To hate being on holiday?? (5 month old baby)

[lelapaletute]

My DP, DD and I are on the only holiday we'll get this year (DP just got new job so we'll be busy moving etc). My little girl is 5 months and I feel like I'm torturing her - everything about going on holiday is shit for a baby!

She's freaked out and upset by the strange flat, hates her travel pram (borrowed a from a friend and it's forward facing only, her big old travel system she always faces me), she's sleeping badly, feeding poorly as she's always very fussy and only reliably feeds lying down - can't do this out and about! - there's randomly a heatwave where we are so she's too hot, don't have her bedside crib, her baby gym, her Jumperoo, her routine is shot to hell... I just don't know why in fuck we thought this would be fun and I am counting the minutes until we get home.

Lots of my NCT friends' have been in hols with their babies of similar age and say they loved it - what are we doing wrong? I am so sad and worried for her and so stressed!

My partner thinks I worry too much about her crying and that she's too needy and I need to encourage her to amuse herself more. But I just can't see how she could possibly enjoy being taken out of everything she knows just to truck around a strange city/go to the beach/park etc. She's too small to appreciate it, and too needy and unsettled for us to get anything out of it either.

Please help me! How do you enjoy a holiday with a little baby? How can I stop her being so nervous and needy? I feel like I'm letting her down by forcing her into this situation and letting my partner down because I'm so stressed it's ruining the holiday for him. 😭

Sounds like it was a bad holiday choice for a baby - try a nice self catering apartment, ground floor onto the gardens somewhere warm but not super hot. You can laze around reading / sleeping taking it in turns to tig with the baby. Eat in, eat out, whatever. Don't do anything difficult.

I Hope people have helped you feel better OP.

I can empathise but also found whenever we went somewhere different we always learnt a new way of doing things because we had to. It was often helpful in showing new ways.

Five months is so little. I can see why it isn't a holiday as such but perhaps you could just see it as a change of scene

I remember our first holiday with DS - it was bloody awful (he was 8 months). We only went to the lakes but there was a heatwave so he was too hot and like your girl was demanding at the best of times and seemed 10 times worse that week.

On the way home I said to DH never again!!

We have been again - once at 18 months and last year at 2.5. We go again in a few weeks and he'll be 3.5 then.

It has been great the last few years! He likes going away, less stuff to take, enjoys being outdoors and can bend the routine a bit too. We still only do UK hols but they are far more enjoyable than the first one - it will get better as she gets older!

We went on holiday when DS was three months old and it was awful. We stayed in a tiny apartment up stone steps (that we had to lug the pram up and down), the apartment wasn't as well kitted out as expected so sterilising bottles was a total pain. DS was cranky and slept really badly, I got and ear infection and DH got a bug as well. The neighbours had a dog that barked from morning til night and there was torrential rain for days. The whole thing was horrible.

After the I vowed that I would never stay anywhere with a baby that was less luxurious than my house. And not abroad until DS and now DS2 are older.

We've had some great breaks in the UK since then though. You can drive so can take as much stuff as you need, we have had cottages with dishwashers and washing machines etc so I don't feel like I'm slumming it compared to home, there is no time difference and we know what to expect from the weather (rain, usually). I'd recommend that for next time.

Either that or bloody centre parks. I've never been but my mum friends certainly rave about it.

Deep breath.... you will probably have fonder memories of this than you think possible now
Forget the routine and all the 'stuff'.. what does she like? Mine quite liked noise and busy places... at least the crying gwts drowned out. Could she be teething? Try some Calpol just in case. Defiantly have a wine!

Ah, the first holiday with baby. Such a shock to the system! We didn't even do our first holiday until DD1 was 18 months and it was still crap. For some reason, she just wouldn't let me lie in the sun and read my book. It does get easier as they get older, or else I've just lowered my expectations.

If you are breastfeeding then please don't give water as well. It's unnecessary and can actually be dangerous. If it is hot and she has not been feeding as much as usual then she could simply be hungry/thirsty. Can you have a day at the hotel just hanging out and feeding her as much as she needs in a relaxed way? Is there a pool where you can lounge with her in the shade? Send your DH out sightseeing if necessary. Or can you feed in the sling (I've never mastered that one but useful if you can!).

And try to relax if possible as she will be picking up on your tension. I know that's easier said than done. My first baby was very demanding. She is two now and an absolute star. I promise it will get easier