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We are going to Gulf Shores for a long weekend Mother's Day weekend, with my in-laws. Will will be 8 months old then. I think my FIL said it will take about 5 hours to get there and I don't think that's counting stops, but I'm not sure. Before now the longest road trip we've taken Will on is to see family and friends in Mississippi a few times and that was around 2 1/2 hours. Does anyone have any tips for traveling with a baby?

It is going to be SO crowded in the car, especially the back seat. We are going to take my in-laws' Camry. With 4 adults and a car seat in the car, everything we take with us will have to fit into the trunk. So, I guess we will be packing light. I won't be able to take our stroller (one of those huge combo stroller things) because it would fill up the entire trunk by itself. Maybe I should buy a umbrella stroller to take, but I'm not sure if it would fit either...

Can you believe this- When my FIL was checking on prices at different hotels, he was told by one hotel that we would have to get 2 rooms. Because the only allow 4 people to a room, and they count the baby!! We wondered if they would also require a couple with 3 small children to also get 2 rooms. Anyway, we ended up finding a really good deal on a condo, so well all have plenty of room.

Hubby and I take the 3 LOs to Dallas (8-9 hour trip) to visit in-laws when we can and I have learned a thing or two about travelling with them.

My first piece of advice - since you are going to be packing light - I would pack what you need for the car trip in a diaper bag and then buy everything else you need down there. There is no sense in stuffing a package of diapers and wipes in your suitcase when you can run into a store down there and pick it up. You'll be wasting valuable packing room.

The good thing is that even though you'll be packed into the car - at least someone will be in the backseat with Will. You can talk to him and play games to help pass the time. And you might be surprised at how much he'll sleep in the car.

My second piece of advice - buy a new teething toy or a rattle for him to play with in the car. Sometimes introducing something new will keep his attention and distract him from the fact that he's straped into his carseat. We always buy a new Disney movie to watch on the way to Dallas and because it's something they haven't watched before they are usually glued to the DVD player.

And my last one - I don't know when you are planning to leave, but it's always worked really well for us to leave EARLY in the morning (like 4 or 5) when the kids are still asleep and we throw them in the car and head out. This usually gives us a couple of hours before they wake up and get restless.

Another good person to chime in is Moozle. I know they do car trips too. I'll bet she can throw something else in there that I haven't thought of.

Sounds like a great family vaycay!
We've traveled by car a lot with Jack because our families all live in NY and Boston. And my BIL lives in NC.
For Xmas we trekked from here to NC to Boston to NY. That's days and days in the car with a LO.
What helped for us was the DVD player. We strapped it right to the back of the backseat and put in Baby Einstein and Backyardigans when he got restless.
We'd also stop and stretch and get him out of the car every few hours. It makes the trip longer but IMO helps.
And we learned to get a suite and not just a hotel room. It was a disaster the night we tried to go to sleep at midnight with the pack n play beside our hotel bed. Jack just stood there, clutching the sides, and yelled at us for hours. Oy.
Um...GoodGolly has a great suggestion that I found also works well on planes - something new. A new rattle, toy, etc. That keeps them occupied for a while.
And just sitting in the back with him and playing peek a boo or singing or just interacting helped as well. We'd pull into a rest area and I'd hop in the back for a while.
HTH!

FYI, we have a really cheap and small umbrella stroller that has been so great for travel in the car and on plane trips. It's so small. Might be worth it if you can fit it in.

We just went on a 12 hour driving trip with our 15 month old. We left at 1 am so he slept alot of the way. I agree with GoodGolly on all of her suggestions. I bought Ronald a couple of new toys for the trip, and they worked wonderfully. Also having someone in the back seat with him will be a huge help in keeping him occupied.

I have also done trips to ATL with Ronald when he was that age. He always did really great. He either took his nap, or it was bedtime when we went, so he slept alot. It is usually a four hour drive, but it took about 5 to 5 1/2 with stops to feed Ronald. So you can plan to add about a hour or two to the driving time for eating and diaper changing stops.

The only other suggestion I have other than the ones GoodGolly gave you is to be careful not to buy too much stuff when you get to the beach. Don't buy more than you need for one week when you get there, or you will be throwing the extra away because there won't be room to bring it all back. Hope that helps!

We do lots and lots of long car trips with our girls too -usually either 8 hours to NC or 12 hours to Florida. We also go to lots of other places for weekend trips.

For us, the easist thing to do is drive overnight. When we went to Savannah a few weeks ago, we left Tuscaloosa around 5pm. Threw in a dvd and they were fine.

Stopped in Bham for dinner around 6. Ate, changed them into PJs, back into the car. One more dvd, and they both pass out.

We trained ours very young to be able to sleep anywhere, including their carseats, so we wind up doing lots of overnight driving.

It's a pain and DH and I need to switch on and off more if we're tired - and there are coffee stops - but it is definitely the easiest.

I agree with all the other suggestions too - about new toys, etc.

Portable DVD players are the best invention ever in my opinion! But he's still rear-facing, right?

OH - don't forget snacks. I can usually quiet most car tantrums if I hand one of them a rice cake, or a bag of cheerios, or a bag of fruit snacks. That's good for a few minutes of silence :-)

We are flying with both girls for the first time this June .. not sure yet how that will go! (we have flown with Anabelle, but not since Amelia was born).

FYI: Jack is still rear facing and we use the DVD player (I totally agree with you, it's a great invention!). We just put it around the back instead of front seat. But we have an SUV and a plug in the way back that comes in handy. The plug prob wouldn't reach otherwise...

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. We had a really good trip. I just wish we could have stayed longer. Will did really good in the car most of the time. There were a couple of times he got really tired (and probably sick of being in his car seat) and cried for a little while before falling asleep. Actually I think the trip was better with him. I hate long car rides and entertaining Will gave me something to do so I didn't get as bored as I normally would.