[maybaby18]

Hello everybody! I've been breastfeeding my daughter for 3 months now and I don't plan to stop, I don't know if this is the best place to ask this but my husband is finishing school next month and we're planning on driving back home which is a 18 hour drive. ( We can't take a plane because all our stuff is in wyoming, and our home is in California! ) I don't know what I'm going to do! My baby hasn't ever been in a car for that long...not even a couple hours!! Please give me advise on what I should do and how to handle a almost 5 month old in our car for 12-18 hours!!!

 

[2BoyzMum]

Hey, we took first son on many car rides-although only one as long as you mention when he was about 8-10 months. So a little older but I only breastfed and we did lots of shorter trips of about 5 hours. I would recommend doing a few short trips to try it out-baby will do much better than you think, probably sleeping along the way. I would plan on stoping at least every 3 hours for feeding, changing, and letting everyone stretch out. I think they get so crowded in the car seats. I would also say that it is probably unreasonable to do the trip in one stretch. On an 18 hour trip we would break into 3 days/2 nights...can you get a hotel? Maybe even camp out one night? It will make it so much better. Look at a map ahead of time and identify place that may be cool and offer a place to nurse and change etc. Also having a bottle of pumped milk in a cooler along just in case you need to feed and there is absolutely no place to stop will ensure babe is not screaming on some dark stretch.

Hope it helps....

 

[blumom2boyz]

My husband and I did a similar trip after he finished school with my first born. He too was 5 months old at the time and the drive took about 13 hours. I don't know if this is possible, but we drove through the night. My son was sleeping through the night then and that helped to eliminate too many frequent stops. If that isn't even possible, then plan on stopping every several hours or so. I would think that by the time she is 5 months, she could go 3-4 hours between feedings. Or have a bottle on hand to give while your hubbie drives and/or freshly pump one and give it to her. If she hasn't taken a bottle before, I would start offering her one now if you want that to be an option on the trip. Try not to stress and good luck!

 

[mamak05]

We moved (drove) from Maine to Florida when dd was five months old. I was worried about the trip too. The drive was about 20 hours. We took four days/3 nights to drive it. Stayed in hotels twice and with family once. One day was really long, one day was short (stopped for lunch visit with grandparents) and the other two days were about six hours/per day. My DD slept most of the time the car was going, so we didn't stop much.

Are you driving by yourself? If so, I recommed getting some walkie-talkies so you can tell your DH when you need to pull over to nurse, take a break, etc.

It will be much better than you think!

Safe travels...