Orlando

When C was 5 months pregnant the Big Dog thought it would be a good idea to book a trip to Orlando for the whole family – the baby was going to be 6 weeks old. After the Big Dog was taken from us we made a family decision to still go on the holiday as that’s what he would have wanted.

Unfortunately, two days before we were due to travel the Big Dog’s sister passed away suddenly. This pushed our trip back and Gray was 12 weeks old when set off for Orlando.

Bags packed to include the car seat, travel cot, microwave sterilizer and 110 bottles of Aptamil baby milk and away we went. The Big Dog liked us to travel in style so we were booked to fly Business Class with AerLingus. This made the 9-hour flight less daunting knowing we had extra room to cope with such a young infant. From the moment, we got on the plane the air hostess was besotted with Gray and made us feel really comfortable. Sitting down, strapped in with a glass of bubbly in my hand not knowing what was ahead for the next 9 hours. We need not have worried as Gray slept for 8 of the 9 hours only to wake for his bottle and a cuddly from the air hostess.

 We stayed in the Sheraton Apartments just off International Drive. We had a 2-bed apartment and it worked out really well as we needed to sterilize bottles and we had our own washer/dryer for the little guys clothes.

We managed to get a lot into our 2 ½ weeks considering the restraints of having such a small baby. We got out for dinner every night. We got to sunbath numerous days, we got to shop. I got to play golf. My personal highlight was when Gray met a talking Mickey Mouse in the Magic Kingdom. However just as we got outside Gray’s Nanny produced a massive Mickey Mouse teddy bear and said “this is from me and Grandad “. Needless to say, there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen as C and myself were a mess. I really found the Magic Kingdom to be very emotional as the Big Dog had brought C there when she was just 5 years old and all he wanted to do was take his Grandson there. Every time I heard that famous Disney music I would literally get goose bumps. Even now when I hear it, it kinda throws me.

People told us we were absolutely crazy taking such a young baby away on holidays but I can honestly say it was pretty easy. Gray was in a routine where he fed every 4 hours and he slept in between. We didn’t have to worry about jetlag or entertaining him anywhere near as much as we do now.

My advice to anybody taking a baby away in the first 6 months – go for it and don’t look back. We had an amazing time celebrating Gray’s first holiday, just how his Grandad intended.

Grays next holiday came 6 weeks later but this time daddy stayed at home to work, this was way tougher than one would think.