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I think the baby will fall asleep during the drive as long as you make sure he/she is full and dry before you get in the car.

It depends on your kid! Tons fall asleep but mine screamed bloody murder until he was four months or so.

my kid rotates between hating the car seat, screaming bloody murder and sleeping, sitting happily. for 40 minutes - an hour, i just kept driving and knew she'd be fine until i got to my destination!

You'll be fine. You learn to distinguish between "I need something" cries and "I'm pissed because I'm in the car seat" cries. It'll bother you at first but you'll learn to tune it out!

as others said, it really a just depends on the child. mine hated the car seat and it was so stressful going anywhere, but hey- sometimes you need to drive somewhere. I would just make sure they were fed/clean/etc and hope for the best! I used a lot of white noise from the radio during car trips the first 3 months.

Mine has always hated the car seat and at 13.5 months...still hates it. We just started a 50 minute commute to work/daycare and she screams at least 40 minutes each way...and I mean, screaming like someone is pouring hot coals on her body. IT's heartbreaking and yes, very distracting while I drive and I feel like an emotional wreck by the time I get to work.

So yeah, I would say.....depends on the baby.

@pmrlady: I should clarify that I agree with @blackbird ; but just wanted to temper your expectations. I STILL grit my teeth when I see/hear of newborns loving their car seats haha!! Combined with my postpartum recovery and hormones, driving him 40 minutes screaming twice a day would have literally shattered my sanity - but after 4 months? No problem. So I think it's just tough to know ahead of time what will work for you.

@Anagram: Oof. That sounds awful, I am so sorry.

Yes like many others i say it depends on your baby. My DD would have been fine but my DS on the other hand was a near nightmare. Hated the car seat until he was a year old. Just getting him into a car seat would set off his crying and he would not stop until you got to your destination.

Really depends on the kid. DD hated the carseat, even as a newborn... and it was so stressful driving with her, but DS never minded the carseat and was as happy as a clam in it from day 1.

I did do that on a regular basis. Whenever it would get to bad I just pulled out the next exit and looked for a place to safely stop where I could nurse etc. If I was less than 10-15min from home/destination, well he had to wait.

I drove by myself a lot when LO was a baby. Some days she screamed and screamed and there was nothing I could do about it. Other days she would sleep or be content to have me sing to her to calm her down. Did it make me so distracted that I couldn't drive? No. But, were there times when I pulled over into a rest area so I could hold her? Absolutely.

DH will have to drive our DD twice a week to my mom's place which is an hour away once I go back to work. I think as long as she's fed and diaper changed before, then you can only do so much till you get to your destination! I guess if it's really bad he can always stop on the side to take a look at her...