Survival tips for 8 hour road trip with 4 mo old

We have an OOS wedding to attend 8 hours away and will be driving with 4 month old DD. I really don't know what to expect from her. She does ok in the car as long as it's moving but does get fussy at times and usually cries when we stop at lights. I'm hoping that since we'll mainly be on highways we'll be ok.

Any tips to help survive this? She's 90% BF, only takes bottles when I work here and there. Also, we'll be staying at a hotel. I'm planning to bring her rock n play sleeper, hoping she'll sleep in that (she used to only sleep in that thing, now she sleeps in the crib).
TIA!

Re: Survival tips for 8 hour road trip with 4 mo old

I would love to hear tips as well as I will be taking a 5 hour drive with a 4 month old in 2 weeks
Good Luck to you!!

Re: Survival tips for 8 hour road trip with 4 mo old

I HIGHLY recommend either leaving in the evening or early, early in the morning so they sleep. We've always done that and majority of the time they sleep. We've also done trips halfway during the day and it takes longer due to bathroom stops (parents) and nursing/feeding/changing the baby. Overnight is so much easier. Good luck!

Re: Survival tips for 8 hour road trip with 4 mo old

We took a 12 hour drive with DD when she was 3 months old.

On the way down we left NY about 2pm. We drove as far as we could that night and stopped at a hotel. I have a travel bassinet so we took that and she slept in there. The next morning we drove the rest of the way. I would NOT recommend doing it like this, it made the drive seem soooooo much longer and drawn out, plus she was awake and fussy a lot.

On the way back to NY we left my parents house at like 3am and drove straight through. She ended up sleeping the majority of the drive, which suprised us. Pretty much the last two hours she was awake and SUPER fussy.

We just had to take longer breaks so I could get her out of her seat, feed her, change her, etc. Normally DH and I would hit drive thrus while travelling, but with her we jsut had to stop more. A couple of times she was hungry and I literally climbed into the back seat to give her a bottle. Gotta do what ya gotta do I guess!!!!

Good luck! Overall I was impressed with how well DD did with the whole trip. She is a good girl.

Re: Survival tips for 8 hour road trip with 4 mo old

DS#1 took a 5 hour flight and then 3 hour drive when he was 5 months. He got really cranky the last hour and I just sat in the back with him. It helped.

Re: Survival tips for 8 hour road trip with 4 mo old

Thanks everyone! I'm going to talk to DH about leaving really early in the AM. I'm not a morning person but maybe we'll be better off that way. Part of me hopes she sleeps a lot of the drive but I'm also worried that if she sleeps all day then she'll be even more difficult to get to sleep in a new environment

Crossing my fingers that all goes well!

Re: Survival tips for 8 hour road trip with 4 mo old

can you nap her now in whatever you plan to have her sleep in? might help her get use to it...we did a 5 hour trip when DD was 3 months. she was overall great (left late at night like above posts)...we listened to some baby CD's along the way....you just do what you have to do! much luck!