Traveling with kids while pregnant, let’s be real
Hello, it’s me (Naomi not Adele). I know I have been MIA for a while here on my blog, and if you follow me on Instagram, you know that I am pregnant with my second baby (due late spring). To say that life has been keeping me busy would be an understatement.
Even though I have been quiet over here, I did go on a couple trips with my family in the last few months. I most recently went to Taipei and Hong Kong for my son’s winter break. I know to a lot of people that was such a massive adventure to undertake while being 5-month pregnant, and believe or not, I would be one of them during my first pregnancy with Freddy. During my pregnancy, I was working my corporate 9-5, driving 40-minute one way to and from work, by the time the weekend hit, I was just pooped, and Adventure was not a word I lived by or used in my daily vocabulary. Needless to say, Gabriel and I didn’t take a baby moon and the only trip I took while pregnant with Freddy was a work trip from Detroit to Chicago. Fast forward to this pregnancy, I had left my corporate 9-5 and had become more adventurous and spontaneous with age and time. While being 5-month pregnant, Gabriel and I took Freddy on a 13-hour flight from Seattle to Taipei, and later on to Hong Kong.
So here are my real thoughts on traveling with small kids while pregnant…
First of all, pick your destination(s) carefully—both small kids and pregnant women are venerable to get really sick, so I chose places (Taipei and Hong Kong) with first-world food safety standards and exceptional healthcare systems. I have said before and I will say it again, take adventures not risks. A lot can unfortunately go wrong while you are pregnant so at least being in a place that can handle all the wrongs would make a huge difference. Another element about the destination is how well can you communicate with the locals—outside of English, I am fluent in Mandarin Chinese while Gabriel speaks Spanish and French so I aimed at choosing travel destinations with these languages in mind. Because you want to be able to speak to a medical staff without language barrier if there is an emergency, or double check with the restaurant staff if the local seafood you just ordered is high in mercury. My second advice is to take it slow—even though I usually push myself to see as much as possible while on holiday, I know my body is different now and I should definitely listen to it. During our time in Taipei and Hong Kong, there are many afternoons where I stayed behind at the hotel resting while Gabriel took Freddy out sightseeing all by themselves.
Even though I hesitated a bit on taking this trip, I am so glad that I did. Those precious memories of our little family of 3 traveling together before we become a family of 4 will always stay with me.
Signing off now friends, I need to take another nap to feel refreshed. And I wish you amazing adventures no matter what stage of life you are in right now.
