Any tips on traveling to LA from Oakland with a 10 month old by car? My husband will be driving and we plan on staying for a week down there. What should I bring? It takes about 5-6 hours to get to LA and we are leaving right after the morning rush hour. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Okay Moms, so the drive down was easy-breezy! He slept most of the way and we got down to LA in record time with minimal stops! However, the ride back took us 9 hours - he cried, screamed, fussed the whole way from LA to San Jose when he finally went to sleep - 45 minutes away from Oakland. We stopped so many times. We were all stressed and tired after that car ride which usually takes us 6 hours max. Thanks for the advice though! We are going back to LA in June and I think we may fly.
What we have found is the easiest with our 3 kids is to either leave really early in the morning or around 7 in the evening. This way they sleep most of the time and the trip goes great without having to listen to a baby cry the entire way. My sister travelled up from So. Cal once with her daughter 11 months old normally a very happy baby but she cried the entire trip up. My sister ended up flying home while he husband drove back.
If you are on Route 1 do not look down!! I have never been so sared in my life as when we made that drive. It was pretty though. :o)
Do you have a travel DVD player? Ours has saved my kids llives so many times. Get his favorite Elmo or whatever. They are the best invention for driving.
He will probably sleep most of the way. When he is awake is when you stop and change diapers and feed and play a bit.
Put some toys above him so he can get to them. Attach them to the carseat with those plastic hookie things all moms have now for strollers.
Save some things in the front seat you can pass to him when he gets fussy. Some crackers and a water bottle, some plastic books a new toy.
He will eventually get used to this and a 5 hour ride will be nothing.
We drove to LA from SF when my daughter was 7 months old. She wasn't on solids yet and I was still nursing so I was concerned that we would be stopping a lot in order for me to nurse her. We left at 7 a.m. and my little girl slept pretty much the whole way down. When she woke up, we would stop so I could nurse her and changer her diaper. We had toys attached to her car seat. We also brought powdered formula and water in case she woke up and was hungry and we didn't couldn't stop the car.
We make that trip a lot, it sounds like you are going down 5. There is a CLOSED rest stop right when you're really gonna need it about 2/3 of way thru, maybe a little further, so there's really only one rest area on the way down. So take advantage of gas station BAs, Chevron's are usually very clean along 5.
If you leave at about 9, you could well hit major traffic slow-downs on the other side of the Grapevine. That was when my baby would wake up and waaaaail.... until we started *driving at night*. Especially on 5, it really is the best option. Not that we haven't come to a total standstill at 1:00 out in the middle of nowhere due to construction. Another reason to use the gas stations for BAs.
Any time you decide to go, it may take an hour or so for babe to settle down into the trip, unless your baby is an automatic sleeper in the car. The first time, your baby might wake up a bit more, or become more alert when waking, because of the unfamiliar space. If you're calm and warm, baby will be too. Next time we go down, it will be our fourth trip with the baby, and she's such a road-trip pro, she knows what to expect by now.
I've had my eye on a neck support 'bean' that One Step Ahead sells - it's flatter in the back than others I've seen, so baby's neck doesn't get pushed forward, and her head will only slightly rool to one side, no slumping. Make sure your carseat is tilted a little - you can do this safely with a thick rolled-up towel under the front end to give it some lift. Some agencies say never do that, my pediatrician suggested it, and the seat is very secure when I do this, so others can say what they will.
We love music when we drive, night or day, but now with a sleeping baby, silence or soft music really is the best option. It's actually kind of nice - when was the last time you had 3-4 hours of quiet? :-)
Supplies for while you're there
- if you're staying with family, don't count on having room in the freezer or fridge for baby's food. If you're buying food, count how much you need and take everything as if you're going to never do laundry again. Just kidding...
- 6-7 bibs, 3-4 spoons, sippy cups, etc, and you should be fine.
- Take back-up pacifiers if baby is using them.
- 2-3 pants, 3-4 tops, 3-4 socks - you can do laundry down there, or pack an outfit for everyday with a couple of back-ups if you just want to be prepared (I did that the first time - We couldn't see out the back of the car btwn her clothes and ours! Now I pack very light and do laundry while there - drop off at a cleaners if you don't have access to a W/D, you get it back the next day).
- We use cloth, but I do disp diapers for the trips now.
- We have a very small high chair/booster that straps to a chair - we got it at Target for ~ $35 I think? Much better than a full-size high chair crammed into the car, or hoping that there is one wherever you go. Take a couple of old sheets to put under the high chair to protect your sister-in-law's embroidered chair cushions (oops, that's a reminder for me....)
- bedding: you may be able to get a Pack n' Play for rent - there are a couple of rental listings when I searched Google http://tinyurl.com/yc7kvdj
The next couple of days, carry a little spiral notebook with you, and write down everything you use for your baby. There's your checklist.
Take your camera! I've forgotten twice. Cell phone pics just don't do it for me.
Enjoy the trip!
