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.