My husband and I are moving from California to Iowa. Our baby girl will be 4 months old when we make this trek. She frequently has screaming fits in her car seat that rend my soul. We are planning on making stops about every 2 hours. She has reached a stage where she loves standing and sitting upright, but hours in a car will provide no outlet for this. In addition to this, I am worried because little Meg only accepts my breast milk in bottle form (unless she has just woken up). I will be taking a pump, but I fear it will be very difficult to clean between feedings and that my milk will go sour without a fridge and I'll be left with nothing to feed. Has anyone done this before? Any advice?
We used to take off about 4pm to miss some of the rush traffic where we used to live then we would stop about 6pm and get foods then we would drive through the night it worked so much better with the kids than day driving with bored children.
she sounds just like my daughter! she also hated being in the car and we took our first road trip when she was 4 1/2 months and she teething on top of it! so her dr said to give her tylenol every four hours for the teething pain. we stopped about every 3-4 hours to let her stretch eat and be changed. as for the feeding thing take a cooler with ice so you can pump and not worry about it going bad. we took a cooler because i wanted to make like 24 ounces of formula and snacks for us. i wish you luck and you will notice that she will do a lot better in the car after this trip!
Here's one option. I breast fed both of my children, each for a little over a year. So, I have experience using a pump. I don't know long you have before your big move, but if you have a couple of weeks you could try this. Pump extra milk between feedings. At first you won't get much milk, but after a few days your breasts will start producing more to keep up with the increasing demands. The extra milk that you have should be stored in the freezer. You should be able to store enough in the freezer to last your whole trip. You can keep the milk in a cooler full of ice for the trip. You can always get more ice if you need it when you stop for gas. You can pump in the car and store the first clean milk. Then if you do have to pump again before you can get to the hotel and clean it, you can just pump and toss the unsafe milk. It's just one way you could do it. I hope you have a safe trip and figure a way to make the drive smooth.
My best advise is to travel as much as possible when your little one sleeps the most. It will be easier to travel if she is sleeping!!!
AS for the pumping and storage, that works great! What we did when we traveled is pumped as needed, but we also had a cooler that we had dry ice in. The dry ice will freeze your milk or keep it cold enough. Dry ice is pretty easy to find, just stop at grocery stores along the way, most will carry it, and if they don't they should be able to tell you where to get it. If possible get more than 2 lbs at a time- it will "melt" slower, the more you have, but also if the dry ice disappears, then keep an eye on your milk, as long as it is still frozen, it will be ok!
We also stopped as we needed to when our son got too cranky/fussy. We got him out and let him stretch, but then we also stretched as well. Stopping every two hours is a great idea, they normally are good for those two hours in the car, but if not, then it helps to have books, toys-etc for them to play with. I know with older children it helps to have a movie going in a dvd player. At her age, use the Baby Einstein movies, or you can watch one of your movies while the baby watches it too!
Good Luck with your move! It sounds like you are in for a big adventure!
They have little cooler type bags that you slide frozen inserts into and you can store your milk in containers inside of these I got one from one of the formulas makers that gave me a diaper bag as a gift from the hospital where I had my daughter (in Idaho) good luck I hope it goes well
That sound like my DD. Is Meg still in an infant seat? Sarah would scream the entire time she was in the seat. I finally moved her to her brother's Roundabout and the crying stopped. She hated the infant seat, not the car. Once she could see and was upright she was happy, the girl doesn't like to miss out on anything. I moved her at 4 mo.
Just something to think about.
Jacy is so right. Don't worry--my first was the same way. As Jacy said, you'll notice a difference after this trip, especially if you make it seem fun by your expressions and attitude. Making it plain it's an adventure.
Because Jacy pretty much covered it, the only reason I'm really responding is because I loved your comment that Meg loves it when people talk to her like a peer. She's going to be a smart one.
My first liked that too--did not like baby talk. She always wanted you to give her a new word to think about. I noticed that even before she could talk, I could sometimes stop one of those hysterical grocery-store fits that every mother fears just by saying a new word to her in the middle of it. It had to be something interesting and unusual--and I had to use it in a sentence.
But it can bite you back. When she was four, she told me I was "cognitively challenged" and when her skeptical father (who didn't think she knew what it meant) asked her why she'd said that, she said "Well, I didn't want to say she was stupid."
Today at the age of 15 she's a sophomore in college, which would by worrying except that somehow she's managed to stay a normal kid and still make almost straight A's. I think the key is that she's comfortable in any age group--hence my interest in your comment about Meg. In which case--a 7-day road trip is the least of your worries!! :)
I took a road trip and froze my breast milk prior to going. Although I rode in the back and did the ultimate no-no of taking him out to feed, you would be able to give her a bottle . I used ice packs and an igloo cooler that had an ice block on the top. Try that and see how far you get. I think there might still be little fridges that connect to your cigarette lighter... unless they were taken off the market.
