3 month old at Christmas - would you travel 100 mins to stay over with family?

[Pinkcase]

It appears DH and I have somewhat differing views… if you had a 3 month old at Christmas, (born via CS), would you have (or been able to have) travelled 1 hr 45 min to stay over with family at Christmas?

Or, should they come to us rather than we go to them?

I travelled from London to Melbourne with my DS aged 3 months, By plane of course. On my own. For Christmas.

Then 2 weeks travelled back again.

It wasn't much fun to be fair, but perfectly doable. Things about children that age is that they are noisy but tend to stay put when you put them somewhere. Portable.

Yes absolutely. Not a problem at all. I presume you mean by car, so I don't see any problem with going to visit relatives and stay over.

I would go. I drove myself and baby to visit in-laws at 3 months. (DH worked in London, so travelled by train to meet us there.) Two and a half hours travelling and all absolutely fine. I stopped twice, but the baby slept most of the way.

I’ve taken an 8 hour flight with a 6 week old dd1, and at 3 months I’ve taken 8 hour flights with both of them, and driven with them at those ages around the U.K. (visiting relatives when we were home from the Middle East for summer hols.)
In your place, OP, I’d be more concerned with myself than a baby that’s very portable at that age. A) Will you have recovered fully from your CS? and b) do you actually want to spend Christmas away from home? If they did come to you, it’d mean a lot of extra work/planning/cooking, whereas if you go to them, 🤞you’d be able to take it relatively easy.

Is this your first? I can imagine the prospect of being 3 months post partum and with a baby sounds terrifying but that’s the point where everything is settled and you start feeling yourself again. Completely fine to travel and probably better so that you don’t have to do the hosting. We chose not to go when DS2 was 2.5 months old and hosted instead, as it’s a 10 hour drive to see my in laws. Honestly, I wish we went so I could have relaxed rather than being the host.

It depends on the baby.
mine, absolutely no way would we have traveled.

i pictured having a portable baby that we could take with us as we did whatever we needed. What we got was a baby that we basically never left the house. Even going to get groceries was traumatic for everyone. You have to parent the child you end up with, not the child you imagine.

Far rather travel than host

Oh yeah- and 3 years later I did the trip with my 3 year old. THAT was a fucking nightmare.

I got off the plane for the 2 hour stop in Singapore, rang DH in London and told him I was not getting back on the plane and he would have to come and get us.

It's much much worse with a toddler. Everything is worse with a toddler. 3 months? Noisy but do-able.

Yes, took my firstborn to grandparents 3 hour drive for her first christmas. We broke the journey up with a couple of stops for feeds etc, was absolutely lovely

No, it’s both sets of parents either way we do it. Both sets coming to us or we travel to stay with both sets. Family relations all very good!
im changing my answer, you’ve your whole life to travel to them, I say let both come to you, (kind of ?!) give you a break!!!! Best of luck, Christmas politics can be nuts!!!

We did it at a month old, stayed a night with each set of grandparents no problem at all. Nobody expected me to help out or clear up and the baby slept a lot on other people, it was busy but lovely!

Trying to remember what we did 3 months post partum with the DC (rather than first Christmases).

DD1 I think I went alone to visit my family. That was a 3h train journey (or possibly drive, can't remember) then a flight. I was not looked after as much as I would have liked by Mum (TBF she did all the cooking but left the baby up to me), and got mastitis. Would have been much better if DH had been there.

DD2 we drove 6h when she was 10 weeks old (and DD1 was 20 months old) for a family holiday to celebrate my parent's ruby wedding. She was #theeasiestbabyever and DD2 was a delightful toddler so it was fine.

DS was born (prematurely) in September and we hosted the ILs for Christmas. They stayed in a hotel and poor MIL got a cold so was feeling poorly, she spent Xmas Day cuddling DS on the sofa so all I did was BF him as required in between doing the cooking. I was quite happy hidden away in the kitchen cooking while DH did the entertaining of adults and children.

Hosting was definitely the easiest, I hate travelling with small DC though, and it was DC3 so I was back to normal very quickly whereas with DD1 I still felt like I'd been hit by a bus.

Honestly I know I am old but really ..??? How wet can you get ? ONE 3 month old baby .. just put it in the car and stop being neurotic . I hate the the term 'snowflake' but actually can't think of a more suitable term atm...

Alright, she hasn't had the baby yet, no need to have a go.

I would and I did because my house is not big enough to fit everyone 😂
when you have less options it makes for an easy decision.

time it for sleep time :)
plus if everyone comes to you that’s more work for you!

We did a 2h drive for DS's first Xmas, he'd have been about two months at the time and was a C-section. Travel wise it was fine, I was quite far along recovery wise so no problem sitting in the car. We stopped about half way for DS to have a feed and nappy change, though that was just because he chose then for a poo, on the way back he slept, so we did it in one.

Younger babies are easier to go away with then older ones. DS was breastfeed so no food worries, to young to want much in the way of toys or entertainment and didn't need to babyproof, as not yet mobile. For me it was far easier then trying to juggle baby and hosting.

Yes, we regularly travelled 3 hours from 2 weeks old, you'll be fine!

Yes absolutely for me.

I took our 4 month old on exactly the same length drive for his first Christmas. He'd already been to Spain at 7 weeks too. Super portable at that age and hopefully you'll heal quickly after the section.

Hi depends really on the baby. With mine yes I would have because they're far easier to take places at that age especially if you breastfeed because you don't even need bottles or food or anything and if you can't find anywhere convenient to stop you can just park somewhere and feed them in the car. They'll be small enough for a mini travel cot too or just take a Moses basket with you.

Then when you get there you won't have to worry about food shopping and cooking and making sure the house is tidy, and looking after everyone.

I can see that if the baby is colicky or has reflux or just hates being in the car seat etc it might be a nightmare and easier to stay at home.

Please. It's June. I love Christmas but can we have a little bit of sanity please

We took our 3 month old to Spain for my Dad's birthday, so yes, absolutely

Babies are portable; I found it much easier travelling when my DD was tiny.

Plus, you'd be waited on hand & foot hopefully, so a win, win!

Yes, absolutely no problem for us. We did lots of travelling from 6 weeks old, starting with 2hr car journeys and then flights and longer car journeys.

It’ll be a lovely Christmas sharing your little one with friends and family.

Yes, especially if it was somewhere I'd be "looked after" and have help with baby, which would have happened anywhere I was likely to go for Christmas.

Definitely preferable to hosting at mine.