In case you’re wondering – no, we’re not pregnant! 🙂 It’s just the season of autumn that makes me think about how we discovered that I was pregnant in 2010, exactly three years ago. I don’t remember the exact date I performed the pregnancy test, but looking at the calendar, I guess it must have been 17 September! 🙂

I remember lots of things about it… I remember my last pre-pregnancy beer (later on it turned out that it happened when I was already pregnant!) with my best boss and best friend from former work. Remember that, girls? 🙂 I remember eating an Indian dinner at Mandala with my lady friends, on the day of the test, going to the wedding on the next day and telling my friend of 20 years about the result. She must have been one of the first three people that I informed…

I also remember a friendly pharmacist who sold me the pregnancy test which was produced by a company which we made research for, regarding the design and comfort a few months ago … Second half of September was filled with doctor appointments, examinations, tests and generally hiding the news about our pregnancy…

I remember my friend’s birthday with my lady friends in a Greek restaurant, during which, exactly at 9.09 pm o said no to wine, citing antibiotics.. But I think they might have known what was going on 🙂 This Friday they’re meeting again to celebrate birthday (unfortunately we won’t be in Warsaw:(). I wonder if any of them will skip the wine this time, citing some suspicious reasons 😉

After moments of shock and joy we had to face first problems: we got some flight trips planned for next weeks! What are we going to do? Is it safe to fly while pregnant? Or maybe not?

What can happen to me and the child? Doubts, questions… Everyone who ever was pregnant knows it… Can I fly? Or run? Can I dye my hair? Can I eat the blue cheese? And oscypek? How about sushi? And what about Parma ham as the curing ones ore forbidden? Can I even try the seafood?

We quickly got it all straight: it’s best not to fly until the 12th or 14th week when the pregnancy is a bit “unstable”. That’s what our gynaecologist said – a sensible person who does not exaggerate. Of course, there are people who fly during their first trimester and nothing happens. We decided to keep it calm though 🙂 12 weeks (or 8 to be precise) is not infinity, right?! That’s how Łukasz visited London with his parents, Dublin with his mate and Morocco with another one, while I just stood and watched 🙂 We didn’t want to waste the tickets and apart from a bit of sleepiness and culinary pickiness, I felt great and could safely be left alone. “Alone” meaning with friends and mom at hand 🙂

WHAT NEXT? IS PREGNANCY THE REASON TO SKIP ALL THE TRAVELS IN THE FORTHCOMING MONTHS?

It wasn’t for us and in most cases, when the pregnancy is going well and is not high-risk, there shouldn’t be any problems with flying and travelling. Of course, before every trip, CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR instead of reading web forums, blogs and internet smart-asses 😉 I’m just being smart to convince those who got a green light from a doctor and are still not sure about going 😀 To all the others – read it and go see the gynaecologist next! 🙂

Best time to travel by plane is between 16th and 24th week. Some airlines let you travel until the 26th week, others until 32nd. Then you’ll probably need a doctor’s certificate. I didn’t use it though as travelling is supposed to be fun, not a duty. Therefore we stopped in the right moment.

There are various ways of choosing the destinations: some do exactly what they’ve done before the pregnancy and travel to distant, exotic countries. Others stay at home and “don’t even think” about the plane… We decided to act sensibly: plane is OK, but there are some rules that we want to follow in order to feel comfy, safe and good:

1) a short flight – we didn’t want to push it and take long flights. Our longest one was 5 hours from Warsaw to The Canary Islands.

2) We choose European countries with familiar culture – we don’t want to risk having problems with finding a hospital, understanding the doctor or getting “whoever’s revenge” – a few days long diarrhoea like in India when we had to eat bread and drink Coke for a while. Not a best diet while pregnant! We also decided that we have the whole life to see Asia, South America and other fascinating locations. Łukasz got a bit worried about “You  don’t want to go there while pregnant = you won’t want to go there with a kid” situation, but as you can see he was wrong! 🙂 When you’re travelling with a kid you see the baby all the time – you can sense the fever, an ache of some kind and other anomalies. When you’re pregnant you don’t know what’s going on in your belly and that’s the most stressful thing. I got a friend who once said that she would be happy to buy the ultrasonography machine and watch her “tenant” all the time. 😉

3) we choose places with mesoclimate – ideal option: The Canary Islands – not too cold and not too hot!

4) we chose a place with a language we know for a long trip exceeding two weeks – this way I felt comfortable and relaxed, knowing that I will understand the doctor speaking Spanish and not pidgeon English or sign language…

Rules were a great idea and allowed us (ME!) to travel during pregnancy:

A) 15th-16th week – Lisbon – and ideal moment for a few days trip; the sleepiness is gone, the nausea is gone and the wave of energy approaches. You don’t feel heavy yet and nothing pokes you under your ribs. Sometimes the belly hurts, but that’s why they invented Nospa! It’s wonderful!

B) 19th – 21st week – The Canary Islands – great temperature, a lot to see and the distances are short and not tiring at all. Biggest problem: mountainous Tenerife! Aviomarin is forbidden during pregnancy and I was quite sick of eating ginger lollipops!

C) 29th – 30th week – Budapest – last plane trip together, lots of walks, lots of delicacies, relax.

In the end, in the 36th week, we went to Suwalszczyzna (no plane here) to relax before the revolution began!

The pictures are the best proof that travelling while pregnant is possible and pleasant! 🙂

15th-16th week – LISBON – December 2010

Lisbon is beautiful in December if you’re lucky to get some sunny weather. Lisbon activities is a subject for a separate entry, I’ll just mention Cascais resort and The Castle of the Moors in Sintra. It’s an easy and comfortable trip with a suburban train. It takes a crowded bus to get to Sintra, but we made it!

Do get fooled by the sun, it’s pretty chilly. It’s even more important during pregnancy as omitting the illnesses is one of the most important things! Lisbon offers delicious cheeses and fish for the pregnant ones. Seafood is available as well, but I was a bit afraid of that 😉 I went for the fish!

I prepared for the first flight according to Dr. Google. A bottle of water, comfy clothes including something for cold weather and annoying air conditioning. My doctor also suggested taking Nospa before the flight. Just in case, so that my belly is relaxed, not achy and calm. Off we fly! First flight went great, nothing bad happened – I already feel the urge to fly again 🙂

Worst moment of my pregnant visit to Lisbon? We fly with low-fare airlines from Katowice to Lisbon with a transfer in London. You know, we bought the tickets “before we got the news”, when we were not afraid of transfers, waiting times at the airports etc. Flying there, we minimised the inconveniences after a trip through snowstorm to Katowice by staying over in a hotel next to the airport. On our way back there were some delays that we couldn’t do much about. A few hours of waiting at the London airport made me extremely tired and I completely forgot about the energy that was supposed to come with the third trimester. I was barely alive! That’s when we decided to say a solid NO! to tiring transfers – both in pregnancy and while travelling with a child!

Lizbona, podróżowanie w ciąży, latanie samolotem w ciąy

My beloved Lisbon – 15th week

Lizbona, podróżowanie w ciąży, latanie samolotem w ciąży

Ideal place to recharge batteries…

Lizbona, Cascais, podróżowanie w ciąży, latanie samolotem w ciąży

Cascais for romantic walks

Cascais, podróżowanie w ciąży, latanie samolotem w ciąży, homar

and for pregnancy hunger…

Cascais, homar

Łukasz takes advantage of the pregnancy privileges. You know what they say – men get a bit pregnant too

Cascais, podróżowanie w ciąży, latanie samolotem w ciąży

the tenant is not visible yet 🙂

19th – 21st WEEK – THE CANARY ISLANDS – December 2010 / January 2011

Trained with flying, we decided to go to The Canary Islands for longer Vacation. Traditionally around the time of New Year’s Eve. We bought the flight HERE and managed to fly without transfers and camping on the airport. We flew to Tenerife and went back from Fuerteventura. That was our goal. The ticket price was quite good as for such circumstances! W planned a two week trip and a visit to all four islands.

Unfortunately the beginning is a bit problematic for the pregnancy: Łukasz is sick, he coughs, blows his nose and takes antibiotics. What can I do, not to get sick too? What can I do? Fortunately we hired a small apartment on Tenerife and could sleep in separate rooms. Maybe it wasn’t the nicest New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, but it was all for the little creature in my belly:)

The islands are very travelling-friendly with lots of charming places to discover. We got a bit annoyed by the German and British senior-tourists who kept speaking English instead if Spanish in the bakery. It made us feel weird! We also felt annoyed by the giant resorts, but we tried to omit them – I recommend Puerto de Mogan on Gran Canaria!

My pregnancy felt alright. The only thing I had to watch out was not overheating the belly. Therefore there was not much sunbathing.

The biggest problem in The Canary Islands? Mountainous terrains on Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Pregnancy, motion sickness and a car are not the best combination. Being quite tired, instead of sailing to Lanzarote, we stayed in Fuerteventura, lied down, relaxed, read books and got lazy.

Advantages for The Canary Islands during pregnancy: ideal, not too hot water, Spanish tapas which I love and.. first “gurgling” of my belly – the tenant is showing signs of life!!!

One more thing – I started eating seafood again. Not too much, but I couldn’t resist calamari. Nothing bad happens, maybe that’s why Maks likes shrimps and other seafood now?:)

Wyspy Kanaryjskie, podróżowanie w ciąży

rest after sightseeing – 19th week

Maspalomas, Gran Canaria, podróżowanie w ciąży

Maspalomas, Gran Canaria

Fuerteventura, Wyspy Kanaryjskie, podróżowanie w ciąży

can you see it? 🙂

Teneryfa, podróżowanie w ciąży

beautiful views, not for my stomach though :/

Wyspy Kanaryjskie, podróżowanie w ciąży

a must: fish and potatoes boiled in skins

grillowane kalmary, Wyspy kanaryjskie

when nobody’s looking: grilled calamari

29th – 30th WEEK – BUDAPEST – MARCH 2011

Here we go – last flight during my pregnancy! A short one – it lasted only an hour. W flew Friday afternoon and got back Sunday evening. We didn’t have to get up in the middle of the night nor camp at the airport. It’s good! We fly LOT airlines, and as far as I can remember, they allow flying until 32nd week of the pregnancy.

Remember that this depends on certain airline regulations, so better check that if you’re planning to fly somewhere in the end of your pregnancy. It also depends on the health condition, but I guess that’s quite obvious. Fortunately everything went perfect for me and I remember the pregnancy as a pleasant period of time. I always pitied my friends who were forced to lie down for a few months during their pregnancy. Respect to you girls!

We spent our time in Budapest walking and eating. Slower and more distinctive than usual. 🙂 I went full throttle for desserts and each time I saw a chocolate soufflé somewhere, my “belly” was instantly going mad 🙂 Probably that’s why Maks loves chocolate as well! I stuck to the idea that the children whose mother loves chocolate, tend to be more cheerful 🙂 I don’t know if that’s true but it works for me! 😉

The weather in Budapest annoyed me a little bit. Hot, cold, hot, cold – all the time. And it wasn’t the best time to catch a cold!

podróżowanie w ciąży, latanie samolotem w ciąży, Budapeszt

we already know Maks is visiting Budapest with us!

Budapeszt, podróżowanie w ciąży, latanie samolotem w ciąży

sightseeing!

Budapeszt, podróżowanie w ciąży, latanie samolotem w ciąży

30th week

Budapest was our last flight just the two of us. From then on we started flying with our little one…

We stopped flying but didn’t give up on travelling. You can’t sit 2.5 month at home, right? 🙂

36th week – SUWALSZCZYZNA – MAY 2011

We leave for our beloved Żegary, to Romek’s. My mother says to me: “Are you mad? You want to give birth in the hospital in Sejny??? You won’t have all the luxuries, jumping balls and other stuff they told you about during antenatal classes!!!”

Calm down, we still have a month ahead of us! We leave for quite a while, almost 2 weeks – Easter combined with long May weekend. Books, newspapers, relaxation. That’s the plan! The reality is more difficult and stressful – Łukasz got an infectious diarrhea… He was barely alive and there was no extra room. My pregnancy was a tough experience for him!

Fortunately he gets better. The stomach “attractions” hit me though… I already see myself in the hospital in Sejny 😉 But I’ll spare you the details. Fortunately nothing bad happens, we spend our time together and wait. The big day is coming!!

MORAL: you can travel both with a child or during pregnancy (unless it’s a high-risk one). You just need to want it 🙂 and set specific rules that will make everybody feel good, comfortable and safe!

podróżowanie w ciąży, Suwalszczyzna

36th week – almost there!