I survived a 12+ hour car ride alone with my kids. Where's my medal?

I just returned from a 12+ hour road trip from Northern Virginia to Chicago with my almost 2 1/2 year old and my 3 month old. Alone. And I lived to tell the tale, although to be honest, my friends are definitely questioning my sanity.

I wanted to take advantage of the rest of my maternity leave and chose to drive since I was stretching out my trip over a week to visit both friends and family. Originally I was going to make the trip in 2 days, with an overnight in the middle of Ohio, but decided to leave after dinner on a Sunday night and drive straight through the night in the hopes that both girls would sleep the majority of the way. Boy was I wrong. My 3 month old is in that *wonderful* stage where she screams bloody murder when she's in her car seat. I talked to her pediatrician about it and asked, somewhat jokingly, how long could she possibly cry, thinking it would only last an hour or so. SEVEN hours later she finally stopped crying. Okay, honestly it was 7 hours of on and off crying/whining with many many stops in between to feed her, change her, and cuddle her.

My toddler was terrific in the car. I brought along a portable DVD player and the SpongeBob Squarepants movie, some of her favorite books and small toys and she was in heaven. Granted she didn't actually fall asleep until 1:30 AM, but that was partly my fault for not turning off the DVD player earlier. However, once she fell asleep, she stayed asleep until we arrived in Chicago.

Since I didn't get a solid night's sleep the night before our drive home, I chose to take it slow and do it in 2 days. We left at dinner time for the drive home and ended up stopping just outside of Toledo, OH in the middle of the night. Looking back I probably should have just kept driving since both girls fell asleep early, but I was so tired and needed a few hours of sleep. Luckily both girls stayed asleep through the car to hotel bed transition.

We spent the majority of the next day driving home with many, many stops for bathroom and food breaks. My 3 month old slept most of the way that day, but my toddler was a bit more antsy and tired of being in the car. The last 2 hours (and really the last half hour) were the worst. The baby was crying, my toddler was whining and even with stopping to console them both, it didn't help. I was so happy to pull into our driveway and see my husband.

I'm no expert on traveling with kids, but here are a few things that helped me:

• Since I was driving alone I always texted or called my husband whenever I stopped to let him know where I was and did the same right before I got back on the road. 
• For bathroom breaks, I wore my 3 month old in my BabyHawk and let my toddler walk with me. 
• I was nervous about stopping in the middle of the night and sitting in my car alone to nurse my daughter, so I always parked right next to the gas station attendant's booth. They were always well lit and it was nice knowing there was someone else there that could see me. 
• Having a portable DVD player for my toddler was a god-send. Now, I know some parents don't agree with using TV as a babysitter (and believe me, before I had a toddler I was one of those parents), but man, it was so nice to have her fully entertained and quiet while I drove, especially since I couldn't really give her 100% of my attention in the car. Of course, there was no need to pack multiple kid movies because she insisted on the SpongeBob Squarepants movie over and over and over again. I could probably quote the entire movie now.
• Bringing my iPod. Yeah, yeah, this is a given for any car ride, but seriously, having good music to sing to when the kids were crying or sleeping helped me keep most of my sanity. And go ahead and judge me, but Yeah by Usher makes my baby stop crying every.single.time. She likes the bass. 

And some mistakes I made along the way:

• Speeding. ::sigh:: I should have used cruise control because without it, it was hard to not speed and getting pulled over in the middle of the night with 2 screaming kids wasn't the most fun. Thankfully the cop took pity on me and only gave me a warning. 
• Stopping for lunch at exactly noon when the lines were the longest and my kids were the hungriest. 
• Keeping the portable DVD player on until my toddler fell asleep. I should have turned it off at her normal bedtime, but she was quiet and I was already dealing with a crying baby in the car and didn't want to add to the madness.
• Forgetting my E Z Pass. I thought I wouldn't be able to use it in the midwest, but apparently the I Zoom now accepts both the E Z Pass and the I Pass. It was such a pain waiting in the toll lines to pay in cash (and once with a check when I couldn't find the rest of my cash). 
• Not packing enough caffeinated beverages or water. I tried not to drink too much because I didn't want to have to stop all of the time for bathroom breaks, but I must have forgotten the fact that I would have to stop frequently for the kids, so in retrospect I should have hydrated more.
• At one stop I tried carrying my baby in her car seat since she was asleep and letting my toddler walk, but that was a big fat fail. My infant woke up as soon as we walked into the building and my toddler played the limp noodle game - you know, you're walking along, holding your kid's hand and all of a sudden they drop to their knees and refuse to move because they don't *want* to cooperate anymore. Fun stuff.

All of that said, if given the chance to do it again, I would.