An 8 hour car ride with a 4 week old?

[Anonymous]

Am I nuts for considering this? I would like to attend a wedding of a friend in Ohio. I was thinking of driving with our Newborn who will be 4 weeks at the time. It seemed to me that driving would be easier then flying with all of the Junk we would have to lug with us. Has anyone attempted a long car ride with such a young baby? How'd it go? Any Tips?

[Anonymous]

We have not done a car ride that was that long but when we drive to WV (5 hours) we find that if we leave at 8/9 pm and drive through the night it makes for a much easier trip because our baby sleeps the whole time. You may not have as much luck with a 4 week old but we started doing this at 12 weeks and it has been fine. Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

if you do make the trip, let us know how it goes! i'm due in late October and am tentatively scheduled for a thanksgiving car trip to the Cleveland area. I told my BF that we'd have to play it by ear and make the decision a week beforehand, once we knew her schedule and quirks a bit better!

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

We did a 6 hour drive with a 4 week old and it was fine. It of course ended up much longer than that due to stops for feeding, changing etc, but frankly it was far easier than traveling now she is 2! You'll be fine. Just factor in extra time needed for stopping and chances are the baby will sleep most of the way.

[Anonymous]

Most likely you'll be fine - but you won't know if you can go until you see how your baby reacts to the car. My DD 2 HATED the car, poor thing I don't know what it was, the motion, sound. Every trip, even 5 minutes to Starbuck's, was torture. With DD 1, we probably could've driven to California. Thankfully by 3 months she grew out of it.

[Anonymous]

Shouldn't be a problem if you make a stop every two to three hours. Don't forget that babies at this age should not be in their car seat for more than two hours at a time so give him the possibility to stretch out!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shouldn't be a problem if you make a stop every two to three hours. Don't forget that babies at this age should not be in their car seat for more than two hours at a time so give him the possibility to stretch out!

Citation, please?

[Anonymous]

I've done this before. I think it is the best time to travel with kids. They sleep most of the way, stop a couple times to feed and change. We are planning to drive to Fla. when our youngest will be about 8 or 9 weeks. Him I don't worry about. It's the 2 yr. old and the 4 yr.old who will be problematic.
That said, flying isn't bad either. You can bring your stroller, infant carrier and base on in addition to luggage. I've done that as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most likely you'll be fine - but you won't know if you can go until you see how your baby reacts to the car. My DD 2 HATED the car, poor thing I don't know what it was, the motion, sound. Every trip, even 5 minutes to Starbuck's, was torture. With DD 1, we probably could've driven to California. Thankfully by 3 months she grew out of it.

Both of my kids hated the car as newborns. A long drive would have been absolute misery with either of them. That said, you could have one of those kids who loves the car. You just won't know until he's here (and a couple of weeks old, since many babies don't really wake up until then).

Honestly, traveling more than an hour away is the very last thing I ever would have wanted to do with a 4 week old. That's about when some of the adrenaline wears off and the pure exhaustion kicks in. In fact, I can't imagine myself or my husband trying to drive a long distance for this reason. We were so, so tired. I'm not trying to be a downer -- and this is just my experience, of course -- but I think it's worth contemplating all of this as you make your decision.

[Anonymous]

With stops to feed every 2-3 hours (and feedings take up to 45 minutes) you're looking at a 10-12 hour car ride. Add on to that a complete exhaustion and lack of sleep.

Is it safe? Is it worth it? You will be utterly exhausted when you arrive, and then you have to turn around and drive home. Why don't you play it by ear? Hopefully your friend understands your non-commital RSVP.

[Anonymous]

I think your experience will depend on where your baby is with respect to a feeding schedule at that point. We drove to OH at 6 weeks (a normal 7.5 hour drive). We left at 1am after a feed and stopped twice on the way to feed, although the second time was only 20 miles from our destination. Each stop typically lasted about 30 minutes, so it added an extra hour which wasn't so bad. By the time we drove back to DC our LO was 8 weeks and had started sleeping much longer stretches. Again we left around 1am and stopped only once to feed at around 4am.

I strongly recommend driving overnight if possible, assuming your husband or partner can do the driving as you will likely be too exhausted (I was).