Hellobee Boards

We drove to Palm Beach Florida when L was 11 months. We set up the iPad with Bubble Guppies episodes and she was good to go.
She ate more fast food than I'm comfortable with but two years later it seems to have not effected her in the long run.

I personally wouldn't attempt to do a 16-hour drive in one day (I've driven that and have nooooo desire to do it again!) - I would definitely stop midway through for 1 night.

I don't think it's unreasonable to think your LO might STTN during that drive though. At that age we drove about 7 hours with LO at night and she slept the entire time. I have no reason to think she wouldn't have kept sleeping had we had longer to drive.

We have never driven overnight so I can't speak to that, but I would be tempted to break up the drive somehow. We have been to Oak Island several times and my parents have been there lots. We love it. We are taking LO in June and he just turned two. I got a little pop up tent from IKEA to keep the sun off him. We usually go off season so it hasn't been an issue before. We usually go to Southport one day and walk around. And get take out from the Oak Island restaurant. Huge portions and really fresh fish.

@Reese: I've never done an all night trip but you could certainly try. I would just apply the same principle - start driving right before its time to sleep. And if you need food/coffee for yourselves whe he sleeps, only use drive thrus- nothing is worth waking a sleeping baby on a road trip

L didn't sleep well in our Graco travel crib (I think that's a pnp?). I ended up buying the baby bjorn travel crib and he slept good in it every time - huge difference. And so easy to assemble and carry. Was totally worth it for us. We suspected it was an uncomfortable mattress issue too.

@Reese: yes it does, I specifically read tons of reviews for the mattress. We used it for a solid 2 - 2.5 years with L1 (lots of trips to Montreal) and now will get another 3 years or so with L2, so I'm glad I bought it. The twin bed idea could work too, I never thought of that.

@Reese: we drove during the day and then into the night and stopped around midnight. We stopped at McDonalds play places and took a long time so she could stretch her legs.
We mostly avoided the beach but spent a lot of time at the pool.
There is a kiddie pool next to the big pool at our place down there so she used that a lot. She was a very confident walker at that point so that wasn't a worry.
We had a popup sun tent thing that worked well.
We have an iPad holder thing for the car, it's great until the battery dies.. Haha!

I wouldn't drive all night but we did do v two days of driving, our trip was 24 hours of driving. As soon as she woke up we got food and got in the car. She was happy sitting in the back with me eating hashbrowns. A couple hours later she'd sleep for 2-3 hours. We'd stop for lunch 30 minutes or so after she woke and spent time walking around after food. Then got back in the car close to her next nap and drove while she slept. She ended up only being awake for three to four hours of driving.

I would err on the side of breaking it up. For example a 10 hour drive, we broke up into two 5 hour days, which in reality took 7-8 hours each day. That was more manageable and we all felt better after a good night's sleep (in a bed). Generally, we like to have the mornings for playing (running around, getting tired) and then leave right after lunch hoping to catch an extra long nap. Then afternoon driving with a couple stops (snacks, ipads, whatever) and if necessary into the early evening.

@MenagerieMama: as an NC resident who opposes the new law (HB 2), I have to say that I hope OP will not penalize the person who owns the condo she's renting by canceling the trip. When big corporations or celebrities cancel events in NC, it sends a message to wealthy people in positions of power. When individual travelers boycott NC, it just penalizes people who have nothing to do with the law. Either way, please write our governor Pat McCrory to let him know you are considering boycotting the state: http://governor.nc.gov/contact

We drove from Ohio to South Carolina with DD when she was 11 months old and thought for sure we'd have to break up the drive but she was awesome! We did both legs in one day....took us about 10-12 hours I think. We stopped at every state border's rest area so she could run around and also did long lunches to get out of the car for a bit. No real advice I guess, but I think it helped us to go into it with no set schedule. We just drove until we wanted to stop. Although we did learn the hard way that not stopping frequently enough led to a very wet child/car seat!

@Reese: I lent my Graco to my sister and never got it back, lol. It was originally a baby shower gift. I can't speak for other travel cribs as I just asked HB for recommendations after we realized how much we didn't like the Graco and the majority said bjorn. So that plus Amazon reviews was enough to make me go for it.