what to do in the car... help!

my little one isnt that crash hot on trips in the car... she can sometimes go about 20 minutes then starts grizzling before going into a full blown hysterical cry, due to being tired and not being able to drop off to sleep by herself (i am working on fixing this).

so what do u do when your baby starts crying when you are driving? for short trips it doesn't worry me, but for longer trips ie to my mums tomorrow which is an hour and twenty minutes, and can get really distressing. i have pulled over before to comfort her, but it only lasts a minute or two then more crying when we start back up, and the drive is mostly on the freeway so its really hard to stop.

is it bad to just let her cry while i continue on driving? i mean, besides trying to comfort her with my voice, what else can i do? life must go on surely, i cant stop going places because she cries in the car?

i am going to buy an ipod today to put in my ears in case she starts crying? what do other people do, surely u cant keep pulling over?

any advice on how you cope would be great. it cant hurt her to cry a little can it? she is 11 weeks old. we are letting her cry for a few minutes and comforting her while she drops off to sleep in her cot. maybe she will cry for a while in her car seat then go to sleep (yeah right!!).

how do you guys get out and about with a little one and not lose your sanity?

i am mainly worried that it could harm her in some way pyschologically. is that being silly?

My little bub goes to sleep in the car so these things are off the top of my head.
Have you made sure she is comfortable eg the seat fits not too tight or loose and she isnt too hot or cold.
Put some bright toys in her sight so she has something to look at
Put some baby relaxing music on that she likes outside of the car.
Make sure she is fed and changed just before getting in. (my baby always seems to go once he is in otherwise and then gets cranky)
Try a densensitisation type program where you work up to what you want. The point being for her to feel a bit more comfortable in the car. Eg. sit in the car with her on your lap and have some cuddles. Put on the relaxing music. Then work up (over a few days/weeks) to put her in her seat for a few minutes with some favourite toys or lots of soothing attention and then to going for a short drive. You could also at the beginning have someone sit in the back with her so she is within easy reach of comforting for them while she gets used to car trips.
HTH. Good luck!

Josh use to do this to me also! It is stressful! I use to put heaps of toys up in front of him and also sang to him when he was upset! They do grow out of it (i think Josh was 3 months) i think it was until they get use to actually being in the car. Josh became more better when we turned his car seat around. Goodluck!

I found that singing to DD helped alot. I'd get a sore dry throat from singing over & over but it kept her quiet. Have you tried a dummy? I used a dummy with DD (still do at bed time) & that helped alot, she couldnt keep it in her mouth very well for the first few months but soon got the hang of keeping it in there & shuffling it back in if it popped out.
As DD got older I also introduced a comfort blankie, which is luckily enough for me, any blanket... even a piece of clothing if I find I've left the house without a blankie. This works a treat for DD as she'll sleep anywhere & it really does keep her quiet even if shes wide awake.
Good luck, I hope you find something that works well for you :)

i used lots of bright toys and had a wiggles cd in my cd player most of the time. i know all their songs by heart!

Providing that shes comfortable and not in pain or anything id probably have to keep driving. I can remember stopping so many times too. We got one of those mirrors that you can put in the car too and it seemed to help Sammy a bit. Music is a help as well and like the other girls have said bright toys to look at, so she doesnt get bored.

Jo

Is it possible to go at Nap time, rock her off to sleep first an then transfer her into the car seat rather than into the cot? We used to do this with DD where ever possible, Dh family all lives about 1 1/2 hours away and we used to always wait to nap time get her off to sleep and put her in her car seat asleep. More often than not she would sleep the whole journey. We also used to (when it worked) have hi-5 CD's in the car and she really seemed to respond well to having them on.

Oh dear, that would be so stressful for you. I haven't got a huge amount of advice as our DD loves the car and falls asleep in minutes and stays that way. If she does get grizzly though she usually responds to me singing along with the ipod and she'll nod back off - she loves Dido at the moment so that is getting a working out. Good luck and hopefully it will get better for you soon.

Either DH or I sit in the back of the car with DS on long journeys so we can stroke/comfort him. He loves the Fishie Song, so I sing that a lot, he also loves a rattle being jangled in his face (well, he smiles, waves his arms and shuts up - he has different tastes to me!

I usually have a kid's music CD to hand (DH doesn't like this if he jumps in the car to go to work and has Teddy Bears' Picnic playing!) and DS now has a car play thing - you strap it around the headrest, it has a mirror and a couple of jangly toys, when he's bigger he can touch and explore the textures on the other part of the toy. He is happy to sit in the car awake now, I'm thrilled! But he would scream and scream until just recently if he didn't sleep.

Heehee Ryn...try dropping a 13 year old girl off at high school, where as soon as she opens the car door its 'everybody clap, everybody sing...la la la la la!!!!'

Jo

Hey, I loved that! But my sister didn't, she used to insist on the "cool" radio station for the ten seconds it took her to get out the car. Who listens to what's on in other people's cars anyway?

LOL yeah think Jess would appreciate that too..she doesnt quite share Sammys taste, as fun as the wiggles are, she outgrew them a while ago hehe.

Jo

Hi Emma,
My DS does this also, especially if he is tired - and my mum lives just over an hour away. It used to distress me at first but now I don't worry about it. I know he's OK, just tired. I never stop as I prefer to just get to my destination rather than prolong things by trying to settle him (I don't think it would work anyway). The longest he has screamed for is about half an hour or so. I turn the music up (not too loud) and tune out as best I can - singing helps. I think that they grow out of it and will get used to it eventually. Crying isn't the end of the world, IMO.
Good Luck.

We've just been through this after driving back from Adelaide (about 800Km). She was fine for most of the trip but got cranky towards the end (who wouldn't after 8 hours in the car?). I found a variety of different toys to cycle through was a good distraction. All her fav's of course. And I bought 3 nursery rhyme CD's which we cycled through (I am now very well versed with nursery rhymes!!!). Miss Polly has been her fav song for the past month so if she got really bad we went straight to that one and kept playing it until she settled. Or if worse came to worst - we stopped the car and stretched our legs. I've also found in the past that talking to her helps - the kind of conversation you would have with any other passanger except they can't answer back!

MG

P.S we also left around nap time so she slept most of the way!

LOL Mothergoose - we just did the same thing. We had toys and music (not nursery rhymes - didn't even think of that!) and knew her fave ones and if she got upset we would play them over and over. The trip took us longer than usual as we stopped more often for her feeds and a stretch and we also left right on nap time too which meant we actually had to wake her for feeds.

As well as the singing (I detect a common theme here) I used to keep a sippy cup full of water for her to drink/splash around/play with. This started in summer but she loved it so much I always kept one handy in the car for those grizzly moments. A change of clothes at the other end was worth the peace and quiet!

We also had this fantastic "car bar" - Like a soft foam loop with a little steering wheel on it (very cute) and she would happily sit there and drive her own car in the back...! It also had other loops on it so we could attach toys (special ones she only got in the car...!) and that meant she had something to play with and couldn't drop them repeatedly.