Heather and I were brainstorming advice to share for women who are anticipating the birth of their first child and wanting to take a vacation — a babymoon — to commemorate their final moments as a family of two, when I remembered that my friend Rachel was actually on one.
Here’s what she said upon her return:
I tend to be an adventurous vacationer. If there’s skydiving, ziplining or rafting, I’ve got us signed up. I usually plan activities or outings every day because I’m always afraid I’m going to miss out on some experience wherever we are. But this vacation was all about relaxing. (And I obviously am not in physical condition to go hopping out of airplanes.) We planned NOTHING. We woke up every day, had a leisurely breakfast and said, “What should we do today?” I was worried about being bored, but it was such an amazing way to relax with my husband before our life becomes chaotic. We packed a cooler of food and drinks, hopped in the car and just drove from beach to beach with nothing but books and snorkel gear for entertainment.
Also, we had a few baby-related conversations (batted around names, talked colors for the nursery), but mostly we just hung out and enjoyed being a couple without kids. I feel like I have ‘baby’ on my mind all the time these days, so it was really nice to just be a person and not a mom-to-be for a while. We had long chats about what’s going on in the world and our careers and caught up on life in general.
I highly recommend taking the time to enjoy the leisure of no demands from anyone as well as the ability to do exactly what you want, when you want, with no guilt! I know these small luxuries will change when my our little one arrives, so for me this was the perfect last hurrah.
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Did you take a babymoon? What do you think are the best babymoon destinations?
We were just in Maui and it seemed like everyone there was on their babymoon! Lots of pregnant mamas around. I would not choose Hawaii for mine though… because the main thing I like to do in Hawaii is eat raw fish and that seems to be something you’re not supposed to do while you’re pregnant. I think it would be torture to be in Hawaii and not get my 3 daily poke/sushi meals!
Absolutely no time for a babymoon, but two weeks after our little guy was born, we had a date night to the movies. It was probably too early as I could still barely walk straight and I kept calling Grandma every hour to check in on little one. But, it did give me confidence that we could go out again and it was sooooo nice to focus on a movie rather than spit up and a sore body for a little while!
Did you take a babymoon? I wish! But it does sound like a wonderful idea if you can possibly manage it.
Does it count as a babymoon if it’s also technically your honeymoon?? Lol…We were one of those ‘lucky’ couples that got pregnant when we were still talking dates for the wedding. So we went ahead & tied the knot…we knew we wouldn’t get a honeymoon if we waited until the baby was born!
We didn’t when I was prego w/ #1, I was so uncomfortable in the car that we gave up on trying a little weekend road trip that we had originally talked about. I couldn’t bring myself to leave #1 so we didn’t do one when I was prego w/ #2, but now that I’m prego with #3 I’m already planning one! I’m planning on going in late January or February when it’s cold here and I cannot wait!!!
We went camping in Banff and Jasper national parks in Canada. It was breath-taking. Although having shooting pains one afternoon in the tent at 32 weeks had us in a panic. High altitude = gas, turns out.
Imagine your honeymoon with most of the exciting stuff removed as well as a limited capacity or interest in sex. Welcome to your babymoon. In my opinion, here’s what’s good/what’s bad:
We took a babymoon when I was 5 months pregnant. We camped on little Lopez Island at a swank private campground (glass-tiled, double-head showers; microwave; brewed-coffee; and no kids allowed). We bought our first fleece-covered air mattress. It was bliss.
We also traveled back to my husband’s hometown for a wedding when I was 7 months. Not bliss.
But what I really remember as the times when we had our bonding-before-the-baby moments was over dinner after our childbirth classes. For 6 Sunday nights in a row we went to this Thai place that had a deck under an old oak tree with twinkling lights. Super bliss.
My husband and I took a babymoon before the arrival of each of our two daughters. The first was to Boston and the second was just a short getaway to a B&B at the beach. Both were wonderful, but we definitely appreciated the second one much more!!
If money and time are tight, even a short babymoon (1-2 nights) is worth it.
I was 7mos pregnant on our 1yr wedding anniversary and we took a little 4-5 day road trip babymoon up to Quebec. We spent 2 nights at a lovely hotel in Granby, chosen because it had a spa offering prenatal massages, a freshwater swimming pool, and a huge jetted tub in the room. We lounged around, enjoyed a gourmet picnic in our room, had some great meals out, swam/floated, got massages, and enjoyed the hot tub (comfortably warm but not too hot since we could control the temp ourselves.) After that, we drove west to Montreal, where we spent another 2 nights, this time hitting IKEA for stuff for the baby’s room, more walking, restaurants, shopping for baby clothes, etc. (Side note: we were pleased to see that Canadian stores had a lot more gender-neutral baby stuff.)
It was a lovely trip to celebrate our couplehood and have one last chance to get away, just the two of us, without anyone to worry about back at home. 2yrs later, 7mos pregnant w/baby #2 on our 3yr anniversary, we went to Cape Cod for 2 days/1 night. Again we hit IKEA, and enjoyed a lovely picnic in our room, jetted tub, etc. Even if you can’t make a weeklong tropical vacation, I think it’s very grounding to get away with your partner in advance of a new baby’s birth.
I so wish we would have had time to take one. We adopted and only had about 6-8 weeks to plan for the baby. But if we ever have another chance I’d take one and we tell everyone I know to do the same!!
My fiance and I wanted to take a babymoon but it wasnt fitting in the budget- however I am an artist and as luck would have it someone needed me to complete a mural in Buffalo NY, all expenses paid, and would also pay for me to have an “assistant”
Now i know what your thinking it sounds like work in a boring place- but it ended up being a really fun weekend for us. We live in the constant grind of Manhattan so a little escape was nice. I made them book us a luxury suite at the Embassy Suites in Buffalo and we not only completed this beautiful project of this mural together (before our new “living” beautiful project comes into the world) but had a really nice time lounging around our suite enjoying room service, going out to dinner, visiting Niagara Falls and having a mini vacation. It brought some romance back in where baby planning and money concerns had taken over. And in the end we went home with more money in our pocket!
My partner and I were surprised by our first pregnancy this November. We had been talking about wanting to plan a vacation this year, but definitely moved that timeline up to babymoon status. We spent a week in St. Thomas–the first and last day of the trip, we simply spent the day on the beach or by the pool. We did little trips (to an aquarium, a well-known beach in the area and snorkeling with sea turtles) on the other days. It was so low stress and allowed us to really indulge in just being a couple without the distractions of work, home and baby planning. And we have plenty of pictures and even a stuffed sea turtle to commemorate Charlie’s “first vacation.” I definitely recommend it!