Have Baby Will Travel

sleeping during a train ride

My husband and I love to travel. We make it a point to try and leave the country and see the world. Where do we go? It's usually either a beach destination (to satisfy my husband’s need to be surrounded by water) and/or somewhere we can have a sense of adventure and a bit of culture. As stated in my earlier post, fortunately we got preggers quickly, when I thought we’d be trying for awhile. So I had planned a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula. Once my classes were over, we’d go. I had started planning early and when the news came that I was to be with child, I still expected to go to Mexico. And really we would have, except for my debilitating first few months.

Once my puke sessions subsided, we did travel to see friends in Los Angeles and went back East to visit my in-laws. I did this during my second trimester, the best time to travel when you’re expecting. You have more energy and most of your morning sickness should have disappeared by then.

Like the Travel Channel advertises, I have the “travel bug”. I’m always willing (99% of the time) to get up and go somewhere, anywhere, to get away from the daily grind. Lucky for us, we HAVE to travel, at least to see my husband’s side of the family on the East Coast. So when our nugget was ready, we took him on an airplane ride when he was 3 months old. My in-laws had come out to see us for my son’s Baptism and after that, we flew with them back (yes, I suggested that we do that, because just knowing we had extra hands on-board provided us some comfort for our first flight with the baby). And our son did exceptionally well. Yeah, he cried a bit, but no meltdowns and he slept for most of the ride. We didn’t, but that’s ok.

Naturally, that flight gave us the confidence to plan a short trip to visit friends in Seattle and Portland (visits that were long overdue) by ourselves with the nugget. Baby in tow, we made it. By the end of this trip, our son had traveled by plane, train, and automobile (he’s also been on a boat). I gave us a solid 5 stars of success.

playing with sand for the first time

Lucky for our son, and I mean, L-U-C-K-Y, he got the chance to travel to the Caribbean before he turned a year old. That’s right, we took a five-hour flight to New York, had a four-hour layover, and flew another four hours to the island of St. Martin/St. Maarten. That was just getting there. Our return trip had us going from the island, back to New York, another four-hour layover, then a two-hour trip to D.C. for a short visit with the grandparents, and back to California a few days later.

It was a great trip and learning experience for all three of us. Again, our nugget did really well. He’s become quite the traveler. I think it’s because he began traveling so early and became familiar and comfortable in confined spaces for long periods of time. Now I just have to figure out if he can handle a direct flight to the Philippines.