10hr car trip with 4mo?

[Indadhanu]

Ok, help! It seens we'll be having to take a trip to Tamworth in the next few weeks, Shel's grandmother is in hospital with not long (say the drs). If she does pass away we'll be travelling down for the funeral. Shel wants Jazz and i to go down with her (though I've never met her so I don't think Jazz and I will actually be at the funeral unless Shel really wants us there...).

Ok, so we'll be driving down, in SIL's car (just SIL, Shel, Jazz and I in one car, BIL and neices will be in the other car). Probably during the day (disappointingly...).

Ok, so how do you go with a 4mo in a 10hr car trip? How do I stop her getting bored and uncomfy in the car? She's bf, so in a way its good, don't have to worry about bottles or formula or anything like that, but also bad, not like I can feed her in the car, which adds a whole lot of time on to our trip.

I'm just dreading the whole thing. Wish SIL would agree to go in the afternoon... my imagination is showing a cranky uncomfortable and bored baby crying in the car, and then an overslept out-of-whack baby crying all night... and for days afterward... and then coming home again... I'm dreading it... flying isn't an option either...

[PinkPalace]

hi leesha!
We did 13 hrs with DD when she was 6 months and then again when she was 9 months. (and 2 dogs lol).

i found it helped that she would take a cup as you didnt have to stop to feed her during the trip everytime.

Also we would put her in the car as soon as she woke up, so she was awake for about 2 hrs playing then sleep for a good 2-3hrs - it took a big chunk out of the day - rather than putting her in the car to drive when she was ready for her sleep.

Also stop at driver revivers to BF and graba toliet and coffee stop.

We had classical music playing in the back the whole trip (dangerous if it puts you to sleep though lol). and most of the trip one of us was in the back seat to read or settle her.
if we were both in the front she would get ancy!

make it fun and perhaps have an overnight stay at a b&b ... to break up the trip

but honestly have the car packed the night before, feed her as soon as she wakes then leave. it will give you a good start by the time she sleeps and wakes again!

[Indadhanu]

i found it helped that she would take a cup as you didnt have to stop to feed her during the trip everytime

Did you express in the car to feed her?

Oh, and was your DD in the car reclined or sitting up? Jazz is still reclined (rearfacing), so not sure if that going to make it wasier or harder?

[SamiH]

EBM in a bottle just in case you cant get straight off the road when she screams for a feed ... if someone in back to feed her. take ur pump in car btdt -

When u stop important to let her have a kick on a blanket to stretch her back - 3.5 hours max in a car seat ...

[Trillian]

How well does she travel in general? If she usually goes to sleep or is happy to be in the car then she should be fine that way. When our second child was 5.5mths we went to Forster which is about 10hrs from here and even doing it over two days it was just horrendous as she hated being in the car for any longer than about an hr. I nearly left her in Sydney LOL I agree with packing the car the night before and feeding her and jump in the car right away, cause that will buy you the maximum amount of time before you need to stop and feed her again. Is she still having pretty close feeds though? that might make it trickier if she decides she wants to feed like that during your trip.

[sweetpea678]

Hi we just did a quick trip to melbourne and back in 3 days from Canberra with a 4.5month old and it went well. If there is someone in the back they can always play with bub when they are awake this is what we did. It added only 45min to each trip with the stops to feed (my bub is a fairly quick feeder), we also took the opertunity to have streach and wee stop at that time.

I would take a few small toys that bub likes with you in the car.

We have had two unsettled but not realy bad nights since getting back but other than that she settled back in fine, were about to go to sydney tomorrow and back on sunday so poor girl will have done two long trips in two weekends.

I did not bother with bottle or anything.

Hope this helps.

[Indadhanu]

Thanks everyone

Trillian, yeah she's still feeding really close together, though have been getting slightly better thanks to the CHN, but still no more than 2.5 hrs apart She tends to travel ok usually, though we haven't gone furher than 90 minutes away yet!

[smiles4u]

Not quite the same but my DD was 8mths old when we drove from Ballarat to Adelaide ... ended up taking about 7.5hrs ... she was bottle feed by then & it was stinking hot weather (thankfully you are BFing ... so much easier) ... Anyway, she was a dream, to our surprise she slept about 80% of the entire car trip ... Fingers Crossed the same for your little one

[Tobily]

We went from Brisbane to Moree (probably about 8 hours with stops) for a funeral when DS was 4 months old. It was the dead of summer too.

It actually went really well. I was driving (DH doesn't drive) and whenever Toby needed to feed we just stopped and I fed him, put him back in his seat and off we went again. Definitely nice and easy to be breastfeeding at times like that. I was dreading it too but it was actually really easy...we left our then 2yo with my mother though because we thought it was a bit ambitious to take the two of them lol.