Aahhhh.....Jamaica

Well we survived our first family trip! Jamaica was a great time... definitely a different vacation compared to when we were there last year at the same time though. Last year we were at a couples only resort... and in fact we found out we were pregnant with Nicholas when we returned. This year we headed to a more family oriented hotel. Our friends Leighann and Scott joined us last year for our trip to Couples Negril and we talked them into returning again this year - haha! I vote Jamaica for Thanksgiving EVERY year!!

So this year we stayed at the Iberostar Rose Hall Suites right in Montego Bay. Definitely nice to only be 20 minutes from the airport rather than the 90 minutes when we go to Negril. The downfall though is that the Montego Bay area ocean water can't even begin to compare to the beaches in Negril. Definitely can't have it all right?! The Iberostar was a perfect resort for a family vacation. There were so many kids there - we definitely would have been disappointed with the property if it was just the two of us but it was perfect with the baby. It's nice when there are so many kids around so you don't have to feel guilty when they cry!

The Iberostar was an all suites property so the rooms had a separate sitting area. Definitely nice to have the extra room with all of Nicholas' gear. Of course had I not WAY overpacked it probably wouldn't have been an issue :) I must admit that for a general all-inclusive, the food was extremely good. I don't think I've ever seen so much lobster at any other all-inclusive. Dan and Scott did some serious damage on the lobster tails and steaks on numerous nights. Oh and of course on the mai tais too :)

I have to say that Nichoals was a super star on this vacation between the flights and dealing with the changes in his eating and sleeping patterns. Dan on the other hand did not fare as well but you can read up about that on a different post.

So let's see.......

Flights: We totally lucked out with our flights and got upgraded to first class in both directions. The extra room was key when having a lap infant. The real treat was that the planes in and out of Jamaica actually had an envoy level rather than first class. That pretty much means you have seats can recline all the way back and have leg rests that come up also so you can practically lay flat! It was the first time we've ever been in envoy and it was AWESOME! You had to unbuckle your seatbelt, stand up and walk forward a couple of steps to get to your carry on stored under the seat in front of you! Crazy!! So Nicholas pretty much just played, ate and slept for all the flights. We had a baggy of toys, binkies and bottles that we kept next to us the whole time so we could keep mixing it up for him to keep him entertained. The only interesting tid bit is that not all planes having changing tables in the bathrooms. Who knew!? Dan mastered the art of changing a diaper right in his seat on this trip - sure the other first class passengers enjoyed that! Luckily his poopy diaper of the day showed up on a plane that did have a changing table (which was only in 1 of the 4 bathrooms available). Dan had to handle that one since we all know how much I love to fly :) I must admit I spent so much time worrying about Nicholas' ears and well being that I didn't focus on the turbulance as much. Of course downing a bloody mary at 6AM before the plane takes off probably helped a bit too :)

Gear: I WAY over packed for this trip. So many things I thought we MIGHT use that we never did. The travel bed was too small.. the pool float was too big... Live and learn right? I brought so many cute outfits for Nicholas and I think he wore 10% of them. Such a bummer since he has pretty much outgrown most of them already since he is growing like a weed. During the day he hung out in a onsie or just his diaper and at night we just put him in his sleeper when we went to dinner.

Our days: Nicholas was always the first one up of course :) He would have a bottle and then he would either take a nap on my bed or we would head straight to breakfast. We then would head down to the pool and hang out. Our friends Leighann and Scott brought their daughter Abby also and we would grab seats off to the side where it was just one palapa after another so there was plenty of shade all day. Leighann and her family would all head to the pool but we pretty much stayed in the shade the whole time. We originally thought we would take Nicholas in the pool but after thinking about how much chlorine must be in the pool and all the mixed drinks from the swim up bar (Abby contributed one day!!) and all the possible kiddie accidents we decided to stick to the ocean. Nicholas didn't love the ocean but didn't hate it either. I think he was still trying to figure out what he thought about it. We only brought him in twice between Dan going golfing and then not feeling well.

Nicholas was awesome for dinner time too. Every night we would put him in his sleeper and lay him in the stroller and wheel him down to the lobby bar where he would preceed to fall asleep pretty much thru our cocktail hour and dinner. He would then sleep in the stroller in the room until 11:30ish and then we would feed him and he would go to sleep in the crib provided by the hotel. He would then maybe wake up one more time to eat before morning.

Now don't get me wrong, there were days we left the pool because he was too fussy to sleep and nights he didn't fall asleep for dinner but all in all I think he did great!

Favorite part: Dan would probably say his favorite part of the trip was when he and Scott went golfing at the White Witch golf course. But for me, the best part was that Nicholas found his voice! He just babbled and babbled from the first plane ride right thru the whole weekend. I loved hearing him telling us stories. The 3 of us sat in the lobby area one afternoon and Nicholas was just squeeling at the top of his lungs! We couldn't get enough of it but I'm sure the other guests weren't expecting to hear it while checking in and grabbing drinks :) I know both Dan and I will always remember this trip as the one where Nicholas really started talking.... and if he's anything like his Momma.... now he'll never shut up!

Tips:

- The first class upgrades were definitely worth it. I can't imagine being in coach and trying to hold Nicholas with so little room. I know I sound spoiled for this but it really did make a huge difference. Really it was the envoy that was the real spoiler... first class seats even felt tight after that - haha!!

- Definitely bring small containers of formula. It got so clumpy with the humidity. I left the opened can there because it wasn't even worth bringing it back.

- We went back and forth on a number of destinations and I'm so glad we went somewhere that you could drink the water. After the first night of washing bottles I realized it would have been hell trying to keep his bottles clean if I couldn't use the hot water out of the faucet. It was also key to bring the bottle drying rack so I could store the bottles somewhere other than in the bathroom or on a counter or hotel towel. Just seemed cleaner.

- Picking a resort with a mini bar in the room and that offered room service was key. We definitely took full advantage of it when Nicholas was taking long naps in the afternoon.

- I was glad to have plenty of anti-bacterial wipes to wipe down all the arm rests and areas on the plane that Nicholas could touch.

- We brought along his white noise machine for at night which I think was a huge help. It was something familar from home for him and helped us drown out some of his noise since he's a loud sleeper.

- Definitely sheets from home were important since they just wrapped the crib matress in a regular bed sheet. Defintiely not considered safe.

- I also brought some cleaning products from home to clean the tub before we put Nicholas in it. Seemed like the water temp kept fluctuating in the shower so I was glad to be able to put him in the tub where we could fill it to the appropiate temp. Of course that meant that Dan was showering and also taking a tubbie with Nicholas everyday but I don't think either one of them really minded.

- Oh one other thing I was really glad we had were bags for the stroller and car seat when gate checking. It was ridiculous how dirty and ripped the bags were after even the first flight! Much better them than my nice stroller!

- And zip lock baggies were my best friend. So good to keep things separted and be able to grab just what you need when you needed it!

Finally I have to give a shout out to my husband who never complained once about lugging all the gear. We checked in 3 rolling bags and golf clubs and then had the stroller, car seat, 1 rolling bag and 3 shoulder bags as carry ons. Even the customs lady couldn't believe it when we wrote down we were traveling with 8 bags!! Throw in Nicholas and he had his hands full all weekend! So much work especially when he wasn't feeling well.

So overall would I do it again.... yes. It's not the way the old vacations used to be and it's a lot more work but it was still fun. I think it will be easier when he's a bit older and can go in the pool and stuff. It would also be easier if we could bring along our own personal babysitter to stay with him while he napped in the afternoons so we could get some time to relax. Probably would have been easier on me if Dan was feeling better also - I ended up doing a lot more than I had expected but what can you do. But now Nicholas' passport officially has it's first stamp..hopefully there will be many more to come :)

OK ... OK.... enough talking..... here's some pics!!

Going for a dip....