December 2011 Moms

For those who have taken LO on a 6+ hour car ride - Please come in!

Hi all,

We are leaving for OBX on Saturday. It's a good 7 hour car ride from Philly. I keep going back and forth on when I want to leave. We are taking 2 cars (Hubs and DS is one car with the dog / Me, DD, and my mother-in-law in the other car). I have come up with 2 options below. Let me know your thoughts and is you have a different suggestion, please let me know!

Option 1) Both cars leave together at 7AM (ish) and I tell the hubs to keep going until he has to stop. I stop along the way to feed DD and change her. If we leave then, I feel like I might have to stop at least 3 - 4 times. Could take us 8-9 hours.

Option 2) Hubs leaves at 7AM. I leave around 3PM, stop for about an hour around 5:30PM to feed DD, change her and then we would be on our way. She normally goes to bed around 6:30PM (she does well in the car usually) and we wouldn't have to stop again until we got there.

I just don't know what I want to do!!!!!! Thanks!!

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Re: For those who have taken LO on a 6+ hour car ride - Please come in!

  • how fussy is she in the evenings? evening trips weren't an option when we did a 10 hr car ride back in june. he's too fussy. we left at 4am, he slept for 4 hours in the car, we stopped for breakfast, he then napped and we got there right at noon, which is when he woke up from his nap. i pumped in the car and he took a bottle so feedings weren't an issue.
    Baby Charchie born 12/22/2011
  • I just drove from Kansas to New York with DS. I found it easier to leave early morning as soon as he got up and travel during the day. We did about 400 miles a day which usually put us at the hotel by about 3pm. It gave DS a few hours to get out of his car seat and play. He was then able to go down and get a full night of sleep. He really let me know when he was getting to the end of his tolerance for being in the car.

     How does she do being woken up and then put back to sleep again? I know with my DS, once he's out for the night, if you have to move him he won't go back to sleep and you end up with a long night of crying. 

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  • So this is weird but we are making the exact same drive in about a month.  We are trying to take advantage of nightime sleeping in the car as much as possible.  We have had good experience with this coming home from the shore all summer- we let DS fall asleep in the car leaving at his bedtime so he is fed, diapered and ready for bed and he has slept the whole way home in the carseat (even when traffic has been brutal and we have been in the car for up to three hours) - then we just move him to his crib when we get home.  So we are going to try and use the same strategy for OBX.  Good luck!

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  • We just did the drive to OBX from outside Baltimore and left around 4:30am.  The trip should have taken around 6 hours, ended up taking 10 hrs, but it was not E's fault!  E is a great car sleeper, so we got him up, put him in the car and he was asleep before we got on 95.  He slept until our first stop, probably around 745/8am when we switched drivers, changed and nursed him.  He was up until about 10am, when we reached the NC boarder (should only be another 30-45min from here...) and then the trip started sucking.  We hit traffic by the toll on 168 and were in bumper to bumper traffic until we reached Carolla at 2:30pm.  We stopped one additional time at a rest stop in NC, changed and tried to nurse but he wasn't interested.  I moved back to the backseat (I knew we were in for a long trip form previous experience) and just gave bottles and played with him.  He probably took another short nap and I used my hand pump to get him another bottle.  I would rather go earlier with hopes that LO will sleep more and be able to have more awake time before going to bed.  

    I don't know if you've ever traveled to OBX before, but it has gotten really bad in recent years.  We never used to hit traffic if we left at 4:30am (puts us on the bridge to OBX before 10), but you can see from above it added four hours to our trip this year.  My parents were only about 15-20miles ahead of us and they got in two hours earlier.  My sister and brother in law were about 30 miles behind us, and got in almost two hours after us.  Leaving early and getting there early is really a must to avoid sitting in traffic.  If you can't leave earlier in the day, I would seriously consider leaving Saturday evening so you do most of the drive overnight.  Maybe it won't be as bad if you're leaving this weekend because kids are back in school, but you will have Labor day weekend traffic to contend with, so I would recommend having an adult sit (or ready to) in the backseat with LO.  E does great in the car until we are stopped for long periods - sitting in traffic would have been miserable if I didn't move back with him.

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  • Depends on the kid. We recently did about a 5 hr drive with both kids, one we had done before with DS1 while he slept..so we left at 7pm and the first few times we did this with just DS1 as a baby and toddler he did great, slept the whole time. We just did this with DS1 and DS2. DS2 screamed from 7 to 10pm, then slept for about 30 minute intervals and then screamed for about 5minutes before passing out. It was horrible! It depends on your kid, so if you know your DD is good in the car normally I would go the night time route, if medium to poorly I would do the daytime with multiple stops.
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  • We drove from CA to FL to MD over the summer, with twins. (and  9 yo). They were 5 month-6 months at the time, so they were sleeping more. If we were to do any type of driving now, I would do it later (like your 3 pm option) so they could wind down and sleep. And attempt to skip/shorten their nap. Good luck and safe travels.

  • We just did the drive to OBX from Toms River, NJ last week and ours went so smoothly! 

    We left a 3 am, it allowed DS to sleep the first part. He ate a bottle while driving at 6 and then we stopped around 7:30 for gas and breakfast. Back in the car 45 minutes later and all in all it took 9.5 hours (8 hrs according to mapquest, so right on with our stops). On the way home we left at 4 am and had the same ride. Two stops total each way (probably a little long in his diaper, but he was ok so we kept going).

    Some tips...I sat in the back, so maybe if you are driving another adult is in the back. We got a portable DVD player and I had a Baby Einstein DVD, it worked wonders. When he would clearly look like he was ready to get out of the seat the DVD was a nice distraction.

    Someone else mentioned the route, and I am sure we would be on the same one, but I HIGHLY suggest going in these "off hours". We avoided all traffic and never came to a heavy delay, even as the single lanes get to OBX. Yes, we were early, but I would much rather be out of the car wondering then sitting in car with screaming baby. Any chance you both could consider leaving middle of night at the same time? This also did not screw with bedtime.

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