Mark, Seven Weeks and One Day

I learned I was preg­nant when I peed on a stick in Walmart’s bath­rooms (not my most classy moment, I know). I told Feng the news ten min­utes later, and then I called my mother. My friends in Ottawa were the next to know. Then, lit­tle by lit­tle, I announced it to the rest of the world but I was slow to do so, mostly out of superstition.

I only pub­lished the “by the way, I’m almost about to give birth” news on this blog when I was eight months preg­nant. It caught a lot of peo­ple by sur­prise because I had just come back from a trip to the U.K and France.

Yes, I trav­eled when I was preg­nant. Why not?

Mark was “made in Mex­ico”, so tech­ni­cally my first trip with the mini-baby was in Feb­ru­ary 2012, when we flew back to Canada. Of course, at the time, I didn’t know yet I was pregnant.

In March, as I had just found out I was expect­ing, my mother under­went a seri­ous surgery. I didn’t think twice and bought my ticket to France—I wanted to be by her side. I was a very con­fused but oth­er­wise fine seven-week-pregnant trav­eler. The trip was pretty smooth—I didn’t even have a baby bump then and no one could tell I was expect­ing, which led to funny con­ver­sa­tions with my grand-parents who scowled at me for pass­ing on that sup­pos­edly deli­cious French wine.

When I came back to Canada, Feng and I drove to Toronto to see Bryan Adams. At the time, I thought it would prob­a­bly be my last trip out­side Ottawa for a while. Preg­nant women aren’t sup­posed to stray far from home, right?

Yeah, right.

In the bliss of the sec­ond trimester, I got itchy feet. The baby was fine and I hadn’t changed my rou­tine much—I was walk­ing a lot and going to yoga twice a week. Sure, there was a mini-us inside me, but he wasn’t inter­fer­ing much with my life so far.

In June, we decided to take off to New York City and explore New York State. I was almost six months preg­nant then and I was just start­ing to show. The most annoy­ing pregnancy-related symp­tom I had was that I needed more bath­room breaks than usual. Thanks God for Star­bucks and fast joint restau­rants in NYC—I think I peed in every sin­gle bath­room avail­able in the city.

Six Month Preg­nant in NYC (June 2012)

The rest of the time, I for­got I was preg­nant. We stood on top of the Empire State Build­ing, explored Chi­na­town, walked on Brook­lyn Bridge and vis­ited all the land­marks. My belly bump seemed to expand as the day went by and as I was eat­ing and drink­ing: in the morn­ing, it would look flat and then I would walk by a win­dow a few hours later and bam, I was showing!

When we headed back to Ottawa, I really thought it would be my last trip when pregnant.

Until late July, when Feng and I had a chance to go to Lon­don. Did I want to go there for a few days? Hell yes! Sure, I was almost seven months preg­nant, but who cared? I was given the green light by my ob-gyn and we started packing.

How­ever, for a brief moment, I won­der about air­line poli­cies for preg­nant women. We flew Air Canada from Ottawa to London—no issue there, Air Canada allows preg­nant women to fly up to the 37^th week (i.e. right until the end). But from Lon­don to Nantes, we flew Easy­jet and its poli­cies weren’t as lenient. A doctor’s cer­tifi­cate was required if trav­el­ing between the 28^th and 35^th week of preg­nancy. And the cer­tifi­cate must be issued by a doc­tor or mid­wife, and must be dated within 5 days of the out­bound travel date.

I was 28 weeks preg­nant so tech­ni­cally, I should have got­ten a note from my doc­tor. But I couldn’t have pro­duced another note dated within 5 days of the trip for the trip back to Lon­don, since I didn’t have a doc­tor in France.

Screw the note, thanks God for Roots hoodies—very handy to cover a baby bump. I stepped into the plane hold­ing my bag in front of my belly and no one asked ques­tion. Phew. I was barely show­ing any­way but I had read news about a preg­nant woman thrown off an Easy­jet flight because she didn’t have a note from her doc­tor, and I cer­tainly didn’t want to have any problem.

Once again, in Lon­don and in Nantes, the most annoy­ing side effect of preg­nancy was that I needed to pee all the time. I was start­ing to get a bit tired when stand­ing for extended period of time but I was fine when walking.

Seven Month Preg­nant in Lon­don, August 2012

Explor­ing Lon­don with a seven-month-pregnant belly was a really fun expe­ri­ence, and being able to see my fam­ily again so far into my preg­nancy was great. In the evening, my mother and my sis­ter loved play­ing “poke the belly and make the baby kick” game!

I feel lucky I had an easy preg­nancy and that I was able to stay active right until the very end. All preg­nan­cies are dif­fer­ent but if you are given the green light by your doc­tor, you can do a lot of things dur­ing these nine months! That said, it’s always a good idea to check out web­sites such as Kanetix.ca, for your travel insur­ance needs. When you are preg­nant, insur­ance is a must as your plans can change fast!

Related arti­cles:

1. Being Preg­nant: What Does It Feel Like?
2. 10 Things That Feel Great When You Are No Longer Pregnant
3. 20 Rea­sons Why I’m Look­ing For­ward to The “Grand Finale”
4. 10 Perks of Being Pregnant
5. The Bean-Shaped Baby
6. The First Trimester and the Baby Bump in France