The First Trip Is The Toughest…
Morón, Cuba - January 2010
It’s been almost three years since I started Have Baby Will Travel, and in all this time I’ve been a total cheerleader for family travel. My goal with the site has always been to inspire and motivate new parents to travel with their babies and toddlers, and I think a big part of the motivation comes from hearing stories from other traveling parents.
The last trip we took was my 4-year-old daughter’s 8th and my 9-month-old son’s 3rd. Other than the usual hassles of a giant pile of luggage and figuring how to make sure both kids are fed and occupied on the travel days, it went off without a hitch. Come to think of it, the very first trip we took with our daughter also went off without a hitch, but I was still a very stressed out new mom who wanted to make sure we got to our destination in one piece physically AND mentally, and enjoy ourselves once we were there.
But when I think of that first trip, that’s not what I remember. I remember how my daughter kept dozing off in odd places during the first couple of days. I remember her squeals of absolute joy as she hit the beach and crawled in the sand for the first time. I remember her pointing at a cat and saying “cat”, and pointing at a dog and saying “cat”.
Much like childbirth, you just kind of forget the bad stuff. Like how I cried out of sheer exhaustion and frustration when she wouldn’t nap and woke at all hours during our first few days. Like how out of sorts I felt until we established our “vacation routine”. Like how I panicked when I realized the pasta with tomato sauce she was greedily eating had shellfish in it, and I hadn’t introduced her to that yet.
As my site nears its 3rd birthday, it’s a wakeup call of sorts for me to not forget where I came from. That first trip was tough, and as much as it’s easy to forget the bad, it’s important not to. I don’t ever want to seem smug or glib about the troubles and hassles involved in getting from point A to point B with a baby in tow. They’re real and they exist and I think being prepared is half the battle.
And also just like childbirth, it’s totally, totally worth it.
But you can get anesthesia during childbirth.
Actually I am glad to know that someone else cried on that first trip. (might be a fun meme to get lots of travel writers to talk about crying on that first trip)
Oh I cried – and then my husband somehow managed to get her to sleep while I devoured a giant pina colada.
The bonus after all that effort was discovering that she would actually sleep on the beach or by the pool after a swim. We were hardly ever in the room during the day after that!
Ha,ha, I’m with Meg, the epidural makes childbirth so easy
but there’s not much you can do for sleep deprivation. Keep sharing the stories.
Thanks Carolina!
I had an epidural with my daughter and her birth was hard work but it didn’t hurt.
Time hasn’t quite yet softened the memory of my son’s unintentionally drug-free birth!