Holiday without DD - any advice? Should I even consider it?

[KelaH]

I have spoken to DH about this and tbh honest neither of us are sure if this is a good idea, or if we even would want to do it, so thought I would post here to see if anyone has experience of this.

General background - DH and I have wanted to go to Las Vegas together for a years, but last time I went (4 years ago, with mutual friends) he was supposed to come but had to cancel at the last minute (just before we got together in case anyone is wondering why I went without him!). Since then, we haven't been able to afford it, but are now in a position where we would probably be able to go next year. This would also be our honeymoon as we didn't have one when we got married (in March this year).

All good so far, except we now have a 5 month old daughter (also the reason we didn't have a honeymoon - she was only 7 weeks old when we got married). If we were to go anywhere other than Vegas we wouldn't even consider not taking her, but Vegas really isn't suitable for babies/toddlers. And as we want more children we are looking at 10+ years before we could go.

Has anyone gone away and left a baby of 15 to 20 months old? Would she cope? At what sort of age could she understand that we will be coming back in a week or so? (She would be staying with my parents, who we currently live with) Am I being selfish to even consider this? (I certainly feel it)

Weeellll, I don't know about anything else, but in all honesty, my DD1 is 2.6, and she doesn't have any grasp of 'tomorrow' or 'next week'. If I say that she is going to preschool tomorrow, when I am putting her to bed, she jumps up and says "yes please!". I don't think that they get future events until a bit later.

I can't really offer much advice as we haven't done it yet but we've booked a long weekend (Wed night - Mon) away in Sept when dd will be 22m. She will be staying at our house with my mum and sister, and my ILs are nearby so she'll probably see them.

I'm a little bit worried that she'll wonder when the heck we're coming back! She's had a night away from us twice (with MIL) and has enjoyed that and been fine. I intend to talk a lot about holidays before we go. We're staying with my mum for a week at the moment so will tell her that we can't see Nan (MIL) this week cause we're on holiday and when people go away, will make a big point about not seeing them until next week etc!

I don't think I would have booked it any further in advance than this and am only happy going because she is so confident and adaptable. She's always happy going to other people and being left etc. Could you book your holiday a lot nearer the time so you can judge her personality a bit more when she's that bit older?

I think as long as she's having a great time at home, she'll be fine.