Remote holiday cottage with small baby - would you?

[GuppieK]

I'd love to get some advice. I'm 6 months pregnant with our first baby and OH and myself want to book a few weeks away during my maternity leave so we can all just chill and spend time together.

We're both into walking and we have a nervous rescue dog who likes to bark at strangers so we've honed in on a cottage in the Highlands that is super secluded where we could enjoy the views/walking and the dog could roam about with no one to upset her. No neighbours, but also 3 (small) rivers to wade through to reach and parking a mile away from the cottage. Do you think that sounds unwise/too risky for us to go with what will be a 4 month old baby? I'm going to check out the phone/mobile situation. The landowner has a 4x4 that can get to the cottage but they have advised it would be difficult to make a quick getaway if needed. Actually getting our stuff to the cottage would be okay as owner can drop off luggage and shopping.

Thanks for reading. I really don't want to put down a 50% deposit on it now only to have the baby and realise it's not a good idea at all!

Um. I wouldn't tbh.

Especially as this is your first, I'd maybe plan on somewhere less challenging until you're more experienced ie know exactly how scrambling through rivers etc with a sling will be.

I wouldn't do it either vatta. you have no idea what kind of baby you will have or what kind of delivery. the first few months with the first are usually quite stressful so wouldn't understand why you want to add to that stress by being somewhere you couldn't get out of if you needed to quickly. wait op until he/she comes along then book something. trust me, you will feel very differently then. good luck with your delivery.

Its not so much any risk, but you don't know how you and the baby will be. Some are chilled out, love being in a sling and will sleep happily in it, some scream lots or want to feed for an hour at a time which makes long walks rather tiresome.

Have your baby first, see how you recover and how the baby sleeps/feeds/behaves, and then make decisions

Thanks for your replies Vatta, mummymeister and CMOTDibbler. It does seem sensible to wait to book. I hadn't considered that some babies don't like being in sling. I was thinking I must book it soon because in my experience all the nice cottages are always booked up quickly in the autumn. But it's better to book a less nice cottage later but be guaranteed it's in a suitable location than book now and risk losing a deposit I guess...

I wouldn't. Hiring a remote cottage is ok, but not one where parking is a mile away.

when are those rivers small?

bet they aren't at the moment!

I wouldn't book it just yet either.

Before you have a baby, you think that everything will carry on as they are now, just with a little addition in tow, but it may not happen like that!

I found that having a baby was a lot more time consuming that I had expected and this little person totally took over my life for the first 6 months or so. I had an easy baby too, it could have been so much worse. Having had a full time job, I thought I was organised, to be honest it all went to pot!

I still went on a skiing trip - for a wedding when she was 4 months and then again at 6 months (holiday), the 6 month holiday was probably harder in all honesty, but it wasn't easy.

Like others said, you don't know how you will cope, you will think it will all be fine, but it also may not and a nice quiet cottage just the two of you getting to know your baby, may not be quite so idyllic.

Congratulations on the pregnancy though and I hope it all goes well. It is just the best thing being a mum.