First Holiday As A Mum
Well, this is my first blog and despite the thought that I put into this before I actually got around to doing it, I am actually at a loss as to what to write. So, I have settled on what is on the forefront of my mind this week. So here it goes…..
It has been over 19 months since myself and my husband have had a holiday and a relative has been kind enough to give us the gift of holiday, basically they are paying for it but we get to choose where we go and book it ourselves.
We will be taking our 7 month old son with us, and as we are not able to go until later in the year it has left us with very limited options as to where to go. After weeks and weeks of deliberation we have settled on a location, however, this would not be everyone’s first choice to take their baby. We have looked at Cyprus, The Canaries and Egypt but we have decided on Kenya. After doing lots of research on the internet I have been able find to little information about taking a baby to Kenya or indeed Africa in general, I guess that this is because not many people go there let alone take their babies. It has been a complete hohar so far, what with booking the accomodation and trying to sort of immunisations.
After a serious amount of time internet surfing and reading reviews we settled on Severin Sea Lodge in Bamburi. We really wanted to go to The Turtle Bay Beach Club in Watamu as we had been there before and fell in love with the place, but it is just extortionate to go there and it is a 2 and a half hour very bumpy transfer and after 10hrs on a plane with a 10 month old baby that would just be hell. Severin Sea Lodge is on the beach, 4 star, All Inclusive, reasonably priced, has great reviews and is only a 30 minute transfer from Mombassa airport. So we booked and I then called the Tonbridge Masta Travel Clinic and it turns out our son cannot have immunisations or malaria tablets , well, so said the stern nurse that I spoke to (despite the fact that we discussed the possibility of Kenya with a Nurse at the surgery months ago who said it would be fine as there is now a childs form of Malarone). We made an appointment to see our GP and he has said that the baby can indeed have Larium as an anti-malarial drug so that is great news. He cannot however have typhoid until his is 3, Hep A or Yellow Fever. After a lengthy discussion with the GP he has soothed our fears and has said that it is fine for our baby to go. Apparently Hep A is only like a cold in infants and then they are immune to it for life, Yellow Fever is very rare in the part of Kenya that we are going to and he won’t be drinking their water anyway. So we are going to go and I am just going to steralise everything to death and disinfect everything so avoid any germs or any contact with Typhoid, we will probably try and take enough baby food with us so that he won’t even have to touch the food. So now I just have to get my typhoid booster and malaria presciptions for us all and that is us set health wise.
After all of the important stuff is out of the way you start to think about the material things that you’ll need for your trip and it just seems to endless. We are already at a disadvantage as the baby does not get any luggage allowance with First Choice and they do not even let you purchase additional luggage allowance, I am sure that they are just after fleecing you at check in for excess luggage allowance. Realistically the baby is going to need one sampsonite case to himself, this is going to be a challenge, I find that I usually end up having my own case and some of my husbands’ case too! I guess that it is going to be just one of everything for me and my husband.
Really looking forward to the holiday now and am going to start doing the countdown soon! Woo hoo Kenya here we come.
