also use California Baby and love it. Goes on really thick and sort of turns his face ashy white...but at least I can see where he has coverage. It's also rated really well on the EWG ratings.