Thinking of driving to South Carolina (12 hrs) when DS is almost 11 mos old...

Am I crazy? Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions?

Re: Thinking of driving to South Carolina (12 hrs) when DS is almost 11 mos old...

I don't think it is crazy at all. We have done it actually at the same age and it worked out great. Andrew is great in the car so it wasn't a problem at all.

Re: Thinking of driving to South Carolina (12 hrs) when DS is almost 11 mos old...

My SIL, bro and parents drove to North Carolina stuck in traffic for over 12 hours with their very "sensitive"(nice way of saying difficult) 14 month old and she did really well. She actually slept for most of the time. Just bring plenty of snacks, toys and things to do.

Re: Thinking of driving to South Carolina (12 hrs) when DS is almost 11 mos old...

I haven't done a trip in a car for that long when DS was that age but I say go for it! Just be sure to stop every few hours to "stretch" when the baby is awake (take advantage of when he is sleeping ). You might also want to travel at night rather than during the day.

We have taken 4 - 5 hour trips with DS and they were great

Re: Thinking of driving to South Carolina (12 hrs) when DS is almost 11 mos old...

not at all i did it 4 times with dd i drove to nc to ny to nc not at all.

Re: Thinking of driving to South Carolina (12 hrs) when DS is almost 11 mos old...

We've driven to NC--so around 10 hours--the past two summers and we're doing it again this summer. Katherine was just under 1 and just under 2; Abby was 3.5 months.

I'm not going to lie--it wasn't exactly the time of my life, but I'll be doing it 3 years in a row, so I believe it's do-able. The 1st year (which is when Kate was 11 mos) was GREAT on the way down. We dressed Kate the night before and put her to bed in clothes. When we woke her up she was already ready to go...this was around 5:30am, as I recall. She fell back to sleep around 10 minutes later and we stopped for breakfast when she woke up. The same pattern happened for lunch. The last "leg" was not good, but what can you do?

The way back was almost SHEER HELL. We got on the road a lot later than I would have liked--probably around 7am and traffic heading into NY is a mess on Sundays. My advice--leave early! We vowed to get a mini DVD player for the following year...

Which we did, but for our own reasons, only used it for a couple of hours before we decided never to use it again It was a peaceful time though! We stopped a lot more frequently this past year since Kate needed a change of scenery and Abby needed to nurse.

We also broke the trip up into 2 days in 2007. If you can do that, it was a good thing!

Now, what will 2008 bring....

Re: Thinking of driving to South Carolina (12 hrs) when DS is almost 11 mos old...

I don't think its crazy, but then again DH has recently mentioned wanting to drive to Texas this summer w/ DD who will be just a year old.

Re: Thinking of driving to South Carolina (12 hrs) when DS is almost 11 mos old...

We drove straight through to Florida, only stopping to eat, when Ava was 16 months old. She was awesome. We just brought a cooler for all her food and tons of snacks and cds and activities. I would do it again in a heart beat.

Re: Thinking of driving to South Carolina (12 hrs) when DS is almost 11 mos old...

DS just turned a year and we are probably driving to FL in March.
So, no, you are not crazy.
I am actually looking forward to it.

Re: Thinking of driving to South Carolina (12 hrs) when DS is almost 11 mos old...

THanks EVERYONE!

DH would rather fly anywhere than drive, but he is totally into saving $$ (me too) so I am going to toss that out an idea to go visit my dad!

Thanks!!

Re: Thinking of driving to South Carolina (12 hrs) when DS is almost 11 mos old...

It will be fine I would just leave super early in the morning (4 AM ish) or right after dinner.

We have been making the trip since Josh was 3 months old.