# Advice, please. Long Road trip with 9 month old!



## sylvi76 (Jun 23, 2004)

I know some of you must have been there, done that! Please give me advice/tips on how you keep a 9 month old happy on a 8-10 hour road trip in the car. She is 17 lbs, and is still in the baby bucket seat, and usually doesn't mind riding in the car. Of course, that's when we go to the grocery store, or short trips. Have no idea what an extended trip will be like.

Thanks!


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## SingingMama (May 3, 2005)

We took a 13+ hour trip with my dd when she was 7 months old. I found it was helpful to start the drive at naptime. She slept for the first 3 hours of the trip. Then, when she would wake up, I had a bag of books and toys to rotate. It especially helps if the books/toys are dc's favorites or if they're new. My dh and I took turns sitting in the back with her to help entertain her. She liked the change of pace (we both have our different styles of play with her). After reading/playing for a while, she would start to get restless, so we would stop for a while and get her out of the car. I would nurse her, change her diaper, and we would walk around in the fresh air for a while. Then, back into the car where she would play and listen to music until she fell asleep again. If I had it to do over again, (and I will this summer), we would stop for even longer periods of time. My dd hit her limit around 8 hrs. of travel, and we ended up staying in hotels both ways (which was totally expected).


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## LynnE73 (Oct 18, 2002)

My advice would be the same as the Mama above but I would like to add this... just have low expectations and lots of patience and it will be fine! Good luck on your adventure!


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## lilylove (Apr 10, 2003)

We have done it as a night time trip before. That worked great. We left at midnight(transfered sleeping child to car at last second before driving off) then took turns driving. We got there in the morning and then we all laid down for a nap at midday. We are planning another trip thats a long drive, 8 hrs, and we will probably do it that way again. Esp now that there are two children!


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## darkstar (Sep 8, 2003)

Drive at night. During naps etc. We drove with dd from California to MIchigan when she was 11 months. We left right around nap time and drove until she woke up. Let us all out of the car for awhile and started driving agian. Stoped for dinner and drove all night. She slept from 9 pm to 9 am...so we got alot of great driving time in. Did this 2 days. We were exhausted but it was worth it.









darkstar


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## jstar (Jul 22, 2004)

we had a heinous 9 hour drive with our 7 month old through a blizzard. mostly he slept because the car lulls him to sleep. but he had a few good screaming episodes. we'd stop if we could but it was a blizzard on a two lane highway with no where to turn off for large parts of it. i did nursing acrobatics to stick a boob in his mouth but dh was convinced we were going to slide off the road and i'd end up creamed.

it was a little stressful but we survived. we are never driving from mammoth to reno again during any season that might entail snow though :LOL


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## kayleesmom (Dec 16, 2004)

we just took at 11 hr drive last weekened with our 9 1/2 month old. and it was tough. she cried when i was sitting in front seat because she was soo bored back there. so if u can sit in the back with her as much as possible it will help. stop often at rest stops and just take her out of seat so she can stretch. leave during nap time.

That is all i can suggest. we will never do another long drive like that again we vow next time we will fly.

Good Luck and
keep us posted on how it went


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## mightymoo (Dec 6, 2003)

I agree with driving at night. This worked wonders even for our DD at 18 months! What we would do is start out the trip (which was about 20 total driving hours) around 5pm. We would drive an hour and then have dinner, then drive until about midnight and check into a hotel. DD was fine for the first hour, since it was the first hour, then dinner was a good break and she would fall asleep after that.

Then the next day, we generally didn't rush out the door. We always drove an hour before getting breakfast - again because she would generally tolerate about an hour before needing a break. Then we'd have breakfast and she'd nap when we got back in the car after that. We've made some really long trips with her this way and you'd be amazed how much of it we could manage to get her to sleep for!


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