Giveaway: Evenflo ProComfort Symphony DLX All-In-One Car Seat
This August, I decided to live in our summer house for the entire month. I can work from anywhere and we did just sink a bunch of money into our new abode, so I should take advantage, right?
The plan is this: Mazzy, Harlow and I will stay here all through August, Mike will only come out for the weekends since he's got one of those dated office jobs, and Ruth (our nanny) will travel out to work her regular hours so I am still able to work during the day.
It all sounds very fancy, but also really weird for a longtime city dweller like myself.
For starters, I HAVE A CAR.
I mean, we always have a car but usually it sits in a parking garage and Mike just drives us places on the weekends. I am always more than happy to be the passenger.
But now, the car is mine all week and I have to do things like drop Mazzy off at camp, pick Mazzy up from camp, go to the grocery store (one of those huge grocery stores that lures your children with toys and sugar cereals as opposed to the slim pickings at a corner bodega), buy produce from the farmstand (where they actually grow things!) and shuttle everyone around to various activities and playdates.
So working during the day is hard. Especially with the constant shuttling. I'm not quite sure how you guys in the burbs get anything done!
Since Mazzy is at camp from 9-2:00pm, Harlow is the person (besides myself) who is in the car most often. She has probably spent more time in the car this last week than she has her entire 20 month-old life.
To make sure Harlow is comfortable in her new role as my backseat co-pilot, Evenflo sent me their Symphony DLX All-In-One Carseat from their new ProComfort Series, which is sold online and at Target.
The ProComfort Series was created because Evenflo realized carseat safety is not just about minimizing the impact of an accident, it's about minimizing distractions from the road due to parents attending to children who are uncomfortable. In other words, Evenflo began to think about what caused accidents in the first place.
Baby crying due to discomfort = Driver's attention diverted = Higher potential for accident
Makes sense to me.
The ProComfort Series uses innovative gel matrix technology which reduces pressure point build-up alleviating discomfort (short term and long term) for a safer, more peaceful ride. The Series includes the Symphony DLX All-In-One Carseat which grows with your child from 5-110 lbs ($249.99), the Triumph LX Convertible Car Seat ($159.99) and the Amp LX High Back booster seat ($69.99).
It's important to note that in addition to focusing on comfort, the Evenflo ProComfort Series ensures safety during accidents by exceeding government standards to provide car seats that are 2X the Federal Crash Test Standard.
I can't really attest to the science behind it, but I can say that Harlow looks like she is now riding in the lap of luxury. You know how you when you fly coach, you have to walk through all those people in first class drinking champagne and eating mixed nuts lounging in their huge leather seats with their fleece blankets and slippers? And you're like— some people have it sooooooo good.
I think that's how Mazzy feels when she looks at Harlow in her new ProComfort car seat.
I mean, have you ever seen anyone who looks more at home in their car seat?
She's even got double cupholders! Which of course means that I am bending myself backwards way less to retrieve fallen sippy cups and water bottles. Which means, not only is my baby safer, but pedestrains and other drivers too!
So far, Harlow and I have been all over Eastern Long Island, taking car trips to various beaches, farmstands, parks, restaurants, villages, etc, etc. etc. Harlow is always content and often falls asleep if we near her naptime, which makes for an even lovlier ride.
I am excited to see what happens when we drive her on a longer trip. Maybe we'll actually attempt the family road trip to visit Mike's college friends in DC again this year?
Pray for me!
GIVEAWAY:
Today, I'm excited to give away one Evenflo ProComfort Symphony DLX All-In-One Car Seat ($249.99)!
All you have to do is…
1) Follow both Evenflo and Mommy Shorts on facebook and then leave a comment below answering the following question:
What has been your worst road trip experience? Diaper blow-outs, recently potty trained kids who can't hold it in, non-stop Frozen sing-a-longs, I want to hear them all!
2) Please like and/or share this post if you enter. It's not required, but it would be nice!
That's it! You can find the official rules here.
Winner will be selected randomly and announced on August 19th.
If you don't win, don't worry! I am giving away two more Evenflo car seats in the upcoming weeks.
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This post was sponsored by Evenflo but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
I have to say we have had some pretty good road trips. The worst I can think of is what happened after the road trip. My oldest was only 4 months at the time. We were driving home from northern California to our home in San Diego. So about a 10 hour drive. She had had multiple poops that day so the last two hours of the trip I was sure she couldn’t have pooped again. That couldn’t be why she was screaming again. She finally feel asleep but woke up screaming again. So we stopped to take another break and I found out she did poop again. I could tell it had been there for a while. I felt so bad. But we got home ok and everyone seemed fine. The next few days she started getting a fever that wouldn’t go away. Finally the doctors put a catheter in to check for UTI. Yup that’s what it was. I am convinced she got it because she sat in poop too long. This reminded me that after another trip up north we were almost home with our now 23 month old and we stopped to change her diaper. We used the gas station bathroom. She must have touched something and then put her hands in her mouth because that night once we got home she had the stomach flu! She threw up all night! It was new years eve! Not Fun!
Getting on the road with a 2 year old newly potty trained for a 10 hour drive starting in DC, only to discover you are on the road at the same time as the Prez, so the roads are completely closed and it takes 8 hours to go from DC to Richmond. With a 2 year old newly potty trained, with no ability to pull over and the only activity is the cars movie. For 8 hours.
We had to listen to the Hot Dog song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for 45 minutes because it was the only thing that calmed down our 6 month old (who definitely DIDN’T want to be trapped in a car seat for another hour.)
Our little one is only 3 months old. We haven’t really road tripped with him yet. However, anywhere we want to go is at least 25 minutes away, so even going to the store is a bit of a trip.
The worst ride related thing to happen is just our son crying inconsolable for an entire trip. And realizing the best thing you can do is just get where your going so you can soothe your baby.
non stop crying for no reason for 35 minutes to doctor
Road trip with a 10 month old who would only stop screaming if we played Black Eyed Pea’s My Humps. On repeat. For. NINE. Hours.
Nine hours of my lovely lady lumps. Try it sometime.
our 5 year old throwing up all over back seat and all over herself on our way home from a 4 hour road trip, which then triggered her older sister to throw up because of the “smell” fun times!
Many years ago we took a family vacation camping in Cherokee, NC, a.k.a. the trip from hell. It rained for a solid week, our food and large cooler were stolen, and when we ate out the entire family got food poisoning. It hit my little sister the worst–recently potty trained she refused to wear a diaper and we had to pull over every 15-30 minutes the entire drive back. What should have been a 5 1/2 hour drive took over 12 hours. Needless to say, the trip nearly scarred us for life. It was 25 years before we planned another family trip to the Smoky Mountains.
When our daughter was 2 we took a 8 hour roadtrip to Lake Roosevelt in Washington state to go camping with our boat for 4 days. We quickly realized we only had 1 kids music cd we could all stand, so we listened to it over and over again. Now everytime I hear a song from that album I am transported back to that trip.
I also wanted to say this post reminded me of another one you did back in July of last year where you made a handy little chart called:
DISTRIBUTION OF PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITES ON A FAMILY ROAD TRIP.
I would officially like to congratulate you on joining me in MOVING everything in the PASSANGER column OVER to the DRIVER column b/c this week w. Harlow & Mazzy you’ve been living most EVERY “road trip” that I’ve made b/c Daddy always has to work. 🙂
PS:I leave on the Aug 19th with ALL 3 KIDS AND JUST ME for a short 7 hour drive (to be broken into 3 stages). PRAY FOR ME!!!!!
My worst was a first trip to family about 4 hours away when my son was 4-months old. We had to pass through Toronto and ended up stuck in traffic for over 4 hours. We had also just hit the stage when he was fine in the carseat as long as we were moving, which of course we weren’t so my husband and I were stuck in a car with a crying baby for almost 8 hours. I’m getting anxious just thinking about that one!
I visit my family about once a month (4 hours away). I count on at least an hour nap during the drive to help us all get through in one piece, but last time I made the mistake of stopping at a drive through for dinner about 5 minutes after our 18 month old fell asleep (just 30 minutes into the trip). Rookie move! She woke up and never went back to sleep. Not a fun trip!
When my son was 4 months old we took our first real road trip up tot he mountains to go skiing. We left right around his bedtime figuring he would just fall asleep and stay asleep. That’s not what happened. He screamed for the first hour solid. We hit traffic (should have known- Colorado highway on the weekend during ski season) and it took us waaay longer to get there than we anticipated. It was miserable.
Traveling for 7 hours to visit my husbands family with our hungry 6 month old. I had no pumped milk, so I had to crawl in the back seat and contort my body so I could nurse my sweet baby. Whew!
My husband and I recently drove from our home in Tennessee to my parents home in Michigan with our almost 1-year old. Luckily, we are able to stop roughly halfway between to visit his extended family in Dayton, Ohio so we can break up the almost 10 hour drive. The drive headed north was pretty uneventful and the munchkin slept most of the time–but on the way home he decided the car seat was unacceptable from Louisville, KY all the way to Nashville, TN. Longest car ride EVER.
My 4 month old has grown out of her bucket seat since she is 99.9% for height so I NEED this car seat lol. Ironically we were looking to buy an evenflow
Worst road trip pre-babies: first road trip with my now husband riving from Chicago to FL. In Georgia we approached a terrenchial downpour our of nowhere and traffic went from 60 to parking lot in seconds. A little old lady driving with her car packed with everything she owned and her dog stopped behind us. When the traffic inched forward she slammed into our car as she tried to chase her dog loose inside of her car. We waited outside for the police and as the nice sherif showed up he apologized and said we were 3 feet PAST the county line, turned around, and drove away. We waited another 20 minutes for the other county to show up. After the report, I used bungy cords to keep my trunk closed and a pen to put pressure on the trunk light to keep my battery from dying overnight for the rest of the 2 weeks. We made it across county and back, through bullet proof jail bar window motel stays, to the insurance company in Chicago who declared the car undrivable and unsafe. My husband took a picture of me standing next to the accident g in the rain and to this day it is one of our favorite pictures.
The hardest road trip was actually not the longest, or with the most kids, but rather was the least experienced road trip. When our first son was 11 months old, we moved across country from Virginia to Colorado and drove for 4 days straight. He was car sick several times, and totally not interested in any of the toys we had available for him to play with. Hubby drove the moving truck and I drove the van, so I was stuck listening to 5+ hours of heart-wrenching, desperate howling each day. He did sleep a little, or it would have been more. Last summer, I drove two 8 hour days from Tucson to Denver (that’s two days there and a few weeks later, two days home again) with 4 kids, ages 6 months up to 8 years, in the car, but we had tablets and movie players and Dramamine so it wasn’t nearly as bad.
Driving 3.5 hours from Pittsburgh to Columbus with a screaming 5 month old. stopped to feed her but didn’t want food. Tried to calm her to sleep but wouldn’t go to sleep. Hubby getting annoyed…I was getting annoyed. I tried to sing, hubby wanted me to stop. I wanted to walk, hubby wanted me to walk. Longest 3.5 hours of all of our lives.
We travel a few times a year from TN to IA. A long 14 hours in the the car with a 5 and 20 month old! The 5 year old does pretty good, but his sister does not want to be confined at all. She usually does good at first, then falls asleep but it never fails that when we are about an hour from our destination there will be a huge diaper blow out, toys will not entertain either of them, they will both want the iPad but their shows won’t load fast enough and we will have to suffer through the Goodnight Gorilla DVD on repeat…
Traveling 3 hours to a funeral with a sobbing newborn and a sobbing mother in tow. And then doing that again on the way back home.
I guess I’m pretty lucky since the worst that has happened on our family road trip was crying non stop for 20 minutes and as soon as the car stopped the crying stopped!
Our son Chase threw up in the car about an hour into our beach trip this summer. It was so gross and messy but the worst part was we were in the middle of the Allegheny Forest and I could hear all the animals around us.
Going to visit my parents an hour and a half away and my newboen daughter crying pretty much the whole time!
We have 3 boys, Joshua who is 5, Nolan who is 3 (and a half) and Liam who turns 2 next month. Might I add I am pregnant with our 4th child (also a boy) and I am due in 3 short months. Our car trips, even a 10 minute trip to the grocery store, turn into a nightmare. Before even leaving the driveway our middle child Nolan asks if we can take the short cut instead of the long cut. Joshua is usually upset because the car doesn’t have internet and his games are not working which I then have to explain that he will have to play the other games that do not need internet and that never ends well. Liam is usually the quite one which is amazing because he is our child that never stops, but on occasion he likes to throw us for a loop and just cry the whole time.
It would be awesome to get this car seat and not have to worry about switching this new baby out of car seats at every weight limit. Thanks for having this contest.
We left around bedtime for our then 13 month old on the first leg of a ten hour drive. He fell asleep right away, only to wake up a half an hour later, screaming. So, I spent the next four hours hunched over in the back seat comforting him. At the end of the ride I thought I’d never stand straight again.
My kids always have blowouts that is nothing new for a mother of 4 and 3 of them are in diapers. The worst one i can think of is this year we went on vacation and the drive was supposed to be 6 hours and it turned out to be 9. We went with my husbands family 2who wanted to leave later on a friday, so we left at 9 in the morning. Nothing but construction and rush hour traffic the whole way. We had all 3 kids screaming almost the whole way there. My twins and my 2 year old. Worst road trip ever, i was ready to pull hair out.
4 1/5 hour road trip. About half way to our destination (and in the middle of no where) something large comes off the back of a truck and tears one of our tires to shreds. We have to pull over immediately, which happens to be coming out of a curve on a two lane highway with a 75 mph speed limit and a lot of big trucks. My darling 2year old…….decides he needs to go potty Right Now! By the time we got back on the road, my nerves were shot!
We chose to travel at night with hopes my 15mo would sleep the majority of the way… I ended up having to climb into the backseat for the majority of the trip because the only way she would go/stay asleep was if my arm was over her tummy! Lots of crying, not to mention the diaper blowouts! A 14 hr trip seemed like a lifetime!!
driving home from being laid off stuck in l a traffic with a 2 week old who had a poopy diaper and my boobs leaking because I hadn’t nursed in 6 hours.
My husband and I were on our way to monterey, ca taking our then 1 year old to the aquarium for the first time for his birthday. We hit basically stand still traffic for about an hour cause of a fire, then as we’re finally about to get out of it my son not only starts throwing up he has a blow out as well in his new car seat in our week old car. Poor thing was miserable, kind of ruined the fun of the trip til we got there and w finally got to see the aquarium. We got cries almost the whole way back because he hated his car seat. We recently had a new baby 3 months ago and winning this car seat would be fabulous an maybe will give us a better time road tripping with him when the time comes!
We have not attempted a road trip with my daugher yet, but the worst road trip experience i have had is getting a flat tire on our vacation.
I have a tie. I moved from Utah to Washington, driving myself. With a 16 month old aaaaaannnndddd twin 5 month olds. Took us forever. Lots of stops. Lots of help from kindly ladies at rest stops. Germs be damned, yes you can feed my babies.
Second was when were flying to Hawaii for another move. Daddy was flying in that night to help with the kids but I had to get to the airport. Rented a mid size car which turned out to be a mini toy car. I crammed, three kids in car seats, a triplet stroller that spanned the length of the car and rested on the dash, two playpens, luggage and moreluggage. I cried in stress as i packed because it was like tetris and rumors were they were going to close the pass due to snow.
Off we went my almost two year old and one year old twins. They slept. Thank God. It was the worst snow storm I’ve ever driven in. I couldn’t see. I was going 15 mph. A 2 hour drive took 4 hours. I was drenched in sweat. When I got into the city and stopped for gas people stared because my shirt was soaked.
When my son was younger he would literally SCREAM whenever he was in the carseat. That made every car ride, no matter the length, the longest of my life. I tried everything from singing, to pointing out everything outside to try to distract him (“oh look, it’s a tree!”) to just turning up the radio as loud as possible… luckily he eventually grew out of that.
We had to pick up grandma two hours away. Trip up there she slept, which means she was awake for the trip back. She loves Jungle Junction but once the phone died it left me reading PRINCESS BABY by KAREN KATZ for an hour. Finally had to stop at a target and walk around. If not my ears were going to bleed. Didnt know a 6 month old could scream soooooo loud! She just turned ONE yesterday and can still scream like that.
My little guy has hated being in the car from day one so almost every trip turns into a horror story. He screams after about 5 minutes and just won’t stop. It makes me feel horrible so I try not to take him out unless I really have to.
So far the worst road trips have only been those experienced while traveling pregnant! Discomfort, having to pee literally every 10 minutes or less, back soreness, hunger, and then stuck in Atlanta traffic for 45 minutes standing still leading to stop and start motion sickness. Terrible.
I’m pregnant with my first, so my hardest car trip goes to my nephews! The 2 month old screamed for the last 2 hours, and the 2.5 year old figured out how to open the car door and kick it open with his feet…while on a highway! Needless to say, I think everyone was in tears by the time we all arrived.
You’re super-mom! Wow!
My 2 year old insisted on having a juice pouch from the cooler we had just left a BBQ with instead of her much more practical sippy cup full of juice on a recent car ride. Needless to say she was done after 2 sips and shoved it in between her and the car seat, drenching both. I thought I had cleaned it all up when we got home, but I moved the seat a week later and was suddenly drenched in toddler wine, as the juice had baked in my car for way too long. Still working on getting the smell out!
2 kids, way to many hours in the car and my arms were dead from reaching back to try to soothe the babes. I was carsick from looking back the whole time trying to figure out what was causing the distress. Needless to say there were many McDonalds drive thru McCafe’s consumed on that trip (by me, not the kids!) to make it through that ordeal.
I’m writing this comment while sitting in the backseat next to the car seat on my first road trip with my daughter. She just pooped and it didn’t sound or smell good but my husband refuses to stop the car yet. I’m afraid of what we’ll fin when he finally does stop.
That does look luxurious! I like that I don’t have to buy a booster later because this includes it. We don’t take many long car trips so I’ll share that my son threw up on the way to daycare and it went everywhere in the back seat. Under the carseat, egh. I carry Lysol wipes now because of that incident.
Worst road trip experience was having a 5 hour car trip toy mom’s turn into 9 hours with stop and go traffic and a crying newborn. I was a literal crazy person by the time we finally arrived!
Just liked Evenflo in FB – I already ‘like’ you! So done and done 🙂
Worst road trip — Driving from Orange County to Palm Springs last year with my 3 yr old that decided to ‘HAD TO’ pee EVERY 20 mins… tricky to do in the middle of the desert, so thank goodness I had a portable potty in the back of my SUV where she could do her business… every 20 minutes
My son was about 8 months and we took him to a MN Twins game 4.5 hours away. We stopped half way to nurse but he still cried half the way! He did not enjoy his car seat and needless to say we did not enjoy that car ride!
Our son is 6 months old and he really only cries when he’s hungry. If we don’t get him a bottle quick enough, the cry turns into this constant scream that doesn’t stop until after he has the bottle for about 60 seconds. I sit in the back with him if both my husband and I are going somewhere and I’m sure if anyone saw me rushing to make a bottle in the back seat while this is going on they would get a good laugh. I don’t even know how he has the lung capacity for a scream like that!
We took a 12 hour trip to North Carolina with my son who at the time was a little over a year old. He got diarrhea on the way and leaked more than once… all of his clothing were packed in the suitcase and of course inaccessible. His car seat was being cleaned with wipes and I was MISERABLE, as was he. 🙁
My then three year old daughter got car sick on the tollway through West Virgina on the way home from vacation. I had to catch it in my hands and with her blanket. Plus she had just finished eating lunch in the car. Thanfully we only had 10 miles left on the tollway. We spent the next 2 hours in a McDonalds parking lot cleaning her off and the car seat. My other child was only 6 months at the time and slept through most of it!
On March 1st, there was a MommyCon convention in Chicago and I had just had my fifth child 3 and a half weeks prior. I wanted to go SO badly that my husband took off of work for 3 days so we could go. We drove 4 hours through snow the day before and seemed to get to the hotel fine. When we got there, we realized a national .com site that we had placed our hotel reservation through, failed to tell us many of the amenities we were relying on were inoperable and under repair. Especially the pool. We called and I was crying and screaming with a foreign woman over the phone who worked for the company, and told myself and my sister that we could not get a refund to go some where else, there were no managers to speak to, and no way possible of even emailing someone. We stayed that night since it was too late to pack up the kids again and find somewhere else. The next morning we woke up extra early to search for a new hotel, losing out on the money we had already payed for the previous hotel for 3 nights. After we moved everything to the new hotel my husband and I quickly got ready and left to go to MommyCon with our nearly 3 year old and 3 week old. We were in such a hurry after already being an hour late, we parked the car and rushed in. Everything went smooth inside and I was finally able to buy my first baby carrier and was informed well on how to use it. When it came time to leave 3 hours later, we had to maneuver through the large crowds and finally get to the parking garage. I waited in the heated little lobby while my husband went to bring the car since it was freezing cold. He called me 20 minutes later to tell me he couldnt find our vehicle. Nearly 2 and a half hours later with a screaming toddler and my back killing me from carrying a newborn baby on my chest while wearing 2 and a half inch high heels, I finally found our vehicle. It was the worst roadtrip ever. It was our very first time having a road trip, and we learned a lot from it! I am happy to say our road trip to Michigans Avdenture on August 2nd was smooth sailing!
We were supposed to be taking a day trip to my grandpa’s. the drive was only supposed to be about an hour and thirty minutes. but i planned it so that nap was the first hour of the drive then we had a stop to visit a friend of mine then we take the last 30 of the drive. well we accidentally turned the wrong way when going to my friends house and added an extra 20 minutes to the drive. so we finally make it to my friends and visit for a while and then get back on the road we continue to follow the directions they take us to some strange place that is not the right place that is 20 more minutes out of the way so we get back to a place where we can get cell signal and call my grandpa and get the right direction which will take another twenty minutes to get to him. so by the end of the day what was supposed to a fun day at my grandpa turned out to be WAY TOO MUCH driving the day ended with my son screaming the entire hour and a half trip home.
We drove 15 hours to Florida in June with our 2 1/2 year old son. We drove all night thinking he would sleep most of the way. Wrong. He slept a totally of 6 hours and was completely miserable. I think a more comfortable car see would have helped.
Our worst road trip was this last spring. We had driven from NY to FL with no issue, but the trip back was torturous. As we were leaving Florida we drove into the worst torrential rain I’ve ever seen. HOURS of pouring rain, crawling on the Interstate at max of 10 mph, bumper to bumper, with what seemed like the whole state of New Jersey. Thank God for the DVD player!
Worst was on our first road trip, we had rented a car (city dwellers) and after one pit stop I looked back and realized we forgot buckle the car seat ! We pulled over immediately and all was fine, but holy crap!
Every road trip we take our baby girl falls asleep exactly 10 minutes before we arrive! All the time!!
Just non stop crying, for no reason, for an hour.
Driving from Alaska through Canada to North Carolina with a 4 year old. Need I say more? I lost count of the “Are we there yet” and the “I’m bored” before we got out of Anchorage… It was a LONG ten days…
Huge blow out on the way to Ikea. I’m talking basically taking apart the car seat to get all the poop cleaned up!
on a 2 hour tops trip, the first child threw up, we pulled over and i stripped her down to her skivvies while dad wiped up the car seat and car as well as possible , wrapped it all up in a bag (smart enough to have bags along) and threw it in the trunk. started off again and the second child threw up all over himself. pulled over and stripped him down to his diaper while dad wiped up the car seat and car wrapped it in bag threw it in trunk and hauled ass. car stunk it was 100+ outside so had to keep windows shut with air on got home opened the trunk and almost died from the smell!
I left for a three hour drive to my mom’s house at bedtime and the boy decided to stay awake and talk NON STOP causing me to be distracted and get incredibly lost
lol! speaking of toddlers that ‘can’t hold it’.
We took a road trip in a minivan to a friend’s wedding in Canada….
on the way back, after we get in the giant line of traffic to get back across the border to the US, my son says he HAS to go to the bathroom. we’re surrounded by very slow moving cars, in line, can’t really pull over, go anywhere else other than our line, or stop. there is a rest station out in a little grassy area but it was so far away, that my husband and son could not have made it back to the car in time to go through the border check station in our car with us.
so, my husband let my son pee in the little grassy median, while everyone else sitting there could see. My husband tried to block view of our son of course, but you know- people were laughing..
and then my son gets back in the car, immediately is SO THIRSTY!
My family and my sisters family rented a minivan for a 5 hour trip with 3 children, two who were nursing and one that was in the middle of potty training. Needless to at the 5 hour trip took a good 7 hours.
We took a 16 hour road trip with my 10 month old daughter and 13yr old.
My baby hates the car seat so when she wasn’t sleeping she was crying. The only
thing that would distract her was the theme song to roly poly olie over and over.
She had at least two diaper blowouts and I had to pull over on the side of the road to breastfeed her several times. It was worth it though to see my family who I only get to see once a year.
We travelled three hours to storyland and had a wonderful night and day. On the way home besides listening to let It go on repeat we let our daughter watch a show on the iPad. All went well until 15 minutes from home. She projectiled her lunch which was pretty much milk, cheese, veggies and hummus all over her and myself in the back seat. We had to wipe her and the car seat down with wipes until we got home. Needless to say the vomit smell is not easy to get out of car seats!!!
I’ve never had a bad trip, start to finish, but there was one particularly memorable incident that happened back in May… We were headed to the middle of nowhere, Colorado, to buy a camper in our brand new (to us) car, when all of the sudden while taking a sharp mountain turn, our 2 year old vomited. A lot. A lot of dairy. My husband pulled over as soon as he could (still on the the side of a mountain) and we stripped her naked and began showering her with water bottles and wipes. Then we turned our attention to the car seat (absolutely covered in aforementioned vomit). Still on the side of the road with a naked toddler just standing by. I’m not sure how it must have appeared to the other motorists, especially once I busted out my toothbrush to try to free the puke from all the lovely cracks and crevices. Thankfully the baby managed to sleep through all of this, and eventually we were able to get back on our merry way.
Our newly pottytrained toddler announced she “has to go weally weally bad” just as traffic is coming to a complete stop on the interstate. Luckily no poop was involved but it was still a big mess to clean up!
took my 3 month old and 4 year old on a 4 hour drive. one would fall asleep and the other would make some kind of noise to wake the other up. It was constantly yo-yo ing the whole trip!
Taking my 6 month old on a two-day road trip from NY to Charleston, SC for a wedding that he was the ring bearer in. Right around 5pm he was done each day and there was nothing we could do to console him. And then anytime we took him in the car after that he assumed we were driving to SC even if we were just going to Target.
Worst trip ever. My then not quite 2 year old cried. Cried is an understatement. Sobbed, Screamed, every other form of “Cry” you can imagine for 3 hours straight. Then, started kicking the door. While I was driving on the highway. Yep. Somehow managed to kick the door open. (Not, all the way open, but it cracked open and the Door Ajar light came on and my car started going crazy beeping to tell me)Had to pull off- On the side of the highway- at 8 months pregnant. To get out, waddle around the car, and turn the child safety lock ON on the door and close it.
Road trip with daughter (7 mos) and nephew (10 mo)and my two sisters. In a hatch back 07′ Accent. TINY 2 door car. We had to alternate switching between driving, passenger, and squeezed between two giant carseats in the back. Both kids cried the whole way. If one would start to fall asleep, the other would wake up crying and wake up the other. Non stop. The whole drive. FIVE HOURS. FIVE. Never Again!
Before my second was born, me, my husband, and my then 2 year old took a car trip from Virginia to Georgia to visit my family. The plan was to leave in the afternoon, we would stop for dinner in the evening and my husband would drive the rest of the way while me and my son slept in the car (love you hubby!). The trip was going great until my son was trying to fall asleep. He was having such a hard time sleeping in his car seat! He kept waking up crying and screaming and even in his sleep he would still cry and say “I just can’t do it!”. Needless to say we ended up getting a hotel room and resuming our trip in the morning.
Our six hour road trip this summer turned into eight hours due to construction and holiday traffic. If that wasn’t enough, my three year old barfed three times and my then 13 month old had a poopsplosion en route. Still not ready to do a repeat.
The worst road trip was when our two year old was about two months old. We drove from the Bronx, N.Y. to buffalo to see Niagara falls. Because she was so young we had to stop literally about every hour or so to feed her and change her diaper. The trip literally took like 13 hours and I was the only driver. Picture a crying newborn in between rest stops lol.The worst part of it all, was that it was a birthday trip for the weekend and two days later had to turn right back around and do the same trip back home. I am already your follower on Facebook and I just followed evenflo.
Worst car ride has only been minimal crying. Honestly can’t come up with much worse because she loves the car and to sleep while riding….if only we could be so lucky for night time.
When my son was young, I was a single mom and spent a lot of time juggling car seats between my car and babysitters. On one such trip, I had picked my son up and put him in the car for our hour long commute home from the sitter’s. Everything was fine until I went to turn over some rail road tracks. My son started screaming and I looked back to find I hadn’t belted his car seat to the seat, so he was laying sideways while strapped into his car seat. It was physically impossible to reach back and tilt him back up, so I had to wait to pull over where I could get out and remedy the situation. Today, I can look back and laugh, but at the time, I was scared to death. Hoping baby #2 doesn’t have to endure the same fate.
My daughter cried the entire way to Texas and cried the entire trip and the entire way home. It was a really relaxing and enjoyable thanksgiving vacation.
My in-laws semi retired in Arizona and we’ve driven out there a few times with all of the monsters. It’s always the same: the oldest will never sleep in the car, the Boy won’t sleep in a hotel room so he keeps us up at night and then peacefully snoozes in the car while I glare at him over my coffee. The third always needs her diaper changed right as we’re pulling away from the nice rest stops and we get to choose between changing her in the car (risking her peeing on my seat) or stopping at the Bathroom that Time and Mr Clean Forgot.
We haven’t attempted a road trip with all four kids. Notice that I didn’t add “yet” to my sentence. We start to plan and then one of us usually ends up coaxing the other one off of the roof while promising that it will never happen.
2 families. 1 car. 9 hours. NJ to NC.
3 adults, an 8mth old, who mostly slept, but occasionally needed mommy RIGHT there (resulting in in-vehicle swapping of adult seats while moving), 2.5yr old who was still dependent on having a bottle for security and would wake up randomly with night terrors (we attempted a late night drive thinking it would be best for the kids), and a 4yr old that just wanted to watch my little pony on youtube and would flip sh+t when the cell phone battery died and when we reached the mountains with NO service.
We multiple breakdowns, including from one of the moms in the car, bottles thrown, one diaper blowout, lots of in vehicle swapping of seats, and going an hour out of our way heading home because the gps “home” was someone else’s.
I think when your infant starts to cry the whole ride can be anyones worse road trip… oh also when you pull over to her your potty trained daughter pee in the portable potty and you put a plastic bag with holes in ..awesome!
Every car trip until my daughter was 4 was awful. She thew up every time we got in the car & drove more then 15 minutes(thank god she has grown out of this now!) But there is 1 time that stands out more then others, we were traveling to Albany, Ny from Nj for Thanksgiving from past experience we knew to not dress Keagan in the outfit she was actually going to wear, so off we went 2 yr old in tights, diaper & a onsie, bib & then coat(which we took off once we were in the car) I had garbage bags, warm water bottles wipes & extra clothes all ready for her throw up extravaganza – but wait an hour in to the trip & no throwing up. Oh but wait we even got to the family member house where we were to have cocktails. Yea! Right? So I get Keagan dressed in her outfit & matching pea coat, we have are visit & she had a great time….. Now on to my parents for dinner(which is 10 minutes from the house we are presently at!) we get Keagan in the car buckle her up, she’s sipping on her water sippy cup we drive to my parents… It’s all good, I open up the back door, reach in to unbuckle her and BLAHHHHHHH, she vomits all over me, herself & the car…… Happy Thanksgiving is all I thought at that very moment & maybe celery & cream cheese wasn’t a good idea!! Lol Good times people, good times!! (Ewwwwww gross!!!)
Worst road trip…15 months ago we adopted the most prefect baby girl. She was born in Chicago and we drove up to be there for her birth. . . What were we thinking? Now we had to drive back to NC with a 12 day old baby! Stopping every hour, of our estimated 13 hour drive, to feed/stretch/change diapers/etc was a blast lol.She was well worth it 🙂
Stuck in I-95 summer traffic with my 8 week old who is hysterically screaming and hungry. when I pull over to nurse her, she had a blowout in her car seat, while I’m getting her out. Screaming to eat, screaming from the blowout and my first time driving any distance alone with her and I’m covered in poop AND leaking milk.
The worst diaper blow out ever! there was liquid poop everywhere, and the worst part was that I forgot to pack wipes… resulted in naked toddler and clothes going directly into the trash!
The worst road trip had to be our first vacation as a family of four. It’s always a little nerve racking preparing for the “first” family vacation. You are never fully prepared because you don’t really know what to prepare for, at least that’s how I felt. We had our SUV packed down with everything but the kitchen sink. My husband, 20 month old, 2 month old, and myself were ready to hit the road. The first hour of our trip was smooth sailing. Little did I know the “family fun” was about to begin! Our 20 month old started demanding for snacks. Just as a I got that under control, our 2 month old started to get very unhappy. I turned around to soothe her and she was covered in puke! We pulled over to clean her up and then we were back on the road. About 5 minutes later we heard the noise you don’t want to hear while in the car! Our 2 month old had a massive blow out just after getting all cleaned up from the last situation! Here we go again, pulled over to strip down and clean up for the second time! Now I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn’t have to strip her down a third time before making it to our destination. After a couple of hours it was time to feed my 2 month old. This meant I had to somehow fit in the backseat to breastfeed. It is NO fun being sandwiched between two carseats trying to breastfeed a squirming baby! Between diaper duties, stoping to eat, and stoping to let our toddler wiggle we had finally made it. Our 6 hour trip turned into a 8 hour trip. Of course we had just as much “fun” on the trip back home!!
Last may my husband and 6 month old nursing son went to Boston for my work trip. We decided to do some site seeing. We went to Harvard and we drove there. On the way back we hit rush hour traffic. The baby was hungry and was nursing. I had no prepumped milk or snacks in the car for him. Needless to say i did what any desperate mother would do with a crying baby. I took my teet out and leaned over his carseat while in traffic. I am sure we got a lot of looks. My poor husband was mortified but the
Baby quit crying
So my 2 1/2 year old has mild car sickness. We have to take trips up to Boston every few months for doctors visits (has a little handicap)so we are in the car for about 3 hours. Last trip we went on was in July and she decided to get car sick. I am talking milk and muffin chunks EVERYWHERE! Of course I forgot the extra bag of clothes and pull ups in my mad rush. So we pull up to valet at the hospital and we proceed to go see the specialist BUTTERBALL naked! Worst experience ever. Not only did I have to buy clothes at the hospital, but I had to buy a cheap car seat. We couldn’t get all the milk chunks out of the crevices of the other one. Never again!
3.5 year old who dropped her snack on the ground and has nothing to eat now. And an infant who just hates being in the car. Each trying to scream louder than the other!
Liked both pages….
We have had quiet a few bad car rides. But I suppose the worst was the day we fully discovered my daughter was allergic to milk. I will spare you all the details but you can imagine the mess that was created in the backseat that required us to use coffee grinds scattered all over the floor to remove the lingering smell.
We haven’t went on any major road trips since my daughter has been born (she is 18 months old) but it is a struggle anytime we go anywhere now because it is guaranteed she will have her shoes off and her hairbows out of of her hair with her hair messed up and it’s like I have to get her ready again anytime we go anywhere. fun times! 🙂
Recently we were driving to my mom’s, a simple two hour drive, but not this time. Hubby had insisted I take the dog for the weekend along with us. So Mosby got pack up along with the stroller and the pack and play. About an hour into our journey I smelled something, and looking in my review and saw Mosby squatting in the back of the SUV. (Not once, but twice before we could stop). By the time we were able to pull into a gas station, because of coarse this happened in a construction zone, the only thing I had to clean everything up was some wipes and a diaper bag. Baby choose this moment to demand a snack. So while I’m stepping on the leash, cleaning up poo, my 18 month old is screaming for a granola bar. I bet the people at the truck stop thought I was one hot mama, lol.
We had just started out on a 3 hour car trip. It was December, freezing, and we’re 30 minutes in when I hear grunting and see my baby girl’s face redden with the intense effort going into filling her diaper. We pull over at a rest stop that is super shady, so I change her in the back seat. I can’t get all the way in the car so the door has to stay open while I do it. My ass was freezing the entire time, she was laughing, and poop was everywhere. Please give us this car seat so at least she can have a blowout in extreme comfort!
Did I read the official correctly????!!!! Canadians can enter???? Wahoo!!! Ok, with that in mind, I’ll give you a real Canadian one: Thunder Bay to Toronto, it’s 14+ hours and you’re not even out of the province yet! I begged and begged my husband to do it with my 6month old baby. He wisely said NO. We flew. Then we got in the car to drive the short distance from Toronto to Wasaga Beach, screamed until she puked and I learned how to breast feed without taking her out of the car seat.
What next – are you going to open Monday Mornings to us too? 😛
We took a road trip in June from MI to VT, what should have been a 12 hour trip turned into a 19 hour trip with my 8 month old. Once he was asleep we didn’t want to stop so we just kept driving through intense rain, fog, wildlife and more rain. On the way home we stopped halfway and got a hotel, I timed the hotel to be by an outlet mall (bonus). All in all it wasn’t a terrible trip, he did great for his age but wow, life is much different now with a baby.
We took an 8 hour trip when my daughter was 9 months old… it was horriable, she screamed from roughly 4 hours then finally fell asleep . We decided to take a toll road to avoid traffic. My then 3 yr old son had to go potty 5 times on this toll rd. where there was nothing. Thank goodness little boys aren’t usually accused of public indecency. Then the baby woke up hungry only for us to discover.that the baby snacks were forgottwn. She then cried because she was hungry for another 20 miles till we could stop.uggghhhh
2 kids. Disney world. Compact car.
Road tripping alone with two kids. One or the other had been crying, whining, or yelling for at least two hours…then magically they are both asleep and of course it’s when I have to pee so bad I can taste it. There is no harder task than to continually drive by gas stations & rest stops when you really have to go all because you know waking them up is WAY worse!
I had the lovely experience of driving with my 18 month old to Missouri listening to “Six little ducks” on repeat for 6 hours. While simultaneously reaching for “paci” and the strawberries to the floor and screaming. It’s not the worst story by far, but it’s definitely a trip I’ll remember!
Nothing more exciting than discovering a blow out and realizing your toddler has shredded the three wipes that were remaining and you forgot to pack the wipe refill! We got some pretty funny looks walking into target holding our little Hattie out in front so her clothes stayed the only soiled ones! Gross!
Taking an 8 month old on a 14 hour trip to Lake Charles, LA. Longest trip of my life! He wanted to be out of his car seat. We are waiting until he is older to go on another long trip!
1 1/2 hour trip with a mo old who HATED her car seat…. and has a high pitched pissed of scream. That was fun.
We were on a 6hr drive with our first born. We breastfeeding and got stuck in crazy CA Bay Area traffic. Of course, baby boy could’ve cared less -he began screaming to nurse. Unable to pullover, I wrangled myself to lean over his car seat, the “girls” hanging over him so he could eat!!!! Nothing like sitting in gridlock completely topless.