18 Hr Car Ride with a 6.5 Month

No tips. But I needed to say you are brave and God bless you for even taking this on.

You could sit in the back with him and play, sing, read. I know I might get lambasted for this but you might want to get some baby videos and a portable dvd player for part of the ride. Maybe breaking the ride down into 15-1 hour increments you can figure out a "schedule" of things to do.

Love your sense of adventure,
S.

I used to road trip a lot with my baby.

Typically... I add 1/3 time onto whatever my "normal" time is... because we needed to stop at almost every rest stop (about once an hour) for 5-30 minutes when he was awake to either nurse or change him.

One thing we learned the hard way was that the sunscreen on the window makes him carsick when in the car for a long time. Tossed that and bought sunscreen.

Another is that 300 mi to the next gas station ALSO means 300 mi to the nearest hospital. So bring a baby-first-aid kit with all the necessaries (tylenol, motrin, thermometer, etc.)

ur gonna have o sit in back wit him, take him out when he gets crazy, needsa diaper. U can entertain him. Only mama can Do this!

We have traken car trips with our kids at various ages. No matter what the age you'll need to add a lot more time to it. The person who mentioned a 1/3 more is not far off from our experiences. Kids get fussy- and everyone needs a break. The "best" experiences we have had is leaving at bedtime and just driving through the night or as much as we can. We do a 7 hour trip a lot so that one is not bad to get through if we leave at 7 pm. Of course, the down side is that if you try to drive through the entire night, when you get to wherever you are going the kids are awake and the parents are tired. That one works best if grandma or grandpa(or someone else) will be around to help the next day- otherwise, it is tough! Good luck!

I agree with traveling at night for the long part of the trip. The most important tip I can give you in do not breast feed while the car is moving. You are putting you and your babies life in danger if you try and breast feed while driving. If you don't want to stop, then consider pumping, at least you can sit beside your son and feed him, with both of you safely belted in.

When my daughter was about 7 months old we drove from Oregon to Arizona for a vaction. She is almost 8 now so it was a long time ago and I don't remember everything. I do remember that she always slept well in the car though. I mean if she was fussy at home and she would not go to sleep we would take her on a short car ride and she would fall asleep right away. So our trip was pretty easy because when we were driving in the car she was mostly sleeping, even during the day. For the times when she wasn't sleeping she had her normal carseat toys to play with and some of the soft, plastic baby books (they always ended up in her mouth so the plastic ones were better than the paper ones). She was on a bottle by that time so the feeding wasn't an issue for us. I agree with the other moms, you are going to be stopping a lot so nurse him while you are at the stops not while the car is in motion. I would suggest pumping a few bottles to take with you just in case he gets hungry when it is not convenient to stop to breastfeed. Take some of the small finger food snacks he has already been eating like crakcers, cheerios, etc. Riding in the backseat with him is a good idea too, to keep him busy and occupied during those times when he can't seem to occupy himself. But you don't have to stay back there the whole time, just when he is needing attention. Also, we took some cd's with childrens music on them to listen to on the way. No, it isn't the greatest thing being in a car forced to listen to baby music for hours, but it made her happy and that's all that mattered. Don't stress about it, everything will be fine and it isn't as bad as you may think it will be. Hope you have a great trip!

Sounds like driving through the night would be your best bet.

Good tips here.
Yes, feed him direct nursing. Just stop, have a nursing apron, nurse him in the car, or at a stop/rest station on the way.

You are going with a Spouse? Or just yourself and you driving with baby? I wasn't clear on that....

Yes, as the other poster said, I would sit in the back seat with him.
Bring lots of water, in an ice-chest in the trunk of the car... with blue-ice packs.... so you can hydrate and nurse etc., and carry snacks for on the road.

Bring extra of anything, just in case.... lots of diapers.
make sure you check your car/liquid levels, so your car is ready to go and up to par. Keep car phone batteries charged, have a car charger too...

all the best,
Susan

You may have to travel then during the night then and he will sleep most of the way and get in the backseat and nurse him while he is in the car seat. It's what I do and my nursing friends do too

Whenever we make the trip from Phx to Pocatello we leave about 9 pm. That gave our babies a few hours to enjoy the ride before falling asleep. We also drove all night long (helpful since they were sleeping the whole time). It also gave my husband and I a great chance to talk uninterrupted about anything we wanted. Then in the morning when everyone was awake we would stop and stretch our legs for a while and just relax as much as possible before we strapped everyone back in to finish the trip. Our last trip was in April with our six month old and she did great!