First time driving - 3yo and 6mo

[mjkacmom]

I would not count on what happens at home holding while traveling. I would make a few trail runs of having them fall asleep in car and making sure your plan is going to work. both of my girls were great sleepers at home but not with falling asleep in car. it was a big difference

We drove about 10 hours with a 2 and 4 year old, excellent sleepers at home. They just kept waking each other up in the van, and on the morning we were driving home the 2 year old woke up with a very nasty stomach virus. I thought that was bad until the next morning when my 4 year old and I woke up with it, and my husband had to go to work. Even when we had 5 kids we still flew instead of driving long distances.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

We drove about 10 hours with a 2 and 4 year old, excellent sleepers at home. They just kept waking each other up in the van, and on the morning we were driving home the 2 year old woke up with a very nasty stomach virus. I thought that was bad until the next morning when my 4 year old and I woke up with it, and my husband had to go to work. Even when we had 5 kids we still flew instead of driving long distances.

we drove a lot of 13 hour drives with kids starting at the ages of your thru teens. 2 of ours would never stay asleep when we stopped. had a lot of napping in car but not tired when we got to hotel. we usually stopped early enough to get a swim in before bed. even picked hotels with indoor pools if needed depending on season

 

[tinkerjo]

We have a 13hr drive and always found it easy to leave somewhere between 4-5 AM. It gave the kids about 4 hrs of sleep before our 1st stop and we would get out, eat breakfast, gas up, and go potty. We made sure to pack plenty of activities and snacks. The baby will most likely sleep most the trip regardless of time of day. We would go about 8 hrs on day one and we did prebook a hotel on the way. ( got to make sure it is a safe area and hotel has descent reviews and a pool) day 2 was shorter and easier. Do take ques from the kids. We Never stopped every 2 hrs, we would never have got there. I would think the extended car seat time for a trip is acceptable as long as it’s not an all the time thing. We always drove and glad we did. My kids grew up to be great travelers. Have a great trip

 

[SandyinMonterey]

We do a 15-17 hour drive every year to visit family. Though, no little ones. My husband does not like to run low on gas. You never know when/if there will be a lot of traffic, accident, road construction, or when/where the next gas station will be. Rule of thumb, he never lets gas go under a half tank.

 

[Bella Paige]

We've been blessed with some incredible sleepers. Good idea about pre-planning a hotel stop. We were going to just go as far as we can and figure it out lol

We drove from Chicago to Disney when our kids were 2 and 10 months old and let them both sleep through the night without waking them and would use gas stops and potty breaks for a quick stretch of the legs otherwise. We also used those stops for feeding if necessary.

 

[NotUrsula]

Be prepared for the possibility that they will wake up every time the vehicle stops moving. If you plan to stop for fuel at night, remember that gas station lights are pretty blinding; side window shades are a very useful thing to have to cut that down. (Also, if the children will be in the back with an adult between them, one of them will be exposed to a lot of sunlight during the daytime hours, kids can get a nasty sunburn that way if the side window isn't shaded. Heck, *I* have to drive with a piece of white fabric over my legs in summertime on long drives, because if I'm not wearing long pants I'll get burned.)

Having them sleep 7 hours in the carseat with an adult sitting next to it shouldn't be a problem as an occasional thing, but sitting in the same diaper for that long really isn't good. (Dry-wick diapers don't keep a kid comfortably dry as well in a carseat as they do in a crib, because they are sitting in a semi-upright position and gravity causes the waste to pool in one spot. I recommend always using overnight diapers on road trips to prevent leaks, but they still need changing as often as you can.)

The PP who noted that stopping after a long drive so that adults can rest after kids have been sleeping for a long stretch was correct: that usually doesn't end well. I can still remember a situation 20 years ago when we did this; DS woke up when we reached the hotel at 1 am, and perked up immediately because he was in a strange place. 2 hours later we ended up child-proofing the room as best we could and putting on cartoons for him to watch, because he was super-buzzed, and we were totally exhausted. We woke up at around 8 to find him zonked out on the floor in front of the TV. We took him for a swim before getting back in the car.

Which brings me to the best tip I know for road trips with young kids: swimming pools. Locate them ahead of time and make it a point to use them. Swimming has a curious effect; it relaxes adults but exhausts kids, so it's the very best thing you can do to get the kids ready to sleep when you need to sleep, too. However, it means not rolling in at 2 am; most hotel pools close no later than 10, and often by 9.

 

[AfricanLodger]

Popping in to update. We did the trip last week and it went great!! The baby slept 90% of the drive and the 3 year old was amazing. I bought a box of junk toys if he got bored and we only needed it maybe twice. Going down we drove 10 hours (not including the little rest stops along the way) before stopping overnight at a random hotel (which we found as we were driving, nothing prebooked) around 11pm (they went right to sleep in the hotel as expected. Super easy car to room transition). We were only in the room to sleep so didn't need a pool or anything, just free breakfast. And we only had 4 hours the next day. Super easy. Coming home we drove about 7 hours before stopping overnight and then another 7 the next day. That felt longer (especially with added traffic this time) but overall extremely easy and good experience. We really do have amazing travelers/sleepers. Will do this again to save on flights.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

Popping in to update. We did the trip last week and it went great!! The baby slept 90% of the drive and the 3 year old was amazing. I bought a box of junk toys if he got bored and we only needed it maybe twice. Going down we drove 10 hours (not including the little rest stops along the way) before stopping overnight at a random hotel (which we found as we were driving, nothing prebooked) around 11pm (they went right to sleep in the hotel as expected. Super easy car to room transition). We were only in the room to sleep so didn't need a pool or anything, just free breakfast. And we only had 4 hours the next day. Super easy. Coming home we drove about 7 hours before stopping overnight and then another 7 the next day. That felt longer (especially with added traffic this time) but overall extremely easy and good experience. We really do have amazing travelers/sleepers. Will do this again to save on flights.

glad it worked for you but it never worked for us as kids always woke up ready to move as soon as we got to room. and we did trips many times a year with them over 10 hours drive

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

When my daughter was about 3 months old we drove 13 hours and we stopped when we needed to and it was probably no different than if we were traveling solo without a baby. I think we stopped about every 2-4 hours for us to use the bathroom/to stretch our legs/feed the baby. I don't recall ever thinking we'd keep her in her seat as long as possible and press through. I wouldn't want to do that so I can't imagine it would be comfy for her.

For the most part, I just remember our pedi telling us that if your baby is sleeping and happy, you don't need to worry. I sat in the back with her and kept my eyes on her but we never let her stay in there longer than we were comfortable ourselves.