Have Baby? Will Travel?

Throughout my pregnancy people kept telling us that our days traveling were over, no more “exotic” vacations, no more last minute trips, no more flying…blah, blah, blah. There was something about being told “your days of traveling are over” that inspired me to book this trip.

March, 2018

I was on maternity leave, caring for this tiny, premature, 5 lb baby (smelling like spit up and having not showered for way longer than I will ever admit publicly), staring at an endless pile of laundry and stuck in the new mom cycle – feed the baby, change the baby, pump, wash pump parts, wash bottles, and start all over again. No sleep + postpartum emotions (in March, in Ohio) = late night Amazon purchases and dreaming of the next time I could get my toes in the sand. Without even talking to my husband, I booked us a trip to Grand Cayman in September – 6 months out. Honestly, I assumed we wouldn’t get to go on the trip – between our new expenses and hurricane season, I assumed I would have to cancel the trip. But in the moment, it felt like the only way I would feel like myself again, was to go to the sea. And booking that trip gave me a little hope that in 6 months, I’d be myself again.

May 2018

The week of Memorial Day I returned to work, and did some investigating into whether or not I would have enough vacation time to cover the trip…that was now 16 weeks away. If I was careful, I would be able to pull this off. I began researching things like ‘Grand Cayman on a Budget,’ ‘traveling with an infant,’ ‘am I crazy for taking my 6 month old to the Caribbean?’ – you know, usual pre-trip research. I dusted off the vacation packing lists and made one for the tiny human. I started my budget spreadsheet and came clean with the husband about my evil scheming over the past few weeks. Our passports were up for renewal, and tiny human would of course need one. We scheduled our appointments for the one-stop passport office in town, and were determined to make this happen (with hurricane season being our only barrier).

July 2018

Once our passports arrived, we booked our flights and we were officially on vacation countdown – which was roughly 6 weeks away!