Traveling with twins

Re: Traveling with twins

• TheBachelorette member

  August 2012

  We have traveled with the twins twice since they were born.  Both on 4-5 hour trips.  In June we took them to my cousin's wedding in Texas, they were 14 months old at the time.  On the whole, the trip was great.  DH and I were not allowed to sit in the same row so we sat arcross from one another.  We did not sit over the wing as we did not want the noise to keep the babies up.  Bring water for bottles or sippies during take off and landing.  Bring LOTS of snacks.  Fruits and veggies will be difficult for you since you are flying internationally but you can bring goldfish, granola bars, cheese sticks, puffs, etc.  My LOs love 2 things (besides food), the fisher price giggle game on Ipad and Despicable Me.  They played the giggle game during the flight and watched the movies as well.  The rest of the time they slept.  I had a really nasty neighbor on the flight there who complained because G kept pushing the seat.  Unfortunately, there is very little you can do when you have a lap baby and the person in front of you reclines their seat.  On the way home there were no complaints. 

  Call the hotel to make sure that they have cribs or PNPs for you.  We brought our own car seats, you may or may not want to rent them there but check on Punta Cana's laws for car seats to make sure you are comfortable with them.  They may be different from the US'.

  I originally thought like you that we would have enough family to be "babysitters" but my DH pointed out that our family members were also on vacation and would probably want to spend their vacation enjoying themselves and not helping watch our children.  Additionally, much of our family does not live close to us and would essentially be "strangers" to our children.  Plus, the nights of the rehearsal and wedding were going to be too late for the kids and they were going to need someone to watch them.  We decided to bring our au pair to watch the children.  They know and love her and she stuck with their routine.  It was just the right decision for us.

  We did not have any meltdowns.  I attribute this to the following: (1) we really tried to keep them on the same schedule as much as possible; (2) they were not left with any "strangers" meaning people who they don't know well; (3) we didn't push them.  We know their limits.  While DH would have loved to go golfing or I would have loved to spend the whole day in the pool with the kids, we did everything in moderation so that they were not overly cranky, exhausted, out of their element and off schedule.  We also brought their musical sea horses for bed time so they had consistency for their night routine.  IMO, 7 days seems like a lot for them to be out of their element.  We are going to the islands in October and will be going for 4 nights and 5 days.         

  U/S#1 showed 2 heartbeats! U/S#2 showed Baby A's heartbeat was 157 and Baby B 's heartbeat was 183! U/S#4 showed Baby A is a Boy (heartbeat 161) and Baby B is a Girl (heartbeat 159)!!

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• jalaiaa

  August 2012

  We took a 3 week trip to Italy when the boys were 20 months. I wrote a blog post afterwards that might help. Sorry it isn't clicky.
  
  https://www.theyoungadventure.com/2012/01/travelingwithtoddlers.html?m=0

  Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml

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• Polofsky member

  August 2012

  Just my 2 cents on the babysitter thing. DH and I have used sitter services on vacation in several different places and I have to say I am always nervous (very, very nervous)...but it is always worth it for us to take 1 night just for ourselves to enjoy wherever we are. Take a walk on the beach, have a grown-up beverage, a nice long quiet dinner, dancing...whatev.

  We try to time it so the sitter arrives after they are already asleep, depending on how likely it is that yours wake up after you put them down you may want to have the sitter come 30 min or so before bedtime just so its not a stranger coming in to soothe.

  Have fun!

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• lmydogally

  August 2012

  TheBachelorette:

  I originally thought like you that we would have enough family to be "babysitters" but my DH pointed out that our family members were also on vacation and would probably want to spend their vacation enjoying themselves and not helping watch our children.  Additionally, much of our family does not live close to us and would essentially be "strangers" to our children.  Plus, the nights of the rehearsal and wedding were going to be too late for the kids and they were going to need someone to watch them.  We decided to bring our au pair to watch the children.  They know and love her and she stuck with their routine.  It was just the right decision for using

  This.  My husband and I got married in Hawaii when my nephew was 18 months old.  My sister expected our family would want to baby sit but they were all on vacation and babysitting was the last thing on their minds.  I would not have any expectations about family wanting to babysit so your not disappointed.   

  IVF#1 May 2011 15 Eggs Retrieved, 11 Fertilized using ICSI + HPT on 6/9/11 Beta #1 420 Beta #2 2167 US 7/1 TWINS!! Due 2/18/2012 Brooke and Nora born at 35.6 weeks Jan 20th 2012

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• Kb103109

  August 2012

  Thank you soo much for all the great suggestions ladies.  The reason I said our family will babysit is because they have already told me they would.  Our girls see the family on a regular basis so none of them are really strangers to the girls.  We are going to have about 30 of our family members and we have all already talked about rotating the babysitting schedule.  I really wish we could afford to bring someone along with us to watch the girls, but we are saving every extra penny just to go on the trip.  I may have to give in and use the babysitters on site for the wedding and rehearsal.  I dunno. 

  

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