Aw: Holiday traveling

[astheria]

Will you be traveling with your babes this holiday season?

DH and I are struggling with the decision. I just took two months leave for maternity leave. If we went home it would be a two day drive with our e and two 70lbs dogs. That's not even the worst, we would go from Texas to Michigan where there is ice and snow...and massive flu season. It would be E's first time in Michigan, so everyone would want to hold him, so the potential for illness is huge. But his great grandparents would love to see him, as well as aunts and uncles that haven't had money to travel here. So ya, we have no clue what to do...if I can even take the vacation time.

If we stay home my mom is planning to come for Christmas and dh's parents for New Years to see E.



So advice is appreciated and your stories past and present.

[abvintage]

We are traveling from Utah to Texas. Driving with our dog as well its a 24 hour drive. That being said we are driving away from the snow.

Driving makes me really nervous so I personally would not want to drive there. If flying was an option (and boarding the dogs) and you asked family members to get flu shots I would go. That's me personally if I were in your shoes.

[astheria]

Nov 1, 2015 16:14:07 GMT -5 abvintage said:

We are traveling from Utah to Texas. Driving with our dog as well its a 24 hour drive. That being said we are driving away from the snow.

Driving makes me really nervous so I personally would not want to drive there. If flying was an option (and boarding the dogs) and you asked family members to get flu shots I would go. That's me personally if I were in your shoes.

Ya that's one of the issues. One of our dogs has seizures every few months and I would have a panic attack boarding them. And we don't have friends that can watch them. Plus there's the huge family Christmas (more than 100 people) and about a third are anti meds/anti vaxx which scares the crap out of me with him so young. Forgot to add that part.

[lemon200]

I'm travelling the 8+ hrs to PA for Thanksgiving and then will be driving the 5 hrs to my home town a couple of times this winter to see my family.

[telos]

I would stay home. For the drive, are you factoring in all of the frequent stops you'd have to take?

Also, how does E do in the car? I wouldn't do it with Isaac because, during his fussy time, the car doesn't soothe him. He only wants to be held and nurse. So, we have to plan all of our car trips around his fussy time, because driving with a crying baby in the car is a special kind of hell. But, some babies are soothed by the car. We took some road trips with DS1 and DD and frequent six hour drives, no problem.

Above all, though, it's your first Christmas as a family of three, and I think you might enjoy it more in this particular situation if you're not driving so much/worried about E getting sick/worried about the dogs/worried about the vacation time, etc.

One of my mantras of new motherhood is: go simple whenever you can. Staying home sounds much simpler here. And you still get to see some family. So, that's what I'd do.


ETA obvs this doesn't apply to all traveling situations. It's a balancing act. But if it were me in your shoes astheria, I'd say the scales tip in favor of home. But, seeing family is important too. So hard.

[aracale]

With having to take the dogs and having half of your family anti-vax I would personally choose to stay home.
We don't really have a choice to make. We are in AZ, all of our family is in NC and VA. Plane tickets ate expensive plus my husband's job doesn't really allow for time off during the holidays so it would be just A and I going. Instead we will be spending "Christmas" (H will probably work on actual Christmas so we do it on his nearest day off) at home, just the three of us. I'm excited to start our family traditions and not have to accommodate family this year. We'll probably Skype with the family too.

[flippinchica]

That trip sounds terrible. We are going to Florida for Christmas and are flying. It is a pretty quick plane trip and we will see my grandma, H's parents and sister and my sister. I'm working New Years week in tx and h will come with to help care for baby.

[ajetter]

We're opting to stay home this year. We made that decision long before Thea was born, but it turns out she is HORRIBLE in the car. It does not keep her asleep, so even the three hour drive to Omaha didn't seem manageable.

Also when we go we stay in a hotel. My kids have only known Christmas morning in a hotel room. I'm so excited to have them wake up in our home Christmas morning. It's hard no doubt, to decide to stay home. My parents and sister will be in town, but we've gone to our extended family Chrisrmas nearly every year of my life. It will be weird not seeing them. But truly the car ride is enough to make me stay home.

[motownthrowdown]

Nov 1, 2015 16:22:54 GMT -5 astheria said:

Nope nope nope. 30 unvaccinated people slobbering all over him, kissing, touching, breathing on him. Cue nervous breakdown. 

[abvintage]

Yeah, so in my opinion I might stay home. I agree you get to still see some family and TBH you will be able to focus on LO's first Christmas so much better without the chaos. They can't have a flush it until 6 months so the no flu shots of your family is a little scary

[hiimjamie]

We drove from Florida to Illinois when Jake was 3 weeks old with our 2 dogs. Jake slept most of the time, we stopped halfway in Tennessee overnight and brought our Lullago for him to sleep in. We went to a wake and funeral with him so he was around A LOT of people, but I wore him so no one really touched him. We're planning on doing our annual trip up there at the end of December and also going to Connecticut. We'll be driving to Illinois, staying a week, flying to Connecticut, staying for a week, flying back to Illinois and then driving home. We have some anti vaxxers on my wife's side in Illinois. Not sure how we're going to deal with that yet, but as for the road trip part? You'll be fine! We stopped about every 3 hours so we could feed and change Jake.

[lindy]

We are going to the ILs over Christmas. It's about a 9 hour (10-11 hour with stops) drive. It's long but not really negotiable for us not to go.

[ars093s]

I agree it really depends on your LO. A HATES being in her carseat so no way we'd do a road trip personally. That said, we will be flying to TX to visit H's family and MO to visit mine. I'm nervous to fly, but there are family members who wouldn't be able to meet A if we don't go...so we're gonna hope for the best. And that no one gets sick as we go from one climate to another.

[Deleted]

We are driving 12 hours from MD to alabama. We usually leave right after dinner and drive all night and get there for breakfast. Dd#1 has slept 90% of the drive the 3 times we have done it. I prefer it since there is less traffic, fewer stops and it goes by fast. Hopefully baby will take a page from her sister. At least this year I will have practice functioning on little sleep.

[tmclawchick]

Hmmm... if it was just the long drive I'd say "eh, I'd do it". But honestly, the long drive + the large unvaccinated crowd would make me doubt it. Maybe you could plan a skype Christmas and go to see your immediate family members a few weeks later?

For us this year, I'm torn. When DS was born we drove from MI to NJ and it was brutal - a 12 hour trip turned into a 15 hour odyssey; we got in at almost midnight Christmas Eve. It was hectic, stressful and expensive (we boarded our dog) and we vowed that all future Christmas mornings would be spent at our place, rather than frantically driving all over God's creation to try to see everyone. I think we're still going to stick to that, though we may fly out to NJ for New Years, and then I'll invite my parents here to have Christmas a little late. They're retired so I think it'd be way easier for them to make the trip than us, but I'm sure my mother will have an issue with it.

Gah, the holidays are stressful!

[shellyr]

If baby travels nicely in the car and the weather is good, it might not be so bad.

We don't want to travel to our parent's homes 1500 miles away for Christmas, but we are getting massive pressure to do so. It isn't a holiday I even religiously celebrate and I don't want to deal with the cost and hassle. I'm torn on what to do.