My Ten Tips for Traveling while Pregnant

On Monday, I took my last flights as a pregnant lady at about 30 and a half weeks (I could probably still fly for another week or two, but it depends on what my doctor would say). I love traveling, pregnant or not, but there are a few things you have to keep in mind a little more when you are carrying your parasite inside of you.

Obviously, everyone's really different, and the experience of pregnancy differs hugely from prego to prego, so giving this kind of advice comes with the caveat that none of it will work for everyone, not to mention some people's doctors do put the kibosh on travel. Do what works for you, but this is what I have learned while traveling (we took one trip to Nashville, 3 trips to Pennsylvania, one trip to Baltimore, one to LA, one to New Orleans, and a few small road trips) during my own pregnancy.

1. When you are thinking about it, just do it- You aren't dying, you aren't diseased, you are just pregnant. If your doctor says it's fine, then it is, so go do something that will be harder once baby comes. There is always a reason not to travel, and this counts, but the person you are robbing is yourself. Take a roadtrip. Fly to see a family member you miss. Go on a completely pointless adventure. Plan a trip worth being excited about.

Travel can disrupt two emotional symptoms of being pregnant: first, it is easy to get in a planning holding pattern, where you are so focused on what is coming in weeks or months that you don't enjoy the present. This time is so great, so enjoy it! Also, being pregnant can become a myopic endeavor, because your body is constantly coming up with new, often gross, ways to keep it interesting. Between the constant tectonic shifts in your midsection and the fears, plans, and dreams attached to the future, it is all too easy to fixate. Plan other things, because it will give your brain a baby break.

2. When you plan, buy aisle seats and pick roads with rest stops- If you are planning ahead, you don't know for sure how much your body will be a peeing machine. It is the simplest switch, but aisle seats protect you from having to keep pushing annoyed seatmates out of their comfort zone. Nobody likes that person, and nobody wants to be that person. If you can count on one thing in pregnancy, it's peeing.

3. When you plan, give yourself a little extra time- On a related note, depending on where you are and how your pregnancy is treating you, more time is kinder. You may not be able to do the span of the US in 3 days like you could, and if you try, you will make yourself miserable. A lot of pregos also advocate for rest as a key part of pregnancy transit and visits- I have never found that I need a ton of down time, but it certainly can be nice. Longer layovers can be nice too, so you don't have to worry about long runs through airports (I think I did it twice while pregnant, and it wasn't so bad, but I bet I would have wanted to skip it in the moment if I could).

4. When you pack, keep your lifting limits in mind- A bunch of smaller things trumps 1 big thing when you have to carry it. By late in your second trimester, you are probably enough woman that carrying a big bag, even if it is light, can be a monumental task. For me, it also meant cutting down the weight I carried on my back over the course of the day. It's not something to obsess over, and honestly people will probably help, but if you can strategize to be kind to yourself, just do so.

5. When you get ready, wear whatever will make you comfy-Oh, your cute days in the airport might not be over, but your days wearing tight jeans to fly definitely are. My current theory is that about 70-80% of what you buy as a prego should be soft and stretchy. A maxi skirt, leggings, and a t-shirt worked well for me, but I would just encourage you to cut anything that is going to bug you after 5 hours in an uncomfortable seat (or puts pressure on your bladder. No one needs to help you pee). This works for car trips as well. Sitting too long is never good when you have a bowling ball up front, so anything you can do to make yourself comfortable, just do it.

6. When you get ready, pack an extra empty water bottle and a bottle of Purell- Just because you are having a travel day doesn't mean you should give up on drinking your weight in water. We have started bringing an old bottle with us and filling it up in airports so we have water on flights, not just the wimpy glass they give you. In the same way, you can refill your water bottle at reststops as you drive. Also, bring something to sanitize your hands, because public bathrooms come with so many quirks (and germs). If you have your ID, water, and purell, you have everything you need. The water may seem to encourage the peeing problem, but it's a good thing because...

7. When you are traveling, walk around whenever you have a chance and treat your body kindly- Walk. Get up and move around. This is the nicest thing you can do for yourself, so when you can, just move around a little.

8. When you are traveling (and you want a good laugh), drink a cold pop- I don't know if this works for everyone, but since I only let myself have a pop when I fly, Bumbo Baby is crazy impressed by the blast of cold sugar. Sometimes because we run around so much on travel days, it just feels good to have him dancing around to let me know he is in there, fine, and having quite the fanta-inspired partytime. If you need that little bit of encouragement that everybody is fine, I recommend this trick.

9. When you are traveling, buy snacks! Never go without them- By the end of a five hour flight or a long stretch of road, I am super hungry. I may even get a little hangry, which is way out of character for me. Don't risk the anger, just have pretzels or crackers or an apple or something. I won't judge you for what you pick, but I do think a little snack can take things to a much happier place.

10. When you are traveling, look around and notice all the babies traveling with their parents, and feel happy- Traveling is as much about making priorities as anything else. Just like with pregnancy, your ability to travel with baby is dependent on a bunch of factors you can't control, but it isn't entirely out of your hands either. If it is what you want to do, you probably can! So feel encouraged that other people are making it happen for their families, so you aren't stuck on Baby Island forever (and for that matter, neither is Baby).

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3 Things- Biden, Mozarella, and Plant Pod People

1. Joe Biden- Gah, I have proclaimed my love for this man, awkward gaffing and all, many a time, but can we all just agree that this is what a male feminist sounds like? And it sounds good, people. The shocking video of Ray Rice has brought up a lot of issues- violence between partners and the NFL's corporate complacency/ encouragement of this kind of behavior (thank goodness that they fired the guy, but it seems that they probably knew the length of the violence and only changed their stance when that knowledge became public). It has not said a lot of great things about what is permissible in big money, athletic hypermasculinity. So to have one of our nation's leaders pushing back this way (and propers to Tamron Hall as well for keeping this on the radar), is so encouraging. I don't see this as a partisan issue- if you are a conservative or a liberal, how could you not be against the violent behavior that categorizes domestic violence? You can see the whole video here, but this is my favorite quote:

"The one regret I have is we call it domestic violence as if it's a domesticated cat. It is the most vicious form of violence there is, because not only the physical scars are left, the psychological scars that are left. This whole culture for so long has put the onus on the woman. What were you wearing? What did you say? What did you do to provoke? That is never the appropriate question."

Preach it, Biden. Also, have you read about the Baltimore businesses donating money to a women's shelter for every Rice Jersey people bring them? I love it.

2. Primo Mozarella- I am pretty sure Primo is just Safeway's store brand, but it is the best not-exactly-fresh mozarella we have found. So good!

from moldeandolaluz.wordpress.com

from www.foam.org

3. Karl Blossfeldt photographs where the plants look like people- I genomed 30 of these yesterday, and these extreme typological close-ups of plants don't all have that human-y look to them, but the ones that have that personality make me smile.

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Real Vintage Bride Harry, in 1930s-style vintage wedding dress.

Dear Reader,

I couldn't wait to give you a preview of this stunning bride... 

Harry is a fashion PR, so she really knows what looks good! For her vintage wedding dress, she chose 1930s-style Angel. I know you'll agree she looks fabulous in it.

Harry - her full name is Angharad - has just married Joe, drummer with super-cool indie rockers, The Horrors. And you, dear readers, are the first to see this gorgeous little teaser from their wedding video.  (I don't even think their wedding guests have seen it yet...!)

I promise to show you the pictures as soon as they're in... Meanwhile, huge congratulations from us all to fabulous Harry and lucky Joe!

Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

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Real Vintage Brides

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Today's Inspiration- Maxime du Camp

Do you ever read about early travel photographers and jut think we should all be traveling all the time, because contemporary travel's demands are so easy and cheap compared to what people went through to see the world? Go read about Maxime du Camp, who was pretty rich to begin with, and you will know exactly what I am talking about. He was one of the first to publish pictures of his travels in his travel books (I wonder what he would think of the world now).

 It took a whole team of people to create each of these images; they had their own tent to process the photographs and they basically learned exposure and timing through trial and error (gah, 19th c. photographers had it rough!). When Maxime du Camp began to sell these images, he became rich and famous overnight. Imagine that no one had ever seen photographic images of Egypt before, just drawings and paintings (now I wonder if the ubiquity of these images actually keeps people from going and experiencing the world themselves- it's not the same).

 This is some of his photography from Egypt.

Cidi's Tomb, Upper Egypt, around 1850- from theredlist.com

Abu Simbel, 1850- from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1981.1229.2

Untitled, 1849- from http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2012/10/30/the-birth-of-travel-photography-du-camp-and-flauberts-1849-trip-to-egypt

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Bumpwatch- Week 29

How Far Along: 29 weeks! The size of an acorn squash. Supposedly, he is getting pudgier and smarter. He also really loves Otis Redding and early morning dance parties. I also read a disgusting statistic about how much he pees in me a day which I think is causing some real beef between us.

Best Moment of the Week: Our Babymoon! We headed on our last plane trip to New Orleans to just focus on each other (I'm lying, we went to buy inappropriate beads and eat). We succeeded in all our goals, had a pretty laid back trip for us, and explored the French Quarter. Hopefully, my amniotic fluid tasted delicious and we can raise our spawn on spicy deliciousness. Definitely our best food trip ever, and we had a great time, even if I couldn't have a hurricane. I think taking a final pre-baby trip was a genius idea (I am sure it was a marketing ploy, but I don't care), and I am so glad we did it.

Most Interesting Prego Quirk:  I have the sniffles all the time now. This is a separate issue from embarrassing weeping (especially at Baby Yoga). Your body is trying to keep infection out, and this part never stops, so you just end up having sniffles all the time to push out germs.  I also feel like I am covered in fuzz, and my belly button is doing something never before seen in nature . It's amazing how gross you can be in so many ways at once (but drunk strangers will still tell you you're cute).

I Would Really Like Some: Man, it's hard to think of much after a weekend of eating all the time in New Orleans. We ate so much! I would like to have a pomegranate Jamba Juice. I would also like to have a Mai Tai (yes, still) and like a whole loaf of french bread. Eat n Park cookies. A ham sandwich. Basically, I am just building a list of things in my head I could reunite with once the spawn is born.

 

Bizarro Thing No One Warned me About:  Even when you feel like some new twist in your pregnancy is a really huge bummer, your doctor will (and should) remain underwhelmed. I felt this week like things stopped being all fun and started getting real, but no one else seems worried (no one else in real life- you can find someone freaking out about anything on the internet). This is obviously a good thing, because my doctor's lack of alarm just puts things into perspective. You may be having the hardest week of your pregnancy, but it's somebody else's easiest week, so buck up.

And The Boy?:He has decided that BBG's best friend is named Blad, because if the little parasite is up and moving, I am heading back to the bathroom as soon as I return. The Boy says BBG wakes up and immediately hugs his best friend Blad (think Vlad, but more like an essential human organ). When Blad shrinks, BBG freaks out and hugs him even more. Apparently Bumbo Baby is incredibly clingy as a friend, and has a real fear of desertion, because all he wants is for poor shrinking Blad to get up and play with him.

We babymooned, and it was good. We had an awesome time, but we overestimated the amount we could eat without feeling horrible. I was shocked to see how sad he seemed when the weekend was over, because I think we are now out of distractions. This is happening, so maybe we should start putting furniture together and figuring out exactly how to keep this person alive when he gets here.

Looking Forward to: Our moms being here! The Boy's mom bought her tickets for when the baby comes, and I don't think anything more exciting could have happened. I feel like it will be so comforting to have our moms here to learn from and get support from. I feel really lucky that his parents will be here for both of us, but especially for him, because I really can't decide whether he will be elatedly silly, epically afraid, or tapped right back into his middle child baby-hating. 

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My Favorite Things from our Quick Trip to New Orleans

1. Collaborative Packing- This fine art nearly transforms the chore into fun. Nearly. I feel like we will spend the rest of our life perfecting the strategy and getting our time down. I think we have finally reached the point where it takes more time to unpack than to pack, but we still overpack every single time. Does anyone have any tricks for this?
2. Horse paintings- On Thursday, I genomed a lot of beautiful things from a gallery in Hong Kong, and was shocked just how often horse paintings still came up (historically, it makes sense, but horses still dominate the contemporary work as well). Jack Donaghy would approve (especially if you threw in some ship paintings).
3. Green Onion- Makes anything instantly seem super fresh.
4. The African Cafe in the Seattle Airport- On Friday morning when we walked by, "Circle of Life" was playing. That is how legitimately "African" this restaurant is. Also, they don't sell any actual African food.
5. Spiderman kid in the Houston Airport- I am not impressed by the Bush Airport; there are no maps, it makes no sense, and they only put moving walkways in places where you do not need them. It actually seems to want to impede your  ability to make decisions (we can all just imagine the political joke that will get me angry family emails here). Truly, this airport is a mess. On the other hand, there was a kid (in a suit no less) who was doing spin moves and casting webs all over the place. Why didn't Sartre say "Heaven is other people, at least the ones pretending to be Spiderman"?

6. Our First Kitchen Nightmares Restaurant- How did we kick off our trip to the Big Easy? By going to the place where the owner threatened to feed Gordon Ramsey to the alligators. And we ate alligator. The Boy read that the busy idiot brother is no longer attached and the place is pretty good now. I have fried oysters, and they were awesome, so I agree, though Gordon would not like the pictures in the menu. Also, we had the first of MANY super kickass New Orleans servers.

7. Late Night Beignets at Cafe du Monde- We planned on going for breakfast, but we just happened upon the cafe on our first walk around the French Quarter (drunks, but mostly sloppy not belligerent or angry), so we went for it. It reminded me of those dates  you go on where you are having such a great time that you add another activity on to the end. Just the kind of business you can't pull with spawn, and therefore a perfect part of our babymooning.

8. New Orleans Cemeteries- I knew that New Orleans funerals were these kind of joyful, musical events, but the cemeteries are also amazing. Like beautiful little death cities. Apparently because of where the city is built, bodies will eventually float back up if you bury them in the ground, which sounds pretty horrible for everyone involved. So this solution proves to be creepy and beautiful, while avoiding the body floating which is plenty creepy, but not beautiful.

9. Creole Tomatoes- I love a tomato, and love a tomato salad even more. I wanted to try the creole tomato, because it has a reputation for being really sweet and delicious. It reminded me of tomatoes people grew in Pennsylvania, but it still made me happy.
10. New Orleans Service- Almost all of our servers were awesome. We were nervous to go to Commander's Palace (we just feel like posers at fancy places), but the whole jazz brunch had a fun playful atmosphere, and our server was funny, odd, and really welcoming. God bless a server who can see you are pregnant and comes up with some cocktail ideas for you. Also, her food runner had a ridiculous mustache, kept dancing when he thought people weren't looking, and requested the band play slayer. He also gave the Boy a hat for finishing his dessert. I guess the focus on really capable and warm servers makes sense with the Southern hospitality deal, but it still caught us by surprise.

11. Pag's future career- Commander's Palace (and many other local restaurants) has a jazz brunch where a small ensemble plays while you eat. I can totally imagine Bullyhill Brass doing it, and we heard so many songs that I mostly have only heard my relatives play, so that was exciting.
12. Dude Pool- I was so excited to go swimming (seriously, the best feeling ever to walk into the pool right now), but it turned out to be very busy in the afternoon (despite the impending thunderstorm). It was busy with dudes, looking for hot girls in swimsuits. The ratio of men to women was like 10 to 1 (and most of the women were older or me), and the bros were each pretty bro-ish. Two women were at the pool, and I saw the men kind of circling, but neither woman looked all that interested. The Boy says New Orleans serves as the Las Vegas of the East, and it did have large collectives of dudes, but I have to believe Las Vegas pools are luckier for the men. Also, I would like to be a yenta and just brazenly force people's love connections.
13. Pregnancy stories- People in New Orleans were really friendly and ready to share their own pregnancy and delivery tales. My favorite/ the most traumatizing was told to us by a girl in a candy store, whose cousin gave birth to triplets when they thought she was only expecting one baby. I do not understand how this could possibly happen, but it is truly horrifying.
14. The Besh and his hair- We went to a John Besh restaurant, and they have all of his cookbooks right up front, so in case you didn't know before, you are eating a beautiful person's food. Also, the food was delicious. Best pasta ever (with more tomatoes!).

15. Street musicians who are really freaking good- the majority of the Seattle street musicians play acoustic guitars and mumble. On our last night, we just walked around the city, and we came across the best trio ever (though Nick felt they played the same song too long). One of my favorite moments of the whole trip.
16. D2, DC, and too much time in the airport- We showed up at the New Orleans Airport 2 hours before our flight (our standard time) at 11 AM. We were through security at 11:06. The terminal only had 12 gates. We perhaps made a mistake, but we had a fun time doing laps in the airport, because we are weird like that.
17. Pens that explode- About once a year, I have a pen destroy my hands, some chunk of clothing I am wearing, and The Boy's fledgling belief that I am sort of like an adult. It's worth it to use nice pens, not horrible ones like he does.
18. The Sadness of a Trip being over being Replaced by the Comfort and Drive of getting back home- I think we get sad every time we have to leave, and this trip was perhaps even worse, because we knew we wouldn't be adventuring again any time soon. But you get home, and you can be in your own bed,  and you start checking things off your list, and it mostly feels really good. Back to work!

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Picture of the Week- New Orleans

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