Help me decide- holiday abroad with 10 week old

[Thetractorjustmoved]

I've found a great deal at a really lovely and usually unaffordable European resort next spring, but, all being well we'll have a 10-12 week old baby (and 4 year old).
Can't decide whether to go for it or not! My recollections of last babyhood are one long grind of PND. Partly, I think having something to look forward to will keep me going a bit.
Am I being unrealistic about those early days? Plus also, the passport situation- is it still taking a long time? In less strange times my son got his back in about ten days, but that's no longer the case.
If anyone has any wisdom I'd appreciate it!

I took my 8-week-old baby on holiday in 2006 and it was fine because she was a really easy baby. But I was able to get an appointment to register her within a fortnight of her birth and went straight from registering her to check and send her passport application at the post office. Nowadays I would worry that that I wouldn't be able to register her in time, along with the delays at the passport office (+ don't first passports take longer nowadays?).

I’m currently pregnant and so many friends have told me stories of taking 5/6 week old babies on holiday. We’re planning on going when DC are about 12 weeks.

I guess it's very personal but I really wouldn't have wanted to go on holiday with such a little baby and wouldn't have enjoyed it. I would have needed the comfort and privacy of my own home.

I would wait to see how you feel once baby is here, and then book something if you feel up to it.

Go for it! We did the same, loved it, they are so portable at that age and don't need too much luggage. Take a sling or baby carrier.

I took my daughter back to the UK to see family (we live in Asia) when she was around 12 weeks old. It was a 14 hour flight but easy as she just slept and I fed her. Much easier than travelling with a 2 year old! Passports are taking around 5/6 weeks at the moment I think, but that could be because I don’t live in England so ours take longer.

Pretty positive! Thanks for your replies. I think passport is the biggest potential pitfall so will look into that.
Would be nice to have something to look forward to in those dark early mornings feeding...

If the waiting time to register babies is the same as it is currently I think you would struggle to get a passport in time. I’ve just registered my son and we had to wait a month after he was born for the soonest appointment so that’s almost half your time gone before you can even apply for the passport.

I went to Tenerife with one DC when he was 10 weeks and to Cyprus when another was also 10 weeks. Both were lovely holidays, they’d been sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks by then and I had a bit of a day time routine going. Tenerife was very good as there’s lots of promenades which are perfect for prams.
I found holidays when they started crawling and pulling themselves up more difficult.

We took DC2 when he was 8 weeks and again when 12 weeks. He was 5 days old in his passport photos!
We were in a villa for the first holiday and in a suite for the second. I was glad we had more than just a hotel room as then, for those nights when the baby was unsettled, whichever of DH or I was on duty could be in the other room with the baby.
The only thing I struggled with was where to put the baby. Both places had tiled floors throughout. I wouldn't have put him on a bed anyway in case he suddenly rolled but the risk seemed even greater with a tiled floor. Due to the tiling, I didn't want to just put him on the floor as it was so hard and cold! Nor did I want to make him a sort of nest out of a duvet in case he somehow got caught up in it and suffocated. For the first holiday, we just held him a lot which, as he was a velcro baby, suited him fine as, as we were with family, there was usually a willing pair of arms! For the second holiday, we took the bouncy chair (took it apart and then put it back together out there) and also the play mat.

I took a bouncy chair too and rebuilt it on holiday, I used it around the pool when I was on a sunlounger.

Just seen this thread OP - we went out hols with our 8 week old and DS who was 4 at the time. We booked it way in advance of our baby arriving, we registered her birth almost immediately, she is like a similar poster 7 days old in her passport picture. Passport was super quick in arriving( it was 2019 though) so pre all the covid issues.

holiday was fab, she slept in a travel cot and slept the best she ever had done to be fair, we formula fed and took the prep machine with us.
she was a dream on the plane there and back, no regrets at all taking her so young.

she was a dinky baby and people asked if I had had her there on holiday?! Hahah it always made me laugh.

I love the optimism on this thread! I've booked the holiday btw...

I wasn’t confident you would get a passport when you first posted this but my little boy is 6 weeks and we’ve just had the text to say his passport has been printed and it’s ready to post. That’s with him not being registered till he was four weeks old either.

We travelled with our daughter at 8 weeks and it was probably the easiest holiday we had with her. I hope you have a lovely time.

@TruffleShuffles oh great that's good to know things have improved on that front!