Long car rides

lburkey21 · November 2014

Any tips? We are making a 9-10 hr drive for Thanksgiving and I'm nervous about it. DS is ok in the car...usually fine as long as we are moving but has been known to cry hysterically for seemingly no reason. We plan to split the drive into 2 days.

jendem8 · November 2014

We did a solid 8+ hour drive with LO when she was 2 months old (with stops it become more like 12 hours). She did EXTREMELY well on the way down and was pretty good on the way back too. She's like your LO where she's usually ok but will scream sometimes.

Even though she doesn't normally take a paci for me, when she started to get really upset, I sat in the back and she would suck on her wubbanub. I was also there to talk to her, stroke her, sing to her, which helped a lot. We've also found that she might be scared to be in the dark, so luckily we had my in-law's minivan and could turn on the little reading light above her.

Good luck. It is stressful, but you're smart in breaking up the trip (we didn't have that option). Now that your LO might be getting more to the stage of grabbing, bring toys and things to distract (especially if you can have someone in the backseat). Be open to stopping often to feed and give breaks, and hopefully all will go well!

jenniferurs · November 2014

Ugh, we're taking a 9-10 hour drive tomorrow and I'm dreading it. We did a 4 hour drive to Orlando a few weeks back and she slept the whole ride both ways, but lately, she's been screaming during every trip in the car. Good luck to you! Here's hoping our LOs do okay!

dogperson11 · November 2014

We will be doing a 14 hour drive at Christmas when DD is almost 4 months. We know it'll take a lot longer then normal but hope that doing a lot of it at night helps. Good luck!

SherryBaby2014 · November 2014

We'll be doing some long drives around Christmas to visit family. So not looking forward to it! Longest she's been in the car so far is maybe 20-30 minutes.

happylady07 · November 2014

We drove to Vegas and back the next day last week. It's normally a 4-5 hour drive but took us longer with stops for the kids. I would nurse when we stopped for a bathroom break for my 3 year old if the baby was awake, if not I just left him be. Both kids did extemely well, but the baby tends to freak out in the dark, so right before we made it home the sun went down and he screamed most of the way home. That was a fun 20 minutes, it also solidified my husband's dilemma about when we would drive to his mom's house in AZ for Thanskgiving (6 hour drive), we would often leave at bedtime when we just had my oldest so he would sleep and just get in late at night, but we will most definitely be leaving first thing in the morning now, to avoid nighttime scream time travel.

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