We recently drove to Rhode Island with Aiden. The trip is about seven hours and it was his second road trip. His first was at about three weeks old and he mainly slept, so six months was a little more challenging, but honestly, not that bad! This is a post on tips for taking a road trip with a six month old.
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The biggest concern we had with this trip was being able to entertain him. He is so much more active and alert and awake. The thought of him being confined to his car seat was a little scary. Prior to the trip, I did a little bit of research and found some great travel toy ideas. We purchased this baby car toy and this travel mobile, plus we have some stroller cards and Finn and Emma toys hanging on his car seat. Plenty to keep him occupied (we hoped)!
Travel Schedule For a Road Trip With a Six Month Old
- We left really early in the morning, as soon as Aiden woke up, around 5:15am.
- We grabbed a bottle to feed him on the road.
- Once we were on the road, we broke the trip up into three-hour chunks, which is really not that different from our normal days!
- I would pump in the car and give him a bottle, then we would stop at a rest area and walk around for 15-20 minutes and change him, and then get back in the car.
- Aiden would play with the travel toys and then fall asleep for an hour.
- We did take a longer break a little more than half way through the trip where we ate at a restaurant which allowed us to get Aiden out of the car a little longer.
When we arrived, we tried to keep our routine as normal as possible. We borrowed a local friend’s pack and play and put his DockATot in that, and we brought his zippy (of course) and sound machine. The first night was a little rough, I think because he got so much sleep that day and it was a new environment, but there were no issues on the other nights, so overall, a success.
We followed the same process on the drive home.
Have you done a road trip with your little one? What tips would you recommend for a road trip with a six month old?
If you liked this post, check out Baby on Vacation — Packing, Baby on Vacation — Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Baby on Vacation — Managing a Time Change.
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Hi, I’m Melissa! I am a mama to an energetic preschooler and newborn, a wife to my amazing husband Dan, and I work full-time as a meeting planner. I started this blog because, after having my first little guy, I quickly learned that exhaustion and baby brain causes you to forget some of the amazing (sometimes horrible and sometimes wonderful) details related to the first several months of raising a baby. Realizing that we would probably have more kids in the future, I wanted to document everything, so we would remember what worked the first time around, and hopefully help other first time mamas along the way!
