Long car ride with 9 month old..

[bmil]

We are visiting family in a couple of weeks which is a 6-8 hour drive.

We were thinking the best option would be to do the normal night time routine - story, bath, milk - and then shove her in the car seat and hope she sleeps? The problem is that DD has finally settled into a pretty brilliant sleep routine so not sure if it is work risking it - any tips on what to do?

Would you drive at night then? You'd be tired the next day - I'd do the journey in the day time.

I know someone who has done this, driving from London to Scotland overnight, with a slightly older baby and it worked fine for them. I don't think one disturbed night would mess up her routine, although what would you do if she didn't sleep, would she be likely to scream all the way?

Alternatively could you break the journey over two days and travel to coincide with her longest nap?

We've always done exactly as you are suggesting during long drives in the UK and I found if the dc are good at going to bed/sleeping then they do drop off no problem and don't wake, then the next day slip back fine to their regular routine. As you say keep to the story bath milk routine and you should be fine.

We did the long drive with a 9 month old. We did it in the day and it was hell once she woke up and was bored. We stopped every hour and a half and took her out onto the grass and gave her nappy off time and rolling around time. It also helped to have lots of different things to amuse her with. I gave her breadsticks and things to munch to take time, read her stories, had a bag of lots of different playthings and only brought them out one at a time... but there was only so long i could distract her until we HAD to come off at the services to give her a break. II was in the back seat with her of course).

On the way home we left it until bedtime to come home and she slept like that baby everyone keeps mentioning. bliss! I'd travel at night now as often as I could. A late night for me and no sleep is only fair - the baby doesn't ask to go on the trip so she shouldn't be put out.

happy traveling.

Oh and in the hot weather I saw a great thing in Comet (or was it Currys?) if your car doesn't have aircon .. it was a hand held fan with a water spray attached - very cooling on a hot sticky journey.