10 hour drive w/ baby

[LSUmiss]

DS will be 6.5 mos in 2 weeks when we drive to wdw. We had flights booked but cancelled b/c flying around thanksgiving time w/ an infant seemed like more of a nightmare than driving. Anyone ever done this with a similar aged baby? Any tips? He’s pretty laid back. But, driving over night is not an option. He will nap in the car but only really sleeps in crib. Won’t even sleep in a pack n play.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We have driven on 18 hour trips to visit family with both our kids around this age (and many trips since then - they are 3 & 2 now.)
We do not drive overnight. We leave very early in the morning. We do not stop at a hotel, we prefer to just get where we’re going. My kids took pretty hefty naps on our road trips at this age. I always sat next to them to entertain them if needed. Other than that, keeping them fed was key! I’d read stories, have a few light up/musical toys too. I found this age very easy for long road trips for both my kids.

 

[LSUmiss]

We have driven on 18 hour trips to visit family with both our kids around this age (and many trips since then - they are 3 & 2 now.)
We do not drive overnight. We leave very early in the morning. We do not stop at a hotel, we prefer to just get where we’re going. My kids took pretty hefty naps on our road trips at this age. I always sat next to them to entertain them if needed. Other than that, keeping them fed was key! I’d read stories, have a few light up/musical toys too. I found this age very easy for long road trips for both my kids.

Great! Thanks! That’s my plan too. I always sit with him in the back & he loves to eat so I thought we’d do that most of the time!

 

[Betty Rohrer]

the one problem we had with long trips with our little ones was they slept in car and when we got where we wanted to sleep that night they were not tired and ready to sleep so no one got any sleep first night. I would expect your trip will take longer than 10 hours as each stop will be longer than before kids. diaper changes and feeding take longer when you have to take turns. unless one of you sit beside baby and bottle feed you are going to have to stop to feed. we traveled a lot when our girls were little but it seemed to double time there. not sure it was that much just seemed like it

 

[stephk1981]

Can you break it up into 2 days and stop overnight? DD is now 12 months, we did the first trip with her at 6 months....but only had to drive 4 hours. I think your DS will do better than my DD did in the ar. She was either sleeping or crying I drove down by myself, DS and DD. We stopped 3 times in a 4 hour trip and DS did his best to entertain her with toys. DH flew down Midway through the trip to join us. The drive back home, I was in the backseat with DD......still hard, but easier with me back there. Take lots of toys. Maybe every hour show him a YouTube song clip of Disney movie...... that's what I did. Although ten hours is quite a long journey, just manage your expectations. DS is young....he most likely will cry at times, you will have to stop to change/ feed. Ten hours may turn into twelve....so just be open to taking a bit longer. Have a super SAFE drive and magical trip

 

[LSUmiss]

DS will be 6.5 mos in 2 weeks when we drive to wdw. We had flights booked but cancelled b/c flying around thanksgiving time w/ an infant seemed like more of a nightmare than driving. Anyone ever done this with a similar aged baby? Any tips? He’s pretty laid back. But, driving over night is not an option. He will nap in the car but only really sleeps in crib. Won’t even sleep in a pack n play.

Can you break it up into 2 days and stop overnight? DD is now 12 months, we did the first trip with her at 6 months....but only had to drive 4 hours. I think your DS will do better than my DD did in the ar. She was either sleeping or crying I drove down by myself, DS and DD. We stopped 3 times in a 4 hour trip and DS did his best to entertain her with toys. DH flew down Midway through the trip to join us. The drive back home, I was in the backseat with DD......still hard, but easier with me back there. Take lots of toys. Maybe every hour show him a YouTube song clip of Disney movie...... that's what I did. Although ten hours is quite a long journey, just manage your expectations. DS is young....he most likely will cry at times, you will have to stop to change/ feed. Ten hours may turn into twelve....so just be open to taking a bit longer. Have a super SAFE drive and magical trip

Thank you for the advice. We did plan to stop for the night if necessary. We will try to make it through if possible. He usually does very well in the car if I sit with him (which I will). I plan to buy new toys to introduce every so often as necessary plus the videos.

 

[otten]

DS will be 6.5 mos in 2 weeks when we drive to wdw. We had flights booked but cancelled b/c flying around thanksgiving time w/ an infant seemed like more of a nightmare than driving. Anyone ever done this with a similar aged baby? Any tips? He’s pretty laid back. But, driving over night is not an option. He will nap in the car but only really sleeps in crib. Won’t even sleep in a pack n play.

I've done long driving days with small children several times. My youngest was 7 weeks when we did a 2 day drive to attend a memorial service. It's totally doable although I have to say that flying at 6 months was easier than flying at other ages. Just be aware that your trip may end up being quite a bit longer than 10 hours because you'll need to stop more often and for longer.

 

[tinkerjo]

We always drive and have always taken our infants. WDW is a 14 hour trip ( we do break it in 1/2) but day 2 is always rough because they see that car seat and don’t want to deal with it again. We leave very early (5am or so) so they do sleep part of the way and like a PP mentioned, they nap well. People always thought we were crazy for taking our infants but it teaches them to be good travelers from an early age. Good luck

 

[NYCgrrl]

I car traveled with a 1.5 month older who I learned at the start of the trip was allergic to disposable diapers. The trip was about 8 hours long and took considerably more time than anticipated because of the diaper situ. We had a diaper service at home but there was none available at our destination. So about 1.5 hours into the trip we put his first disposable diaper on and then stopped about the same time further on the highway. His poor backside was red and the skin coming off.

Fortunately we had a few cloth diapers with us and still had diaper pins. We were traveling from Brooklyn, NYC, to North Truro on Cape Cod and all along the upper Cape, every Woolworth's (you are younger; just Google the name, LOL) and similar type store carried neither cloth diapers or birdseye fabric (used to make diapers) anymore. Every day for almost 2 weeks we washed the few cloth diapers we had out and it was a relief when eldest sister arrived in the middle of our trip with cloth diapers in hand. Still had to wash them but less frequently. Moral of the story is try out something new for LO at home first.

 

[LadyntheTramp]

We traveled quite a bit with our little one and the second will be 5 months for this upcoming trip. I will say that we found flying super easy with a baby. Car wise...We did a 6 hour trip straight through and stopped at the 3 hour mark for lunch and stretching. I would suggest roughly that same time frame to get our and stretch. Also, if you are going to stay over night I would book someplace with a pool. (This suggest came from my mom, since we traveled alot when I was a kid.) We took our kiddo to the pool and even though she slept in the car alot; the pool wore her out and she still slept great at night.