Travel with tiny baby?

[TeaAndToast85]

Hi everyone, it is my good friends wedding next June, and my due date is 30th April. Her wedding is in Norway, and I live in England.

This will be my first DC, and I just wanted to ask, am I crazy to even consider attending? I really don't want to miss her wedding, but will I still be stumbling around in my PJs, covered with sick and poo? Obviously there is no chance I would want to go without the baby. When she sent the save the date my heart just sank I can't imagine taking a weeks old baby on a plane. It's giving me anxiety just thinking about it.

Any advice appreciated x

I flew with DD when she was 4 months old. Much easier than travelling with her at 2 years old!

And that was long haul!

We traveled to Greece with an 8 week old, she slept through the whole flight. It was with Norwegian Air, so you might have the same luck?!!

We used to live and work overseas. Dh is also Dutch.
we came home to have our babies, and then went by car and ferry to Holland when they were 5 weeks old, back at 7, and then flew back to where we lived at 8 weeks.

x 3 children, so the second and third times we had toddlers/pre-schoolers in tow.

I wouldn't exactly say it was easy, but it was doable. It is easier to fly with baby than a toddler. Where you stay at the other end will be key, you need somewhere you can retreat to, and doesn't matter if baby cries, and you sleep middle of the day.
Also you need things like easy access to drinks and snacks.

You probably would struggle to make much of the evenign do, but the day time should work. BUT do it with dh and not on your own.

I travelled to California from the uk with an 8 week old last year and it was a dream. She slept most of the way as babies that age do.

It depends when in June the wedding is. You could have a mid May birth which would mean an early June wedding with a very young baby. Problems being possible birth recovery still, and also getting a passport for the baby.

I wouldn't have done it in a million years but I absolutely hate flying at the best of times anyway.

It depends on you. It's totally doable. It just depends on how you feel.

Im going to go against the grain. Both my ds' were 14days late, and say you need C section for whatever reason, in those circumstances they'd be very little chance of you being fit to travel.

Yes getting baby a passport on time could be an issue - my friend had to cancel a forgeign holiday for this reason.

Is her wedding at the start of June, or the end?

Honestly, flying with a newborn is piss easy compared to flying with a toddler (especially if you breastfeed). Baby will sleep on your chest, feed, sleep. There's a chance you might have to pace the cabin a bit if they are fretful, but that's about as bad as it gets. I flew with a 6wo with no problems.

However, anything under 6 weeks is going to be a problem - not because of the baby, but because of your potential birth recovery and getting a passport for said baby. If her wedding is at the beginning of June, I wouldn't even plan to attend; if it's mid or end June, I'd make a plan, but reserve the option to pull out if baby didn't get passport in time or you weren't physically up to the trip.

We flew a similar distance when DS was 5 weeks old. It was my first and I didn’t have a clue, but we booked the flights when I was 6 months pregnant. Worst case scenario we would have lost £150. Can you do that? Book accommodation that offers free cancellation? DS slept the entire way there and back. I was breastfeeding and it was very easy. He didn’t even come out of the sling on the flight. Good luck!

Oh yes I hadn't noticed timing was so tight.
All mine were 2 weeks late.
After no 1 I struggled with travelling to Holland at 5 weeks as I was still sore.

Passports were an issue, photos of babies a few days old, then forms filled in. Mind you we did it each time, and we had to include visas for where we were living, so it is possible.

There is a recommendation that you don't fly before 4 weeks anyway, and I felt happier with 8. 4 weeks is very little.

Hmm, I think I would be saying to your friend that you will come if baby is xx number of weeks, but it will depend on when you give birth.
I would not want to do it beofre your 6 week check I think.

I am planning to fly to Australia with a 4 week old, 2.5 year old and 4.5 yo in December (with my husband). Assuming the new baby is a typical newborn (e.g. No bad health issues, allergy, colic etc in which case we may think again), the baby will be the least of our worries: all they want at that age are cuddles and milk which is quite well suited to a flight. I would be far more worried about a long car journey as both my older two would scream in the car up until about 4 months.

I hadn't even thought about passports  it's starting to look a bit unlikely. @steppemum I think that's a good idea, saying we'd love to come if baby is on time and doing well, but we can't commit. Only problem is that could be a bit of an arse for them, with numbers/catering etc.

Thanks for all the wise advice everyone, it's given me lots to think about

Also passport wise, you can book to register the birth before the baby is born (so e.g. book at 43 weeks to be sure it is out) and then apply for a 1 week fast track passport (more expensive than regular application though).
But it is true that when the baby is that young, there is a risk you have to pull out, because with you or the baby is not up to it, so it is a question of weighing up risks of lost money from a cancelled flight vs risk of regretting not going. In our case for the Australia flight, it is for a family wedding which I'd be sad to miss...

I think that's a good idea, saying we'd love to come if baby is on time and doing well, but we can't commit. Only problem is that could be a bit of an arse for them, with numbers/catering etc.

You can always leave it in their hands and say if it's easier for them to have a definite at this stage, it will have to be a "no". OTOH if they have paid for your meal anyway, it doesn't make a huge amount of difference if you have to pull out last minute; the food is still paid for whether you turn up and eat it or not. FWIW I'd be totally fine with paying for a friend's meal in this circumstance if I cared about them enough to invite them to my wedding; I had friends pull out morning-of due to unforeseen circumstances and I never held it against them.

But yes, getting the passport in time can be an issue; we made it by the skin of our teeth at 6 weeks, and baby was bang on time. The issue wasn't getting the passport itself (the passport dept does an express service) but getting the birth registered and getting a birth certificate, which was a stressful and lengthy process involving a great deal of running around.

I flew long haul with dd2 when she was almost 3 weeks old. We would have flown earlier but the passport was a pita to get. She ate and slept, it was an easy flight.
Not sure I would have done this with dd1 though .

I'd rather fly with a newborn then a toddler. I'm due April 12th with my 3rd and planning a holiday abroad in June.

Tiramisu - interesting as we got the baby(s) registered day after birth and the birth certificate was issed on the spot I think?

(mind you, dh did all that so I may be wrong)

The hardest part was getting photos!

The registering the birth thing may be highly area dependent, but in our borough the registrars were all madly oversubscribed. DH went to several "registration clinics" at children's centres where the registrar never showed, or people had been queueing for 3 hours before he arrived. And the only booked appointments being offered for registration, either in our borough or the nextdoor one, were 6 weeks in the future . God only knows what we'd have done if I'd had to go and register myself and couldn't just send him out to do it. We eventually managed it by parsing all local knowledge about which clinics were actually likely to happen and turning up ridiculously early for one. We just scraped in.

I'm pretty sure you can't fast track a first passport, only renewals.

Travelling with an infant is so easy, especially if you're breastfeeding. I have travelled back and forth between the UK and the ME since ds was 6 weeks old. It was great at first! He's 2yo now and a frigging nightmare.

We also go ds's passport by the time he was 8 days old... get an appointment as soon as baby's birth is registered - maybe we were lucky but it really was that quick.

Here's the link on how to fast track a child's first passport

www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently