Motorway journey and bf 2 month old - advice please !!

[Winterfrost27]

We have a 2.30-3 hour journey coming up and baby is bf. Of course I will do a full feed before setting out and we’ve factored in time for one 30 minute stop before the 2 hour mark, for safety reasons (having a break from car seat), nappy change and to feed.

Im praying baby will nap a lot, but if they start screaming and are inconsolable , what do I do ?! Do I need to factor in extra time for another potential service stop ? Unfortunately not a dummy fan. If I express some milk in a bottle , is that safe to offer if they’re still in the car seat at this young age ? Don’t want to risk choking ! Although baby may well reject it anyway, as only used to breast.

Or what if there’s a poo explosion ….

Likelihood is baby will sleep through at that age :)

Worse comes to worse, you stop and feed.

Is there a reason you couldn’t pull off the motorway in the event of screaming and/or poop? Sorry if that’s not possible, I haven’t been on a motorway in 30 odd years!

In all likelihood baby will keep snoozing.

Definitely do not offer a bottle when they're in a car seat - they need to be able to move their head away if they need to.

At 2 months they'll probably sleep almost all the way, and yes - worst case scenario you have to stop again so you factor in a bit of extra time or accept you may be late to wherever you're going

I used to plan my journey with 2/3 stops to feed on a journey of 3 hours.

I learnt that the hard way! Dd1 wouldn’t sleep but dd2 would at that age.

maybe plan another stop in case.

You either stop at the next services or come off at the next junction and find a suitable place to stop and feed. You've just got to go with the flow and bear in mind that whatever planned stop you have in mind might not work out.

Would just give yourself plenty of time, factor in stopping for 2 30min slots rather than one. We did a 3 hour journey with an 8 week old bf baby and stopped twice just so they weren't in the car seat too long. Think they slept in the car mostly.

We've done 2.5 hour journeys regularly with our kids. When that young they've always just slept through so fine. First born was never too bad but youngest has been awful since 4 months (bit better now at 14 months). She would be inconsolable and we would have to pull over and calm her down.

Best thing to do is have no expectations. We have many a time pulled off the motorway at the next junction and found a random road to pull into, pacing up and down calming baby. Changing her in the boot or on my seat etc. It is what it is and as I say have no expectations and be prepared you may need to pull over.

Are there a road options instead of motorways? They have more stopping points which i found much easier at that age

Whatever you do no matter how much crying is going on don't stop on the hard shoulder just continue to the next services. I would offer a dummy, don't bottle feed in a car seat.

Plan one stop but allow for a second time wise in case, mine travelled fine at that age and slept better than at home in the car

Scary times! I remember them well!

Congratulations on your new baby.

Personally, I wouldn't plan a stop because the baby will probably sleep through the whole journey and you don't want to wake them up unnecessarily. I would plan where you can stop if required - are there regular services you can stop at on the motorway? Do not stop on the hard shoulder. Ever. Is an a road better for stops? That sort of thing. It won't be as scary as you think.