Travelling with a new born

[babytraveller23]

Hi everyone

We have a wedding later this year abroad in France however we will have a 6 week old baby.

I am very aware that depending on the birth/recovery realistically there is a good chance I will be unable to go, and we are prepared for the chance that my husband will go by himself.

However, if everything goes well, and we are able to go, I want to prepare for this as much as I can.

My question is as the baby will be so small I don’t think a travel buggy will be appropriate and I have heard some horror stories about prams being ruined in the hold, so do I actually need to take a pram, or do you think we can cope with a sling/car seat/travel cot?

I personally think it is very very very unlikely to go but I would love to hear if anyone has successfully taken a 6 week old on holiday and how they managed it!!

The big issue here will be getting a passport. Especially if you have to wait to get an appointment to register the birth.

I was about to saw the same as @MissAmbrosia. We couldn't even get an appointment to register the birth for six weeks.

I'd also be concerned about passports. And a bit uneasy the baby hadn't had at least 1st course of vaccines at at weeks.
To be completely honest, I've had 3 fairly easy babies but that's the thing I'd have wanted to do with any of mine at that age would be catch flights and stay in a hotel

We took DS away to eurocamp in Holland at 3 weeks, post EMCS, it was amazing. He slept the whole time and the easiest holiday we’ve done with all of them.
I actually booked the registration appointment before I had him for when I would have been 42+1 (you aren’t supposed to so I had to make up a birth date) and then did a 1 week passport appointment.

We drove but absolutely needed the pram as he spent most of his week in there sleeping. You can get really good travel bags to protect it. We also used it instead of a travel cot.

I think you'll want a pram with a bassinet for them to sleep in.

The while thing is really going to depend on what the baby is like (and your recovery etc) my first would have been fine but I've got dd 10 weeks and she is very unsettled. She cluster feeds from 5-10pm and screams the house down in between stints of feeding so there's no way I'd want to be sharing accommodation or taking her to any evening social events - I'm held up in the the bedroom trying to soothe her!

Re buggy on a plane, we took my sons toddler fold up buggy away last summer and wheeled it right up to the door of the plane and they put it in the hold from there (we have a travel bag for it). It was waiting for us at the door again when we arrived at our destination. I think this way avoids it being thrown about on the conveyer belt and little luggage truck thing at each end.

I took all of my three to see my mum (an hour-ish flight from the UK) at six weeks. So easy. Use a sling, obviously you will need a car seat. Babies that age are so portable and most people will be so fascinated by you travelling with such a small baby they will help. We also took DD to France at 12 weeks and she was spoilt rotten.