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!

[MrsB26]

Good thread, nothing to add - just want to see what anyone else says as we will be doing a massive 8 hour trip (that's how long it takes with just dh and i - let alone with a bub) when our baby is 10 weeks old. That's going on his dd also - could be a week or so either side.

I am not stressed over it - just not really looking forward to it but its for my SIL's wedding so we have to go, and it will be the first time that most of dh's family will be meeting bub.

[Trillian]

Hmmm, do you think you could give her a really good booby feed before you leave and then try to tide her over with some EBM (not sure how you're going with that though - she wouldn't take a bottle would she?) so that you get a bit longer before stopping and giving her another *good* booby feed. When we have travelled with ours over long distances as babies, they tend to go for a bit longer between feeds anyway because being in the car seat they don't seem to burn off as much food kwim?

[Astrid]

Have done the 8+ hour trip with a 6 month old. I have found the best thing to do is just go with the flow. If bubs is asleep, just keep on driving, if they need to feed stop and take what time is needed. I found if we tried to rush or wake to force in a feed, it just made things worse. Not sure if you are at that distracted feeding faze yet, but if you are, then you are better off feeding in the car when you have stopped or stopping at the roadside rest/truckie stops. Maccas and other roadhouses tend to be busy, so have to many distractions when all you want to do is sit, eat and feed bubs. Better to grab takeaway (or better pack your own to take) and eat where it is quieter. Rest stops you can have a walk, bubs can cry without disturbing people.

[satya]

We did a 3 1/2 hour trip recently so nowhere near as long. I wouldn't have wanted to have him in the car any longer than that. He's very good in the car but if he got a yucky nappy he sure let us know about it. Make sure you have plenty of room on your backseat free so that you can change a nappy on the side of the road & absolutely everything you could possibly need in the nappy bag.

[PinkPalace]

LEasha
i acutally comped her with S26 twice on the way down and bf the others. it was her first time on formula and it didnt bother her.

The first trip she was rear facing and the second facing forward. the rearfacingwas much more comfy for her though

[thepixie]

Leash we just did Melbourne to Sydney with DD weekend before last.... you can find the itinerary here: https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...d-today-2.html she was amazingly good actually. We stopped every 3 hours for a BF/nappy change/break. She was so quiet most of the time we thought she was asleep but she still slept at night so maybe she was just looking out the window I found that the last leg of each day was too much for her and she cried most of the way (from about 7.00 pm to end of the day - 9.30 on the saturday and 10.00pm on the sunday) but unlike us you are probably far too sane to be driving that late in the day

[Astrid]

I have found that starting very early in the day helps. We have done a fair few 4 hour trips and the ones with a 6am start are much better. I would just wake bubs with a nappy change, then she would have a good feed and would go down for 3+ hours. Later starts we would have a cranky bubs. Not sure if that helps or not, but atleast with an early start you should hopefully be not so rushed.

[luey]

I haven' done a 10hr trip but have travelled to Adelaide from home at least 4 times. It can take anywhere from 6 hours to 7.5 to travel 550km.

My tips -
* mirrors are good if they are rearward facing, either the small rectangle one or the butterfuly adore-a-view is cute.
*I have a lamaze puppy attached by a linkadoo chain to the strap, easy to retrieve and restrained somewhat in the event of an accident.
*if you use a dummy put it on a chain
*A back of seat car organiser is a good idea. you can put everything there easy to find, much much easier than digging through a nappy bag. Haggus and Stookles an online store have some.
*A padded change mat is a good idea as then you can change on a picnic table, boot of the car or anywhere flat. Changing in the car is hard.
*PAck panadol, bonjela, change of clothes or two and everything you normally would.
*EBM is handy. Have you tried the tommee tippee closer to nature bottles ?
* Make sure she is dressed comfortably, our carseat, SNS Meridian, always makes DS sweaty and hot.
*Make sure the car seat straps are not cutting in and are comfortable.
*Most importantly go with the flow. Soemtimes they just own't stop crying no matter what you do or how often you stop. Jsut turn the music up and get there as fast as possible. With someone comforting her of course.

My DS has good trips and bad, he will sometimes sleep but not often but will often look out the window or at the mirror.

Enjoy the trip and just do the best you can

[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.