Thinking of driving several states away to visit my parents (15 hours drive.) We have flown before, but nowdays we are a one-income family and that's not an option. Has anyone taken this long of a road trip with a little one around my sons age (15months)?? Any advice please would be great! Have also thought about taking off at night so he can sleep most of way through and it would be dark. But really concerned that would just throw off his sleep since it probably wouldn't be a great night's sleep and the whole trip he would be off. However, I can't imagine how to keep him content in the car for such a long time and how to not drag the trip out to twice as long with stops, etc. Is this a terrible idea??
I'm not driving alone (thankfully) - my husband will be making the trip as well. Also, should be noted Henry is not a sleep anywhere kind of kid. He's very routine about sleep and realllly doesn't do well when his sleep is off - which is why I am so nervous! He does sleep in the car tho, just from experience I would say its a very low quality sleep for him in the car and not very restorative...
We left one time at 2 am and the kids slept for a lot of it, so nice and it didn't throw off their schedule too badly.
Other than that, lots of little snacks, a magnadoodle, give him a ball of foil with a toy or treat hidden inside. He can search for the toy then mold the foil into fun shapes.
we always try to leave in the afternoon/evening for long car rides, it doesnt make it so much fun for mom & dad the next day but does make the travel much easier...that is usually when we go to visit hubby's fam which is 10 hours away, we typically leave before dinner, stop a couple of hours in to eat & then they fall asleep after getting back into the car.
also snacks are wonderful lol
i do not do crayons in the car because they melt especially in the summer, but even if one gets lost in the cushions it might be found a melted mess the next year!
a dvd player is awesome! lol
toys, whatever their faves are plus a couple new ones from the dollar store
i do coloring books with colored pencils
if you cant or dont leave at night then we stop every 2-3 hours, the first stop is for just getting out & stretching, a snack, etc maybe 20min...then the next stop will be longer & for a meal...however if your child is sleeping or riding really well then i would try to push on a little more....but you can usually tell if they are starting to get restless & the key is to stop before the melt down...idk if you are potty training yet but when i was i kept a potty chair in the car, first, gas station stops are disgusting & just in case you have to pull off the side of the road lol
Yeah, prepare for all possible behavioral emergencies, definitely plan snacks, get new toys to surprise him with, do everything possible to keep your regular schedule of naps, and set your expectations really, really low. Prepare yourself for it to, well, suck. Talk through all this in detail with your husband, so that you're both on the same page, you both have plans and strategies in place, take turns being the driver so that you can each get a break from your son sometimes, and make sure both of you have appropriate expectations for how the trip is going to go.
That said, here's some things that we found helpful in driving from NYC to MN several times over the years.
Since you only have one child, plan on you or your husband to spend all his "awake time" in the back seat with him. Interaction - whether reading a book or exploring a new toy or watching what is going past out the window - will help him a lot.
Breaks, breaks, breaks. Is there any way you can make the trip in two days? Think about getting a hotel one night - a little bit of extra money, a lot of extra sanity. A suite (where your son can go to sleep at his regular bedtime in a separate room) is ideal, but even if you and your husband have to spend the evening checking email on the bathroom floor, a good night's sleep for your son might be worth it. With the number of breaks that a young kid needs, and the amount of time it takes for those breaks (it will never be less than half an hour) - 15 hours of driving can easily turn into 20.
If your son has trouble sleeping in the car, consider rigging up a little "tent" for him. We figured out that if we hung lightweight blankets on the window, on the front passenger seat headrest, and next to him (in the middle of the backseat), it made it much easier for him to fall asleep. It wasn't dark or anything, but it did eliminate the visual stimulation of cars and trucks going by, etc. I'd sit in the back seat, read stories (as per our usual routine), then hang up his "curtains", my husband would turn on a lullaby CD, and I would close my eyes and "go to sleep." He would peek out sometimes to check on me, but when he saw that nothing exciting was happening outside, he gave up and went to sleep. Once he was out, I was free to read or listen to my ipod. Definitely plan your own grownup breaks so that you don't need to eat or use the restroom while he's sleeping - once he's asleep, you drive until it's time for him to wake up.
Good luck - he may surprise you! And one way or another, you will arrive at your destination. Drive safely!
My husband and I have done this type of trip multiple times (about 2x per year since my son was 9 months old). Our trip is usually 18-19 hours. At the 15 month age, we started driving through the night. We would leave just after dinner and drive through the night.
For us, we would eat at 5:30pm and our son would go to sleep at 7:30pm and wake at 7:30am. We would only have to keep him awake in the car for a couple of hours until bedtime. We would wrap up some of his own toys (any maybe a couple of new cheap toys) so he could be entertained before he needed to go to sleep. My husband and I would take shifts driving through the night and we would put him back on his schedule the next day. It also helped us not to have to stop as often so we could have a shorter drive.
This worked really well for our son who needs a pretty consistant routine. The only downside is that my husband and I would be exhausted when we got to our destination. It was usually fine on our drive out to see family so grandparents could play with our son while we slept. It was hard coming back when we had to be on our own and we were sleep deprived. Just something to think about and take into consideration.
Sounds like you'll be driving alone? Yikes!
We drove from Texas to Connecticut several times since my son was 9 mos. This is the schedule I followed after bfast and we packed up:
7 music CD
7:30 books or books on CD
8 crayon time (he may not necessarily color but he will have fun scribbling)
8:30 playdoh or bendable/wiki-sticks
9 rest stop
9:30 snack/milk
10 music CD
10:30 books or books on CD
11 non battery operated toys
11:30 battery operated toys
12 stop for lunch
1 music
1:30 books/books on CD
2-3 (or longer) nap
3 rest stop
3:30 snack/milk
4 non battery toys
4:30 battery toys
5 start looking for a place to stop for the night
Pack each activity in ziplocks and put them in a bag w/in your reach. As you start each activity, just reach for a ziplock You will get suggestions for brining a DVD - some kids may like it but my kid never took too it so we didn't have a DVD player for all but one of our trips to KY. We take a lot of road trips so he's gotten used to not having one.
gl and hth!
Updated
Sounds like you'll be driving alone? Yikes!
We drove from Texas to Connecticut several times since my son was 9 mos. This is the schedule I followed after bfast and we packed up:
7 music CD
7:30 books or books on CD
8 crayon time (he may not necessarily color but he will have fun scribbling)
8:30 playdoh or bendable/wiki-sticks
9 rest stop
9:30 snack/milk
10 music CD
10:30 books or books on CD
11 non battery operated toys
11:30 battery operated toys
12 stop for lunch
1 music
1:30 books/books on CD
2-3 (or longer) nap
3 rest stop
3:30 snack/milk
4 non battery toys
4:30 battery toys
5 start looking for a place to stop for the night
Pack each activity in ziplocks and put them in a bag w/in your reach. As you start each activity, just reach for a ziplock You will get suggestions for brining a DVD - some kids may like it but my kid never took too it so we didn't have a DVD player for all but one of our trips to KY. We take a lot of road trips so he's gotten used to not having one.
gl and hth!
We have done a trip this long a few ways. When my daughter was just a few months old we left at night. That was a mistake for us. Our son who was 3 at the time, didn't sleep much and he was a cranky bear the whole trip. I didn't sleep much because I was afraid of my hubby falling asleep at the wheel and when it was my turn to drive, I had a hard time focusing. It was not the safest trip we have ever taken.
When my daughter was about 18 months old I went by myself with the kids (16 hours). It wasn't too bad. I had to stop at a hotel, but that was ok with me. I made sure to bring lots of snacks. WE stopped every few hours for potty breaks for my son and to move a bit. If he didn't need to potty or was sleeping we stretched it out longer. In the scheme of things, our stops didn't add too much time to the trip really. I brought a ball and the kids would chase it around for 5 or 10 minutes. The best thing I did was pack a secret bag of new toys...cheapie things from Target and the Dollar Tree. When they got fussy or cranky, the toy usually distracted them for enough time to stave off any fits. A DVD player helped, but my kids aren't too much for movies. I did find some very simple and cheap mp3 players online. They LOVED those! For the baby I bought kid headphones, they were smaller and reduced the noise. So even if she managed to turn it all the way up, she couldn't hurt her ears. I was concerned a bit about a choking hazard, so we did lots of test runs when there were two adults in the car (one to drive and one to watch her). She was so mesmerized at having her own music, it was never an issue at all. Toys with buttons were terrific too...her leapfrog phone, leaptop computer, an old gameboy, etc. I put tape over the speakers so the noise wouldn't bug me. I had a basket she could reach next to her carseat. I seatbelted it in, so it wouldn't move and she couldn't pick it up or dump it.
Last week we took a 20 hour trip, we drove straight through. Our kids are now 2 and 5. They did really great. We had to make a few unplanned stops to let them stretch their legs, but for the most part they were troopers. Snacks and movies saved us this time. This time we left around 4 a.m. THat was about perfect, We just got the kids out of bed and put them in the car. We changed out of jammies later. It took a while for them to fall back asleep (about 2 hours). But when they did sleep, they slept for much longer. It was a great way to start the trip.
We just recently drove 6 hours and left at night so the 15 month old would sleep. One huge mistake I made, when we stopped 2 hours into the trip we opened the doors and the lights went on and woke him up! Btw, it was hell, I would save up for airline tickets. Sorry! 15 month olds just don't understand why they're stuck in that Carseat!
We actually did a 15 hour car trip with 15 month old twins! What worked for us was leaving at a time where a good majority of the trip would be spent sleeping. On the way there we left very early in the morning (around 4:00 am I think). We left at 1:00 to come home. Also, make enough stops to let him get out and run. We would stop at McDonald's or other places where children were welcomed and had a space to run around. It will take longer to get there, but you'll survive!
if he is anything like my son, who can sleep just about anywhere, he may be just fine with it. we made an 8 hour trip when our oldest was about 9 months old. we left at night and amazingly he slept the whole trip, he only woke up about 30 minutes before we got to my parents house. it was hard for hubby and i because we were exhausted when we got to my parents house but it was daytime and our son was ready to go..lol...i think it is do-able. are you planning on driving straight through? if so, then just make a few extra stops than you normally would if your son needs to get out and run around for awhile.
