Traveling With A Bump

 

 

It's been a of couple weeks since we've posted, and boy, has a lot gone on since then! As I mentioned in a previous post, the husband and I decided to take one last hoo-rah/vacation before the babe comes. Honestly, we'll travel just as much as usual even with our bundle, calling it a "babymoon" just gave us an excuse to escape at this moment. We were originally supposed to go to a gorgeous resort in Mexico, but without going into too much detail (I'll begin to cry), my passport wasn't going to be ready on time (despite paying for expedition) and we were unaware until a week before our departure. No, we did not get refunded for our trip expenses, and the one time we didn't buy flight insurance, look what happens. It ended up costing us a pretty penny to reroute our flights to West Palm Beach in Florida, where we are fortunate enough to have some wonderful friends who live there. Going the route of staying with friends not only eliminated additional expenses of finding a hotel, but provided us with a sense of "home" between their personalities and their 2 awesome dogs to snuggle with. Not to mention the weather, ah, it was FANTASTIC.

 

Anyway, I wanted to focus this post around the actual travel portion of our trip. When we left Monday morning I knew that things weren't going to be as smooth-sailing as usual. How? Well because 10 minutes into our CAR ride to the airport I already started squirming in discomfort (back). Not a good sign. At nearly 29 weeks pregnant my oh-so-glorious and generally problem-free pregnancy began to slowly take a turn. Not for the worse by any means, but with regard to comfort. Despite staying active and my attempts at staying strong during this experience, my bod just isn't used to having a watermelon hanging off the front of it. Nope.

 

After finally getting to the airport, that's where the real fun began. Three things I noticed immediately while at the airport: 1.) People no longer look at my face in passing, they look at my watermelon. Wait no, they stare at my watermelon. 2.) My husband got more death stares in the 2.5 minutes that I had to pull our luggage so that he could take a phone call, than in a lifetime. Apparently pregnant women can't pull their own luggage without society's take on in. Poor John, ha. 3.) People treat you like you're incredibly fragile. Which yes, I am in a sense I mean there's a tiny human in me. But seriously I felt it was to the point where someone was bound to stamp an actual FRAGILE marking across my forehead. The perks to that? Fast-tracking through the security line... which meant no bending over to take off my shoes, jackpot.  Also, some of things people said to me, oh my goodness! Of course I received smiles and kind, congratulatory remarks, but also some off the wall ones! For example, while waiting for our luggage after landing in West Palm, a petite middle-age woman approaches me. "Boy, when I first saw you walk on our plane I started praying that you wouldn't go into labor on me. I looked through my purse for clamps and anything else I could find just in case!" Of course I giggled while responding with "Oh, no worries I'm only about 29 weeks!" ...and then her response..."29 weeks, that's it? You look like you're about to pop! I didn't look like that at 29 weeks!" Whhhatttttt.....cue the instantaneous self-consciousness. Apparently this little lady didn't read "Shit You Don't Say to a Pregnant Woman." That book does exist, right? Because if not, it should. Overall, the airport itself wasn't too bad...but the flight... oh the flight.

 

Not only did my discomfort begin after a few minutes of sitting is those gross, cramped seats, but NEVER have I had to struggle to get a damn seat-belt to fit across me comfortably, until this point. It got to a point to where my lower back began to hurt so badly from being so restricted I was almost in tears. Also, in the back of my mind for some reason all I could think of was "blood-clot." Pregnant women are known to be more susceptible of getting blood-clots, especially while traveling. My doctor told me to simply get up every now and again and walk up the aisle to stretch, which I did, but not without those aforementioned stares. So we have the discomfort from sitting, the discomfort of getting up to walk out my phantom blood-clots, and the discomfort of having both a baby and a seatbelt making you feel like you're going to piss your pants every 3 minutes. To say the least, the air time we had throughout our trip wasn't the most pleasant. I will say though, what helped at least a little bit with the back discomfort was placing my neck pillow under my tush which forced me to sit straight up with my pelvis tilted slightly forward. I recommend it.

 

My conclusion: Traveling at this stage in pregnancy is...uncomfortable. BUT, totally worth it. Our actual trip was just wonderful. We couldn't have asked for better weather or friends to stay with. Being able to wake up first thing in the morning, whip up a hot cup of tea, head out back to enjoy some morning yoga by the pool, and then spend the rest of the day lounging about with my husband without an ounce of worry was so, incredibly, worth the discomfort of travel. Yeah those dreadful stares continued while actually on the trip (look a baby whale! No, just a pale pregnant woman in a bikini), but again...so...completely...worth it.

Our adorable vacation pets that made us feel at home.

 

xoxo

Kelsey