26 Week Old Baby Reader Story 💡
We Traveled Across the World With a 7-Week-Old
Baby Week to Week 26 Mama Natural Mama and baby enjoying their latest vacation.
There’s no doubt about it: Heading to Japan with a seven week old was an ambitious endeavor. But the trip was planned pre-baby, and we assumed we could explore with baby sleeping happily in the stroller. I expected everything to be largely the same, plus a few feeding sessions and diaper changes.
What we didn’t know is the littlest member of our tribe wouldn’t accept anything less than being carried facing outwards in our arms. This guy knew there was a big old world to explore and he wanted to see it all!
But the challenges came to a head one day when we were exploring the temple of 1,000 gates. Baby was inconsolable, and we had to carry the stroller up a ridiculous amount of stairs. I walked into the forest and sat on the ground to nurse in attempt to calm both myself and my baby. But I felt utterly defeated. It was in that moment that I realized I had nothing to prove. There was no scorecard. We didn’t have to do it all. I just had to go with the wind and roll with the punches.
I wish I would have granted myself this grace earlier in the process. It would have been so much easier for all of us—and saved so many tears.
We have since found our rhythm, and have traveled to more far-off places, like Indonesia and Thailand. Baby has forced us to slow down—to accept the fact that we might have to pause to nap or skip a dinner out. And the big surprise? That lack of pressure has actually helped us enjoy ourselves more.