If you ask me what my life was like the first year after I
gave birth, I would tell you stories of all the nights I was woken up
during the late hours of the night by my newborn baby, and how the first
six months were probably one of the toughest months of my life.
If you’ve been a mother before, you probably possess
stories similar to mine. Could you ever imagine then, traveling with
your newborn baby around the world? Sounds crazy, right?
Well for Karen Edwards, a 31 year old nurse, it wasn’t.
She and her partner, Shaun Bayes, were experienced backpackers that
didn’t want the birth of their child to interrupt their dreams to travel
around the world. So 10 weeks after their daughter, Esmé, was born,
they took off.
Karen says about her experiences so far,
“The overall aim is to inspire like-minded travel loving parents – your travel days do not have to be over. It is all about incorporating your little person into your way of life. You can still do everything, including snorkelling and diving, but you just take it in turns. I can’t imagine having spent my maternity leave any other way.”
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“Both Shaun and I were keen backpackers before I fell pregnant.”
“Everyone thought we were completely nuts when we said that we were going to take Esmé”
But Shaun left his job, sold their car, rented their house and took off with their 10-week-old baby.
Over 10 months, they travelled across Asia, Australia and New Zealand with only 1 backpack.
Karen was breastfeeding and Esmé was vaccinated before they left the UK.
“Little miss was born in London, has a mum from Ireland and a dad from New Zealand…”
“The gal is destined to travel!”
“She was really well behaved”
“Because she was small it was easy enough to keep her in the harness when we were on the move”
“We have no regrets, she got to experience new sights, scenes and smells as she grew”
“The only time I felt Esmé was missing out was not having much socialising with other children”
“However the libraries always have free rhyme classes if you need to socialise your child a little”
“The weirdest part of the trip was actually coming home”
“Esmé hasn’t lived somewhere for a long period of time because we were always moving around”
“It’s also harder to find her things to do in London – well, compared to travelling anyway”
“People say having a child ruins travelling, but it really doesn’t”
“Obviously there were times…when you fancy a beer and the baby is asleep”
“And when you crack it open she wakes, that makes it harder. But it’s worth it
“You can still do everything, including…diving, but you just take it in turns”
“I can’t imagine having spent my maternity leave any other way”
“It is through these experiences, I want to share factual information, personal stories as well as top tips for traveling with little ones”
“The overall aim is to inspire like-minded travel loving parents”
“Your travel days do not have to be over”
“It is all about incorporating your little person into your way of life”
