8 Hour Car Trip with 3 1/2 Year Old and Infant

Have lolliops on hand in case things get really difficult (hide them until you need them). It will keep them busy for awhile and is a super special treat.

One thing I would suggest is to check and see where there are fast food places (I know, but hang on) on the way that have playgrounds. This way, you can plan your stops, there will be (hopefully) clean restrooms, a place to run the older child around a bit and if needed, a snack or juice. The place will probably be happier if you bought something there but it doesn't need to be the whole meal. Hopefully this will make your trip go more smoothly. Good luck.

If you are able, I would highly recommend taking two days to make the trip. We did a similar trip going to Seattle - it took us three days, but we were never in the car for more than 2 hours. We used AAA's triptych to plan our route such that we basically drove from museum to park to hotel each day - this gave the K. plenty of time out of the car, and gave us all something to look forward to when we had to get back in the car. At the time, I was nursing my daughter, so the schedule allowed me to feed her on her usual schedule.

If they are comfortable in their car seats and sleep well in them, I wholeheartedly recommend driving in the evening. We do that drive a few times a year, and it gets harder as we get older because it gets harder to stay awake and alert at night. My husband says the best way to combat that is a cold, icy drink that can last you for hours. (Be aware that this may force you to make pit stops for a bathroom break. I just took the wheel while he took care of business since our K. wake up when the motor stops running.) It's nice to drive at night with minimal traffic and no stops along the way - possible depending on your destination and taking Hwy 5 is much faster. Just make sure you leave with a full tank of gas. If you have to leave during the day, then make sure you bring snacks, little gifts, books on tape or some sort of entertainment for your 3.5 yr old. We don't have a portable DVD player and fortunately have not needed one yet, but we listened to books on tape, sang songs, and played road games during the trips we had to make during the day. The little one just followed along and napped whenever she got tired. Good luck!

We recently took a 15 hour drive with my 3 1/2 year old and when he was 8 weeks old we drove 30 hours straight for my mother's funeral.

The infant should be fine just make sure you stop every couple of hours for feedings and diaper changes.

The DVD player will be a huge help with the 3 year old. I think that is what kept us sane on our 15 hour drive last month. Make sure to take some small play toys, a lot of DVD's, snacks and colors.

I think it won't be as bad as you are anticipating. At least it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be :c)

Can you travel during their sleeping time? Like if they go to bed at 7pm, leave at 7pm and drive. Or leave a few hours earlier so that they is enough time to watch a movie, enjoy some driving, and then fall asleep.

We moved when my oldest was almost 3 yrs old, and it was a 34 hour trip. She did great with the DVD player. We couldn't really time it off of night driving, but we would if we had a shorter trip and had an infant.

We took a 12 hour trip with a 2 1/2 yr old spring 2010.... just plan on stops every couple of hours, and allow (encourage) the older one to play and run.

We usually have some small "presents" (new toys, things he can easily play with himself) available for him to open (we give them to him throughout the ride, not all at once) so there is a new distraction, also.

Have easy snacks available for you to hand to him... string cheese, goldfish, pretzels, things like that (non-messy items).

You might be surprised how easy it really goes.... he will likely sleep in the car, also.

When I travel with my daughter I usually have a stash of toys from the dollar store that I've wrapped like presents. I hand one out every two hours for her to play with. It's usually just something small like crayons and a notebook or a package of those silly birthday blowouts (non-noise making variety) or a small doll or book. But the wrapping is the key!
This past vacation i also took a few audio books (comes with a story and CD) and we spent half of our 8 hour drive listening to these stories...she just loved them.
Hope this helps. Have a great trip!

Our son is the same age (3 1/2) and we went on a two-day trip from Sacramento to Phoenix.... So it was about 7hrs each day. My son loved the DVD player, but it would wear off after about 1 1/2 hrs. He LOVED a tray I got him from Onestepahead-- it is a tray that fits on his lap, and he could color or just play with his animals/cars on it. Now he still asks for it when we are in the car. I think it was around $20 but well worth it.
Keep a ziplock of colors/color books b/c some restaurants won't have them. We just packed a ton of different snacks and different activities they could do, along with stopping a lot. It wasn't bad, as we also had a 1 1/2yr old as well.
Good luck & here is a link for the tray:
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

I've done this drive a few times. If you can handle it, it is absolutely way better to do it at night when they are both asleep. You will have to stop once for gas, but otherwise, you should be able to make it straight through. When we went in the daytime, we had to stop more than once, and each stop lasted at least 45 minutes. Driving during the day easily added 2-3 hours to our trip. The traffic is worse during the day too.

The only issue that we had driving at night was that the baby's ears hurt her when we drove over the mountains on the Grapevine. If your baby takes a bottle, keep that at the ready so that s/he has something to suck on. The swallowing will help relieve the pressure.

Good luck. I hate that drive. :(

My DH and I traveled to Michigan from Virginia at least once a year for several years (i have family in Michigan). It was about a 16 hour drive including the pit stops. We would leave in early afternoon, stop after about 3 hours for dinner and to let the K. "run" around and burn energy. They would then settle into quiet activities in the car and after a second pit stop would fall asleep until we got to my sister's house in the wee hours. We would spend about half an hour settling in and then all pass out again. My sis was great and would watch the K. as they woke up so DH and I could sleep for a few hours.
One tie when my husband was deployed I took this trip by myself with all 4 of my K.. The oldest was 10 and the youngest was a few months old. The 10 year old helped out quite a bit with the baby which made the drive a lot easier. Overall though it wasn't nearly as bad as my friends thought it would be....they thought I was insane doing the trip by myself :-)

we do this drive quite often with an almost 4 and almost 3 year old. we have learned the best way is to leave super early morning, maybe 3-4 AM so hubby and i at least get some sleep then the K. fall back to sleep in the car for a few hours. then movie, snacks, singing, and any hand held toy is helpful.

we find it easier now they are older, i didn't like the drive with an infant because it threw the sleep schedule off.

good luck!