Traveling about 20 hours with 3 week old?

Question

First Time Mom- Baby is due June 24. We have a family reunion in Wyoming, in July, which is about a 20 hour drive from us and unfortunately we are driving. We are leaving July 15th to get there by July 18th. We are driving about 7 hours a day, give or take. Making nightly stops at hotels until we are there. Baby will be about 3 weeks old. Haven't talked to the doctor yet, but will at my next appointment.

Anyway, has anyone ever made travels like this? We kind of have to go, but I'm a little worry with baby only being about 3 weeks old (give or take since you never know if baby will be early or late). We will also make rest stops every 1-3 hours (when baby is awake to eat and change and give a break from the car seat.). I am also going to breastfeed if that makes a difference in health and immune system strength. My baby getting sick is what freaks me out the most since she will only be about 3 weeks old.

Thanks for the insights!

Answer

I've had 3 kids and let me tell you honestly, this sounds like a nightmare!! Not so much for baby, necessarily, newborns sleep a lot. But for you, you're going to want to die. Childbirth is hard. 20 hours sitting in a car only a couple weeks after that just sounds awful, plus there's a good chance you'll still be bleeding, which just makes a long car ride even more uncomfortable. Also, newborns tend to eat around every 2 hours, and each breastfeeding session can, depending on the baby, take 20-40 minutes. So best case scenario, if you stop the car at say noon, you feed for 20 minutes, use the restroom, you're not driving again until 12:30, then you'll be stopping again at 2pm for another 30-60 minute stop. As an experienced mom, let me just warn you to cancel this trip. I can't imagine any family member who has had a baby actually expecting you make this kind of roadtrip 3 weeks after giving birth (or less than 3 weeks if baby comes late, which happens a lot for first babies). Good luck!

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If you go late you could be traveling with a one week old! I would say skip it and give yourself time to bond d and recover.

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I gotta say. You won't really how how feasible this is until baby comes. If baby wants to cluster feed then you can kiss goodbye your driving schedule. Flying honestly might be the better option...

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The doctor will probably tell you that you shouldn't have a baby that young around so many people.  That aside, I don't think the drive will be too bad, assuming you don't have any type of stitches you're healing from.  Newborns tend to sleep most of the time.

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If you really want to go, you could always sit in back and lean over a bit to breastfeed while you're both buckled in. It's quite safe and easy, once you get the hang of it. 
Personally, I would not go on this long of a car ride with a newborn. I wouldn't even go two hours.

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I'm from Maine and drive to Vermont almost every month in the summer so when my baby girl is here I'll be doing the 3 hour drive with her and my hubby and sometimes without him! Not as long and might be difficult if she is awake but I'm praying things will go smooth! On the other hand I think you'll do just fine :) you seem to be pretty aware already of what the plan will be so I say go for it :-) I would love to bring my baby girl to a family reunion and also I love traveling!

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How is a family reunion required?? Also, the baby will likely sleep through this but this kind of drive could potentially be awful for you but really depends on your labor and how things are healing. If you need stitches 😳 I would not want to be doing this.

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We travelled about that long with our four week old. It was the EASIEST trip ever! I would travel with younger babies over older ones any day. She slept the whole time and nursed at every gas/food stop and that was it.

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I'll be traveling from MS to Cali with an approximately 1 month old girl around the same time! Good luck to you!

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I think traveling when they are younger is much better than when they're several months old because they sleep a lot. We're thinking about driving 13 hrs in a day when baby is about 5 weeks old. Just stop when you need to and it should be fine. Have fun!

Traveling about 20 hours with 3 week old?

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