Would I recommend Providenciales?

In a word, no.

What made this vacation great was being around family and not having to really do anything. The sun was shining, the sea was warm, and what's cuter than a naked baby sitting at the water's edge?

Don't mind my hairy chest. 

However, the island is not ready for prime time. Everything is insanely expensive, Provo is not very pretty (maybe the other islands are), and the airport is a disaster - two hours to get through the security line. If we lived on the east coast, I'd consider going back, but there are other places that are equally beautiful that are easier to get to. 

Jet lag

We were away a total of 10 days and I think were able to shift FDR's schedule slightly, but by no means get him on island time. At best we could move him 30 minutes to an hour per day but it was a fair amount of waking up in the middle of the night (4am T&C time is 9am London time is at least an hour past his normal breakfast time is an angry baby). 

6am, happy as can be... not so daddies

We hoped that the marathon flight day would help him adjust, but it didn't. He was inconsolable our first night in Miami - some combination of exhaustion, jet lag, and uncomfortable/unfamiliar bed - so we brought him to bed with us. We weren't exactly sleeping either, but at least it helped him relax!

He normally has his last bottle of the day at 7:30pm. By about 6pm T&C time, you could tell he was really sleepy. We tried waiting as long as possible to feed him, but if we waited to long he would just fall asleep mid bottle and then that was that. So hungry again by 4am, then repeat.

We did all the things everyone suggests - up with the sun, activity during the day, etc. but that only helps so much. As far as I can tell, the only way for a baby to get over jet lag is slowly. (Wocka wocka wocka.)

Travel with your parents!

IIt's hardly an original thought or concept, but it was so great being on vacation with my whole family.

FDR got to bond with his grandparents, aunt & uncle, and cousins. 

But more importantly, his grandparents got to bond with him - which was the best vacation for them. FDR's at the age where he's starting to have some separation anxiety issues. If we left him with my parents and then walked away, he was fine. It was only when he saw us again - if we walked back into the room - that he would start crying.

Also, renting a house where we could all stay together was a million times better than staying in a hotel. We could really settle in and had a lot of space to ourselves.

Best of all, we had built-in babysitting! So Tom and I had a couple of boozy lunches and a "nice" (you don't go to Providenciales for fancy restaurants) dinner, and generally had some much-needed "us" time.

T&C - Stroller & diapers

Bugaboo in Bugaboo case, checked in. No idea why we haven't bought a travel stroller yet. Still, this is awful cute:

We thought it would be a good idea to use his (infant) car seat to carry him in the airport. Wrong! If he weighs 15lbs, and the car seat weighs 7, somehow him in the car seat doesn't weigh 22lbs, it weighs 15 * 7 = 105lbs. Not sure why, blame physics.

On a side note, the taxi we took from the airport had no way to secure his car seat. As in, no seat belts. We were so stressed out from the our rental car reservation not being honored (DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET) that we just went off anyway. But be warned.

We underpacked diapers by about 2 days, so had to buy on island, which was super expensive. Even so, it wouldn't have made sense to pack enough diapers for 10 days. I think the new policy has to be, pack about 3 days worth and then buy at the destination.

Dealing with baby feeding on a 10 day trip

As is our way, we overdid it. Our awesome nanny makes baby food for FDR in big batches (Annabel Karmel is a great resource) and freezes it.

We had* a styrofoam cooler and super duper freezer ice that we used to transport frozen breast milk back from the States when we brought FDR home. We figured we'd fill it with enough food for 10 days and we wouldn't have to feed him store bought baby food.

Well, it sort of worked. The super duper freezer ice is supposed to keep things frozen for three days. By the time we got to Turks & Caicos, it was right around 72 hours after we packed and sealed the cooler. Also, the super duper freezer ice can maybe be reused once.
The little pouches tear and then leak. So his food made it, still cold but slightly thawed.

We probably would have been fine with store bought food. But we had all his homemade frozen stuff, and groceries on the island are insanely expensive. Not that FDR is drinking beer yet, but to give you a frame reference, a 6 pack of Corona at the grocery store cost $19.

Milk-wise, he's still on formula and has graduated to "night time" milk which has a little cereal in it so is heavier, which supposedly helps him fall/stay asleep.

*Had the cooler because we threw it - and the super duper freezer ice - away as soon as we got to our rented house.

Bienvenidos a Miami

FDR is the first grandchild on my side of the family since my nephew was born in 2007, so he has been much fêted since he was born. My parents and sister all live on the west coast and don't get to see him often, so my sister proposed that Tom, FDR, and I travel there
to see them over Christmas.

Our reaction was, if we're going to take a 10 hour flight with a seven-month-old, it's not going to be from London to the Pacific Northwest in December. After a relatively brief negotiation, we settled on the Caribbean, specifically Turks & Caicos. We had to be routed via Miami so decided to stop off in Miami for a day to help ease the jet lag (as if, more on that later).

We cashed in a bunch of miles on American Airlines and went business class for the London-Miami leg. We didn't get a seat for FDR but the nice thing about this was there was room for him to lie down in the airplane bassinet (which, at 7 months old, he barely fit in):

Have you ever seen a flying snowman?

I do have to say, before we actually got on the plane, AA was totally disorganized in terms of what they had in terms of a bassinet for him - the phone agent said something different than the check-in counter agent, who said something different than the gate agent, who was also
wrong. As you can tell, this bassinet is on the ground because apparently in business class, there aren't the necessary hooks or whatever.

He did sleep okay on the plane. We tried to keep him to the schedule of eating every four hours. He had his "night time" bottle at 7:30pm, or 5 hours into the flight, and then another bottle at 11:30pm his time / 4:30pm Miami time in our attempt to get him on the new time
zone.

The poor guy was so tired by the time we got to the hotel room (8pm local time so 1am his time), he was shaking.

Fontainebleau - good and bad

We cashed in a bunch of Tom's Amex points and stayed at the Fontainebleau, a sprawling hotel complex in "North Beach". You can see my detailed thoughts on the place on the link, but the short version is this:

The good -

Our room was very big and had a good size balcony. There was a kitchenette (sink, mini fridge) that was perfect for our baby food and bottle washing needs. And the service from the staff was for the most part excellent. 

The bad - 

However, the pool scene is that awful Vegas-style chaos where people get up at 7am to claim pool chairs by leaving a hat or magazine on them, and by noon the place is a total mob scene. Not relaxing at all. We decided this was too much to deal with with jet lagged daddies and baby, and since I'm a member of Soho House, we spent our one full day at Soho Beach House which just happens to be right next door to the hotel. Even if you're not a member, it's a good (if pricey) option for a hotel.