800 mile road trip with 2 one year olds

In 2 weeks we will be driving from New York to Kentucky (800 miles) for my sister's wedding. We can leave as early as Thursday and have until Monday to get home. Not very much time and flying is not an option. We were suppose to drive through the night on Thursday and caravan with my cousins family but that fell through. So now we are left with the choice of either a) driving only at night by ourselves and praying that they sleep through the night. Dd does not sleep much in the car at all but we have never done this before either. But this will mean hopefully not as many stops and not screwing up their days too much. Or B) we can take 2 days and would need to stay overnight somewhere. This would mean many stops and the chance of screwing up their sleeping at night. But it is safer. We have been talking about it and dh asked me to post it here and see what others would do.

 

It is a tough call Ilyse especially if Ellie doesn't sleep in the car. The girls are good sleepers for us. We are doing our trip to SC in 2 days. We are just going to make plenty of stops to let them run around and get some energy out. With yhour little ones it maybe easier to do it at night because they aren't as mobile. Maybe you guys could leave Wed. night and see how it goes, it turns out to not work, then get some sleep and drive during the day on Thursday. Not sure if that is even an option.

 

Before I read your explanation I was going to vote to do the driving over 2 days staying overnight...but with having to practically turn around and come back I would say drive at night. We are making a 1200 mile trip (each way) over Christmas but we will have 2 full weeks for the trip so we will drive during the day and stop over night. If you would drive during the day and stay overnight you may very well have kids that totally freak out at the sight of the car after spending 4 out of 5 days in their seats. Be sure to have lots of activities for them while in the car just in case they don't sleep.

Also, you said you could leave as early as Thursday, would it be possible to leave Wed night just in case you end up having a tough time...that would also give you more time in KY for the kids to get the travel out of their minds before starting back.

 

I voted drive over 2 days and spend the night somewhere. We drove from MD to Myrtle Beach, SC this summer and it's about an 8 hour trip. The way down we always split it up into 2 days, just so we can enjoy the first day down there as well. The way home we drive straight through and it was not fun.

ETA: I just realized you only have Thurs.-Mon., so this may not be the best option as you would be on the road a lot more.

 

would it be possible to leave Wed night just in case you end up having a tough time...that would also give you more time in KY for the kids to get the travel out of their minds before starting back

I also was going to intiially say 2 days, but with your limited time, that might not be as good. i owuld agree with the above post about leaving wed. night if you can, and it would give you at least a little leeway, and hopefully friday for them to "recover" and be in a good mood for the wedding saturday. I hope it goes well for you. we haven't done the long trip in a car yet, so i don't really have much advice! i just think i would do the overnight b/c of the short time frame.
good luck!!!!!! i will send your daughter visions of sleep

 

I want to hear more, too! We are driving Saturday, which is a 7-9 hour trip. I will let you know how it goes and what we did and we should have done!!

 

i voted drive straight threw...over the summer we drove to VA with all 5 kids in the car, get it over with ASAP!!!is my motto, i would try & leave wednesday evening after dinner time.& drive for the night that way u will have all thu, fri & sat. when is the wedding? if its friday u can do the same thing on saturday evening you'll be home for sunday to rest before going back to work...

Hope all works out ...drive safe...most of all have fun @ the wedding!!!

 

For trips that long with my girls at that age we did the overnight driving thing; it just works out better because they were miserable being cooped up in the car otherwise! I'm not saying it's not tough -- you are exhausted once you get where you are going -- but it definitely made the time spent in the car WYA more bearable. Once we drove 1,000 miles to my parents' house and we did the first 13 hours overnight (7pm-8am) and the girls slept right through, but as soon as the girls woke up at 8am, it took 5 hours to do what should have been 2-3 hours. I couldn't imagine that during the day! We did a daytime trip of approx 8 hours when they were 18mos and it was miserable because they just cried the whole time and didn't nap. Eeeeeeeeek! For Thanksgiving we are planning to drive during the day, but they are much more mature now and dig being in the car, taking in the sights, are more into watching DVDs, etc., and just have much better communication skills now, so I think it will go much more smoothly.

 

Oops sorry for not saying, the wedding is Saturday during the day.

Veggie, please let me know how it works out for you! And like you said what you did that worked and all the should have dones...... Good luck!!

 

We dirve from Missouri to Michigan several times during the year. I have done it both ways. I would try to drive straight thru if you can. Do your babies sleep better with noise in the background? Have a DVD player playing videos and they should sleep great.

I drove the trip this summer by myself and it was hard driving during the day and then stopping. It was a different place to sleep and they didnt want to sleep, just run all over the hotel room.

 

We have always drove to visit people. So...we have driven with all different ages. Usually we drive over 1,000 miles. This summer we went from NM to FL back to NE. Plus we have driven with the girls from NE to NM in one day....that is 1,000 miles. I have a dvd player for the little ones...the babies we kept active with alot of food and toys....I purchased some new toys that would help. It did. I would rather push through then get everyone out...try and get them settled in a hotel and then get little rest and start up again the next day. When we drove to FL...we had to stop.....it was a bit hard.

One year...we car pooled to OR from CO with another family...they had 1 kiddo that was the same age as our youngest at the time (baby number 5, he was 18 months) Maggie was 2 1/2....plus our 3 others and I was preggo....we drove the 1,700 miles straight through!!!! 24 hours baby...in the van!!!! Now....I might not do that again....but we made it!!

Have lots of food and the keep the end goal in mind.....getting there....in a somewhat sane state.

 

I voted drive over 2 days and spend the night somewhere... that would be the easiest way for mine and us.

 

We did Kansas to Louisville at that age. We stop in Kansas City on the way which makes it 2.5 hours the first day and 10 hours the second. We do the 12 hours back in 1 day. We do all the driving during the day. We have a portable dvd player. We had snacks, new books, new little toys, and we also got small magna-doodles.

We did that trip right before the kids' first bday. What really helped us was have the kids totally off bottles. I switched mine cold-turkey to sippies at 11 months with milk and they didn't even blink. Mine have also liked juice and water so they got that in the car. We traveled with a cooler so they had drinks. It's much easier to travel with sippies than bottles. The other thing I learned was to back your booster seats for eating on top. You will be amazed at how many restaurants along the highways only have 1 high chair. We had the boosters on top and just ran out and grabbed them if we needed one.

Marissa

 

Since the boys were 6 months old, we drive twice a year from NJ to SC. At first we would leave about 4 in the morning, have everything packed before going to bed, get up really early and then start driving. We did that until they were 4 and now we break it up into 2 days. Part of it is, we didnt' want to deal with a hotel and needing 2 PNP's and lugging all that stuff around. Now that they are older, and can sleep in the hotel rooms, it is an adventure, and they have a great time, so we break it up.

With one year olds, and your limited time, I would do it in one shot.

 

Well, we drove to Florida this summer (from Dallas, TX) and on the way there we stayed the night in a hotel at the 1/2 way point. The trip was just fine and everyone did great! On the way back, my 4 yr. old DS was adamant that we drive the whole way home and not spend the night anywhere. So, my DH did it! It worked out fine too! So, I'm 50/50 on the decision. The only thing that is different is that we had a whole week in Florida before we returned home so that makes it easier, I think.

I will suggest a DVD player for the kids to watch. My twins were only 13 months old at the time of our trip and don't watch TV much but they did on the trip and that made a huge difference. Everyone was entertained! It wasn't bad at all - especially for me since I never drove once!! In fact, the kids were better in the car than they were out of the car on the trip! Isn't that crazy?

Good luck though and OVER prepare!

 

Veggiehead, I hope you will see this, so how'd the drive go? Please give me some pointers of do's and don'ts. Thanks!