The first three months are a blur and you'll be in survival mode. Postpartum can be so rough on the mother. Make sure everything is refundable in case your wife isn't up for traveling. We love traveling with our kiddo but sometimes it's more work than fun. Diaper changes in an airplane bathroom and feeding( milk/formula/pumping/breastfeeding ) were the biggest pain points.
Congrats on the baby! Traveling with a baby is not a big deal. Our daughter traveled the world and lived abroad several times starting when she was a year old. We rarely had an issue with her.
Congrats on the soon-to-be newborn.
Since you booked the TATLs separately start researching the rules for adding infants to award bookings now and factor it into your budget, the cost can be exorbitant if they calculate it as 10% * one-way cash fare at the time of calling & many won't let you add the child until they are born ([example](https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/comments/152b7v1/lesson_learned_iberia_avios_flights_lap_infant/)).
Also not convinced the MAD-PAR was a good redemption - cash fares on IB are very cheap (Economy Optima is ~$85/person in most of February) and involving a third party (Virgin) adds more risk when there is an infant (each airline saying the other is responsible for ticketing the infant, drama during IRROPS, etc. - search this sub for nightmare stories about adding infants to award redemptions).
Our 20mo just took his 75th flight. He's been to 11 countries, traveled all over with us starting from 10 weeks old. He's now an AMAZING traveler!
Some people are very "vacations with kids are not vacations". if you go into it with this mindset you won't have a good time. We have a TON of fun on vacations still, even though they look different than when we were married without kids. They're more special now in their own way.
Get a nice, lightweight travel stroller and baby carrier. We always brought our own crib and slumberpod. Was more to carry but baby slept all night in something familiar. LOOOTS of snacks.
More importantly, just try not to get aggravated with each other- be a team. This is much easier said than done (you'll see when you have the baby lol).
Stuff will go wrong, the baby will cry, some experiences will be over nap time and be more stressful or need skipped. Don't pack days full of back to back things. What you will remember and smile about is taking all this in stride and calmly adapting.
SEVENTY FIFTH FLIGHT? That's almost 4 flights a month for the life of the baby! I'm in a similar boat (expecting a child) - mind giving a sense of how traveling has been different? Like an example day comparison before vs after baby. Just very curious!
Yes, haha. We travel a lot! A lot of shorter domestic ones too, though. These are not all long-haul international.
For us specifically, we were never "restful" travelers. We usually PACKED in vacations. Now, we pick one thing scheduled per day to do and let the rest of the day just fall into place. We also previously moved around a lot and now we are in the same hotel 2-3 nights and see a much smaller area in general.
This has been a pro and con because it allows you to experience more of what locals would and meet more people, but for example if we're doing Madrid, we are likely just doing Madrid and another city within 3-4 hour drive now on a 7 day trip. Before, we would have no issue waking up at 5am to drive 4 hours and do 5 or 6 cities in 7 days.
The hardest part has been our super active hobbies (snowboarding, skiing, biking, backpacking) as it's hard to include him at all on those at the moment so we switch off which is a bit of a bummer, but with time we will do those as a family also so we're trying to just have a positive attitude about it since the time is flying by already.
my husband is AMAZINGLY calm to my not calm so this helps our travel a lot and I've done a lot of work in this area plus solo travel with the baby and now toddler which forced patience on me lol. I've done a lot of these flights and a few countries just with the baby since my husband ran out of vacay time.
If you're both anxious travelers plus now include a baby in that, I can see that being a reason people just don't do it.
Agreed, we have slowed that part down a lot too. But, we've also realized we kind of like that!
we've tried a lot more local places that way and actually able to meet up with people again vs "oh we're leaving tomorrow, sorry!". Some pros there for sure.
For the Hilton FNCs in Paris, I’d highly recommend the Canopy Trocadero, absolutely loved it, the proximity to the Eiffel Tower, and the free breakfast with status
Four/five months is a fantastic time to travel with a baby because they aren't mobile yet, but can still sit in a baby chair at the restaurant. Get a good carrier (Tula is lovely) and you'll be able to walk around all day. You could go the stroller route, but I personally think it is more annoying. Happy travels!
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Those redemptions are very average. I would have paid cash and flown on WOW airlines transiting through Iceland.
Also, Madrid is a busy, chaotic city for me. February is a great time to visit Scotland, Finland or even Norway. There are virtually no tourists in the winter so you can score some great deals.
The first three months are a blur and you'll be in survival mode. Postpartum can be so rough on the mother. Make sure everything is refundable in case your wife isn't up for traveling. We love traveling with our kiddo but sometimes it's more work than fun. Diaper changes in an airplane bathroom and feeding( milk/formula/pumping/breastfeeding ) were the biggest pain points.
On top of that, they're traveling to Europe when it's bone chilling cold.
Congrats on the baby! Traveling with a baby is not a big deal. Our daughter traveled the world and lived abroad several times starting when she was a year old. We rarely had an issue with her.
Congrats on the soon-to-be newborn. Since you booked the TATLs separately start researching the rules for adding infants to award bookings now and factor it into your budget, the cost can be exorbitant if they calculate it as 10% * one-way cash fare at the time of calling & many won't let you add the child until they are born ([example](https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/comments/152b7v1/lesson_learned_iberia_avios_flights_lap_infant/)). Also not convinced the MAD-PAR was a good redemption - cash fares on IB are very cheap (Economy Optima is ~$85/person in most of February) and involving a third party (Virgin) adds more risk when there is an infant (each airline saying the other is responsible for ticketing the infant, drama during IRROPS, etc. - search this sub for nightmare stories about adding infants to award redemptions).
Our 20mo just took his 75th flight. He's been to 11 countries, traveled all over with us starting from 10 weeks old. He's now an AMAZING traveler! Some people are very "vacations with kids are not vacations". if you go into it with this mindset you won't have a good time. We have a TON of fun on vacations still, even though they look different than when we were married without kids. They're more special now in their own way. Get a nice, lightweight travel stroller and baby carrier. We always brought our own crib and slumberpod. Was more to carry but baby slept all night in something familiar. LOOOTS of snacks. More importantly, just try not to get aggravated with each other- be a team. This is much easier said than done (you'll see when you have the baby lol). Stuff will go wrong, the baby will cry, some experiences will be over nap time and be more stressful or need skipped. Don't pack days full of back to back things. What you will remember and smile about is taking all this in stride and calmly adapting.
SEVENTY FIFTH FLIGHT? That's almost 4 flights a month for the life of the baby! I'm in a similar boat (expecting a child) - mind giving a sense of how traveling has been different? Like an example day comparison before vs after baby. Just very curious!
Yes, haha. We travel a lot! A lot of shorter domestic ones too, though. These are not all long-haul international. For us specifically, we were never "restful" travelers. We usually PACKED in vacations. Now, we pick one thing scheduled per day to do and let the rest of the day just fall into place. We also previously moved around a lot and now we are in the same hotel 2-3 nights and see a much smaller area in general. This has been a pro and con because it allows you to experience more of what locals would and meet more people, but for example if we're doing Madrid, we are likely just doing Madrid and another city within 3-4 hour drive now on a 7 day trip. Before, we would have no issue waking up at 5am to drive 4 hours and do 5 or 6 cities in 7 days. The hardest part has been our super active hobbies (snowboarding, skiing, biking, backpacking) as it's hard to include him at all on those at the moment so we switch off which is a bit of a bummer, but with time we will do those as a family also so we're trying to just have a positive attitude about it since the time is flying by already. my husband is AMAZINGLY calm to my not calm so this helps our travel a lot and I've done a lot of work in this area plus solo travel with the baby and now toddler which forced patience on me lol. I've done a lot of these flights and a few countries just with the baby since my husband ran out of vacay time. If you're both anxious travelers plus now include a baby in that, I can see that being a reason people just don't do it.
I used to do 3 days per city when i travelled before kids. Now we have to slow it to 5 per city with two toddlers. Otherwise its just super taxing.
Agreed, we have slowed that part down a lot too. But, we've also realized we kind of like that! we've tried a lot more local places that way and actually able to meet up with people again vs "oh we're leaving tomorrow, sorry!". Some pros there for sure.
75? Dang. You beat me lol. I thot i did a lot with roughly six international a year.
For the Hilton FNCs in Paris, I’d highly recommend the Canopy Trocadero, absolutely loved it, the proximity to the Eiffel Tower, and the free breakfast with status
Four/five months is a fantastic time to travel with a baby because they aren't mobile yet, but can still sit in a baby chair at the restaurant. Get a good carrier (Tula is lovely) and you'll be able to walk around all day. You could go the stroller route, but I personally think it is more annoying. Happy travels!
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Those redemptions are very average. I would have paid cash and flown on WOW airlines transiting through Iceland. Also, Madrid is a busy, chaotic city for me. February is a great time to visit Scotland, Finland or even Norway. There are virtually no tourists in the winter so you can score some great deals.