to have wanted to enjoy our first holiday with our baby

[pamelat]

DD 8 months.

Just back from a week away, so glad to be home!

We shared an over priced hotel room with her.

First night she woke every 2 hours. Second night hourly. After that she decided that she would sleep from 7pm until about 2am (fine) but then that would be it .. !!

We took it in turns to get up with her at 230am and drive her around (!) so that the other one could get some sleep.

She was then grumpy every day because she was tired. We were fractious because we were tired.

We spent a fortune (which we don't have) because the weather was awful so we had to go to things.

Evenings we were often in bed by 9pm (with the TV on silent so as to not wake her).

I guess you learn, never again will I share a hotel room with her! Self catering is the only option.

I know (or think?) that some of you may be critical and say "well you were lucky enough to go on holiday, lucky enough to have a DD/DH etc" but I can't help but feel hard done to, was looking forward to it and frankly it was a disaster!!

Haven't read the whole thread, but I'm sure I won't be the only one recommending avoiding hotels with babies like the PLAGUE.

Self catering is MUCH better, as long as there is a seperate bedroom and living area. You get much more room to move around, freedom to eat meals when and where you like. Usually more books/toys/entertainment facilities. AND a fridge to keep your wine baby bottles cool

taking your mum on holiday - hmm - been there - done that - sort of worked (well worked for kids and mum anyway !).

Still not relaxing (IME)

It could be worse!
You could be going to India for three months with an 18 month old, and live with a fridge as the only mod con!

I'm waiting oblomov
Maybe you're one of these people who can survive ok with broken nights and not much sleep? Or perhaps you're just much younger than me and have loads of energy??

Elf, the thread is telling you about our worst experiences. Try to keep in mind, most of us have fab experiences in between!

Take the step. You'll feel better for having chucked it in the back of the car.

Fussy eating and taking your own meals - funny things happen to fussy eaters on holiday - many of them branch out and try different things! The change of environment helps! You never know, he might come back having added some new foods to his list of acceptable things.

Finally, change your expectations RIGHT NOW! Yes, same drudge/different place but it's minimised and DH is there to help out far more than usual. S'not like he'll have owt else to do!

Don't let your DS's fussy eating pen you in. It's a holiday - get out and about and let him eat shit food for a week. A plate of chips every night for 7 days is NOT going to make him obese. Relax ALL eating rules and see food as just a means to an end - not the point of each day!

Have a lovely time

Elffriend, get a campervan!

We spent 2 nights in a hotel with dd aged 5 months and vowed not to do it again. Agree with everyone who said self-catering - it's more work but much more relaxing (paradoxically). But I think in general holidays are just more of the same but in a different place until the children are quite a lot older.

Also, and I know I'm in the minority on MN here - go away with other people with children. We've only had good experiences so far, and it means there's usually someone else up first thing, you can share meals/washing etc so it's not 24/7 and the children are entertained by someone other than you. It certainly makes it more fun. Depends who you go with I suppose - most of our friends have children the same age and share our outlook on life and parenting. Wouldn't go away with someone I suspected didn't...

The main thing to remember when planning a holiday with a small child is to expect extra vomit.

We ended up wishing we had stayed home in London, gone out every day doing fun family stuff and getting a babysitter every night so we could go out to nice restaurants! Would have been cheaper and definitely more fun than that particular week!

Agree that you need to adjust your expectations and consider how your child adjusts to different places/sharing a room etc. It definitely gets better as children get older, we just had a fab holiday in the alps (ds now 3 and dd 3 mths) having lots of picnics and eating in child friendly creperies/pizzerias or cooking in our apartment. Ds had a ball in the fresh air and sunshine every day and there was so much for him to do there he was exhausted at the end of each day so we all slept well, which was the best part for me! AND we even managed a bit of wine tasting in Chablis on the way back !

You are not alone Oblomov. We have nice holidays. The first time we stayed in a hotel room the children were 17 months and newborn.

Bring the attitude that this is going to be a good holiday, that you are here to see new things, make new friends, and that no way are you going to be able to have the same routine that you have at home.

Oh we've had fabulous holidays too. They've still not been the same as the fabulous holidays we had before children but [shrug].

You get to build sandcastles again without looking like a tw*t for a start. Both DSs and DD have been thrilled by the large sand Tweenie Shoes I've built over their real feet and we mad a fab sand plane for them all to sit in this year. You do spend a lot of time rubbing in sun cream though

oh dear, poor you

sympathies

it dawned on us early on that sharing a room just doesn't work (for us)

my tips:

• don't go on holiday (only partly joking)
• if you do, get AS MANY ROOMS AS POSSIBLE
• take bin bags for darkening rooms
• if necessary, put the baby in the bathroom (er, in a cot first)

oh - and meant to say earlier - it is really worth the effort - because we always find our kids really blossom when they have been away - it really expands their horizons and their minds.

And it gets better - my youngest are 5 now - and the only tough thing still is getting them to go to sleep for the first few days.

And go for a fortnight - hopefully they settle by halfway through the first week and then you still have a decent enough time to enjoy - and 2 weeks away makes the hassle of travelling almost worth it

Soupy and www, I did say that. In my first post. I said, it only takes a slight midset alteration. That was all.

Elliot , you may be waiting some time. I am afraid I am still unable to pinpoint quite what we do/did that made it o.k.
But please rest assured that, none of the things you said about me are try. I am Oblomov, after all. Like my namesake. I , as a diabetic, sleep for england, and at 35, have the energy of a 50 year old. So no, that doesn't apply.

I will keep working on coming up with pinpointers, as to why our holidays have always been good.

yes agree wiht all
we toolk a cralwer to menorca
too hot to crawl on pavving slabs
fakrin mare

soupy what DID ds2 do?!!!

bath a very good idea for babies cot

I have thought of it
I have a very easy child.
Dh and I could have fun in a phone box. We have as much fun on an all inclusive , expensive holiday in Ibiza, as we did on on Sun holiday £9.50 in Devon.

This is not helping, is it ?

Don't worry. You will all get your come-uppance, when my DEVIL CHILD* Ds2, arrives in a few weeks.

Watch me retract everything I have EVER said on MN.

Yes, self catering the only way, or else an ajoining room (Hilton have quite a good policty on ajoining rooms for kids under, I think, 14 - you get second room cheaper). At least with an ajoining room you can watch TV and get room service. But we only use hotels for one or two nights if visiting relatives who can't accommodate us etc.

For Hols, cottages, condos etc. Although on our recent hol the room we had assigned for our DS was so freezing cold with aircon, we ended up with him in with us and has similar nightmare with waking, especially cos we were in the US and he was all messed up with jet lag - sigh.

DD is 3 now, and that's the age I think where holidays start to become more fun and easier. She doesn't need to sleep in the day, she gets more out of stuff - travels better etc. I do feel for you though.

we had a lovely holiday with 14mo DD. I wonder if our low expectations were the key .

we have made a conscious decision to reduce the number of holidays we have, in order to afford a bigger, better-equipped cottage (enough bedrooms, bathrooms, garden toys for DD, DVD player for us).

we also picked an area that whilst very rural, was within an hour of a city offering lots of indoor options for days out.

Cod, I said further down: Nothing major really. He lost at a game of cards and started throwing things about. Apparently.

Not sure why they felt the need to ban him though.

I did a MN houseswap thread over the summer (but haven't braved it myself yet!)

I think it is a VV good idea for people with babies though.

We plan to only go on holiday when we can afford either:

• a hotel with childcare
• to be able to afford to pay someone to come with us to help
• self-catering in the UK (oh, about as expensive as the other options if you want to go somewhere that doesn't have nylon sheets and blood stains on the carpet)

Oblomov, I take it then that you do actually manage to sleep on holiday?
I think that may be it

My holidays would just be soooo much more bearable if we didn't get woken up by ds2 at silly o'clock.

I do have fun times too, I really love being on the beach with the kids. But we do have to spend a lot of time keeping everyone happy - and that aspect is getting harder as they have more fixed ideas. We have spent a lot of time this year sitting untangling ds1's fishing line for the nth time

At least its not just us then!! Will show my DH this thread when he gets home as I think he was worried that it meant we were rubbish parents and an incompatabile couple!!

I did suggest separate holidays next year! We could possibly have a long weekend each without DD ..... but we want to enjoy our time has a family.

Hopefully (I can kid myself ) it will be easier once she can talk and I can at least try to reason with or bribe her!

Thanks all.

Having spoken to my parents today, they have said that they would have loved to have come with us but didn't want to "intefere", anyone can interfere as much as they like at 230am by my book!