How To Celebrate Wedding Anniversaries With A Baby

When you have a baby you have to make quite a few accommodations for them of course. At the end of the day, until they can care for themselves, even a little bit, they have to be looked after and prioritised. Of course they do, nobody is arguing there. Yet does that have to dictate what you do for your wedding anniversary?

Two Styles Of Parenting

In my time I’ve come across some very different styles of parenting. One of the stand out differences is between those that build their life around the baby and those whose baby just fits in their life. For example, those that build their life around their baby may arrange their life around when the baby needs to nap and make sure they’re home in time. Those whose babies just fit into their life may go to a friends for tea and just put the baby to bed whenever they get home and just make it work.

I don’t think anyone can say whether one way is the right way or the wrong way. Every parent just sorts out their life with a new baby and makes it work to suit them. Every baby is different and as such how they are treated has to be specific to them.

For us, we think we are somewhere in between the two groups I’ve mentioned above, as most people will be I expect. As such, when it came to organising our anniversary celebrations we wanted to carefully consider what we wanted to do for ourselves but also how we could build N into that plan.

What We Did

Fog On The Tyne (well, the Tyne at least)!
Fog On The Tyne (well, the Tyne at least)!

I’ll get to the tips shortly, but we decided that a city break could work for a couple of nights. We frequently go away for our anniversary so we figured why shouldn’t we do the same now? N isn’t here to replace our life, he will enhance it.

We decided on a trip to Newcastle as we haven’t been there for a while but when we last went we enjoyed ourselves. This time we stayed in the Hilton in Gateshead to be precise. We upgraded to an executive room (it was our anniversary!). This meant we had more room (helpful to fit N in his cot), a separate working area (which became a storage area for baby things!) and access to the executive lounge. The executive lounge had free drinks and some canapés 5-7pm so we took advantage of that! I have to say it’s a very nice hotel. If you’re thinking of heading up that way I would recommend it.

The first night we went for an Indian at Raval Luxury Indian Food Restaurant. This really was fantastic food and the service was great too. Again, another one I’d recommend if you’re around there.

Brilliant Beamish!
Brilliant Beamish!

The next day we went to Beamish. This is an open air oldie worldie type museum set in different ages from the 1900’s to the 1940’s. I’ll write a more detailed review shortly. It’s not cheap but well worth a visit.

The only challenge with our whole weekend was that we didn’t want N going to bed too late. Yes he went to bed a bit later than usual but not too bad. However, when he was in bed the light had to be turned off. So we sat in the dark for a while watching stuff on the laptop until we went to sleep!

My Tips To Amaze On Your Anniversary

  • If you normally go away for your anniversary, don’t let a baby stop you. It just takes more planning and a bit of thought
  • If you’re staying away consider a separate room or area for your baby to sleep (like in an apartment)
  • Do whatever activity you want to do. Most babies will fit in with you and just enjoy being near you
  • Talk about things other than the baby
  • Money can be tight when you have a new baby. Consider a theme for your presents to each other, such as the traditional anniversary gifts list (e.g. silver, ruby, tin etc) and set a limit on your budget
  • Your anniversary could be ruined if your baby is not in a good place on the day and is crying so clearly we have to prioritise them. You know your baby and what you could get away with without much of an issue (e.g. later night, lie in etc) but just plan ahead

There You Have It

There you go, my tips for celebrating your anniversary with a baby. It’s not rocket science and it is possible, it’s just about putting in the effort with a little extra planning.

Have you any tips from your celebrations?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.