Car trip with infants?

We are planning on going to NC in May, and the boys will be 8 months old, but still in the infant carrier. DH wants to drive straight thru, it takes about 11 hours, but I am not sure we will be able to make the entire trip in one swoop. He wants to leave around 6pm, and then stop to feed the boys around 8pm and then they should sleep for the night. I am just not sure about them sitting in their car seats for 11 hours, and that being their night's sleep? I was thinking that it would be better to drive for 6 hours, stop and sleep and then drive the next 6 in the early morning.

Are there any cons in having them sit in the carrier for so long?

Re: Car trip with infants?

I'm not crazy about having a baby in a car seat for so long but woud rather do it all in one shot while they were sleeping. They may be exhausted from the excitement of being out and sleep most of the trip.

I also would suggest the podee for the car ride in case they're hungry & you can't pull over (I was in a traffic jam from VA for 5 hours after they CLOSED all 6 lanes of I-95. Cars were running out of gas... better safe than sorry.

Re: Car trip with infants?

We are doing the trip in July to NC (outerbanks) and we are driving half way and stopping in VA evening/overnight and headed back out the next day. We considered the overnight route but Dh and I don't want to be exhausted the 1st day of our vacation from driving thru the night. Pretty much all 5 couples going are doing the same.

I am not sure about con's but I feel like Kevin never gets good/"real" sleep in the car.

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Whenever one of my children had stuffy noses my pediatrician told me to let them sleep in the car seat for the whole night. So, I don't see it as a problem.

Re: Car trip with infants?

Re: Car trip with infants?

Although the trip from LI to Buffalo is far from 11 hours (unless we hit some traffic) we don't pull the kids from the infant seat. I say kids, because we didn't with Gabriella either. I say enjoy the first year of car travel (or 9-12 months) because it's the easiest.

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WE drove to VA when Andrew was an infant and we had to stop. There was no way I could feed him in the car. But we did not stay overnight, just took a few rest stops, ate well, walked around and got fresh air.

Re: Car trip with infants?

We drove to Pittsburgh when Hayley was 3 months old. We left at midnight, as soon as she went in the car she fell asleep and slept the whole drive. Since there was no traffic or bad weather it only took us about 6 1/2 hours.

Re: Car trip with infants?

We drove to Florida when Justin was 3 months old and went straight through. We stopped a few times to feed him. On the trip, it was the most he has ever slept in a stretch. We left around 10 pm and he did not wake until 4 am. He was a trooper!

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we just drove to MD with a 3 month old! took us 12 hours.....we left at 3:30am, let her sleep, stopped to feed her when she woke around 7am. We'd feed her whenever she was hungry....sometimes she slept 2 hours, other parts of the trip she slept 5 hours.

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We drove to NC when Jake was 4 months. We left after his last bottle, on the road by 8pm or so, so he would sleep through the night in the car and he did. He woke up at 5-6am for his bottle and we stopped, I got out and changed him, then I fed him in the back while DH continued to drive.

I don't know where in NC you are going but it only took us about 9 hrs. We pulled up to my ILs just as he was finishing his bottle.

Re: Car trip with infants?

We are going to Charlotte, and my MIL just took the trip and it took her 11.5 hours.

Thanks for the info.
We are still undecided. DH will be working in the am, from 3 am to 11 am, and then sleep during the day, but we are not sure if he can make it there all in one swoop. I can't drive his truck so it will only be him driving. I was thinking it is silly to start at 8 pm, and then stop at 2 am to sleep, I was thinking if we left around 4 we could stop at 12 sleep fro 6 hours and still get there at noon, not tired, but who knows.

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JMO, I definitely think you should stop. If the babies sleep through the night and are WIDE awake the next day, when will you and your husband get a chance to rest? It's better to break up the trip, since you'll need time to change diapers, feed them, etc.

We did a 17 day road trip with a 14 month old and we had to stop every 2-3 hours in spite of all the great items of distraction we had on hand.

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We will be going to my BIL's so they said they can take care of them, but good point. I don't want to drive it all in one night, but I don't want to stop either. I wish I could be teleported there.

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Well,you kinda could be teleported, you could take a plane.
The boys would be free ( just pay taxes) and half the time your flight wouldn't be totally full so you can take up an extra seat or two to give the boys room,I'm sure no one would say anything.
My son travels with me everywhere I go,he was on his 2nd full passport by the age of 7.
The convenience and hassle-free feeling of a quick flight would definetly sell me on the idea. Plus you wouldn't be pooped the first few days of your trip. Just my 2 cents.

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You could also take the train. It'll take longer but you can both take turns getting some rest.

As far as the baby being awake when we got there, that was true. DH went right to sleep and I stayed up with him until it was naptime since I had slept in the car. Then I took a nap and my MIL got him when he got up from his nap. So it does help if you have someone to watch the boys once you get there so you can get some sleep.

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Flying to NC is such a PITA. If we leave from Islip, we have to switch and it winds up taking over 5 hours to get there, and we are limitied. If we go to JFK for a direct flight it adds over 2 hours to the flight to drive there.

Also we need a car while there since it is the 4 of us, and to rent a car while there is making the trip way mroe expensive then we want it to be.

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I took a trip to Greensboro N.C. to visit inlaws when my son was 6 months old. We did exactly as you plan on doing. We left early evening, stopped to feed and change my son one time, and drove straight through. It was a couple of years ago so my memory isn't the best, but I think he only woke up one time during the night and we stopped to feed and change him again. But the motion of the car actually kept him in a deep sleep. It was not a bad ride at all. How are your babies now with car rides? Do they sleep or get fussy? I think that if they are ok with car rides then you should be fine. Just plan on bringing some extra bottles for the car. We bought a mini fridge that plugged into the lighter which kept them cool and we also had a bottle warmer, which was not the greatest, but with time it got the job done.

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They are very good in the car and usually fall asleep pretty quickly, but then again I am sure those are famous last words LOL.

Since my DH is working that day, I am not 100% that he can make it with minimal stops. Last time we went we would stop at rest stops and sleep for an hour here an there, but there is no way I am doing that now. He wants to jsut try and see how far we make it, but I prefer more of a "plan" so who knows.

Thanks for all the input.

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We take this trip every summer. One other piece of advice is to switch drivers. When we go down my dh usually drives the first half and I sleep and then I will drive the second half and he sleeps. Last summer we hit a ton of traffic in VA, which ended up making me really tired so my dh ended up driving the last hour after sleeping for a little while. It also helps to stop and take walks in the fresh air and get coffee.

Re: Car trip with infants?