Night travel?

Vespah · June 2013

We have a 7 hour drive ahead of us...7 hours pre kids....so like 10-12 now with a 2 year old and soon to be 4 month old.

we were considering driving through the night. Does anybody have any experience with this? Would it just be a disaster with the 2 year old not going to sleep in the carseat.

thanks for any input, and all suggestions are welcome.

skio · June 2013

I would neverrrrr attempt to drive through the night with my toddler. My D will only sleep for 45 minutes or an hour in the car seat and she'd be wide awake thereafter...waking up the baby and driving her exhausted parents nutso.

I did a 6 hour drive with my daughter when she was 21 months. We had a big bag of toys and a bunch of snacks. Two stops to let her stretch her legs and she napped in the car. It was fine. I'd highly recommend doing the drive during the day with distractions and stops versus trying it at night...but you know your own kids best. Good luck!

orangecurls · June 2013

When I have long drives, I leave really early, like 4am, so the kiddos will sleep a bit in the car. Stop for breakfast and a run around. Drive some more and stop for a nice lunch and walk around the town. Drive a bit more hopefully they sleep and arrive well before dinner, so they can run around some more. My kiddos usually sleep in the car, but I do bring cartoons for them to watch.

My kids would sleep in the car if I drove all night. They may wake up at gas or coffee stops. I personally would not want to drive all night, but I like my sleep.

XCrissCrossX · June 2013

I would DEFINITELY drive through the night. I dread the day we no longer have the nice big comfy car seat that lounges LO back so he sleeps easily.

ETA: How often does the 4 month old wake up at night? If you are going to have to stop to feed him often--and there are nice places to stop along the way-- you might as well go during the day and let your two year old run around while you feed the baby.

Vespah · June 2013

DD sleeps for 11 hours straight through at night, and DS sleeps for about 9 hours before eating.

i just don't know if sleeping through the night at home will equal sleeping all night in a carseat

logoz80 · June 2013

we drove to Florida last year when she was 1 1/2 and she slept great.

BelhurstBride · June 2013

We've done it multiple times and DD has never been a great sleeper (at home) and has always been a carseat hater.

We don't necessarily do overnight, but leave late afternoon/early evening. I keep her busy and skip her nap that day and we change her into PJs/give her her normal bedtime items when we stop for dinner. We put in a DVD and let her fall asleep during that.

It doesn't always work perfectly but it's definitely easier than driving during the day. The last time we tried that a 9 hour drive turned into over 12 and she screamed for at least 8 of it. We swore we'd never do it again, or if we did have to do a day trip stop someplace (like a zoo or aquarium) halfway through.

Vespah · June 2013

BelhurstBride:
We don't necessarily do overnight, but leave late afternoon/early evening. I keep her busy and skip her nap that day and we change her into PJs/give her her normal bedtime items when we stop for dinner. We put in a DVD and let her fall asleep during that.

I think this is what we may do. Pick DD up from daycare and drive for a few hours, have dinner then change into PJs for the rest of the trip. If both kids cooperate that would get us to my folks around 1am which isn't that late.

of course this is all assuming everything goes according to plan, which rarely happens of course, but I guess we won't know what will happen unless we try.

jc&cat · June 2013

Vespah:
BelhurstBride:
We don't necessarily do overnight, but leave late afternoon/early evening. I keep her busy and skip her nap that day and we change her into PJs/give her her normal bedtime items when we stop for dinner. We put in a DVD and let her fall asleep during that.
I think this is what we may do. Pick DD up from daycare and drive for a few hours, have dinner then change into PJs for the rest of the trip. If both kids cooperate that would get us to my folks around 1am which isn't that late.
of course this is all assuming everything goes according to plan, which rarely happens of course, but I guess we won't know what will happen unless we try.

I think this is what we are going to do for a trip coming up that is 6 hrs. DH and I each have a kindle so we'll download some shows and bring alot of snacks. Hopefully by "bedtime" they will sleep for the rest of the ride. Good luck!

jc&cat · June 2013

Vespah:
BelhurstBride:
We don't necessarily do overnight, but leave late afternoon/early evening. I keep her busy and skip her nap that day and we change her into PJs/give her her normal bedtime items when we stop for dinner. We put in a DVD and let her fall asleep during that.
I think this is what we may do. Pick DD up from daycare and drive for a few hours, have dinner then change into PJs for the rest of the trip. If both kids cooperate that would get us to my folks around 1am which isn't that late.
of course this is all assuming everything goes according to plan, which rarely happens of course, but I guess we won't know what will happen unless we try.

I think this is what we are going to do for a trip coming up that is 6 hrs. DH and I each have a kindle so we'll download some shows and bring alot of snacks. Hopefully by "bedtime" they will sleep for the rest of the ride. Good luck!

chardonnay24 · June 2013

We tried doing this in October when he was about 20 months and failed miserably. We were planning on driving to Vancouver (6 hours), with no stops. We left at his normal bedtime of 8 and drove for about 2.5 hours. He woke up and would not go back to sleep or stop crying, so we had to stop in Seattle and get a hotel room. By the time we found a place and checked in, he was too wired to go back to sleep so we ended up driving around the city at 2 am. Finally, we gave up and went back to the hotel room, put him in the PnP, and stuck it in the bathroom. He cried for about 5 minutes and settled down to sleep. In retrospect, I wish we had just kept going. He didn't go to sleep until about 3 am anyway, and chances are, he would have gone back to sleep if we had continued to Vancouver as originally planned.

JennaNAaron · June 2013

The last time we traveled we left at 4am to go to our destination (about 7 hours). They both slept for a few more hours, then we stopped for breakfast, then about an hour later we stopped when the older one barfed However they were very well behaved, however the baby was much younger.

On our way back home we left at nap time, and after nap was over the both screamed for the other 4 hours of the drive...it was awful. We're going away in a couple weeks and planning to leave at 4am again.

Vespah · June 2013

chardonnay24:
We tried doing this in October when he was about 20 months and failed miserably. We were planning on driving to Vancouver (6 hours), with no stops. We left at his normal bedtime of 8 and drove for about 2.5 hours. He woke up and would not go back to sleep or stop crying, so we had to stop in Seattle and get a hotel room. By the time we found a place and checked in, he was too wired to go back to sleep so we ended up driving around the city at 2 am. Finally, we gave up and went back to the hotel room, put him in the PnP, and stuck it in the bathroom. He cried for about 5 minutes and settled down to sleep. In retrospect, I wish we had just kept going. He didn't go to sleep until about 3 am anyway, and chances are, he would have gone back to sleep if we had continued to Vancouver as originally planned.

so the moral of this is.....if they wake up and start screaming just keep driving?

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