traveling w/newborn?

[darcytrue]

I am due very soon. DH wants to go out of state the first week in November (possibly mid October) and we would be renting a house. That's not an issue. But the driving would be like 6-7 hours at least. This will be my first child to breastfeed.

How hard is it to breastfeed while traveling by car that far?? I have concerns that we would have to be stopping all the time. I guess by then I could pump but I want to put that off as long as possible if I can.

Anyone else travel that soon?

[busymama77]

I'm going to sub on this one too and see what everyone else says. I'm due with #2 at the end of February and we're planning on going to Florida in April and the drive is 14 hours non stop!! The pumping part I could see being a possibility - just hop in the back seat and feed as needed.....

[whitekole]

I traveled 3 weeks after DS was born. We went to see family for thanksgiving, typically this is a 4 hour drive, but during big holidays it's not uncommon for the traffic to double the drive time.
What we ended up doing was taking two cars, my mom, and baby and I in one car and my dad and husband in the other. The boys raced down there and stressed about sitting in traffic, taking as many backroads as the GPS could find...
My mom and I stocked up on lots of food since nursing made me soooooo hungry in the begining and decided to take things at a relaxed and slow pace. We had to stop about every 2 hours of driving for atleast 45 minutes of nursing and cuddling and he slept most of the driving time.
It took us a little over 8 hours to get to where we were going but we had a happy baby and my milk supply was ok, I ended up needing to supplement about 2 ounces of formula (I should've pumped and brought frozen milk with me but I didn't think about it) after we got to our destination.
We did the same routine a few days later on the way home and it worked for us.

HTH

[catters]

Well, I just went through this. I moved from Florida to Wisconsin when DD was ten days old. We, of course, drove. My mother and I drove with the kids. Hotels, all that bother. I had a c-section, it was tough. BUT, I just stopped every two hours. At one point when we were stuck in Chicago in a traffic nightmare, I just got in the backseat and did the lean and feed. (Wearing my seatbelt of course!) Thankfully my car has tinted windows. HA! When DS was an infant, I have been known to pump with the hand pump (love the Medela Swing) and gave him a bottle, but as Isla was so little I hadn't given her one at that point. (and of course, she won't take one now, four months later, alas). I have found that being stressed out about a breastfeeding situation will cause issues. So just roll with it.