Travel after LO is born

pinkshades05

I'm curious if/when everyone is going to travel after LO is born. Thanksgiving and Christmas will be right around the corner. Will those be their first trips? Or are you making additional trips to visit family? How far will you be travelling and how long will you be staying?

We are planning to spend Christmas with my family about 5 hours away but Thanksgiving will be no farther than an hour. I'm not sure if we're going to plan any other trips before then. I know my FIL won't come out to visit LO (he has poor eyesight so it's not safe for him to drive long distances) and his first opportunity to see him/her will be Christmas. I don't know if I want to make an extra trip or even when we'll be up for it.

I'm curious what you have planned!

caranichole

We may just do Thanksgiving and Christmas at my parents about 7 hours south from here, however, my husband is minister of music at our church and I have no idea what type of services and things will be planned so I am sure we will just play it by ear. We may go to Disney World in March for anniversary with all the kiddos though! 

Saragoeswest

We always travel home (8-12hours) for the holidays but we will not this year. I don't plan on traveling for LO's first few months. Nanner nanner, family.

DaniGrace89

We live in Chicago. DHs family does Florida for thanksgiving, but we feel she will be way too young to fly with her this year.

caranichole

Now that I think about it, I feel like it may be nice to do holidays on our own completely this year. Especially with all these kiddos and our new house. 

vrj0522

We are staying in town for the holidays. Normally we fly for either Thanksgiving or Christmas to see DH's family but we won't be doing that this year. Most of my siblings are in town so we'll probably just get together with them. My parents will probably also come out for one of the two holidays, as they do every year. 

No way do I want to travel with a 1-2 month old and a 2 year old. 

raynes

Our Thanksgiving is Oct 12, so if I have an outside baby then (hopefully!) we may do something with my parents (20 mins away) but no farther, I guess the same goes for if I haven't had the baby yet, because I won't want to be going far from the hospital.

For Christmas we'll probably end up doing our same old crazy driving all around Southern Ontario thing.  On my dad's side we'll have 4 baby's ranging in age from 8 to less than 2 months, so we'll probably end up at my grandmothers (1.5 hours west) then we'll be at my IL's for a bit (2.5 hours east) and might spend some time at my dad's condo (2 hours north, in a ski town).  Or, we'll say eff it, you can come to us.   Which won't happen.

When DS was born we went to the ILs (2.5 hours east) when he was a little under 3 weeks old.  We made frequent stops for diaper changes and I'm pretty sure I ended up in the back seat dangling a boob over his mouth at one point.  We made the trip up to my dad's condo (2 hours north) for a friends wedding when he was 5 weeks old.  

meggiev123

From my experience with DD, travel was the easiest the younger she was.  We took a trip to Thailand when she was 10 weeks (DH had to go for work and I was still on maternity leave so we tacked on a little vacay) and it was a peice of cake.  No jet lag, I was exclusively BFing so no food to worry about, and it was just as easy to sit with her on a plane than on the couch. Now I feel like packing for a trip is a full time job the whole week before we leave! 

That all said, since we've had to travel to Detroit now due to pregnancy complications, I think once we get home Kyiv we'll be staying there for awhile!!

mrshudson618

My family is all here in town, but DH's family is just an hr and a half away. Still doable, but we won't be doing both families like we used to. I think we will do one family for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. I am actually more worried about my 1 year old than the nb for this. He needs his naps and is much more likely to flip out about a longer car ride.

DreadGamerWife

Thanksgiving will be local visits (longest drive is an hour away).  Christmas may include a long weekend in PA (about 5 hours away) to visit family and meet the other new babies (there will be 3 born this year).  That depends on how everyone is feeling and if it can get planned easily. 

golfingdarwinfish

My parents are 10 hours away and DH's only about an hour.  We will most likely host Thanksgiving & Christmas, and with the exception of a few dishes, I plan to have both holidays catered because I don't want my kitchen destroyed and people telling me, "Oh!  We can just stay with you to take on all the cleaning!".  No!

wildflower75

We always travel from NY to SF for Thanksgiving and Christmas but this year everyone will be coming to us! Very excited about that!
I will however be going to SF in mid January to stay with my family for 1 month so they can have time with our LO!! I just feel better traveling that far on a plane after the baby has had its 2 month check up.

ohioloveyou

We usually travel to the in-laws in South Carolina for either Christmas or Thanksgiving (we alternate).  This year would be a Thanksgiving year, but since LO has a late October due date I'm not comfortable flying or taking on a long drive that soon.  So we'll be staying home for both holidays this year.  My parents and DH's brother and SIL are here, so we have family to celebrate with. 

Next year will be when all the drama starts, because I want LO to have Christmas at home, but we will be expected to drag him and all the presents DH's family exchanges to SC and back.  NOPE.  His parents are retired, they can come up here.

Maggie6424

We're in metro CO, and from Eastern KS. We'll be traveling home for both this year. Thanksgiving will be the first time everyone will meet DS2. I'm having a little anxiety about everyone passing around the newborn.. but I guess I'll have to get over that. It's about an 8 hour drive, and at this point I have no idea how long we'll stay each time.

bumpuser10309732

I'm getting LO on a plane ASAP. we're buying her baby headphones for the noise. Lol I really don't want to be travelling forever but I know everyone will want to see her and will guilt trip me. Which is annoying. You come to me! I've thought about going to my parents for a week, they're 12 hours away. I feel like the sooner we start the travelling the better off we'll be in the long run.

windwithfingers

Most of my family lives in the Chicago area, so LO and I will be spending Thanksgiving with my dad's family only 10 minutes away. Christmas is a little trickier. My in-laws go to Naples, FL for the week before Christmas, so this year LO and I will be joining them. When we come back, we'll spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my dad's side, then the Saturday after, we'll drive downstate (2.5 hours) to celebrate with my mom's side. LO will be traveling a lot in the those first two months, it seems! Luckily, my cousins on all sides are much younger than me, so none of them have kids. The youngest cousin I have is 10, so not a lot of chance of sick kids running around. The plane worries me, but MIL is the best and a pediatric nurse, so LO will be in good hands.

Duder

We will stay local for thanksgiving and Christmas, and probably fly a couple hours to visit my husband's brothers around New Years. My parents live here and always host tg and Christmas Eve stuff, so that's easy on us. I'll probably wear baby girl most of thanksgiving so my family won't be able to pass her around too much. Somewhere in there I'm sure we will make a trip to albuquerque to visit my MIL so she can meet Baby Girl. She has some issues that keep her from traveling to us so we always go to her. With my first baby we traveled to albuquerque when she was about 6 weeks old. She was SO EASY to fly with then.

GretchenWeiners7

We will travel about 4 hours for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. Both of our families are in the same city, so it's convenient that we can get to both of them at each trip. I am a little nervous about a long car ride, but I think it will probably be fine! My dr seems to think that if LO comes before SIL's wedding, we can travel the 6 hours to that as well...not so sure about that since her wedding is 2 days before my EDD.

MrMrsandBaby

We used to travel back to CT to visit the in-laws on alternating Thanksgiving and Christmas but we won't travel at all this year.  We did take DD out there when she was 4 moths (plane, not driving) and it was so much easier than when she was 14 months!

MsMacual

Not sure yet- to be honest.  DS1 has a late October birthday and we did not travel for Thanksgiving that year b/c he was about a month old and we wanted to have a low stress holiday.  My parents visited over that weekend.  We did travel for Christmas and our closest family is about 4 1/2 hours away.

We might make the trip for Thanksgiving this year- if everything is going well and we're feeling up to it.  We still are trying to figure out how to best approach Christmas b/c our older son is starting to be more aware of holidays and we want him to be at his house for part of the celebration. 

Littledeer84

Nicb13 said:

I'm having people come to us!!! Bahahahaha!

Yes! This! Family is a 9 hour drive, and air fare is cost prohibitive for us. So if they want to visit we would love to have them!

SweetMandyB12

Driving home (13hrs) for about 3 weeks around Christmas.  Can see all of our family and escape the winter weather for a while, and have her baptized at my childhood church.  We are spending Thanksgiving here with friends.  Who knows when air travel will happen---ahhh.

pepperpotts317

Thanksgiving we are definitely staying home. Our family is all 5 hours away by car and I'm not going to put myself or my newborn through all that. I would rather not travel at all for Christmas, but our families have a way of persuading me to be there.

I say this now, but who knows how I'll feel when the time comes.

When DS was 5 weeks old my grandma passed away so we flew from Chicago to LA and everything went fine. It was the first time anyone got to meet him so that was a bright light in all the sadness. I would do it again if I had to. 

Emerald27

Not sure yet. We're definitely staying home for Thanksgiving but may make a trip out of state before Christmas so my dad (in nursing care) can meet LO. We may fly across the country with the kids for a vacation in January. That is TBD. :P

liziaj

I'm due in October last thing I want to do is travel to other ppls houses I know it's family but they can understand and come see us I don't want a new born out in ohio winter weather

Slapdashalice

Boring warning here but as we have flights booked to go to Europe at Christmas to see family I will share what a pediatrician at our hospital told me when I asked about safety.  He said as our baby will be born during flu season it is ok but not ideal to be flying due to the recycled air.  He advises that travel by car is fine right away but he prefers his patients to wait until their two month whooping cough shots before flying (which can be given as early as six weeks) unless it's an emergency and in an ideal world would like them to wait until they have had a flu shot which has to be given at six months.

We will comfortably make the first shots at two months as I think almost all of us will by Christmas but of course any flying on Thanksgiving would for a lot of us be before the two month ones.

We are still going to be flying home for Christmas unless there is an unusually large outbreak of flu or (God forbid Ebola!) but I just thought I would share the advice we received.  Of course your own pediatrician may disagree and you should of course ask their advice either way.

bumpuser10309732

FYI: the air on an airplane is filtered through and cleaned when it comes back out. Soooo you wouldn't catch the flu from "recycled air" because it's not really recycled air. That air is a lot of times cleaner than what you're smelling outside. If your baby catches the flu its going to be from actual contact with the virus. Like people messing with the magazines and things that are NEVER cleaned in the seat pocket and the very RARELY cleaned table trays. So that's where all your germs are :-)

ADH0906

I guess I'm probably the odd duck out, but we will likely travel a lot during the holidays. We don't have any local family. We decided last year to do thanksgiving in one home state and Christmas in the other, but I know that won't go over well this year. We're planing to do thanksgiving at our house, and going to both Minnesota and Indiana for Christmas....I'll likely still be on maternity leave, little man will have had his first round of shots, and DH has tons of saved vacation. After this year, we've decided to do Christmas at home.

AppleGrapeMSTK

With DS1, we drove 16 hours to visit family when he was 5 weeks old- but this was because there was a death in the family.  I have already decided that we are not going anywhere for holidays, but we did invite all of my family and DH's family to visit us for Thanksgiving.  Only my sister and her husband will make it, so it will still be a small gathering, which works best for us.

2goingon3

We're going away for Christmas, we've chosen to road trip instead of fly, so we'll do the 20hr drive each way over 3 days there and then 3 days back, and I'm much more worried about my 4&5 year olds than my 2 month old!!
My experiences traveling with an infant have been great, but toddler travel has been rough! MIL and SIL's are meeting us in Disney so we'll have a few days of extended family time while we're away.

irisheyes317

We are stuck with all of our family out of state too. We decided that we're staying here for thanksgiving and people can come to visit us -- a late October due date means this baby will be too little for me to feel comfortable traveling with (especially if we go past the due date). We are traveling for Christmas to see my family, but decided to fly out on the 26th instead of earlier. Hopefully the airports will much less crazy by then and we can have a relatively easy trip.

kparker26

my first trip for my little one will be Christmas! my s/o family is in ga so we will visit them for Christmas. .my plan is to spend as much time with my little hunny and get some kind of routine down before hitting the road!

Eastie156

We will travel for Thanksgiving, about 2.5 hours. We may do Christmas at our house this year as we'll be in a new house. My Mom is pushing for us to host Christmas, with her help of course.

I intend to travel quite a few weekends after the baby is born to spend time with my IL's who live 2.5 miles away. I did this with DS, we first travelled by car 2.5 hours when he was about 3 weeks old or so without DH. We were fine. DS slept most of the way and we only had one explosive diaper.

Kalimuffin

We are getting pressure to drive 10 hours from our home in Northern CA to grandma's in the South for Thanksgiving.We usually do, but with a newborn......yikes. It was hard before with 2 dogs. Grandmas are too old to drive to us, and this is usually the only time we see them. IF we go, we'll probably leave the dogs with a sitter and fly there. The 10 hour drive becomes about a 3 hour travel journey.

For Christmas, we usually go to NY to see the majority of the family. I'm REALLY concerned about this. I know baby will be easy to wear and will likely just sleep the whole flight. So long as I'm careful about not touching stuff and then touching baby, airport germs are probably not much of a concern. However, once we get there... the family will play "pass the baby" and with many of them being school teachers and nurses (exposed to lots of sick people/kids) and baby not having had any vaccines...... not to mention its NY in December during cold and flu season...... it makes me uneasy. We haven't decided if we are going to go. We know we will need to take baby to meet the family as soon as we are comfortable, but I think Christmas might bee too soon. 

nightowl1989

Most of my family is 3 hours away, but DH's entire family is in SoCal. We were on this three year rotation where we'd spend one of three holidays with one side of the family and then the third at our house. Ya know...Thanksgiving at our house, Hanukkah/Christmas with my family, Easter/Passover with his family--then switch it up the next year. Just so happens that this year was his family's Thanksgiving year and Christmas at our house, but I really don't know if I"m going to feel up to traveling with a one month old! To complicate matters, DH was supposed to deploy in December, so we were making plans that I'd spend Christmas at someone else's house. Of course, that's all in flux now because he may not be going now or he could be going earlier. I really guess we're going to have to play by ear. DH's mom has already said that if we don't feel comfortable, they'll come to us, which is a good thing, I guess.

yella726

GretchenWeiners7 said:

We will travel about 4 hours for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. Both of our families are in the same city, so it's convenient that we can get to both of them at each trip. I am a little nervous about a long car ride, but I think it will probably be fine! My dr seems to think that if LO comes before SIL's wedding, we can travel the 6 hours to that as well...not so sure about that since her wedding is 2 days before my EDD.

I'm sort of in the same boat as you. We will travel 6.5 hours for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and both of our families live within 30 of each other. I was supposed to be in my cousin's wedding, but the date is the day after my EDD. I always said that if LO came early, we might just head down for the ceremony and then head back to my parent's house. I'm not sure if that's worth it, though. Traveling that first week? And adding in breastfeeding, which I'm assuming can easily turn a 6.5-hour ride into an 8 hour ride (stopping every 2 hours for half an hour at least?). I don't know...

brit8618

With my first we didn't take any trips until he was 6 months old because we were worried it would be a disaster. Once we did take a trip it went great and wish we'd went earlier. So as long as I feel up to it I plan on going to all family gatherings and trips.

CrisDee

With our first I travelled extensively in the first year. (Too many funerals). We first flew when he was 6 weeks and it was so easy. Then a trip to the UK for a month when he was 4 months old. Honestly, the earlier you travel the easier it is. By his second birthday we had flown about 10 round trip flights. The last one sucked because he was not impressed with being still for that long.

As a breastfed kid, they get lots of your immunities and you don't need to pack extra food for the baby. (Just diapers.)

greasegirlie222

My fiance and I are first time parents, expecting twins due 10/28/14. (We expect them to arrive late Sept early Oct however)

We live in FL and as of right now, my parents live only a block away from us and SO and I both work for my parents company, so seeing them for Holidays and immediately after birth is a given. (Most my extended family is in the same county as us as well) However, my IL's retired in May and moved to TN, the rest of my SO others family is in PA....this is where the problem lies....

His folks plan on coming down the 2nd week of Sept and not leaving till after the girls are born (AHHHHHHH!!!!!, thankfully they still have a home in FL so we don't need to house them!!) MIL is has been pressuring us for 'visitation' since she found out we were preggo....um OUR KIDS not yours...she wants us to fly or drive to TN for all holidays, birthdays, and send the girls to spend all summers there....I DON'T THINK SO! They are retired->they can come to us.

His extended family, most of which I have never met, will just have to come to FL. I don't know them and I am not sending my girls to visit them with just my MIL. (she also thinks that will happen-NOT!)

For T-day I'm less worried about the who, what, when, where-- as long as we arent leaving the state...For Christmas, we will stay at home and celebrate our new family, just the 4 of us. If other family insist on seeing us (which they will) they can come visit before the holiday.

sheluvs2travel

We will be staying home this year.  I plan on ordering a full Thanksgiving dinner from Whole Foods so we don't have to cook anything!  My parents are local and will likely stop by for a bit, but it will be pretty casual.

Arctic_Seal

Canadian here so Thanksgiving is my due date.  My parents are two hours away and we already told them we aren't coming down so it sounds like they'll probably be coming up.

We do have a trip planned to my in-laws for newborn/family///// photos when Kid2 is about a month old.   That's 2 1/2 hours away.

For Christmas, we stay home and my in-laws usually come which will probably happen again this year.