Babys First Year Blog
Moving Cross Country with a Baby?
It’s official, my husband and I are moving our little family from Utah to Texas in just a few short weeks. We have been contemplating this move for a few months and have finally decided to take the plunge. We have 4 weeks to get our belongings packed up, to find a place, and to move in before my husband starts graduate school at the end of this month.
The whole thing seems overwhelming but I think I am most terrified of driving for three days with Tate. We nurse on demand around here and my sweet little man takes his sweet time eating his meals. There is no possible way we will make any driving progress if he nurses as often and as long as he is used to.
I have contemplated pumping when I am riding shotgun and feeding Tate bottles in his car seat, but don’t know how feasible this is. So I have to know: have you driven cross country with a newborn? If so, how on earth did you keep him or her fed and happy? Please leave your wisdom below.
Image : flickr | idogcow
Go Back To Babys First Year Blog
9 Comments
[...] we left, I was still incredibly nervous about how Tate would handle it. I was anxious that his unhappiness with the car ride might make me [...]
Almost There: Our Cross Country Move | Babys First Year Blog commented on Aug 24 11 at 9:33 amBre commented on Aug 02 11 at 4:15 amWouldn’t recommend giving the bottle while in motion. My Bear tends to spit it all up once we are stopped and you can’t really burp him. We usually try to plan to stop every 2-3 hrs to feed/pump (he tends to take less time to eat from a bottle) and he does well.
Meagan commented on Aug 02 11 at 7:00 amHaven’t done cross country, but on the one long trip we have taken (6 hours which became 12 hours) we stopped every 3 hours to bottle feed him, and I pumped while we drove. Just MAKE SURE that every other feeding or so you actually nurse rather than pumping all the way through… that trip ended in mastitis, and the midwife’s best guess was that it was from relying on pumping for such long stretches rather than nursing, which empties the breast more effectively.
Melanie commented on Aug 02 11 at 8:15 amI drove from Virginia to ohio (10-11 hours) when my daughter was 2 months then again at 5 months. She slept most of the time. We just stopped when she would wake up so she could nurse. When we were almost home she needed to nurse but we didn’t want to stop, so I did the whole lay over the car seat so she could nurse thing. I also took a 1-2 bottles with me incase we were somewhere we couldn’t stop. Good luck!
Hollie commented on Aug 02 11 at 8:55 amMy cousin recently did an eight hour road trip FIVE TIMES in a month with her three year old and 2 month old (moment of respectful silence). Anyway, she pretty much did what Meagan suggested, alternating actual long nursing stops (good for the toddler to run and stretch and eat anyway) and pumping while shotgun for shorter bottle stops. It may seem like a hassle to stop for a bottle feed, but the angle the baby sits at HUGELY increases likelihood of reflux/spit up if they aren’t really well burped and rested so… danger, Will Robinson. Good luck, and get ready for how out-n-proud Texans are about being Texan! (We can’t help it).
Teri commented on Aug 02 11 at 12:00 pmWe drove from Texas to Michigan (about 21 hours) and broke it up into a 3 day trip. We drove at night the first day and made major mileage all while our little one was sleeping. The next days we just stopped every 3 hours and nursed. It turned out to be a really easy trip, but we were not in a hurry and we just took our time.
tara commented on Aug 02 11 at 11:06 pmwe have driven a few 15 hour trips- once when our baby was 7 days old (yup, sure did) and once when he was 3 weeks old and then a week later to go home. it. was. awesome. he slept the entire time, all drives. i woke him to feed when he was newborn, i pulled over every 2 hours to nurse, but when he was 3 weeks old, i pumped in the front seat and then fed him a bottle while we drove. on the way back, we drove through the night and he slept the entire time except for one pull over feeding. babies tend to do pretty well in the car when they are young, and sleep a lot. i’ve driven the drive from texas to utah and visa versa many times (from tx, went to school in ut) and i can say, that is a loooong drive. i’d say pump and bottle feed if you can, and let him sleep if he does so on his own.
Marie commented on Aug 03 11 at 3:56 pmConsider driving when the kid usually sleeps a long chunk if you can manage it, or finish the trip during a normal sleeping time. We only did 5-8 hour trips with our 0-3 month old kid and found that we reset her sleep schedule to be when we had been driving, which made for a lot of agony when we got there. Also the long rests every 3-4 hours and shorter stops in between worked pretty well for us!
Tristen Lawrence commented on Aug 19 11 at 9:26 amI’m in agreement with the driving when the baby sleeps the most, and I’m also in agreement with stopping to feed the baby, at reasonable intervals so you know he’s not hungry and then let him fuss a little bit when he’s just mad because he wants to be held and snuggled and nurse with his mama. :)
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
Lauren Jimeson 
Lauren Hartmann 
Emily Elling 
Meredith Carroll 
Emily Malone 
Molly Thornberg 
Selena Burgess 
Casey Mullins 
Madeline Petersen 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
9