@Taylor Thanks! I'm definitely hoping driving at night will work in our favor. She generally wakes up at least twice a night so I'm guessing she'll do the same. I might need to look on Amazon for another toy or two to keep her occupied.
I love traveling with my daughter!!! At 9 months she definitely didn’t like being in the car, so my husband and i would take turns sitting in the back next to her. We’d read lots of books, play peek-a-boo with a bandana, color with those water brush books, sing songs and play with toys. We never like driving at night because it compromises our sleep. We’d take off when she was ready for a nap and plan on strategic breaks along the way when she was at a more active point in her wake window. We’ try to find a good place to grab a quick bite to eat and stretch out at a park so baby could crawl around. My biggest advice for travel is to prioritize your needs, have/do whatever you need to feel comfortable, and just be open to the fact that its not your normal day to day experience but you can mimic your usual routines. Babies are adaptable!
We’ve done a lot of US road tripping with our girl as a baby and a toddler, drive in the day.
So we tried this with my daughter at night… never ever again will I do it lol I wish I read Reddit strings and forums because many said it backfires then the kid is up all night so just a warning in theory many parents have tried and it ends up being harder. But maybe yours will do better than most. I packed my daughter a travel toiletry kit that folds and has a hook. In each pocket I had things for her to do. Post it notes are a huge hit, koosh ball, loofahs, tubes on Amazon (not sure what they are called) fidget toys, rain makers. Planned lots of time for stops . We don’t do the iPad (even now at 2.5 don’t have one) or want too much screen time so this helped a lot because they were new and interesting toys she’d never seen and some were easy sensory type stuff.