Babyless for 10 Days?!

Tomorrow afternoon, I'm leaving to go on vacation...WITHOUT my baby girl. For 10 (more like 11) days. As the countdown to vacation started to tick away, I can feel a little bit more anxiety building in my belly every day.

Harper is a really independent baby. She likes to play on her own, whether it's on the floor, in her walker, or in her jumparoo. She's been this way since she was born. She'd rather be down looking around, taking it all in, than held and snuggled. While this is great, and I'm sure it'll lead to an independent young woman, I can't help but be a little sad that she never wants to snuggle me unless she's hurt. She loves spending time with all of our family. She goes out all the time to visit with my aunt, dad and stepmother, mother/father in law, cousin, and a whole lot of other family members. She readily goes to anyone who wants to hold her or play with her. The point of this is, I'm sure she'll be just fine without me. She's staying with my mother and father in law, and I'm sure she'll have a blast.

It's me I'm concerned about.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited and thankful I'm able to go on vacation this year. I've also been away from Harper before. Only for 2 days though. Not 10. Actually, she spent her first night away from me (other than the NICU) when she was 2 weeks old. She stayed all night at her grammy and grampie's house (which is just next door). She was only getting up once in the night at that point, so my mother in law graciously offered to take her. We slept well that night! At 6 weeks old, I had to go to the mainland to write a test, so I stayed away from her all night then as well. We've gone away for a couple of days too. But by the time I get home, I'm more than excited and ready to see her again.

Labadee, Haiti on the Oasis of the Seas

While we're gone, I'll be able to be in contact for the first 4 days, but then we're going on a cruise and won't be able to use the internet (it sucks pretty badly on cruise ships). I'm not sure if that's going to be a good thing, or a bad thing. I feel like if I were able to see her via facetime, I would cry and be even sadder. But on the other hand, it would be nice to see her and say hi and see that she's doing okay, and tell her I love her and miss her. I'm sure we'll check out what they have to offer for internet, but on the Oasis of the Seas it was really poor. We paid for so many minutes of internet and every time we went to type in a message to someone, it wouldn't send. Needless to say I went down to customer service and left them a piece of my mind and took back our money.

Boogie Boarding on the Oasis

Being away from her for so long is actually the reason I thought a cruise would be a good option for this vacation. Our first cruise together was 2 Februarys ago on the Oasis of the Seas and it was the funnest, busiest, most amazing vacation we've been on yet. That's the best part about a cruise. You can be as busy or as relaxed as you like. You can sit by the pool all day or you can run around and go to all the ship activities like we did. We went to every trivia we could possibly get to, all the shows, mini golf competitions, ping pong tournaments, dance classes (ok just me on that one) and cupcake decorating class! When thinking about leaving our baby, I thought it would be best if I was busy busy busy! I thought a cruise would offer this better than a resort. The resort we went to on our honeymoon offered a few activities, but most of them were the 'wet t-shirt/tequila volleyball' type of things, which if you knew us, that'd be the last place in the world you would find us. Instead, we spent a bunch of money and went on a bunch of excursions.

Dunn's River Falls, Jamaica
This year, we're going on Princess Cruise Lines, the Royal Princess. It's a brand spanking new ship, just out this past June. It looks absolutely beautiful. We're heading to the Bahamas, St Thomas, and St Maarten. The rest of the days are spent at sea, enjoying the beautiful ship. I'm excited to see what they have for on board activities. We love trivia, so hopefully there will be lots of that. They have a feature called movies under the stars, where you watch a movie on the top deck with blankets, popcorn, and blankets. Fun! We love playing ping pong too, so we're hoping to find a few of those tables on there. We told ourselves we need to be social at dinner time this time around, and sit with other people. Last time we only did it once, but it was fun! We're not super outgoing so this is out of our comfort zone a bit, but it'll be fun to meet new people!

So, my plan for the vacation is to just try and not think about it. To be busy busy busy and have so much fun! Try new things, meet new people, enjoy sun and sand, and be thankful that I'm able to go at all.

Have you been away from your baby for a long time? How did you handle it? Any tips you can give me??

Comments

  1. The longest I've been away from Clay is just over 24 hours. He usually spends one weekend night with Mike each week but I've never went longer than that! My mom keeps asking when he can come and stay for a week by himself (she's 4 hours away). Since he's been born I've told her this summer he could but now that it's getting closer I don't know if I can!

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    1. I know I'm gonna cry. Hopefully I can just keep busy enough to not think about how far away she is!

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  2. So exciting!!! I love cruising (I've done 6? Including Alaska & Europe (HIGHLY recommended!)) for all of the same reasons. I've been to all of the stops you're hitting and you'll definitely have to do some snorkelling! It's my favourite thing in the Caribbean. :)

    It will be a long time to be away from her, but you'll keep busy and have fun. It will be a very nice break for you and your husband to spend some quality time together.

    HAVE A BLAST!!!

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    1. Thanks!! I'm sure we'll have a ball. It'll just be hard for me to leave the house. I've had a couple cries already, I'm sure there will be more.

      I love snorkelling. We have excursions planned for both st thomas and st maarten already, but we're wide open for the bahamas. I think we're winging that one lol.

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    2. Bahamas was really expensive. We got off the boat, walked around the downtown and then ended up getting back on and enjoying the pool and the mainly empty boat. It was like $20 each way for both of us to the beach and once you got to the beach, you paid, for EVERYTHING and being on board was so relaxing. Hope you have great weather!!!

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  3. The longest I've been away from my daughter Maylee is 12 hours! hahaha You are one brave mama! More power to you, my friend! I can't even begin to imagine leaving Maylee for 24 hours, but I know I will be more open to the idea in the near future(I hope!).

    I've only done one cruise and that's with my husband on our honeymoon. We didn't go to the Caribbean on that cruise, but we did go to Jamaica on a different trip. I hope you and your hubby have a great time on your vacation! Try not to worry too much and enjoy!

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