Travelling with a baby...help!

[leadmare]

Wow. These other responses are so... rosy... My experiences are not so good, lol. My husband and I moved when baby was 4 months old. The drive would normally take 7-8 hours depending on speed and conditions. It took 14 with baby.

Before the move itself we drove up to find a place. So drive up, a.d back, then again for the move. Most miserable experience of my life. Baby HATED to be stuck in the car seat and would cry for hours if we didn't stop. So we stopped a lot. We even tried driving thinking she might be lulled by the car motion/vibration. No such luck. It was better for the actual move than for the test run.

Some things we did/learned:
-I put up a blanket using safety pins to cover up the back window and block out light. Helped with sleep.
-use a white noise maker. We had our Sleep Sheep going but with road noise I also had an app on my cell playing for louder white noise. (Check out Relax You lite. It's free).
-embrace stopping. Don't fight it. The first time, we were trying so hard to go go go. Everyone was miserable. The second time we just said we will stop WHENEVER we need to. For AS LONG AS we need to. This is not easy, but it is KEY! We stopped whenever. We would spend 20-40 minutes walking around gas stations/ truck stops while I nursed. I noticed baby seemed to want to nurse more (probably stress related).
-my carrier was a godsend. I have a Boba and with the stress/excitement of moving, it was the only way we could nurse. I put a shawl over the top to block out the world and help baby focus. Without the shawl, life was too distracting.
-I don't know if you will be using a moving van or not. We did. It was one with a bench seat, airbags you could turn off, and plenty of legroom, so we could put the carseat in the moving van. We got some good use out of the novelty factor of baby being able to see mom and dad. Lots of fun. We milked that while we could.
-my husband and I have now instituted a no travel policy. Not sure when we will lift that. Not sure how long it will take me to forget the horror...

Hopefully your baby won't mind the car seat. Good luck!

[waterisntsomething]

Originally Posted by leadmare Wow. These other responses are so... rosy... My experiences are not so good, lol. My husband and I moved when baby was 4 months old. The drive would normally take 7-8 hours depending on speed and conditions. It took 14 with baby. Before the move itself we drove up to find a place. So drive up, a.d back, then again for the move. Most miserable experience of my life. Baby HATED to be stuck in the car seat and would cry for hours if we didn't stop. So we stopped a lot. We even tried driving thinking she might be lulled by the car motion/vibration. No such luck. It was better for the actual move than for the test run. Some things we did/learned: -I put up a blanket using safety pins to cover up the back window and block out light. Helped with sleep. -use a white noise maker. We had our Sleep Sheep going but with road noise I also had an app on my cell playing for louder white noise. (Check out Relax You lite. It's free). -embrace stopping. Don't fight it. The first time, we were trying so hard to go go go. Everyone was miserable. The second time we just said we will stop WHENEVER we need to. For AS LONG AS we need to. This is not easy, but it is KEY! We stopped whenever. We would spend 20-40 minutes walking around gas stations/ truck stops while I nursed. I noticed baby seemed to want to nurse more (probably stress related). -my carrier was a godsend. I have a Boba and with the stress/excitement of moving, it was the only way we could nurse. I put a shawl over the top to block out the world and help baby focus. Without the shawl, life was too distracting. -I don't know if you will be using a moving van or not. We did. It was one with a bench seat, airbags you could turn off, and plenty of legroom, so we could put the carseat in the moving van. We got some good use out of the novelty factor of baby being able to see mom and dad. Lots of fun. We milked that while we could. -my husband and I have now instituted a no travel policy. Not sure when we will lift that. Not sure how long it will take me to forget the horror... Hopefully your baby won't mind the car seat. Good luck!

Thanks. Good info! We will definitely have to embrace stopping since we;ll have the cats and chickens too. Thankfully he does fall asleep easily in his seat but he's not used to being strapped down and he's not a fan. Hope fully if we time it while he's tired he's just sleep through a lot of it. I should definitely get something to block out the light though.