6 Hour drive w/15 Month old - Alone! Tips please : )

aada0615 · February 2014

Hi Ladies!

I am making a 6 hour drive by myself tomorrow with my 15 month old daughter. I am planning to leave by 6 am so hopefully she sleeps for a while but after that, any tips or suggestions to help keep her occupied?

Thanks in advance!!

aada0615 · February 2014

I usually wake her up at 6 a.m. so it would really only be 45 minutes or so earlier than a normal day... maybe I should try and leave earlier than 6. She only does 1 nap (around 12:30 pm) at daycare but when she's home with me on the weekend she takes a morning nap. I hoping to only stop once as well, thanks for the response and suggestions!!

Greg&Kelly · February 2014

If you need a potty break, stop at Sheetz. They have little baby seats you can strap the baby into while you go in the handicapped stall. It makes life much easier. Discovered this on a solo trip with my one year old.

jasminelorraine20 · February 2014

Just from personal experience with traveling with DS alone (no more than 6 hours), I would leave at around 4 am and let him sleep in the car. He'd sleep for half of the trip and then I'd stop for gas, diaper change, fresh air, ect. when he woke up. For the rest of the trip I would call my mom and she'd talk to him through the car speaker for awhile and I would also talk to him and play a little radio. I keep books and his My Pal Scout in the backseat as well and would give him snacks periodically. The trip would be over in no time.

aji820 · February 2014

I agree about getting up as early as you can stomach and letting your LO sleep in the car. Also, we got an over-the-headrest iPad holder and downloaded a couple movies on to it. Whenever our son gets cranky, we turn a movie on and that usually helps / puts him to sleep. We'll do only one stop on the 5 hr 30 min trip to my inlaws, but I've always done it with my husband, so I might need to stop more if I were driving by myself. Good luck!

aada0615 · February 2014

Thank you all so much for the great ideas!! Getting on the road earlier will definitely be the way to go. As you can guess, I'm pretty nervous but will absolutely stop as many times as I need to (when I said one stop earlier, that's what I'm hoping for/best case scenario). I haven't noticed if there are any Sheetz along the way but I am going to look that up now (I hope there are some!), thanks so much for that tip!

kateraid · February 2014

My 15 month old is obsessed with the Wiggles. I would say to download a dvd your LO likes for that ipad and get some kids CDs for the drive also.

kmc84 · February 2014

ChickenOnSunday said:
Do you have a mirror (if RF) so you can see what your LO is doing? Also make sure you have everything easily accessible so you don't get distracted by searching for things while driving.

At 15 months old, her baby better be RFing

MarinsMom · February 2014

We recently drove to our beach house (5 hours away) and left at night. Best decision ever! After dinner, we did bath, books and PJs the way we usually do then plopped her in her car seat at her normal bedtime. Goodnight baby! see ya in the morning. She slept the whole way!

shannm · February 2014

For a six hour drive, I would either, 1) leave at bedtime and let her sleep all the way there, 2) leave just after lunch, let her sleep for a couple of hours, then after she wakes up, do a stop or two, have lots of snacks and books, or 3) leave in the middle of the night and get there when she is normally ready to wake up.

Leaving just when she wakes for the day is asking for trouble in my house. It would be six hours of when she would normally be awake and then she would arrive just as she was about to sleep again.

Jackiemxoxo · February 2014

I second the over the head rest Ipad holder and some movies or episodes from amazon on there. DD hates being in the car for too long and this saves us on road trips.

Zimger · March 2014

When DS was 12 months we took an 8 hr trip to move back home. It was a bit rough but we managed. We left early so that he would sleep through at least some of it. We stopped at rest areas when it was clear he needed to stretch.

MrsRKJ · March 2014

We've driven 10 hours with our almost 1 year old 2x. Both times we left at 3 am. He slept for half the trip. Then we stopped, changed him, fed him, and then he fell back asleep for another hour or two. So the earlier you can leave the better.

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6 Hour drive w/15 Month old - Alone! Tips please : )

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