Long car trip with 7 mo old. Tips?

[texasfarmom]

Hi All!

In February DH, DD , and I will be going on a 14 hr. car ride (one way) to go visit my best friend. I *am* afraid I *may* be making an incredibly selfish decision...but alas, we are going. DD sometimes doesn't mind the car seat, but usually despises it. We are obviously going to make this as painless as possible for all of us. So, this is what we are currently planning on doing: We are going to leave around 4 pm and hopefully catch 1-2 of DD's naps. She is usually asleep for the night at around 9:00 so we are hoping she will sleep most of the trip. We are going to take DH's diesel pick-up because it is roomier and she seems to ride better in it, maybe because it 'vibrates' more or something. I'm of course going to take some toys, and I also plan on taking children's music and 2-3 videos with us. She doesn't watch cartoons at home though, so I don't know if that will help or not. Oh, and also some books, but she loses interest in those pretty quickly right now as well. DH or I will probably ride in the back with her for the trip as well.

Has anyone BTDT with a 7 mo old? Any tips or advice? TIA!

[1blueheron]

Does she like to tear up paper?  Catalogs got us through an hour or so last trip.

[LaydieBugs]

We drove from Oregon to Iowa when DS was 4.5 months old ... I'm glad I don't have to do it now (7.5 months) when he's awake more ...

Fortunately, he loves his car seat (Chicco Keyfit 30).  Still ... the long trip has so many complications.  Here's some of what we did for our move to Iowa, and what we do now:

TEMPERATURE CONTROL ... such a big big issue ....

-- Cotton diaper with wool cover

-- Cotton clothes, babe dressed lightly with cotton blankets on hand

-- Cotton burp rag folded behind him in the car seat (narrow strip between the straps, just behind his head and back)

-- Socks, no shoes

ENTERTAINMENT

-- Mom or Dad sitting in the back with him

-- Rotation of toys, some new

-- Animusic!!  The best $20 I ever spent is on this DVD.  He has watched it a million times and it still calms him, at home and in the car.

-- An old cell phone with rock music on it ... for some reason he likes hard rock, and giving him this phone to hold and chew on makes him happiest

Plan for LOTS of stopping.  I found on the move from Oregon that we had to stop very early in the fuss, or the next fuss would come more quickly and would be hard to stop. 

And Hyland's colic tablets were crucial for us ... he's sensitive to some things I eat, and when I eat "road food" it's harder to control.  I also think his sitting so much blocks up his tummy a bit. 

Planning to drive during the napping hours is great.  Also figure out how you can get her to sleep, then get the car seat into the car without waking her, and take off. 

It's especially important on the drive to pee and fill up the gas tank every time you can ... it SUCKS to need to pee or get gas when baby just went to sleep, and you're afraid to stop ...

I'm skeptical that 14 hours in one day is possible ... we did an 18 hour stretch from Denver to Iowa (which should have been 12 hours, but it had 6 hours of stopping), and it was miserable for everyone. 

[LaydieBugs]

Oh!  Almost forgot ...

We find that shaking the car seat, pretty darn hard (as hard as we can without messing up his neck) helps a lot. 

When he needs to go to sleep, he can't always just nod off on his own and wants some help ... when it's not a good time to stop, "rocking" the car seat while the car is going frequently does the trick in just a few minutes.  (especially with a little Def Leppard, but I hope that quirk is exclusive to my son-of-80s-rock-lover).

[texasfarmom]

1blueheron-I would have never thought of that. Thanks! I'll have to make sure it doesn't end up in her mouth though! Her grandpa already let her eat the bulletin which resulted in a black mouth, cheeks, chin, nose..."But she was happy!"

Laydiebugs-My DD's nickname is Ladybug.  Great ideas. I might not have made such a conscious effort to make sure the temp. was comfortable for her without you saying that. I might just have to go out and buy Animusic now too! I have two Veggie Tales she hasn't seen so I hope that helps. Stopping when she needs to stop to fuel up and go potty is another great idea I wouldn't have thought of, and we would be stuck with her asleep and needing to stop.

We (meaning DH) decided to do it all at once b/c he thought that would be better than spending two days on the road each way. Also, it is hard for him to get away for such a long period b/c there is ALWAYS a LOT of stuff to do on the farm. I guess if we *have* to stop and get a room for the night we will. :shrug

[chattyprincess]

We drive to our inlaws all the time. It is about 12 hours total on the road. We did it in december for the first time with our 5.5mth old. We have travelled extensively with dd (now 4.5) and I will say that we drive a big truck and the best entertainment in the backseat is me lol. I just talk and laugh and interact etc.  I recommend every single thing everyone else said above and agree, whenever you stop, go pee and get a bottle of water because otherwise that baby will have just fallen asleep and you are goin gto have to stop...which will inevitably wake them up. I also like doing it in one day because the second day of driving always seems like everyone is fussier and needs more entertainment...almost like they are dreading it. once your dc falls asleep I would say to get into the front seat since you need to relax too! Driving anywhere is hard work!

[newmamalizzy]

When we drove DD (then 8.5 months) to Ohio for Christmas, we drove overnight to Buffalo, then the next night the rest of the way to Ohio - about 7 hours each time.  It worked quite well, as she slept the entire time.  The one thing that helped us that hasn't been mentioned yet - singing!!!  DD doesn't respond to speech from the front seat, but when Mommy and Daddy sing, she calms right down.  12 Days of Christmas was a big hit, but John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt is her all-time favorite!!!!

[khaoskat]

We travel with 4 children, and do it frequently during the summer.

Some of the things we do for our longer trips is to leave late afternoon, stop some place for dinner, drive about another hour or two, stop some place and change the kids into PJ's and then they fall asleep.  We end up driving with them awake for about 3 - 4 hours (not including about 2 hours of stop time for meal and potty breaks and clothes changing.  With the baby, since he nurses, we have to stop every couple of hours to nurse.

The trip home we are awake most of the trip, because we cannot do the night driving and still get some sleep.  It works out fairly well.  They are usually awake about 6-8 hours of the trip and asleep about 2-4 depending upon the stops we make (we stop at different points of interest to see things and stretch our legs and let the kids get out and exercise and run for a bit.  These are usually our nursing stops for the baby...