I will be travelling down from North to South Wales in a fortnight with a 5mth old baby

[TheBreastmilksOnMe]

Not really looking forward to it so does anyone have any tips on making the journey as comfortable for DS and us as possible? We are going in the car and I'm a bit concerned about DS sitting in his car seat for the length of time it will take (5 hours-ish) Obvoiusly he won't be in it constantly as we will be taking stops but how often should these be and is there anything else we should know?

I think the journey will be better than you think! At 5 months they're still quite sleepy with motion so DS will probably sleep through most of it.

The best starting point is to try and time the journey around DS's longest nap time if possible. Or could you drive at the start of his bed time? The general 'rule' is that babies shouldn't be in their car seat for more than 2 hours at a time but as long as you didn't do it regularly, I'm sure it's fine to leave him in car seat for 5 hours straight if you did decide to drive in evening.

So if you drive during the day, drive for 2 hours during a nap time. Stop at services for feed/nappy change/look around shop/coffee for you for an hour or so, then back in car to finish off journey. DS might not stay asleep for all of 2nd part so can you hang some toys from his car seat to keep him entertained/passenger sit in back to chat to him and maybe get one of those nursery rhyme CDs to play?

Have a happy and safe journey!

Thankyou lovelymama that is very helpful and reassuring.

hi there
on long journeys one of us always sits int he back and entertains the little one. Really don't think it's fair to see them all on their own for such a long time. It means they can have a drink and be read a story and have toys to play with - with minimum effort - and you can still chat to the driver from the back seat. I'm sure the drive will be fine - it's when they get older and start to wriggle and whine to get down that it becomes more awkward. Good luck.