First Family Holiday with a Toddler & a Newborn

Well, where do we start? From packing for a newborn to a diva 3-year-old packing her clothes. How did I survive? It wasn’t actually as difficult as I thought – why did I worry so much? We opted to stay at a 5-star all-inclusive resort in Crete, Gouves called Gouves Waterpark holiday resort – mainly for our 3-year-old so she could play in the kid’s splash parks! This was not our first time in Crete, we had been a year ago before kids so we knew how nice and kid-friendly the area was.

To be honest for you, packing for a newborn was so easy. We took the Silvercross flat base pram onto the flight as he was not at an age to go into the sitting-up pram. We pre-made formulae bottles before leaving the house to do us for the airport (we put them into thermal bottle holders) then we took individual tubs of the powder formulae incase we ran out and just used boiled water from the airport cafes / trolleys on the flightNewborn Essentials to Pack:

– Vests (this is basically all he was in)
– Formulae (unless breast)
– Thermal milk bottle holder
– Nappies (an extra 2 nappies than normal per day)
– Muslin cloths
– A blanket for lying on in the cot (I wasn’t sure how comfy or clean the cot would be)
– Dummies (if needed!)
– Swim nappies
– Wipes

We actually ran out of formulae halfway through the holiday so ended up mixing in a Greek formula with the Kendamil formulae and he was perfect (no poo explosions were caused which I was worried about!).

Ps. – When you have young kids and especially a newborn you tend to skip all the queues and get priority at the airports – this was a savior! 

Packing for a 3-year-old

Now, this was more difficult – a 3-year-old who has a diva attitude and likes to choose her own outfits each day. I made sure when we went holiday clothes shopping to take my daughter with me to help choose the clothes as I knew if she didn’t like what I bought then there would be a screaming match on holiday. This made things easier. When I packed for my daughter I packed per outfit and added an extra 2 or three for spillages etc. One of the best things I bought for my 3-year-old daughter was the all-in-one wet suits – this was soooo much easier when putting on sun cream as I only had to put sun cream on her legs and face as everything else was covered! Also a tip – buy a cheap foundation brush to apply suncream to kids’ faces, applying suncream with your hand is so difficult, especially when you’re trying not to get it in their eyes!

The BEST thing we bought my 3-year-old was a trunki! She sat and whizzed about on it the whole airport meaning we didn’t have to break our backs carrying her! I would 100% recommend buying one if you’re going to an airport with a toddler / young child. It made our lives so much easier!! Obviously, the trunki goes on the plane as hand luggage so we just used this to pack all my daughter’s clothes (this made it easier when going through security if they wanted us to open it and check – no electronics or messy toys in here!).

All her toys (Barbies, dollies etc.) went into our large suitcase apart from her kindle – we took this on the 4 1/2 hour flight to entertain her and just downloaded some Netflix kids TV shows (Daniel Tiger Neighborhood) – worked a treat!

I don’t know if we were just lucky but the whole airport journey and the holiday wasn’t as stressful as I thought – it was pretty damn easy (I hope I don’t jinx myself for next time). Anyway, speaking of next time, now that we are home I am already looking at our next holiday, that’s how relaxed it went!

The main thing I will say is, don’t worry about forgetting something, there are sooo many small supermarkets that have all the newborn, baby, toddler, kiddie essentials – they are used to it over there and know what parents are used to forgetting so have this all stocked! ​

I hope I have made you feel more relaxed about booking a holiday with kids – go on, get one booked and get over that initial fear!