Keeping 3 1/2 month old entertained on the long car ride

[Belle5]

6 years ago when we took my last 3 1/2 month old to WDW we didn't need to keep his carseat turned backwards so he was able to watch movies with his older brothers and that kept him entertained. With the new safety rules about carseats our baby will have to be facing the "wrong" way and won't have the luxury and entertainment of watching movies with his brothers during our very long car drive. I thought about a mirror but I don't think that would work. What have you done to "entertain" your tiny ones that worked well. Keep in mind he will have 5 brothers who can hold things for him and play with him a little. (Maybe that will be enough???) Any particular toys that your babies enjoyed in their carseats?
Thanks!
Belle5

 

[briannesmom]

I would also love to hear suggestion if anyone has any. We are leaving from Michigan on Wednesday with a 4 month old.

We bought a stuffed octopus with little rattles and crinkly legs that hangs from the car seat handle. It works for short trips but i don't know about a long one.

Amy

 

[Samandmom]

Whatever you do DON'T have Mommy sit in the back. I learned that lesson the hard way. My DD cried alot because she wanted me to hold her and nurse her when she was tired. She was about 6 months at the time. Took me awhile to figure it out.

My DD has one of those octopus hangy things also and she loves it. My DD loves things that play music and light up. How about something like that?

Good Luck!

 

[castlegazer]

I used to use an activity arch that clipped to each side of the infant carrier that had toys dangling from it. We would do activity songs like itsy bitsy spider and patty cakes. I have an 8 1/2"x11" board (its just super heavy duty cardboard) that has a mirror like substance on one side and it a magnetic board on the other. I take the kitchen magnets (the bigs ones) along in a tuperware container and we move the magnets along on the board and then spent lots of time looking in the mirror. I also did puppets over the headrest of the front seat - this entertained for long stretches of time surprisingly. I also had tons and tons of books along.

We spent a good amount of time in AAA planning out a short stop to see a local attraction every two hours of the trip. I would need to nurse anyways, and it got us all out of the car for a half hour or so. We planned this extra time into the trip time.

And then I perfected the art of nursing in rest area parking lots in the car.

Hope this helps a little - I kinda miss the days when pretty much half the time my DS spent sleeping. We do a lot of driving to see my parents on weekends as they are elderly. I have pretty much tried everything to entertain. Now its just singing Wiggles songs the entire ride, at least its not Barney.

 

[Denine]

Last January, we drove from Cleveland with our 3-1/2 month old DD. We had a couple of toys for her, but she slept most of the way, except when she was hungry.

 

[BevS97]

I don't think a 3 1/2 month old needs a lot of entertaining, they mostly sleep, and I would have some nice music to play - we play classical when we are tired of kids music and she seems to like it all the same.

Bev
(who will be taking her 3 month old on a 9 hour flight in 2 weeks, so I hope I am right )