It's been ages since we posted on here but we have a good excuse - our first [human] baby, Daniel, was born on 18 December 2022! We are beaming with joy and we can't wait to start travelling with him and showing him the world.
Despite working on the baby for the majority of 2022 we did get a few trips in - we visited 5 countries in the beginning of the year and we did 2 overseas trips plus a few weekends away in Bulgaria. We had a ton of questions regarding travel and we found reading about other people's experiences very helpful. We thought we'd share our own for those of you who find themselves in a similar situation.
The first thing on our minds was of course
Should we travel while expecting a baby?
As almost anyone would tell you, the trimester you're in makes a huge difference. We can't really give advice on whether to go travelling or not, but here's what happened with us so it can hopefully help you make up your mind.
First trimester
We found out we were expecting 2 days before the beginning of a 3-week long trip to Iran. We knew the overwhelming advice to avoid travelling during this period however we didn't really have time to properly consider the situation. We also knew that the likelihood of having a miscarriage is very high so we didn't consider the pregnancy 100% confirmed then. So long story short we decided to still take the trip.
Did this affect the pregnancy? No, not really. The reason most people advise to avoid travelling in the first 12 weeks is that that's the period when the baby's essential systems are being formed and you shouldn't take unnecessary risks. Thankfully in our case everything ended up being well. There is a small caveat - Daniel failed to form a ductus venosus (some blood vessel, not essential after birth). It is unlikely that anything we did could have caused it but we can't know for sure.
Did it affect the experience? Yes, a lot! The trip was quite challenging to begin with - we travelled over 3,000 km in 3 weeks. By bus, On not so great roads. We had at most 2 nights in the same place, so we didn't have any time to rest. In some parts the temperatures were extreme (40+ degrees) and on top of making Raya very uncomfortable heat is one of the things you should avoid during the first trimester. We ended up being worried a lot of the time about the heat and we skipped a couple of safaris because we didn't want to bounce the baby around.
Overall, the pregnancy made us uncomfortable most of the time and we couldn't fully enjoy ourselves. If we had to do it again we would probably try to postpone the trip so we would have more fun.
Second trimester
This is generally recommended as the best time to travel during pregnancy and we tend to agree with this sentiment. Because of that blood vessel issue we avoided travelling altogether after Iran, so we only resumed it after we had the go ahead from the doctors. We went to the Bulgarian seaside for a weekend and to Crete for a long weekend.
The belly did raise a few eyebrows on the plane but not so much as to get the other passengers to become accommodating (massive eyeroll as people were bumping into Raya and didn't care). There was no morning sickness at that point so we could enjoy travelling again. It wasn't the most comfortable experience as we had to take care not to overheat (challenging for beach destinations) and Raya still couldn't eat to her heart's content which is usually a big part of our trips. But we had a nice time nonetheless.
Third trimester
We got confident during the second trimester so we continued doing small trips around Bulgaria in the third one. We had a really nice time in Yambol (post on that coming separately) but we pushed it a bit too far with a mountain trip to Pamporovo. The road there is quite curvy and it made Raya extremely sick on the way. So sick that we had to take an emergency trip to the nearby hospital to make sure her waters hadn't broken. It ended up being a false alarm but the stress wasn't really worth it and it didn't leave us any time to explore while dealing with emergency check ups and the resulting poor mood. This was at the end of the 8th month though so we were taking it a bit far.
As far as this trimester is concerned, easier destinations were perfectly fine for us but in the future we would again avoid anything even a bit challenging.
So would we travel again while expecting?
Yes, we would. We love it too much to stay put for very long. We would however wait until the 12-week scan to make sure everything with the baby is OK and have more piece of mind when on the road. We would also choose easier destinations, probably sticking to European city breaks, and maybe choose something with more boring food so we don't feel we're missing out on the culinary part. Last couple of months would also be a big no-no unless we're going somewhere with exceptionally good healthcare.
Next on our list - travelling as parents
We are generally quite excited to start showing little Danny the world and want to get him used to planes and cars early on. At the same time he will be far too young to appreciate anything for a while and we would also not take him to some more exotic destinations, so we will also try leaving him with his grandparents for a few days.