Am I crazy?

So, my husband and I both have 5 days off for the labor day weekend, and I really want to plan our first family vacation. We like in Michigan, so I was thinking about just going 2 1/2 hours west to lake michigan. I wanted to go Fri-Mon and stay in a hotel with a kitchenette. When I brought this up to my husband, he thinks that I am crazy, and that we would just be living in the hotel room. The babies will be 5 1/2 months old...did you guys go anywhere at this age. How was it??? Am I crazy for wanting to plan this?

 

I say go for it. If you have the desire, then by all means. For me personally, I wouldnt do it. I wasnt getting much sleep at all at night and I would of had no desire to lug 2 of everything somewhere for a long weekend. But, that is just me. When we travel, we go for at least a week. It usually takes my kids a couple of nights to settle in and if we just went for a long weekend they would be doing great right about the time that it was time to go. ardon: GL with your decision.

 

I thought about trying a vacation. I think it could work if we rented a condo or something with more than one room. Being stuck in a hotel room with 2 babies sounds miserable. Our babies don't nap well as it is. I think it would be worse in a hotel room. If you can pull it off, go for it. I know lots of people do take vacations with twins. We've also thought about staying at my parents' house. They have a pool and spa and we could have them watch the babies while we go out to dinner, etc.

 

We took all of our kids to Disney World when L&L were 5 months old. We rented a house for part of the trip & a condo on the beach for the rest of the time. It is very doable as long as you keep your expectations reasonable. Travelling with 2 young babies will never be like travelling before kids but it is enjoyable still, just in a different way. Do you have any grandparents who might like to vacation with you? Extra hands always make it more enjoyable.

 

Go for it! We took our babies on lots of trips. At 2.5 months we drove from CA to Alberta and back to go sightseeing, then we went to TX for Thanksgiving, NM for Christmas, Idaho in the spring to see some land, NM for Easter, and took the 1.5 hr drive down to Monterey a couple of times. Our girls weren't exactly angel babies but, with planning and a good attitude, we made it work just fine.

 

I don't think your Crazy but i would say you are very brave!! lol I am just starting to get the night sleep under control so i am far too scared to mess that up by letting them stay at Grandparents never mind a vacation! I am just a complete whimp when it comes to taking them anywhere though but if you are up for the challenge why not try it, it might be easier than your DH imagines. Good luck

 

We took the girls on vacation to the beach last summer when they were 9 months old. It was a lot of work, but it was still fun! It's better than no vacation at all, at least it is a change of scenery if nothing else. I would go!

 

I would certainly go! As pp said, if nothing else, it's a change of scenery which that itself sounds great to me! I'm planning to do a 10 hour drive next week with my 8.5 month olds. My dh and mil are going. Even if it rains everyday and I don't get to do a thing, I'll have a nice view and 24 hour/day help for an entire week!! Hope you get to go and enjoy your trip!

 

If you feel up to doing it, I say go for it and have fun! Good luck and have a fabulous time on your vacation!

 

Well honey if you are crazy then I am getting in the same boat. We are taking our family to the beach next Friday. We have been thru so much this year with the TTTS and fetal surgery and the twins coming @29 weeks and NICU,and our kids have had to endure tremendous stress watching momma and daddy and the twins go thru so much that we have decided to take them and just have some fun. We have never taken a family "vacation".. we have gotten away for like one night so this will be an adventure. We are starting to pack on Monday and we don't leave till Friday. I don't have huge expectations, but I do have plans. I want my kids to have the best possible fun they can. My hubby has worked so much overtime so we can treat them to this so it will work. Our twins are only going to be 3 months old when we go, and they aren't much for change. They love their schedules (as do I), but sometimes you have to just jump ship and do something fun, and go with the flow.

 

2 1/2 hours away sounds very reasonable. We live in Chicago and we drove the 5 hour (planned for 7 hours for stopping and feeding) drive to Ann Arbor, MI when our twins were about 5 months old. The drive was not so bad...so the 2 1/2 hours should be doable as long as they are on a 4 hour feeding schedule! Ours were not great nappers at that time either but while we were away they slept GREAT! I think they were just tired! They slept at least 2 hours at each nap time and also STTN. They were quite fussy otherwise (when they weren't sleeping) and we didn't have much fun because of it but still glad we went. Traveling with ours is not easy and it is quite stressful to the point that we just don't have much desire to go anywhere with them. Hoping it will get better when they are older! I guess my advice is- if you aren't spending a ton of money just to deal with fussy babies and you are reasonable with your expectations then go! They may surprise you and be little angels! Just keep to their feeding/sleeping schedules and you may enjoy it! Good luck and let us know how it goes!

 

We went to a family baseball trip. But I had a ton of family that wanted to fawn over the babies, so in other words, lots of help. If it were just DH and I and the babies, we'd have spent a lot more time in the hotel and wouldn't have done it.

Where in Michigan do you live? I live in the Detroit area.

 

i've highlighted all the things i was going to say too. go! be as prepared as possible for the extra work. have fun!

 

Hi, we went to the mountains when our twins were about 6 months old. Part of the time we were alone, and part of the time we had our babysitter/friend with us so we could go skiing. I think 2.5 hours is fine for a drive. We drove 5 hours and it stretched out into 7 with stops for the babies (diapers, etc).
My only suggestion...can you look into renting a condo? It's so much nicer. When the babies were napping we would hang out in the living room and chat or watch tv. Hanging out in a hotel room would be a bit of a drag, I think. It was nice to have a bedroom available for naps and it was comfortable.
I did a web search and found a condo for us. There is one web site called VRBO (vacation rentals by owner). The condo we rented came with a clubhouse, so there was a pool, spa and ping pong table. The price was about the same as a hotel (but we picked and older condo to keep the price down...it was fine).

 

i'd do it.

we went to florida for 10 days at 3m and had a nice vacation staying with in-laws

and since 8m, we've been driving 5hrs every weekend to a family summer home in upstate ny.

if you don't just want to be living in the hotel room, just pack the diaper bag well for outings that are like 3-4hrs at a time... for naps, mine will nap in the stroller, the car or in the beco carrier.

its not always easy but its worth it overall. stick to your same general schedule, but just prepare to get yourselves out of hotel room right after a key morning nap or bottle. be ready and packed so that you can skadoodle the minute they finish the bottle.

if you are going to a lake, maybe there is a park where you can have lunch together on the shore. the babies will enjoy the new sights.

 

We live in Plymouth...you??

 

I'm all for going! We're driving 3.5 hrs to the beach in about a month, can't wait! Having kids never stopped us travelling, we've been camping since our ds was about 18 months old. Granted I haven't gone with twins but I have gone with young kids (our first road trip was 30+ hrs ~ 3 days of driving one way ~ DS was 5 months old), and I agree it won't be quite as easy as it was pre-babies, but it'll be fun anyways!

 

Definitely keep your expectations low and have an exit strategy. My mother has a cottage on Lake Michigan and we've been twice. Once was fine, we had a great time. Then we went over the 4th and had to leave early because they both got sick!!

If you can get a place with separate bedrooms that would be really helpful, and don't forget to bring a white noise machine or a fan!