Baby Business: Week 13, the great baby get-away

Learnt the words to ‘row row row your boat’... the modern version! Tick

Mastered nappy changing in the dark. Tick

Smiled at how different my goals are in life. Tick

Our first trip away just the three of us... me, Little One and the dog.

Out came my trusty zebra-stripe holdall; in went my jeans (still in the maternity ones with the stretchy waist), a sweatshirt, a couple of tops and a wash bag. Simple.

Business came with me too in the form of a laptop, notepad and BlackBerry – love technology.

Then there’s the dog’s bag – a Tesco’s bag-for-life with dog food, pills, lead, favourite toy and blanket.

And then there’s Little One... Wowzers! One very small person and a truck load of essential (?) paraphernalia. There goes the fuel economy.

The journey down started smoothly, no hold ups or adverse weather conditions. Half way down I get a phone call to tell me that the road ahead was shut in both directions, so I needed to take a different route. No problem, built in sat nav to the rescue. I turn on the sat nav and... out blares Disney Lullabies. Doh, I’d swapped the CDs in aid of providing comfort for Little One, but sadly the sat nav cd remained at home on the kitchen table. It was a long diversion...

Thought I should mention that the whole idea of this trip away was to catch up on some sleep (family on hand to help out with Little One) and to catch up on some work... great theory! Night one in new surroundings proved too much for both Little One and the dog. I was literally up every hour and a half - woof woof then milk monster then woof woof then mummy mummy then woof woof then milk monster then... Not much of an improvement night two or night three.

Day of departure and an hour re-loading the car, balancing things precariously on the buggy in the boot with at least a spare few inches for the dog to squeeze in. Seem to have collected an additional bag, courtesy of Granny and Little One going on a shopping trip together, and a new baby bath, with room for Little One to practise for her upcoming swimming lessons. Off we set, Disney cranked up and Mummy singing along (surprised the dog howls didn’t get us stopped). 40 minutes down the road and the Milk Monster awoke. Volume up a little more, but even Mickey Mouse and Fantasia could not quench the thirst, so nothing else for it - breast feeding in a roadside parking bay it was. Can you get arrested for accidental indecent exposure?

Home. Baby to bed. Dog fed. Car unpacked. Bags unpacked. Kettle on. Asleep on sofa! Ahhhh, nothing like a break away to recharge the batteries!