How to holiday with a baby without losing your mind.

My husband used to travel for work often, and it was never a problem – until we had our first child.

Suddenly, I was terrified of the responsibility of being left home all alone with my tiny baby son – and so that’s how I ended up going on a holiday with a five-and-a-half-month-old. Crazy, I know.

We arrived at the resort and I sat in our room as my husband unloaded our small luggage bags and our baby’s very large one, plus the pram, travel cot, bottle steriliser and all the other equipment required for our baby’s first holiday.

My husband unpacked the cot and began setting it up. It seemed easy. Except one side refused to lock into place and stubbornly sagged where it should have been sturdy. Uh oh.

We were hit with a sick feeling that we had been the unlucky couple to buy the one, lone, faulty travel cot in the baby shop.

I offered to try and set it up myself, however my husband refused my help. By this time he was sweating and Philip was crying.

When he finally left the room to find help, I gently placed Philip on his play mat and crawled over to the cot to try and set it up myself, but no matter what I did, that one side refused to lock into place.

When my husband returned with a staff member, Philip and I were both crying. The alarmed-looking staff member quickly walked over to the travel cot, deftly collapsed it back down and then set it up in seconds, that sagging side now pompously locked in. And like that, our baby holiday almost-disaster was avoided.

But I’m not the only mum with stories about their baby’s first holiday. Oh no.

The Mamamia Women’s Network has recently conducted the Baby’s First Holiday survey, which revealed that mums and dads tended to go on far less holidays once their baby was born. In fact, even the most devoted travel buffs halved the number of holidays they took after welcoming a little one into their lives.

One in four mums said they took their baby on their first holiday before they were three months old, and described the feat as “stressful” and “exhausting”, requiring careful organisation – but “still fun”. Phew. The same group said they most missed the “freedom”, “spontaneity”, “sleep” and “relaxing” they enjoyed pre-baby. Hands up if you can relate…

The clear message from the survey? BE PREPARED, and try not to forget anything. The most common items parents forgot to bring with them on baby’s first holiday? Dummies, bottle brush, spare clothes for mum on the plane, thermometer, Baby Panadol, bibs, baby wipes and a phone charger. Eeek.

The items parents really don’t want to have to pack include travel cots (AGREED), floatation devices, a car seat, pram, toys, healthy snacks, kids’ cutlery and a baby monitor. But really, in this day and age, any holiday location targeting families should have most of these things ready and waiting for parents, right? And any resort that provides all of these items and sets them up ahead of arrival? Legends.

In fact, just give me all of the above, plus excellent food, cleaning and frequent laundry services, and you won’t be able to get rid of us. We might even move in, permanently.

You’ll be pleased to know that the rest of our first holiday with our baby went much better than that first hour. In fact, it was pretty relaxing and so nice to be away from home and enjoying the sunshine together.

We quickly realised we’d been under-prepared and over-packed. We definitely should have performed a ‘mock baby arrival’ scenario before departing.

So here’s my advice when it comes to holidaying with a baby. Before leaving, ring ahead and ask them exactly what they can provide for your baby, with the car seat, pram and travel cot at the top of the list. Ask if any additional needs can be met for a small fee and then ring when you land to tell them you are on your way and can they PLEASE make sure the travel cot is set up and ready.

That way, you can feed the baby, get them down for a nap and prevent any sobbing (from you) from occurring.

What is your experience of taking a baby on holiday? What would you pack?

Want more? How about:

Michelle Bridges laughs off critics and digs into crepes on Polynesian holiday.

Great news, travellers. Your armrest battles are FINALLY over.