Thursday, May 24, 2012

Headed for The Hague!

I'm so excited to announce that I am definitely going to the Human Rights in Childbirth Conference at The Hague next week. I found an inexpensive direct flight and a lovely midwife in Amsterdam to host me for the 2 nights I'll be there.

So, my big dilemma is: bring Inga or leave her with Eric and the kids? 

I'll be gone 3 days and 2 nights. She's still nursing fairly often (3-4 times during the day, and once in the early morning around 6 am), so I'll probably have to hand express a few times to keep from bursting. I'm not worried that she'll refuse to nurse when I come back, but I have never left her overnight before. I just don't know how she'd handle my absence. (To be honest, I don't know how *I* would handle her absence!!!) Maybe she'd be just fine, maybe not. She is almost 15 months and eats quite a bit at meals already. I'm pretty sure she'd take milk from a sippy cup in lieu of the good stuff!

Reasons to bring her with me:
  • She's fun to have around and travels well
  • I'd love to have her at the conference--she's super cute & friendly and would be a great way to  meet people!
  • I'd really miss her if I left without her. I wonder if I'd fret too much about being away from her.

Reasons to leave her with Eric and the kids:
  • I'd get more out of the conference if I left her behind. She is really well-behaved and fairly chill, but she's still a wiggly, energetic toddler--making it hard to listen to conference presentations.

What do you think?

ps--don't forget to take advantage of the Stand and Deliver discount for the webinar! You can watch it live or any time in the month following the conference. Click here for details.

8 comments:

  1. Another reason to go by yourself: Eric gets to empathise much more with your trans-Atlantic travel with the three of them:) Also you'll get to explore more of the Hague and maybe gorgeous nearby towns like Leiden.

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  2. I would take her, but I never leave my babies if they are nursing. I just can't handle being away from them. On the other hand, I have not had a day to myself for over a year maybe even longer. :/ Imagine how much sleep you could get!!

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  3. I think it's amazing you'd consider bringing her. You will definitely meet people easier with a baby, even a 15 month old. There's just something about a baby that people love. Myself, I think I'd prefer to go on my own. I love "on my own" time. What does Eric think?

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  4. What does your husband think? If he is up for the challenge leave her she'll be fine.

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  5. It sounds to me like you want to take her, just weighing your two sides, so I'd say take her. Do what you want to do at your core.

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  6. I would say, take her with you. I am sure I would be thinking the whole time about how my babe was doing if I were to travel without him....
    I am very excited for you to visit the Netherlands, being Dutch myself. Can't wait for your impressions here on the blog.

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  7. It was around this age that I left my first baby for the first time, also to attend a conference. I was in the end, glad I did it. The benefits for me were:
    - my son and his father had their first time of bonding without me there, I saw their relationship was stronger when I returned.
    - I was completely re-energized by being totally focused on the dialogue of the conference. These kind of conferences are intense!
    -I had very big boobs in all the photos, since I too was still breastfeeding :-)

    Good luck in your decision- and see you soon in the Hague.

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  8. Thanks for everyone's advice...the more I think of it, the more I am leaning towards leaving her. Eric is fine with that and just says to do whatever I want. It's not super long to be away. She's become so much more of a toddler recently--more spunky, more energetic, more headstrong and willful, more outspoken when she wants to do something. The more I think about it, the more I realize that she really isn't a baby and that it would be quite challenging to have her along. It's just that I worry. Not so much about anything likely to happen, but about ridiculous, nearly impossible things happening and me not being with her. I think "what if X or Y happened while I was away?" even though I know it's kind of pointless worrying.

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