Embrace The Change, Travel Today
So, how did we actually plan a trip with a baby?
After doing our 2 month European adventure with an 8 month old, we often got asked the question, especially from apprehensive parents - 'How did you plan for it? I wouldn't know where to begin'.
When planning a trip with a baby, it's important to understand that you don't necessarily plan, you guess, you estimate and you assume.
Your baby is in a constant state of change. If you're a parent, you'll already know this from experiencing these changes unfold before you. But if you're an expecting or new parent, it's hard to comprehend just how many changes actually happen, let alone the frequency of these changes. What you're dealing with one week - probably won't be the same as the next week, especially at this young age.
The thought of travel may be daunting because of how many unknown changes there will be; especially when you take yourself to a place that is new and unfamiliar. For some, this is enough to put an end to any thought of even planning a trip.
It's important to remember that you know your child best, so the ideal way to plan for the trip is to understand your child and what they're capable of now and make judgement calls on how they will travel when the time comes.
When planning to travel with a baby, it's important to understand what state of development they're in and make considerations, should their behaviours change before and/or during the trip:
Is your child a good napper away from their bed?
If your child can easily nap on the go, it will free up your time to explore further away from your accommodation. Before leaving on our trip, Miss Adventure could do pram naps, but wouldn't sleep in a carrier. However, while traveling, this changed - pram naps were out of the question, carrier naps were back in fashion. More often than not, we would try our best to do short bursts of exploration and then return to our accommodation so she could get a decent sleep.
Do they adapt well in different environments?
Differences or changes in environments can be overstimulating - if your child doesn't do well with these sorts of changes, your best bet is to stay in one location for a longer amount of time, as to not put pressure on yourself or your child. Before the trip, Miss Adventure was fairly adaptable and embraced changes in environment quickly. From a very early age, she was attentive and quietly inquisitive, so we were pretty sure that she would have an enjoyable time, traversing around Europe in a stroller (which she loved!).
Are they eating solid foods and if so, have you thought about allergens/intolerances to foods?
If your child hasn't started solids yet, you should definitely consider how your travel will impact on their feeding. Breast will be readily available, but if you're bottle feeding, you'll have all the considerations that come along with that (access to formula and and bottle sterilising accessories) and it may change the style of travel that you choose to do. Despite Mike and I having no food allergies, it was still a worry when introducing Miss Adventure to solid foods, so we managed to expose her to all of the possible food allergens before we left. This was especially important for seafood and shellfish; as we would be staying in coastal towns and partaking in the local delicacies. Understanding your childs tolerance to different types of foods is extremely worthwhile before leaving on your journey, to avoid an unexpected trip to emergency whilst on the road.
Your baby is in a constant state of change, which means you, as a parent, are also in a constant state of change.
As much as you can plan around caring for your baby during a travel adventure, you must also keep in mind caring for yourself, as the parent.
When planning for travel, you can ensure that you'll have a better trip - if you take considerations on how you'll cope and adapt to the unfolding developments of your baby.
From newborn to almost 4 months, Miss Adventure was a perfect sleeper; we were getting full nights of uninterupted sleep, and then one day, that came to an end - she was waking up through the night constantly and was very dependent on her mum to resettle. This was a development change that we didn't see coming.
Once we got through the newborn phase and started to settle in to Miss Adventure's rhythms, we felt pretty comfortable, and this is what made us feel confident enough to travel. But once the new norm of sleepless nights settled in and we became accustomed to such a drastic change, we felt even more confident than before about adapting whilst on the road.
We figured, if we're going to have sleepless nights, we may as well have them in Italy.
Changes through your childs development can be tricky to deal with and the thought of these occuring whilst travelling may feel a little scary. So, when planning for your next trip, embrace the possible changes and know that it might be tough. Keep in mind, you know your child best, you'll make it work, so get out there and have your adventure.
See you on the road.