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Road trip with 4 month old. Any advice?

palmtreejenpalmtreejen
in Babies: 9 - 12 Months

We're driving from Indiana to Florida over the holidays. It'll be our first major road trip with our sweet boy. In-laws will be riding with us as well (should be quite the trip, huh?) Anyways, the drive will be 18 hours. We plan on leaving 2 am Saturday morning and drive straight through with stops on the way. He is a good baby, STTN, doesn't cry much, loves car rides and will usually sleep until 7:30 am with 2 solid naps during the day and a few short naps. Not sure how to handle feedings. I'm nursing and considered pumping every 3 to 3.5 hrs, then bottle feed while LO is in car seat and time restroom breaks & gas fill ups with burping & diaper changes.

Any advice to make the trip easier?

If it's a horrible experience, I'm flying back with LO!

Jen 

 

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Re: Road trip with 4 month old. Any advice?

  • Jackswife123Jackswife123

    I`d suggest leaving at his bed time.  That way, he can STTN in the car, and even if you stop during the night you won't have to get him up until morning.  After that, just make sure you have toys for him.  It sounds like someone will be sitting in the back seat with him anyway, so they can play with him and entertain him while you are driving during the day.  

    Good luck! 

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  • Mjmksb04Mjmksb04 member
    I would plan on stopping every 2-3 hours and getting him out of his car seat, feeding him, playing with him for a bit. That is always how we handle road trips and I find that as long as I get him out of his seat here and there, he handles the drive just fine.
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  • yo.mamayo.mama member
    We did Texas to Ohio and back at 7 months. Like the pp said, I recommend leaving closer to your LO's bedtime, so he can sleep through as much as the trip as possible. I would do one of two things in regards to pumping. Either stop every 3.5 hours to pump, and let the family stretch and take your LO out of the carseat or pump while on the road, but then stop for meals so your LO gets a break from his carseat.I found bottles in the car were great. My LO was on solids, so we would stop for meals, and then when we got back in the car he got his bottle to start with (this really helped pacify him when he started to fuss about the carseat). Right after the bottle, he was ready to take a nap. It was a great little routine for the trip.Having someone next to him for the trip is essential, and you have lots of people riding along, so this is probably the case anyway.Diaper changes were potentially a problem on the road. So few restaurants and gas stations had changing stations. We drove in August, so I did most of the diaper changes on the lid of the car trunk. That won't work in December. I'm still trying to figure out what to do about this (we are making the same drive next week).
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