Traveling with baby

katiem927

I have a 4 and a half month old. We are going to visit my family in a few weeks and we are planning on driving. It's a nine hour trip, and we just thought about leaving when DH gets home from work so we will be traveling through the night. DS sleeps very well in his car seat so we were thinking that this will be the best way for him to deal with such a long car ride. Anyone have any experience with this? Or insights?

genmccarley

My only concern is how tired he may be after working all day and driving all night. DH and I live 8hr from our families and have left after work and drove through the night, it's really rough and I don't recommend it. I would just go like normal during the day and make sure your there a few hours before bedtime so you can keep baby awake and attempt some consistency in bedtime. Keep an open mind while driving that it will take longer but it's worth safety to me.

zachswife91809

I've made 2 12 hour trips with my DD when she was almost 6 months old. She did really well! The first time we drove it straight thru during the day, and she would sleep for 2 hours, wake up, then start to get fussy. So we stopped and got out about every 3 hours. It only added about 2 hours to our trip and it was worth it to maintain our sanity. We split the trip up on the way home and that worked really well also. 

 The second time, we had 3 drivers and so we drove it straight through at night. There was also a 1 1/2 year old and a 3 year old with us. This was hard on us, but it was WONDERFUL, because all the kids slept for most of the way. We drove it it pretty much straight thru on the way home also, but still had about 4 hrs to go. My DD slept most of the way home. I think she was so exhausted from our trip.  

Just bring lot's of toys for entertainment, music and always have a bottle or whatever ready. Good luck!

morrkim

I've done a 2 1/2 hour drive alone with her once and she slept till we got there.  I then met my mom at a store there and we wandered around and I fed her a bottle and changed her diaper.  Then with my mom we continued another 2 hours and she slept most of the way and this was after getting her 2 month shots earlier in the day.

in a couple of weeks we will be going 5 hours to one set of grandparents for a few days then to the other grandparents around 6-7 hours for a few days and then back home around 5 hours.  We plan on leaving sometime in the morning after my husband gets a few hours of sleep since he works nights. We will probably stop every couple of hours.  If we don't have time to stop long, I will pump in the car and then feed move to the back and give her the bottle.

the one that makes me the most nervous is my 5 hour solo trip in April.  I will be leaving as soon as I get off work and go to my parents.  The next day I will drive 2 more hours and meet up with my in laws.  The next day I will have to drive all 7 hours unless I take off Monday.  I would like to, but it depends on how many vacation days I have left.  I currently have 3, but we were looking at moving so I might have to use them for job interviews.