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Original poster

travel with a baby

101 replies

tweeni · 17/02/2006 19:00

we are going to spain for a wedding when my baby will only be about 3 weeks old. we are staying in an apartment and i was wondering do you think i need to take a baby monitor or not?

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Blandmum · 18/02/2006 16:12

The other thing to think about is that you might (and I stress only might) end up with a section. This happened to me first time round. I made a very swift and excellent recovery but at 3 weeks I was still walking a little like groucho marx! And was in no state for more than a 15 minute drive to the shops.

LIZS · 18/02/2006 16:18

Wonder if that has any scientific basis ? tbh I doubt she can tell unless they are planning to induce/section you early, so hope this hasn't givne you false hope that your timings will work out. I was convinced dd, our 2nd, would be early but she was 10 days late and induced even then. Most of my antenatal group were late, first time around at least, whatever their size !

aprilgirl · 18/02/2006 16:22

i think honestly tweeni you need to look into this, the baby could be only a week old might need medical attention when born .. anything where a stay in hosp is required? ? what if your unwell? sore ect? is this a close friends wedding. just know that last thing id want to do a week after giving birth is fly with a new baby to spain... each to ther onw though i suppose!!

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Original poster
tweeni · 18/02/2006 16:25

we can always cancel if either me or the baby has any problems, but it is a wedding i really do not want to miss as it is my parents and i feel i should make every effort to be there, even if we only stay for a couple of days and then come home.

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aprilgirl · 18/02/2006 16:28

least if its your mum she'll understand if you need to pull out.. yes of course you shoud be there but ther ereality of it is you might not be in the position to be able too, good luck and i hope babs comes along nice and early for you to make the big day,... good luck

LIZS · 18/02/2006 16:28

So long as you can afford to lose the cost of the airfares then there is no harm in planning. Presumably insurance won't cover cancellation due to pg as it a pre-existing condition.

oranges · 18/02/2006 16:28

did your parents really have to schedule the wedding so close to your due date?

oranges · 18/02/2006 16:30

none of my business i know...just wondering, but you don't have to reply..

Original poster
tweeni · 18/02/2006 16:38

not sure if insurance covers pregnancy but it covers the baby so if we cancel due to babys illness that will be covered.well the wedding has been booked since last summer and i didn't find out i was preg until the end of november.

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oranges · 18/02/2006 16:41

Well. hope everything works out and you all have a wodnerful time.

Original poster
tweeni · 18/02/2006 16:43

i know i won't be able to take the baby in the water as he/she won't have had any of them innoculations, but out of interest at what age are you allowed to take them swimming?

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Lonelymum · 18/02/2006 16:49

After their jabs is usual - that is usually at 4 months.

tribpot · 18/02/2006 16:50

I had a wedding 200 miles away from home to go to 5 weeks after ds was due. My friends knew that if he came late or if I simply couldn't face it, I wasn't going to go. There is no way - no way - I could have travelled to Spain when he was 3 weeks old. (And he arrived on time due to pre-eclampsia and thus being induced). We did fly with him when he was about 8 or 10 weeks, only short hop to Holland and that was difficult enough.

You will inevitably want to take far too much stuff as you'll be in that nervous first-time parent stage, but provided you're not travelling on a budget airline that shouldn't prove too much of a problem.

Good luck and don't be too disappointed if you don't feel up to going (and for god's sake, don't feel like you should if you can't manage it). You have no way of knowing how you'll be feeling emotionally or physically, and it's a time when you need to concentrate entirely on what you and the baby need, not what anyone else might want or expect.

LIZS · 18/02/2006 16:50

usually not recommended before the first set of jabs at around 8 weeks, sometimes longer depending on water temperature, chlorine etc

Blandmum · 18/02/2006 17:18

just an aside, how will you be able to get a passport in that short a time?

tribpot · 18/02/2006 17:36

Further down tweeni says she's planning to go to London to do a passport application in person, and hoping to get an appointment quickly at the registry office to get the birth certificate. (Which all sounds nightmarish to me). I can't remember how soon after the birth you can register it, I think it took about a week to get our appointment.

In honesty the only way this whole thing sounds feasible to me would be if tweeni had the baby in Spain but it's a bit late for that now!

madmarchhare · 18/02/2006 18:08

Bloody hell, youre a brave lady is all I can say.

blueshoes · 18/02/2006 18:43

You will need an easy baby as well - and we all know that is the luck of the draw

LIZS · 18/02/2006 18:47

Agree the logistics do sound stressful, to have to give birth, get birth registered and visit the passport office in person(and get photos etc certified) in time, but not impossible. Our birth registration was a drop-in "clinic", no appointments required, although the Registrar only visited locally once a week , otherwise had to go into the main Registry Office itself, and it could be done as soon as we'd got the hospital paperwork.

MerlinsBeard · 18/02/2006 19:53

Tweeni, to answer ur original question, i would take a monitor. I was one of those forst time mums who needed to hear every snuffle!

However, with m,y first i felt like my undercarriage was hanging out, i had sore stitches and i walked with my legs wide open and my back hunched for about 2/3 weeks just in case i caught my stitches! I felt like a child had been pushed up there not out of there!!!

Sorry to put you off your labour but i really feel that u should know what the after part is like before u go ahead with your wedding.

And thats not mentioning the nappy like pads u wear afterwards and the after[ains and the getting feeding(whatever kind u decide) established,

IMO i think that u would need a miracle to be up to contemplate a trip like that BUT u know your body and as u have already said then u can still cancel.

Agree with the poster about the wait for an appt to register birth. My 1st took me 2 weeks to even leave the house so that was another few weeks and my 2nd was about 3 weeks and we rung a few days after he was born. Remember too tha tbabies have their own passports now(i think) so that will take another few weeks.

beartime · 18/02/2006 20:11

Definitely take a monitor - great for reassurance, and means you can put him to sleep in a separate room and to bed early and all sleep better but don't forget the electricity adaptor!

They now say you can take them swimming at any age, but they can be scared if there's a lot of water and people etc. so might not enjoy it too much!

The flight thing is fine too at 3 wks, some people from India have their baby here, get a same day passport and then fly straight back.

I wouldn't agree to anything other than the wedding though, because we took our 5wk old to the USA for 2 months, and it wore me out! Everytime you go anywhere you have to think what to take, then think when its feeding time, nap time etc. Even eating out was a pain! So just try and get them to let you stay in one place at home as much as poss while you're there. Plus you might feel dreadful after delivery as I did, and being a firsttimer makes things worse.

Oh, another tip - don't even try and get a photographer to take his passport photo. Just get the guidelines and do it yourself, lay him down on a white blanket when he's awake. He doesn't have to be looking at the camera but needs his eyes open and with mine, he started crying everytime I put him down at the photographers so we couldn't get his eyes open!

Original poster
tweeni · 19/02/2006 00:36

i have checked and you don't need appointments at our registry office either you can just go in. so you can take them swimming before their jabs at 8 weeks?

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Original poster
tweeni · 19/02/2006 00:36

when i say swimming i mean more of a quick swish in the water obviously

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suzywong · 19/02/2006 01:02

tweeni

I can understand that focusing on a happy event after the birth of your baby is important to you, but as other posters have said, you may not feel like going to the front mat to check the post let alone going all this way.

New mums put tremendous pressure on themselves in all sorts of ways, earlier on you say you and your parents think you should make every effort to attend this wedding. Well FWIW I think you should slip some pressure off yourself and make every effort to relax and recover and get in a routine with your new baby as it really is a hard slog in the first few weeks.

Don't mean to rain on your parade, but cut yourself ( and your baby) some slack.

HTH

suzywong · 19/02/2006 01:24

oh dear, just re-read that post and it does sound very matronly

What I really mean is that clearly it is possible to make this journey, but in reality you may find it is a gargantuan task you don't feel up to, or you may feel that you just want to snuggle down in your bed with your baby and chill out.

It does rather sound from your posts that you are under a fair bit of family pressure to make this trip and I think MN posters just want to let you know that it is not easy to have such concrete plans for the first weeks after giving birth, for all sorts of reasons and that it may be a good idea if you tell your parents that you will if you can but don't count on it. That way you know you have done your research and been willing but you have a dignified get out clause if you simply feel you can't be arsed or don't feel up to it when the happy event of your baby's birth comes along.