Should I Take My 10-Month Old to Hawaii?

I can see your dilemma. I would be torn as well. Here are the advice I have regarding some of the questions you have asked. First of all regarding the breast feeding, your milk supply most likely will go down if you pump and it may be more of a hassle to pump than to bring your son along and just nurse him. For example whenever you pump you most likely will have to be in a private place and that will limit being able to go out and do things whereas with your son just bring a blanket along!And even if you pump as often as you feed your son (which will most likely be hard when you just want to have a good time) your milk supply will probably go down because pumping does not maintain your milk supply as well as nursing at least a couple times a day does. Now you could consider weaning him since he is almost a year old. And are you going to pump and store enough milk for the whole time you are gone? That is probably going to be a lot of work for you. And if not, then he will have to have some formula and it is possible that he may end up weaning himself (which is not necessarily bad but it is up to you). Also, as far as him not sleeping through the night that would stress me out more to know that my child was keeping someone else up at night but maybe your mother-in-law doesn't mind.

Is there any way to push the trip back several months to when he is a little bit older and then you can go later with just your husband? In one way, it could be a really fun family vacation but on the other hand it could be a nice romantic getaway. When babies are over a year old it is easier to leave them because they are no longer nursing and Should definetely be sleeping through the night by then and they are more independent. I do not think that you will damage your relationship with your son by leaving for a vacation but it could be hard on you. It is still hard for me to leave my daughter for a few hours and she is 14 months. Anyway, good luck deciding. Hope this was more helpful than confusing! Oh and also I think he will be fine on the plane. Our daughter has been on planes several times and she does fine

I say take your baby. We went on a week long cruise with our then 16 month old daughter last year and I am so glad we went through the trouble to bring her. She was not weaned and was not sleeping through the night and we had no family to leave her with anyway. Thinking about it after we brought her, I was so glad we did not leave her. Emotionally, I would not have been able to enjoy myself worring if she was eating enough or crying every night. It can affect your relationship with your child as children do not understand time like we do...they might not realize that you are, in fact coming back. We had a good baby carrier( mei tai) that we were able to use even in a jungle excursion. She would ride on my husband's back. If she needed to take a nap, she would nurse/fall asleep on my chest adn then I could strap her to my front without waking her up and she would nap there. The pumping you would be doing if you left him would take up so much of your time anyway and it is better for your supply to just nurse. Well, those are just my feelings after being in a similar situation. Good luck on whatever you choose and have fun in Hawaii!

here is my insight... I took my then 10 month old daughter to Europe with me last June. We were going to be gone for 8 weeks, so leaving her behind was so not an option. We had multiple flights... a (delayed) 5 hour flight to Newark, and then a 14 hour flight to Berlin (which we missed, and got rescheduled on for 24 hours later). Traveling with a 10 month old is hard. We did EVERYTHING in our power to keep our daughter from walking until after we got back from our trip... she didn't crawl until 9 months, but she walked the day after we got home from Europe. If you're son is already a super crawler, you might have a walker before you get home from your trip, which would make the trip hard, but not impossible. I have no insight for you on the nursing... I'd already weaned my daugther by then. However, here are my travel tips:
1)buy new books, new toys and special snacks for on the airplane. I would definantly also recommend a protable DVD player and some baby einstein DVDs if you're not opposed to that for your child.
2) Take more than you expect you'll need for baby needs in your diaper bag carry on. I took a dozon diapers for a supposed 18 hour travel day. I was SO glad I had them when my 18 hour travel day turned into almost 48 hours. Take an extra outfit for you and your kid... take PLENTY of baby food... its a form of entertainment.
3)Take walking breaks on the airplane. If you're baby is walking while you hold his hands, stroll up and down the aisle a few times when he gets restless. People totally understand that kind of thing. It'll be good for you as mommy as well.

thats all I can think of on the travel end right now. As far as being there, having your baby along will kind of cramp your style a little, but its doable. When we were in Paris with our daughter we went on an early morning walk (to get breakfast) after she woke up and had played in our room for a little while. After breakfast she was usually ready for a nap. We were ready to head out to see things by 10:30 or 11 in the morning. We mostly skipped her afternoon nap, or let her doze in her stroller (we did lots of walking) while we were out seeing. We did have to be in early to accommodate her need to sleep... all in all instead of having 10 or 12 hours to sightsee and do things, we usually had 6 or 7. It made it hard to fit everything in, but we were tired also, so taking it a little easier was okay for us (this was the end of 2 months away from home).

Good luck with whatever you decide. I heres wishing you uninterrupted sleep soon (on that note, you could probably start eliminating those middle of the night feedings... in general babies over 9 months old don't need them and mostly wake up out of habit. My daughter was sleeping 12 hours solid every night by 7 months).

We are planning a trip to Hawaii and have a little one, so I asked my mother to go along with us so that she could help on some of the activities where little can not go. She thought it was a great idea and jumped at the chance.