Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

Planning on driving to Atlanta for a wedding in September and our child will be 3 months at that time. I've read babies aren't supposed to be in a car seat for longer than 2 hours at a time so i wanted to see how everyone dealt with long road trips. Specifically, how often did you stop, for how long etc. we were planning on spacing out the drive 4-5 days.

Thx!

Re: Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

We have been taking DS on 3-6 hour long car trips since he was 8 weeks old and we rarely make a stop. Perhaps it is frowned upon to keep your DC in a car seat for long periods of time, but occasionally it needs to be done.

When we do stop, it is to get lunch and for me to nurse DS - so 30-60 minutes maybe.

Message edited 3/23/2015 11:01:31 AM.

Re: Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

i never knew that about babies being in car seats for 2 hours. I have taken both of my DC on a road trip to Florida when they were about 5 months old. we always left late at night so they stood in their car seats basically all night long till they work up in the morning (just like if we were home and they were sleeping in their cribs)then we would stop change them and eat. we go back in and would basically stop every 3- 4 hours go change them eat get etc. we never stop for overnight or anything like that.

ETA: going at that age was pretty nice since they would just sleep most of the car trip. I was afraid it would mess up their normal routine from all the sleeping but it didn't

Message edited 3/23/2015 11:17:18 AM.

Re: Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

As long as the baby was sitting properly in the car, it shouldn't be a problem. I think the problem would be if the baby was slouched with his neck down bc that would affect their airway. If he's buckled in, straps pass the pinch test, seat is reclined and installed properly, and the chest clip is in the correct spot, a long road trip should be ok.

Message edited 3/23/2015 12:07:27 PM.

Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

We drove to Boston when dd was exactly 3 months. We stopped halfway through there and back.

Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

She wasn't newborn but at 9m I took AJ out of state. I'd say 3 hours is the max. I tried once to push for 4 because she was sleeping and it was catastrophic. 3 hours is the time to get out, put her in a stroller, walk about for a half hour to 45mins, feed her, change her and let her be held for a bit. I was always sure she wasn't held the last 10mins or so, so she'd be ready to go back into the car.

We'd load up and go again.

I was sure to plan out ahead of time what 3hours was and where I could stop. I always picked places with malls so we could get in a good stroll with the stroller. It's always air conditioned, inside and has food options, good bathrooms that are generally clean with changing stations.

Wish I could tell you what they were as we did take that trek south I-95 until Atlanta and spent the night there. But that was 6yrs ago almost. I can't remember. I had my dad on the phone most of the time (hands free) to keep me mentally aware and to talk out options. He was my weather man for ahead conditions, alternate routes, stopping points etc. I had one of my twin brothers in the back seat with AJ.

In all we took 4 days to drive from Suffolk to San Antonio. We limited our day driving to 8-9hours.

So up, eat breakfast at the hotel, load up and out the door by 9 am to avoid daily morning traffic. Stop at noon for lunch and break. Stop at 3pm for snack feeding and changing. Stop at 6pm for dinner then check in to the hotel. That gave her time at night to settle down.

At that age AJ didn't go to bed till 9pm or so.

Its supposed to be a 30hr drive to San Antonio. At 4 days with no less than 8hrs it was a breeze.

Re: Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

At 2 months, we did a drive that was 6 hours (and of course, the way back).

DS survived. We did take a few breaks both ways.

Re: Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

DS was just shy of 3 months when we drove to Virginia. We probably only stopped once to eat and gas up about half way, if I remember

Re: Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

We drove 9 hours for a family emergency with our 8 week old twins. We stopped twice to change diapers. They did great. Its probably one of the best times to travel as my kids slept most of the way

Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

Not that long but we did a 5 hour drive with both of our girls when they were each 3 or 4 months. My older one we had to stop 3 times on the way up and too many to count on the way back. Going up was fine, but she woke 2 hours on the dot from her last feeding. Coming back she was gassing or something bc she just cried no matter what we did and it was miserable. I took us 7 hours to go up and at least 8 coming down.

My younger one we just did the same drive with and she did great. We stopped once each way and she slept the whole time until we would stop and have to wake her up. I would just plan to do it in chunks, take advantage if things are good and go as far as you can in case you have legs that don't go as well. Plan to be flexible.

Re: Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

We took a long trip with a 5mo old. During the day it wasn't bad. She slept a lot and it still didn't affect her night sleeping. All of our stops were about an hour long for nursing, diaper changing, stretching out. We wanted to get a lot of mileage out of night driving but she had had it at about 7pm so we were forced to stop earlier than planned. What could've taken us 22 hours took us 1.5 days. I couldn't wait for it to be over!

Like MrsT809 said, plan to be flexible.

Re: Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

We did a (normally) 8 hour trip when DD was 4 months exactly. It was a total nightmare. She didn't like being in the car seat and screamed the majority of the way there. We did frequent stops but it really didn't matter since she eventually had to get back in the car seat. Sitting in the back with her didn't help either because she'd just scream more since you wouldn't take her out of the seat.

This really depends on the baby.

Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

We took a 5-6 hr trip withy DD when she was 4 months. She slept literally the whole time

Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

I took DS1 on a 5 hour trip when he was 6 weeks old. Never knew about the car seat time suggestion. He slept the whole time. We've done that trip numerous times since then.

Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

Thanks for all the info everyone. I was getting major anxiety about this trip but i feel a lot better reading the suggestions/what everyone else has done.

Re: Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?

My daughter and I did a 12 hour trip with my granddaughter last summer when she was 6 weeks old. The trip was very easy. We just stopped when she needed to eat. She was very good, and slept most of the way.

Re: Anyone take a long road trip with a newborn?