Traveling in the First Trimester

Here's the deal. I am not usually one to take selfies or baby bump photos, but sometimes you have to document special occasions. Baby Kramer's first flights were an excuse for me to break my own rules. Looking back now, I am so glad we did because these are some sweet memories. We had such fun traveling together as a family of three in the first trimester and are optimistic that next time around (Lord-willing) will be just as enjoyable.

Baby Kramer LUVing Southwest // Baby's 6th flight at 9 weeks!

Going into 2015, we tried to spread out our travel schedule and not overdue it. This was one of the reasons we decided to cancel the cheap Abu Dhabi flights. At first, flying 14 hours each way in economy on a top rated carrier at 24-25 weeks pregnant sounded excited (yay babymoon!) and then sounded awful. We also made sure that the trips we were planning could be cancelled at anytime with minimum penalties and were in areas that had adequate health care available. With that in mind, we did not plan any travel after 27 weeks because we figured there might be a chance I could go into labor at any point and if I did, we would want to be at home and would want our own team of midwives with us. Let's be honest, giving birth on a plane is definitely not one of my aspirations, although my husband does joke about it especially after this article came out in December.

Overall though, I found traveling while pregnant to be quite easy as long as I did several things. Here is my experience and some suggestions if you find yourself traveling while pregnant, especially in the first trimester.

Water bottle. Hydration is so important, and especially with the dry cabin air, I found myself thirsty constantly. On long haul flights, it is even more important. Those little glasses of water they give you every couple of hours just don't cut it, so bring a water bottle, a large one if at all possible.

Snacks upon snacks. No surprise here; I love to eat! My backpack was filled with almonds, jerky, dried white peaches, bananas, granola bars, oatmeal packets, plantain chips and salt + vinegar kettle chips for a treat. This especially came in handy during a 8.5 hour flight with no served meals. That is a pregnant lady's worst nightmare!! During layovers, my husband would immediately direct us to a lounge for food. He knows my love language. My suggestion, bring items that have good protein, fiber and that sound tasty.

Prenatal vitamins. You never know when your luggage is going to be lost, and if you have a full 24 hours of travel ahead of you (or get stuck somewhere), it is essential to have vitamins on hand. The prenatal I take requires a vitamin three times a day, so I had my supply ready to go and packed in the carry-on. 

Exercise. On flights, it is good to keep moving, especially while being pregnant because you are more at risk for blood clots and DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis). Pregnant or not,  I am known to make laps and stretch around the plane often. On long haul flights, it is even more important to move and do exercises at your seat, plus it makes the flight more comfortable. Also, staying hydrated means more bathroom breaks (yay!) which is an excellent excuse for exercise.

Sleep. As much as I love food, I may even love sleep more. Fortunately, I can sleep just about anywhere, and flying while pregnant was a dream come true! Whether the flight was 45 minutes or 8 hours, I was out. To help this, I brought an eye mask or scarf for shielding my eyes and used the provided blanket. It was my best sleep ever on an airplane. As for sleeping in airports, well... it wasn't the most restful, but our little one did have a chance to camp in the concourse two times, once at Midway and once in Miami. Oh what memories. :)

Overnight at MIA

Seats. Aisle seat. I am usually a window seat type traveler (for the views and the surface to rest my head), but while pregnant, I am all about aisle seats for several reasons: stretching out as much as possible, convenient access for frequent bathroom breaks and out of courtesy to other passengers - it makes it easy to get up and take my laps around the plane without disturbing anyone else. To help ensure our seat preferences, Matt would log-in and adjust our seating configurations as needed. Depending on the airline and seats, he could sometimes do this a couple of weeks before, but otherwise we had to wait until a couple of hours before departure.

Storage Space. Instead of utilizing the space under the seat in front of us, I preferred to put my carry-on and personal item in the overhead bins above to allow for extra stretching room.

Radiation Levels. While I was pregnant, we did not fly super often, so radiation levels from actual air travel was not a huge concern for me. Even when we flew, we didn't fly the long-haul polar routes (i.e. U.S. to Europe), so I didn't worry about it too much.

However, when it came to security checks, I was on guard. Most airports use the full body scanners these days in the regular security lines, so if it were me, I would opt out instead. All you need to say is "I opt out," and they will call over a female TSA employee to do your full body pat down. Fortunately, we have TSA Precheck which usually just puts us through the metal detectors rather than the whole remove your shoes and liquids and step into the full body scanner process. I only had to opt out once, and although it takes extra time, I think it is worth the hassle. One of the male TSA employees gave me a little bit of grief for it, but the female employee who did the pat down was very kind and told me to take care of the little one.

Sickness. I honestly have nothing on this one... I wasn't sick but have read that sometimes you can be more motion-sickness prone while pregnant. So I can only imagine that you would want to have a bag ready and some ginger ale on hand or anything else that might calm your stomach.

Anyone else have any experiences - good or bad or suggestions for traveling while pregnant? Feel free to chime in!