How soon is too soon for a road trip after birth?

b2b999 · February 2012

We are due Sept 1, we are due to leave for a cross-country trip on the 3rd of October. We would be driving about 9 hours a day. Is this a fool hardy plan? How soon would this be possible after a normal heathy vaginal birth?

mben1119 · February 2012

You could def. do it after a "normal" vaginal birth, but if you had really bad tearing, or needed a c-section, I could see it being very uncomfortable. 5 weeks PP I couldn't even ride in a car to NJ from MD my c-section incision was so sore still.

mplesset23 · February 2012

Personally, I wouldn't have been ready a month out.

Are you EBF? If so, that makes it a lot harder too unless you pump and put it in bottles. Keep in mind LO's eat between every 2-3 hours at that age. You will be stopping ALOT for changing and feeding.

You could luck out and your LO will be sleeping most of the time, but plan on all the extra stops and added time to the drive.

PinkPanthaRae · February 2012

I agree with pp. I had considered taking a road trip to visit my family for new years since I was not comfortable flying with my LO being so young and not having developed an immune system yet. My LO was born on the 22nd of November and I had an episiotomy. We were going to leave around the 23rd of December. It's a 24 hour one way drive to my father's house, so we figured we would break it up into two days. Needless to say after about a months worth of very little sleep, and still being in a ton of discomfort, I was nowhere near ready and we ended up not going.

BeckyTheEngineer · February 2012

My baby is month old, and I physically would 100% be up for the trip. My baby, on the other hand, would have a terrible time. No infant is going to chill out in the carseat that long, and she is BFing every 2-4 hours. During the day, usually 2. If she is awake, she is not happy in the carseat. Is flying an option?

SaraTF · February 2012

We could have done a road trip after a month, but, we are ff and ds is very content in his car seat and not a big fusser. Personally though, I wouldn't want to do a trip like this so early. We are still working out our rhythm at home and adding a long trip would just make me anxious.

OurJellybean · February 2012

What makes u think u will have a normal vaginal delivery.... Thats quite optimistic... Whatever normal is lol. I couldn't do it, but depends on your lo... Mine screamed all day and never slept for 5 weeks, it was hell...some sleep no problem. and spending 9 hours in a small car with a screaming fussy babe would be absolute hell, it's hard enough at home!

b2b999 · February 2012

The only reason I am considering it is because the trip is very important to my DH, it is his grandparents 60th anniversary party and likely the last one based upon his grandfather's health. It has also become a family reunion with all the cousins coming. DH does not want to miss it.

We will be (hopefully) EBF and if we have to make the trip longer (more days) we can, but I really hope we are able to make it.

mben1119 · February 2012

mplesset23:

Personally, I wouldn't have been ready a month out.

Are you EBF? If so, that makes it a lot harder too unless you pump and put it in bottles. Keep in mind LO's eat between every 2-3 hours at that age. You will be stopping ALOT for changing and feeding.

You could luck out and your LO will be sleeping most of the time, but plan on all the extra stops and added time to the drive.

I didn't even think of that aspect, either. Heck no, DS was eating every hour to 2 hours at one month. Three shitty_diapers per feeding...I'd be staying home.

MesmrEwe · February 2012

b2b999:

The only reason I am considering it is because the trip is very important to my DH, it is his grandparents 60th anniversary party and likely the last one based upon his grandfather's health. It has also become a family reunion with all the cousins coming. DH does not want to miss it.

We will be (hopefully) EBF and if we have to make the trip longer (more days) we can, but I really hope we are able to make it.

I'm not kidding when I say that it'll likely be a "Game Day Decision" for you. Plan that DH is going to go, but for you and LO you won't know until literally the day you want to leave to go. Things could go easy and you have a content personality baby OTOH, things might not go so easy and you have a colicky baby... Either way you won't know until LO gets here!

ETA: 9 hours per day will include half of that time being stops to attend to the baby!!

Qmommy · February 2012

BeckyTheEngineer:
My baby is month old, and I physically would 100% be up for the trip. My baby, on the other hand, would have a terrible time. No infant is going to chill out in the carseat that long, and she is BFing every 2-4 hours. During the day, usually 2. If she is awake, she is not happy in the carseat. Is flying an option?

Same here.

With DD1 we took what is normally a 5.5 hour road trip when she was 2 months old. It took 9 hours with all the extra stopping we had to do for DD. I would recommend flying OR postponing the trip.

celiabwatson · February 2012

It really all depends on your recovery. I've heard all the extremes (on here and in real life) from "I was up and about the next day and felt great" to "It took me several months to even come close to feeling like myself again". So none of us can really tell you what "normal" recovery time is.

That being said. I had a great recovery with my son and was taking him out to visit co-workers etc at 2 weeks postpartum (and it only took that long because he had jaundice for the first week and a half, not actually because of me). So, since I had had an easy delivery/birth with the first one I was more optimistic about the 2nd. My husband's family lives in Alaska and we were supposed to visit for Christmas. Well, I didn't want to bet on being ready by then, so we scheduled the trip for January (my daughter was exactly a month old when we left). It's a 12+ hour plane trip. Now, I will say that the plane is slightly easier than driving in my opinion because you can hold and play with the baby rather than have them in a car seat, so that's not an issue as much. But I felt perfectly fine and healthy and really the only restriction I put on myself was that I wanted to carry the infant in the airport and not the 2-year old. Our trip went fine, and the parts that didn't go fine weren't her fault.

Some thoughts on a long car trip at the point: Do you get car sick easily? If not, plan to sit in back with the baby so you can entertain and assist without pulling over every 5 seconds. Also, many breast pumps can be battery operated so you could quite feasibly pump and then immediately give the bottle to the baby, then you don't have to pull over for every feeding. I have an Ameda Purely Yours pump and it would be perfect for that. It also served me well for a year of pumping at work (minus the summer when I was home because I'm a teacher).

jat11 · February 2012

i had a 4th degree tear and was very uncomfortable in a car for 3 hours around 4 weeks pp. take some nice pillows to sit on and wear loose pants.

liveandlove10 · February 2012

DH and I went on an 8 hour road trip 3 weeks after DD was born. I had a vaginal birth with a 2nd degree tear and it was fine! ETA: DD slept most of the way and only woke up when she was hungry or gassy.

linnsey26 · February 2012

Also keep in mind that you might not have the baby for up to two weeks after your due date, especially as a first time mom. So your little one might only be 2 weeks old and you might not be as recovered as you think you will be. I'm two weeks postpartum now. I had a "normal" vaginal delivery with a 2nd degree episiotomy and there is no way I would sit in a car for more than an hour or two at a time.

meandmrsjones · February 2012

It's possible, if you have a normal healthy vaginal birth (and I hope you do). We had to travel when our LO was 11 days to a funeral. The drive was only 4 hours, but I'm BF, so we had to stop to feed and stop to change the baby. It's very doable, just keep in mind the babies schedule..9 hours will probably become 11. Also keep in mine your LO sleeping habits...once our LO got used to her home and started getting a routine, we were traveling...and once she got used to the routine away from home, we were headed back home. We had to travel due to family emergencies and if it weren't for those, we wouldn't have traveled with her. But it is truly your decision, just realize all trips now become longer.

HisKonstantine · February 2012

I'm gonna be the opposite here. We just got home from a week-long vacation. We drove from FL to NC and back again. It's a 10 hour drive without a baby. We only had to stop twice each way. C slept the entire way and I had to wake her up when we stopped to get gas to give her a bottle.

Now, my baby is a whole month older than your baby would be and she is also super mellow and easy-going. She loves her carseat and sleeps pretty much the entire time she's in it. Now all babies are like that though.

You won't know how you're going to feel or how your baby will handle the trip until they get here.

Want a personalized experience?

How soon is too soon for a road trip after birth?

Re: How soon is too soon for a road trip after birth?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards