10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

Next week we are driving from LI to Toronto with our 9 month old. He has flown a few times and is okay, but always quick flights. This is a different beast. Best advice for the trip? I nurse, so he won't be taking bottles but he does take a sippy cup. He doesn't watch TV so no movies on the iPad. He's generally good in the car but does have his moments.

Thanks!

10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

Get new toys that you think he would like but he hasn't seen before. My son will play with a new toy longer than something he's seen before.

Hopefully he will sleep! Maybe you will have to sit in the back with him and play with him, sing songs,, etc.

Take breaks and let him get up and out of the car seat.

Good luck!

Re: 10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

Leave really early in the morning so he sleeps for the first few hours.

10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

Can you drive overnight at his usual bedtime?

10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

I prefer doing as much of the drive as possible when baby usually sleeps.

Re: 10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

The longest we have done is 5 1/2 hours when DD was 8 months. About 20 minutes before her first nap, I nursed her and put a tired baby in the car. She slept for about 2 hours. When she woke, we figured we had about a half hour before she got cranky. We found a mall 40 minutes away (on the way) and stopped there for about 2.5 hours. I changed her, fed her and we walked around for a while. We even got lunch. The second she started showing signs of being tired I nursed her again and then we got back in the car. She was asleep in about 10 minutes and we got another 1.5 hours of a napping baby. When she was up and cranky, we found a gas station. I fed her and we were on our way again. That last 40 min was rough. She cried a lot. She was bored and wanted out.

For the return drive we left at her bedtime and drove straight. That was a long night. She cried for almost 3 hours before falling asleep. When we got back home it was 1am and we couldn't get her to go back to sleep. She cried a lot.

We travel from cape cod to LI a lot too. It's 5 hours and we always use the orient ferry to break up the drive. She is a pro at that one. No issues.

Re: 10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

I drove AJ to TX from NY at 9m our minimum driving time per day was 10hours. I stopped every 3 no matter WHAT. Ok once I didn't but that was only once LOL. I mapped out areas to stop and get her out, put her in a stroller and walk around. She was FF. She has a DVD player and toys and my brother sat back there with her to entertain her. She slept a lot. Still 3hours was a good stopping point for changing her, getting her out, feeding her and basically resetting the trip.

She made it all 3 days no problem

That ONE time I waited longer than 3hours she was asleep. When she woke up she was cranky and next city was miles and miles away. So I religiously stopped 3hours after that!

Re: 10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

Re: 10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

We have started at 7:30 pm so they fall asleep and stay asleep ...........

Re: 10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

DH has vetoed driving through the night. I don't blame him.

Re: 10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

We drove from NY to TX and back with a 2 year old and 3 month old (and our large dog). I also was breastfeeding at the time (and she would eat often.) I brought a small hand pump and one bottle and would skip a feeding if my 2 year old was content when the baby wanted to eat. Just make sure you bring dish soap to clean the parts if you are staying in a hotel and a large plastic bag to store the parts in the car.

We stopped at least once every 3 hrs if they were awake. If we were driving at night we'd let them go longer, but I would sit in the back because I was worried about our infant being in her car seat for too long. We traveled with a big picnic blanket and would find a good grassy spot and let the girls breathe and play for a bit. If we could we planned our stops with interesting activities (zoos, children museums) Nine months is a hard age with car activities (coloring, ipad, etc), but bring a good stash of toys, musical stuff, new things, etc.

Honestly, we did a ton of driving at night (but my husband is used to driving at night and working very long days so he doesn't get tired easily) If you can't drive overnight I'd leave very very early, like 4/5 and hope to bang out 5 hrs while they are still sleeping Drive from 4-9 stop eat breakfast, back on the road at 10, activity from 12-1, nap in the car from 1-4 and you are there! You could also leave around nap time and then just get in very late? Around 1pm-1am? Do dinner somewhere around 5 play, eat, change clothes? Hope he will sleep from 7-1?

I will never do a car trip like we did again, but 10 hrs is doable, just stop when you need to.

Re: 10 hour car ride with 9 month old....advice?

Right now our plan is to leave at his morning nap time. That's usually his longer nap anyways. Stop for lunch and some moving around time (definitely bringing a blanket so he can crawl a bit - he's a really active kid). The second stretch in the car will be tough for a bit but hopefully he'll take a second decent nap shortly after. I think the dinner stretch is going to be hardest. Sigh.