Considering taking a 8 hr car trip with our 8 month olds

I live far away from my parents and my Mom and sister flew down to see me when the girls were 3 months old for thier baptism cause I ask my younger sister who lives with them to be the God Mother to one.
I'm located in Ontario and they are in British Columbia so it's hard to see them on a regular basis. Well I found out the other day they are taking a trip to Montreal QU, with my sister to see the University so we are trying to plan a "surprise trip" to see them, and my Dad who wasn't able to come the last time and has never seen my girls so I'm so excited.
So.. it's a 8 hr drive from here to Montreal and I have no idea what to expect has anyone else gone for a long trip with the kids in the car at this age and how did it go? Any help on what you did to entertain or suggest i can do to entertain them for this long period?

I'm thinking using portable car DVD players for each baby and buying some shows they love watching at home eg. Barney etc
Maybe music Cd's and sing to them. Other than that no clue. Never brought them anywhere far they've only been in there carseats for 20 mins tops..

 

Our trip back from NY today SHOULD have been only four hours, but it took nearly eight, so.....

the only advice i can offer you is plan on it taking MORE than 8 hours' you will need to stop a few times to change them, and you'll want to get thm out of the car seats as well. We had an exersaucer w/us and at one rest stop we pulled it out and gave each girls some time in it so she could play and stand....if there were a picnic area i wouldhave put down a blanket or their mat for them to roll around on. We don't do dvds so i have no advice to offer there. But i did have a lot of toys, including some new ones that were big hits and one of us was back there w/them almost all th e time that they were awake.

 

We travel regularly from colorado springs to iowa, which normally takes 9 hours. With our 9 month old girlies,it takes us almost 12, if we travel during the daylight hours. They just need to get out and about every so often. We have taken to traveling overnight for this reason...it takes us 9-10 hours depending on the Bathroom stops for the one driving and drinking coffee.. The girls tend to sleep the whole ride and don't have any cranky, fussy issues when we arrive.

 

I've never done 8 hours, but I've done some fairly long car trips. We always leave at bedtime. We do their bath, massage, pajamas, bottles - everything just like usual, but instead of putting the babies in their beds we put them in their car seats and we start driving. Each time they've fallen asleep within about 1/2 an hour and slept until our destination, at which time we transfer them to pack and plays and they sleep until morning. That's better than the sleep at home (well, James, anyway). I really suggest this method. You'll be tired the next day but the babies will be well rested, which is a great way to start a vacation.

 

we just moved from OH to AL, splitting the drive between 2 days- but what should've taken 5 hrs took almost 7. When we go home for the holidays (TX) our plan is to do it at night. Once we get to grandmas- they can play with the boys while we get a nap!

 

I agree with the pp. Drive at night and let them sleep in the carseats. You will be less haggard if they are snoozing rather than crying. Your family will love watching them while you nap the next day.

 

Ditto on driving at night. We just did a 5-hour drive - going out we traveled during the day and coming back we left at bed time. The babies slept almost the whole time during the daylight leg, so they were weirded out when we arrived AND we had had to stop twice for feeding. We'll be traveling at night from now on.

We also took a couple of practice drives of an hour or so to make sure they really would sleep in the seats...

 

Driving at night sounds like a good suggestion (might use it ourselves next time), but it can be done in the day. We have an 8 hour drive (10 hours with the boys) to my FIL's house, which we've done a couple of times. The last time, the boys were about 7 months.

We break our trip up by stopping every few hours. I highly recommend McDonalds because they leave you alone there, they always have changing tables in the bathroom, and it's quick and easy for you to grab a drink or snack and get the kids out of the car. At each stop, we'd feed them, change them, and just generally let them be out of their seats for awhile.

In the car, they slept a lot, but we had several toys with also, and that kept them entertained while they were awake. We got toys we could hook onto the straps of their seats so they wouldn't lose them, and at each stop we switched out for some new toys. Even though they slept a lot extra, it didn't affect their night sleeping, but maybe we were just lucky.

It's really not so bad; you should definitely give it a go. Good luck!

 

We made a trip from Long Island to Toronto. It used to take 9 hours but this time we stayed overnoght-unexpectedly because we were so tired and stiff. I must say the babies did better than I did. Since the car seats were in the car we could not recline ours seats which made napping for me impossible.

We stopped at rest areas and changed and fed them. We switched off chewing toys every 2 hours or so.

We also had to add a night at a hoilday in Binghamptom on the way home. At first we were certain we cold make it straight through but it took longer than we thought. Well, it was the labor day weekend.

Happy trails!!!!

 

We did a 14-hour drive at 7 months and it went surprisingly well. We stayed in a hotel one night and split the drive over two days. Yes, it took longer because of extra stops for diapers and feedings but they mostly slept and played with the toys we gave them. Mine wouldn't watch TV at that age so a DVD player wouldn't have helped and I don't know where we could have put it that would have been safe with them rear-facing??? Oh, and I thought that all of that sleeping during the day would make it a nightmare come bedtime but they seemed unaffected. The only part that was rough was on the way home, they decided they'd had enough of nursing in the car and went on strike for 8 hours. I thought I was going to explode. They snapped out of it as soon as we got home.