Advice on long car journey with 15 week old please

[PABLOP]

I am driving to Devon to visit my mum on Thursday, its a long journey usually 6 hours with 1 or 2 stops. My dd (20yrs) is coming so she will sit in the back. I am just worried about him being a car seat for so long, I expect to stop more times than I would usually. Any tips?

bump

when DD was about that age we went to the lake district (not as far- about 3 1/2 hours) on hols. On the advice of a friend we did an evening journey, did her bath and bottle etc first and then she slept the whole way back and we just put her straight into her cradle without a murmour whwn we got back. I know they are not really in a routine at this age but found it much easier than travelling in the day.

Obivously that doesn't really answer your original question about time spent in the car seat, but that is one way of making it an easier experience all round!

HTH

We have always travelled to go and see DH's family DOrset to Kent at a time when DD most likely to be sleeping.

yes, driving in the evening or at nap times helps.

the car seat thing won't be a problem. they say not to leave them in them for too long, but that's to discourage people from letting their babies sleep in them all the time afaik.

When driving from London to Yorkshire with a baby of this age, we generally do it with 2 stops instead of one or none, and take the baby out of the carseat fro the stops. We will feed and change the baby during the stops, and allow about 40mins for each stop. Depending where we stop we either carry the baby, put him or her on a playmat for a kick, or put him/her in the carrycot until we return to the car. A 3-4h journey may take most of the day this way, but it's quite relaxing for the adults as well.

It's worth fidning alternatives to service stations when travelling with a young baby, leave the motorway and find a nice pub in a nearby village, for example. If you do need service stations Moto provide good baby faciilites.

Or a National Trust or ENglish Heritage property/garden. Take advantage of the break.

when dd was 8wks we drove from edinburgh to cornwall. We broke the journey up and i think the longest stretch without stopping was 4 hrs. She slept the whole time in the car no matter what time as long as she was fed and had a clean nappy.

I have regularly made long journeys (chester- edinburgh, edinburgh- aberdeen etc) with my dc's from when they were tiny babies. Have never found it an issue. Even now at 3 and 20mths they sleep a lot and if not they just chat and i keep plenty of snacks/drinks available. Last summer we drove to Morzine in the french alps- they were 2.4 and 12mths- and they were great.

I think a 15wk old will just sleep!!

I drove on my owm with DS when he was about 10 weeks old on a 200 mile journey. Stopped once I think, maybe twice. Can't remember if I did anything special really .

DH and I took DD to the IoW when she was about 12 weeks or so... we had one of those Britax carseats with the inserts so she lay a bit flatter but other than that we just left plenty of time for the journey so we had time to stop. We were in the car for about 4 hours with a break half way to the ferry and then a break on the ferry. It was much easier than we thought it would be.

I also drove by myself for a 200 mile journey when she was about 4 months. No real plans - I just allowed plenty of time for the journey and made sure I knew where I could stop. I stopped every couple of hours and offered a feed so that she wouldn't get really hungry and scream blue murder when I was stuck on a motorway.

It's easier than you think - just leave plenty of time and make sure you know where you can stop on the way.

when DD was 8wks we drove from Edinburgh to Portsmouth - was completely paranoid about the car seat thing and made DH stop every 2hours for at least 1/2 hour so DD could have a break from it. Took forever, ended up with a very grumpy baby cos I kept waking her up - really don't recommend this approach! DH very grumpy too

I agree about driving at bedtime. I've done a few four hour journey's where I've done dd's bedtime routine, then put her in the car and she's slept all the way. When she was about 4 months, we did a 4 hour daytie journey but she used to sleep all the time then anyway! I did find 4 hours was about the max I could do with out a proper break.

Just be prepared to be flexible and stop when ds needs to.

Another vote for driving at bedtime.

Definitely worth doing.

I did germany to uk with ds. The method that i used was when ds was asleep i drove as far as possible, then the minute ds started to wake i looked for somewhere to have a break, ds could have a stretch, milk, nappy changed etc, then before we set off again i would put a new object/toy near him for him to watch or play with until he either fell asleep again or screamed for another break!!!

Don't have a set plan go with the flow!!!

Expect the worse then be pleasently suprised!!

Thanks for all your advice, my ds doesn't sleep much during the day unless he is in the car and I'm going over 20 miles an hour, journey mostly motorway.
It makes sense to take him out of the carseat when we stop, to give him a stretch.
I like your method Pinkem to drive as far as posible and stop when he wakes up.
Think I'll do the driving at bedtime on the way back which means I'l have more time with my mum.

I used to sit in the back with (slightly older) dd cos then I could entertain/hold hands etc. Have only just started sitting in front!

the reason babies shoudlnt be in car seats too long is that the position they are in restricts their airways.they shouldnt be in a car seat for more than 2 hours.
so long as you have pleanty of breaks and get lo out of the seat for a while lo will be fine.