At what age could you (or did you) travel with a newborn? I'm talking a couple hour drive but relaxing "vacation."
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It really depends on your baby. Vi was a very easy newborn for the most part, and we went on a 20 hour road trip when she was 6 weeks old. We had to pull over to nurse constantly, but it really wasn't bad.
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We made our first road trip when S was 3 weeks old. It worked pretty well!
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With my second we went at 6 weeks and it was fun but with my first we went around 11 weeks and it was still pretty stressful. I would give it 3 months to be safe.
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We travelled 6+ hours at 6 weeks, and 9 weeks. We've travelled day trips 2 hours at 7, 12, 13 weeks. It was all doable, but the trips after 10 weeks were more "relaxing"
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We traveled to my parents' house (about 2 hours) when LO was 6 weeks. It was fine, but a little stressful to not have all of our stuff and to worry about other people being bothered by the crying.
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We went from here to Newport, RI and the car ended up being pretty stressful. LO hated (still does, actually) her car seat. Lots of crying in the car on that trip and a 3 hour trip turned into 5 hour trip.
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We traveled up north (two hour drive) when DS was 2 months to visit family. DS did fine during the trip/drive, but it was exhausting for me with getting up for MOTN nursing sessions.
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We took a 6 hour train ride to DC for a weekend when lo was 8 weeks old. It was awesome!
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We drove three hours each way to my friends wedding when our son was 3 weeks old and he did great. Some babies really hate the carseat though so its a tossup.
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We did a 6 hour road trip for the weekend when she was 2 months old. It was pretty easy!
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We did a 3 hour road trip at 4.5 weeks to my parents. It was easy.
We did a 5 hour road trip to a cottage at 4 months. Drive was easy. Week wasn't suuuuuper relaxing because our baby doesn't nap and was too young to be in the sun, so I spent more time inside then I wanted. He's a good baby though.
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We drove 2 hours each way at 4 weeks, though it was just for the day. Not sure it was super relaxing either - I was nursing every 3 hours, roughly.
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we drove 2.5 hours to my parents when LO was 3 weeks. we did a 2 night vacay for our anniversary with her to the mountains 2 hours away when she was 3 months.
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Just did a 16 hour trip one day and 3 hours the next with a 5 week old. Not too bad, but it's our second. We're not quite so stressed about things this time around.
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We drove about 2 hours when she was about 2.5 weeks. No issues, I think she slept the whole way. I flew with her by myself when she was 8 weeks, across country...also totally fine. Wish she still traveled so easily!
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We drove 13 hours and then flew 8 hours with a 5 week old. You can make anything happen.
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We did a roadtrip at about 10 weeks. We split it into two days. There was lots of stopping to nurse but other than that it went pretty smoothly.
Then at 3 months a short plane trip and we've done plenty of plane trips since. DS is 19 months now.
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We did a two hour trip to visit family at 3 weeks and 7 weeks. They are pretty portable at that age so as long as you are prepared for lots of nursing and little sleep, I think little is fine!
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we did a 4 hour roadtrip each way when she was 2 weeks. It was totally fine. Actually it was much easier to do then than it is to do now with our 15 month old.
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At 7.5 weeks, we flew with the ILs and rented a condo in Mexico.
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At 4 weeks, we drove two hours and spent the weekend at a conference for DH.
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I think it depends on the baby, but our LO found the car really soothing, so car trips were fairly easy as a newborn and small infant!
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We went on a 7 hour road trip when she was 2.5 months old and it went well! She slept for most of the time in the car!
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I think car trips are harder than flights, because you're tied to the carseat and need to pull over to breastfeed or comfort a fussy baby.
With our first, we did a 12 hour trip (2 flights) to Hawaii at 10 weeks, and it was great - she was too young to really get jet lagged or even notice she was on a plane. At 5 months we attempted a 6 hour drive...utter disaster.
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Travel at that very young age was really easy (especially compared to travelling with a toddler now!) because they sleep a lot and are usually able to sleep just about anywhere. We did our first week-long trip at 8-9 weeks, she slept the entire time on the plane there and back, and would sleep in restaurants, anywhere I took her in a sling (legit took her to a movie theater in that sling! and covered her ears), and did really well in August Florida heat at an amusement park, etc. Especially easy if nursing! Only downside was that we didn't bring our pack-n-play that has the newborn napper and so she wasn't used to sleeping on a flat surface - ended up cosleeping for that week.
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So I totally like being a homebody in the early days, but we'll be going to the lake this year when LO is 12 weeks or so. I just prefer sleep deprivation in my own home heh
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@LindsayInNY: My son HATED the car until he was almost 5 months, so no road trips for us. We took him on a 6 hour plane ride at 3 months and that went great, he just nursed and slept the whole time.
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Depends on the baby. DS hated the car and would scream the entire time. He was also a fussy, high needs baby who nursed at least every 90 min the first 3 months and didn't nap much either in the car or stroller.
DD was never in a car until 4 months, but I think she would have been a good car traveller before 3 months. She was totally low needs and slept a ton until she was 3 months.
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We took our first big trip with him at 8 weeks to visit family (5 hour drive one-way). We took him on a vacation trip at 3 and 4.5 months and on a 7.5 week long road trip at 5-6 months. It was awesome. But he never had issues sleeping in his carseat and we just pulled over to nurse whenever he would get hungry.
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We did a car trip at 4 months, in hindsight we could have gone earlier, but I don't know that we would have even been able to leave the room!
I would be fine with a trip beginning at around 6 weeks, baby has first round of shots and you're likely done with the PP bleeding and possible able to sit for longer periods of time.
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I think it partly depends on how chill your LO is and partly how chill you are about taking a newborn away from home. For me, I didn't feel ready at 8 weeks (we had plans, but cancelled them) but at 11 weeks felt fine about it, so took a trip for a few days which was a 4hr drive each way. LO didn't nap great in the car, but she was sleeping through the night and was pretty easy to tote around in the Ergo all day so we could sightsee and go out for meals.
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We did a 2 hour drive to my parents home when LO was 5 days old, returning when he was about 9 or 10 days old I think. The car part was fine, he just slept all the way. But it was a bit stressful being away from home - LO was a very colicky and difficult baby. I think it completely depends on the personality of the baby. We went on another trip 4 hours away when he was around 12 weeks, and this was a lot more chill. However I'm not sure we could have had what I would call a 'relaxing' holiday at any point, and he's now 10mo!
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We started driving to our lake house (2 hours away) when DS was one week old. He loved his car seat though so we were lucky that he almost always slept the entire time. We won't be traveling that far with DD until thanksgiving when she'll be 7 weeks or so.
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I would think any trip with the long drive would be best to do when they're younger. We took a 6 Hour drive when J was nearly 10 months and it was a little more difficult. However we took him on a flight for nearly 3 hours when he was six months and he did great. Depending on how good your baby is in the car, I think will help you make your decision.
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We traveled to my family's lake house 5 hours' drive away when LO was 10 days old. It was actually pretty easy because she slept the whole time. We had a HORRIBLE time trying to make that same trip when she was 12 weeks old and hated the car. They sleep all the time for the first 3 weeks so anytime before that should be fine
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@JoJoGirl: ha, first three weeks, not for R. More like the first 5 days. Then she woke up and wasn't happy.
We did a 4 hour trip at 8 weeks. It took 5.5 hours with stopping to nurse and diaper changes. R wasn't thrilled with the car still but it was better then we thought. I did have to sit in the back the whole time with her, instead of sit with DH up front.
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@Smurfette: Hahah yeah i guess it depends on the baby. I don't really remember. All I know is after the 12 week trip we swore off driving anywhere ever again.
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Thanks for all the input!! Makes me feel better
We love vacationing on Martha's Vineyard but didn't get to this past summer. We tentatively booked a week next August so I wasn't sure if that was completely insane of us. Seems like it should be doable with a 6 week-ish baby!
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I did multiple solo 3-6 hour road trips with my son from 3 months on. I haven't done solo with both kids yet, but we have taken anywhere from 1-9 hour road trip with both kids and it's been completely manageable.
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