What age to take baby for weekend away?

[Glittertips]

Our baby will be born soon (at 36 weeks). Obviously getting him here safely and making sure he’s well is our top priority however following a very rough pregnancy I am keen to have a family weekend away once baby is here.

I was thinking of around September time, baby will be between 12 and 14 weeks old. Is this too soon? We would be going somewhere no more than 2 hours away by car.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I’ve just taken my five children to Amsterdam for the weekend. My youngest is 10 weeks. He was the easiest child haha! My advice would be to go away as much as possible whilst they’re this age because they don’t do anything 😂 they just have milk and nap!

We had overnight in a hotel at 10 weeks, dh had a work thing so it was a train ride away and I travelled alone and met him there. Home by car. We flew at 12 weeks to another city and stayed with family and that was fine too. We also had a holiday abroad at 16 weeks and that was fine too but if I'd my time over I would have gone all inclusive and charter as we had some issues with transport and not having the right seats etc. Self catering was too stressful.

See how you feel. If you have a child that never sleeps or is sickly you will have a very different perspective than a content calm baby.

Took mine to Turkey when they were 10 weeks old for 2 weeks. Depends on the baby but September sounds fine!!

@Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong

I would have found a hotel more stressful, we did the odd overnight on the way to parents and I hated it everytime.

DD wouldn't sleep in the pram, so no dinner while she would sleep next to us. She was a very early riser, 6am was standard for months, so she and I needed food and that meant I couldn't wait for the breakfast to open at 8am.

I always was jealous of the parents with peacefully sleeping children and the ones not waking up at dawn.

Planning to take mine to a wedding abroad when they are 5 months old! Not due till December so plenty of time to plan

Long lunches are the way to go. And quiet evenings in. That's the lesson I learned the hard way with a child who was impossible to settle in the evenings.

We took my son away (3hr drive) at 4 weeks old. No regrets.

I had a section and we went away when my son (born at 36+5) was six weeks old. But I also healed well - we went out to a restaurant the day after I got out of the hospital. They are quite portable when that young!

DD2 was 4 weeks old when we took her to Center Parcs for a long weekend with family. She was pretty chilled and it was nice to walk round the lake with her snoozing in the pram or just sit outside the lodge while the rest of the family were off doing activities

We took our son away at 6 weeks old. Crazy but true. DH reasoned that it would be easier as all he would want to do was eat and sleep, which was true. Now I think about it, he must have been sleeping thru the night because we were in the same room as him and his older sister.

I booked both holidays before they were born (both uk holidays) when they were about 4 months old. It happened to be the first time DS one slept through and DS2 had already started sleeping through so felt like an actual holiday rather than a sleep deprived zombie

currently pregnant with DC3 and debating a holiday at around 5 months when the school holidays fall but abroad but waiting until a bit closer to the time to book it

I think all being well with you and baby that would be fine. I took DC1 away at 12 weeks to stay with my DM in her DM's house 2.5hrs drive away whilst my DGM was away on hols, but to meet lots of other extended family. I don't think we even stopped either time, she just slept the entire journey there and back. Did nappy and feed (formula fed) at either end and she was fine. She was sleeping like 11-7 ish before we went though and the change did interrupt this as she started waking at 5am every morning we were there. So I was knackered but it was still fine.

Depends on the baby. With dc2 we would have been ok.

With dc1 we wouldn't have been. You sometimes get an initial phase of good sleep then it worsens and it takes a few weeks for the sleep deprivation to hit fully. Neither of us would have been safe to drive 2 hours due to lack of sleep.

Early days can also be stressful in terms of how your relationship and routines adapt to parenthood.

I wouldn't book anything too early, basically.

We went at 10 weeks old