Too scared to travel now that I'm a parent

[offmyrocker]

I'm mortified to admit it.
My DH and I were once upon a time big travellers. We've back-packed our way through a good chunk of the world and we always said that when we had children we would never let it stop us from seeing more of the world...
We now have an 8month dd and the thought of long-haul flights, and just the whole travel experience with a smallish baby makes me feel queasy.

I need to hear from some adventurous mums out there who haven't let a small thing like a baby stop them from going on exciting trips.

And any advice on coping tactics, for keeping mentally balanced and ready for any eventuality would be welcomed.

I'd also say just bite the bullet and go! It (probably) won't be as bad as you think.

Both my DCs were born in Japan, thousands of miles away from the rest of the family, so I have been flying long-haul with them since they were tiny, mostly as a lone parent. As well as all the back-and-forth between the UK and Japan they have been many times to Australia, Hong Kong, China, USA and Canada, and now we are back in the UK we have done a lot of long rail journeys through Europe (from when they were aged 8 and 4, so able to pull their own suitcases) as well as shorter road-and-ferry trips, and long-haul trips back to the far east. If you're organised, it really isn't that bad.

I'd echo what everyone said about avoiding hotels as far as possible, unless they are suite-style or apartment hotels. We normally do a maximum of two nights at a time in a standard hotel, usually on our way to a longer stay somewhere self-catering, or to stay with friends with children (having lived abroad a lot we seem to have friends handily scattered all over the place - just did three and a bit weeks round Australia/Asia and only did six nights in hotels/apartments).

Sling the tent in the back of the car - get a ferry to Europe and drive where you will. Kids love tents, you can get a leak proof box for a cold water steriliser to keep in the car and any supermarket over there sells the packets of ready made formula milk or jars of food, if you usually make your own just grind up some of your own food in a mouli. You then just drive till you see somewhere you fancy dead simple. Eating out is a doddle in Europe if your kids are well behaved because people there actually like kids (although kids there are well behaved and know what is expected of them when in adult company).

We moved to the states (12 hour flight) last August when DD was 4 months. We've done lots of weekends, a trip to the UK. In August we're moving back and in July we're doing a 4 week road trip. I have to say it gets harder the older she gets. We generally don't do as much in one day now, so are a bit more relaxed about our schedule but we do love the trips and they're never as bad as we expect.

We generally stay in motels, but normally get 2 queen beds (bed are bigger over here as well)