We are back from our trip. Thankfully back! This was our first “let’s go and have fun! It’s a vacation!” road trip since baby was born. It will be our last for a while.
The good: we did get away. We saw friends. We saw beautiful mountains, lakes and rivers.
The not so good: traveling with a baby is not anything like traveling as a non-parent. To start, the road trip part. I used to love the part when we were on the road. The views, music, talking, snacks, reading, and the feeling of being in a time capsule, away from the rest of the world. The road trip part with a baby: me in the back seat, reading, drawing (endless puppies!), singing, playing, entertaining. Poor baby got carsick, too, scary and un-fun for all. Then the struggle to get her into the carseat in the first place. And when we take a break, it is not likely to be short. Plus, the travel needs to be scheduled around/in consideration of nap times.
And then the prep and packing. It took us 2.5 days of hard work to be ready to go on the trip. That’s ridiculous. And at each stop, soooo much unpacking and setting up! Nice husband did most of it, which is nice but unbalanced.
Trying to do normal things is also harder on the road with a baby. Finding food for baby, making food for baby, getting milk, cleaning bottles (yes, still breastfeeding, just have to supplement still when she goes down for naps), even warming bottles at night: much more work than at home.
We enjoyed lots about the trip. But we also got worn out, and at some point, were ready to come home. We booted it home as quickly as we could, and were hugely relieved to arrive by 10 a.m. on Friday. Bliss!!
After all that complaining, I should redeem the trip by mentioning the great part about travel with baby: travel with baby. It was wonderful to take her to new places, new experiences and have her meet new people. She really really enjoyed herself. She loved all the places we stayed. She enjoyed the scenery and going on walks. She loved the different animals we got to meet (including horses, donkeys, a dog that LICKED HER FACE!, and cows). Basically, there are big upsides to traveling with baby. It’s just nothing like traveling without baby, and wasn’t the restful, rejuvenating holiday we had planned.
Such is life. We’ve learned, we feel better prepared for whatever the next trip will be (because, of course, there will be other trips), and we had a 3-day weekend to recuperate.
Hoping you are all well, as I try and get back into this blogging saddle.
I missed you! Found myself wondering how the trip was going….thanks for filling us in. I totally relate and will attest that airplane travel even presents similar challenges. Makes you appreciate ordinarily life a little…which is nice.