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6 hour car ride with a 12 MO
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Anonymous
| So this weekend i will be taking my 12 mo on a 6 hour car ride. Any suggestions to keep her from losing her mind? |
Anonymous
| Um, yeah, drive at night. |
Anonymous
Not an option. She freaks out if we drive anywhere near her bedtime. |
Anonymous
Your kid is one, what will she do, unbuckle the car seat straps and get out of the car. Just stick her in the car about 30 mins before bedtime and them drive, chances are she will eventually fall asleep - no kid will freak out for 6 hours. |
Anonymous
the last time we tried this she screamed for three hours. THREE HOURS. |
Anonymous
| Leave at 4am. Bring snacks. |
Anonymous
| Will you be alone with the baby or with your husband? If there are two of you, one of you should sit in the back with the baby and read, sing songs, give snacks, etc. If this is the situation, six hours shouldn't be so bad with a couple of stops. Before you leave, do some internet research to find several good potential stopping points, preferably places where the baby can stretch her legs a little. When we've done trips about this length, I like to stop at bookstores like Barnes and Noble. Baby can crawl/walk around the store for 15 or 20 minutes, and you can buy a new book or toy (these stores usually have a small kids' toys section) to keep baby happy for the next driving stretch. Also pack favorite snacks (if you're alone, choose snacks that you can easily hand over the seat to baby while you're driving). A huge bag of cheerios will keep my DD happy for half an hour. Bring a bunch of toys that can easily be played with in a carseat, especially toys that may be novel to baby (perhaps buy a couple small new ones before leaving). Bring nursery rhymes or other music that baby likes that you can sing along with in the car. Plan the driving time to cross over with as much napping time as you can so baby naps for as much of the six hours as possible. Leave with a full tank of gas and fill up whenever you stop even if the tank isn't near empty. You don't want to be forced to stop if baby is in the middle of a nice snooze or is happy playing in the carseat. |
Anonymous
|
Can you put her to bed, then an hour or so later, quickly put her in the car & get going. Night is really your best option if you can get her to go to sleep.
We recently drove 17 hours to south Florida with a 4-month old (and our other 3 kids) and it was not easy! |