Holiday gatherings

kbcrawford11 · July 2013

I've started thinking about what we'll do for Christmas with our LO, mainly bc family has started asking. It will be flu season with a 3 or 4 week old. My DH and I think it would be best to stay home and have grandparents visit us. There are a lot of young children in our family and we are concerned about our newborn getting sick. But I do want to share our LO with the family. What are your plans? Are you staying in for the holidays to keep your LO from getting sick? Do you think it's overkill?

rbtrumpet · July 2013

We are staying home. Mil is coming to visit, and it will be just her.

To see my family, we'd have to fly, and I'm sure that 3-4 weeks post partum, I will not be ready to deal with airports, flying, or my loud, super energetic family.

fitmama418 · July 2013

We will be staying home and people can come see us.

oooCarrieB · July 2013

Since I am due Nov 2, we are skipping Thanksgiving. By Christmas LO will be almost 8 weeks, so we'll do Christmas stuff with my family. They live 2 hours away.

kabrissette · July 2013

We have some family under an hour away, so I'm sure we'll see them for the holidays. Plus my family is tiny so it will basically just be me and my parents and a few of my close friends. DH's family is about 3 hours away... I want to go see them, but we'll have to see how things are going at that point. Assuming everything goes as scheduled baby will be here just under 1 month before Christmas so I'm hoping I'll have enough down and be feeling well enough to travel at that point.

However I've let family know that I'm reserving the right to pull the plug on the trip and stay home if I feel it's best for the baby or for me and they seem understanding. I think my ILs would probably come visit us for a bit in that case.

SweetLaura286 · July 2013

I guess I'm crazy but I don't plan on doing anything different for the holidays... Either Thanksgiving or Christmas. We will visit both families... One lives 20 mins away the other 5 mins lol. And as always standard rules, wash your hands and don't touch baby if you are sick.

chein1 · July 2013

Everyone goes to my parents' house for Christmas, and they only live 5 minutes from our house, so we're stil going. It will be everyone's first chance to see her besides at the hospital. If we're home from the hospital for Thanksgiving, we're sticking to those plans too. Every year it's a family tradition that we go to the local animal shelter and have all the family dogs get their picture taken with Santa for their annual pictures with Santa donation, and she'll be there too. I think what you want to expose your baby too is a personal opinion, and who knows once she's here I might change my mind with some of our plans, but they really aren't as fragile as we think.

Mailmans Baby Momma · July 2013

We will probably stay home. The majority of our family lives here in the same county, which means there are over 50 of us at family functions. We usually go to my parents on Christmas Eve and the FILs on Christmas morning, so I think I'll just invite them here instead...that's only about 10 people.

fluttergirlmoonchild79 · July 2013

Staying home. My family is 3 hours away and DH's is under an hour. Everyone is coming to us.

IforShort · July 2013

We're staying home and people can visit us. We're planning on making a trip to see everyone late jan or early feb for a long weekend. I don't want to risk pertussis or the flu. Those who come visit us we've asked that they get vaccinated for those two. Our families live 6 hours away.

Edit to add

JennOH85 · July 2013

We live in the same town as DH's family, but my family is about two hours away. We're planning on staying home for both, even Christmas. I just can't picture myself taking a baby who is barely two months old to our family gatherings, which range from about twelve people at one to thirty to forty at the other. Plus the weather is often a factor where we live. There will be more holidays next year when LO is older.

ccgray2012 · July 2013

We are staying home for Thanksgiving and my grandparents are planning to cook at our house. It's possible that our baby will be close to 2 months old by Christmas. So as of now, we plan to keep our plans the same as every year. We have 6 nieces and nephews and I am a bit nervous of dirty hands and runny noses. I read or heard some where to enforce a baby time schedule with younger kids. If I get a request from a little one to play with or hold the baby, I plan to say something like... Ok, if you would like to hold the baby, please go wash your hands etc. I'm totally fine with them wanting to be involved but they do need to know that they can't hold without asking and that if they touch her, their hands must be clean. I'm also hoping that she likes a carrier so I can hold her more without actually holding her.

JSB814 · July 2013

Both our families live between 5 to 15 minutes away, including siblings with the exception of my BIL who lives about 1.5 hours away. Not sure about thanksgiving but I foresee we'll keep it to immediate family and be at my parents' house. As for Christmas, we want to host at our house because it'll be baby's first, still keeping it to immediate family. There are only 2 other kids under the age of 5 from my Hubby's siblings so it shouldn't be too bad...I can't wait for the holidays!

hollowway · July 2013

We are doing Thanksgiving at our house,but it will only be the inlaws and two family friends who are like uncles to N. We will be limiting visitors. For Christmas, LO will be about 56 weeks old, at least 4 weeks. We will be waking up Christmas morning in our home, something I want to do every year. DDI should wake up in her own bed on Christmas. Then we will be going to the inlaws for Christmas dinner.

babyOrtiz1 · July 2013

We are skipping Thanksgiving as LO will only be a couple of weeks old and both of our gatherings will be about 50 people. But thanks to technology we do plan on Skyping so everyone can still see "Banana". By Christmas LO will be old enough to travel with and do holidays as normal though.

inlove0509 · July 2013

chein1:
Everyone goes to my parents' house for Christmas, and they only live 5 minutes from our house, so we're stil going. It will be everyone's first chance to see her besides at the hospital. If we're home from the hospital for Thanksgiving, we're sticking to those plans too. Every year it's a family tradition that we go to the local animal shelter and have all the family dogs get their picture taken with Santa for their annual pictures with Santa donation, and she'll be there too. I think what you want to expose your baby too is a personal opinion, and who knows once she's here I might change my mind with some of our plans, but they really aren't as fragile as we think.

I'd run the animal shelter plans by your OB/midwife. There are some diseases and worms that animals can pass to humans lepto and tapeworm to name some, and even if u don't touch any animals, your shoes could pick it up and carry it home. And baby spends some time on the floor those first few months! I'm not saying all animals there are sick and diseased, but there's probably a fair amount that are brought in with something and are going through the treatment. Just not a place u want to bring in a newborn IMO. My pedi advised me with DD1 to be cautious those first 2 months b/c even a minor sickness might require hospitalization and a spinal tap. I'm still bringing LO to my family's for Xmas, but not pushing it beyond that.

DebateThis · July 2013

Our families are too far away to come for the holidays, though MIL might still be here to help with LO. I'm due 11/2 so we're sort of playing it by ear. There's a chance my parents might come up but they're 2,000 miles away and holiday plane travel is expensive.

We've already made it clear to everyone, though, that people need to get their booster shots ahead of visiting, especially if my parents come through airports to get here.

Truthfully we'd rather have everyone wait til LO's christening which is tentatively scheduled for 1/12/14 right now. He/she will be ~ 8 weeks old or so, which seems a lot more manageable than a houseful of people with a newborn for the holidays.

mmm50 · July 2013

Our family parties are about 30 min away (one Christmas Eve/one Christmas Day), but both are pretty large 20 to 30 people. Our LO will probably be 6 to 7 weeks by Christmas (due 11/6). Our plan is to go to each side of the family for a short time (about 2 hours) and I plan on wearing LO the whole time to help keep him from being handled by everyone during flu season.

[Deleted User] · July 2013

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cagoldi · July 2013

Not 100 % certain about Thanksgiving but we are most likely going to skip the huge family gathering. We're due 11/1 but I'm not sure I feel comfortable taking him when he is only a few weeks old.

My sisters and all the grandparents are going to get Tdap and flu shots so they are more than welcome to come here and visit.

I imagine that by Christmas we'll want to get him out to see everyone.

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