More Traveling While Pregnant

So this weekend my husband and I got a last minute, paid for, chance to jet off to Switzerland for a work conference.  It was awesome.  I will probably add more to this post later, but I just want to say that for the most part, because of my past traveling while pregnant experience, I had some ideas about what to expect.  The biggest change for us was prioritizing sleep for me.  Instead of trying to get to Geneva and the Alps in one day, which is a plane ride, then a train ride, then a bus ride, we flew in, stayed one night in Geneva, and then did the second half of our trip the next day, and then took a nice nap.  It worked like a charm, and I was able to enjoy the train and bus rides, which were just beautiful.  We also scheduled flights at sleep appropriate times, and decided against trying to fly in early morning, and returning late, which we often do to save money and take full advantage of time.  We also made our own travel plans, instead of relying on conference planners.  For the most part, we are very flexible and love to go with the flow and see what adventures we get into.  But we didn't do this for this trip- we planned our own trip and, while we stayed flexible, we only relied on ourselves.  This was a huge comfort to me.  Finally, I scheduled an afternoon nap every day.  This turned out to be vital because I was exhausted very easily. 
The thing I would have changed was that I wish I had brought more snacks so I wouldn't be on the conference planners exact meal plans, but the gift shops had treats so I never went hungry.  That said, I had to eat cookies for dinner one night when I couldn't stomach the food options, and I was pretty sick to my stomach as a result.  I had to fore go some of the spa treatments because I wasn't sure if they were okay with pregnancy, and the language barrier was enough to make me not want to risk a misunderstanding, but that was no big deal.  And the natural hot/warm springs were amazing, and so comfortable, and the trip was so romantic. 
Oh, but here are some things that I couldn't have anticipated and that made a difference.  I felt a lot less flexible on the food issue.  We spent our last day walking around Geneva, which is a cosmopolitan city that I have been to before (and I've been to jail there as well, but that is a different story).  There is nothing particularly foreign about it, but navigating it was infinitely tougher for me than I expected.  Our walk turned into a full fledged hunt for food, and the hungrier I got the more indecisive and paranoid I got about restaurant quality and dangerous ingredients- I had already accidentally ate half a vodka sorbet without realizing there was vodka in it and I didn't want to make the same mistake with cheese.  I felt overwhelmed by the language barriers, even though most people spoke English and, of course, most people we encountered were very nice.  I just didn't want to deal with it.  I started to not even want to approach people in French, even though I can make myself understood enough through rough French and hand signals, but it all started to feel very hard.  And finally, I couldn't walk as much as I wanted.  We were walking a pretty normal amount for visiting a European city, and I got tired much more quickly and got a cramp in my right side, the same cramp that has been bothering me for two weeks now.  When I got to the bathroom I noticed I had some staining, which was so slight that I'm not even sure it was blood, but I was just at the end of my rope and didn't want to move around anymore.  This, of course, was impossible, and we left to catch our plane early, but it was still hours before we were home.  All of this makes me wonder if going to China next month is a bad idea.  My friend says that people get sick and tired visiting China anyways, and I got sick visiting freakin' Geneva, how is China going to hit me?  I have a lot of thinking about it to do, and I'm frustrated that even though the trip was great, I had pretty real limitations that were hard for me to understand and express.

Being sick while pregnant sucks!

So, I never totally understood why pregnant women complained so much when they were sick.  It's not like the sickness was worse, right? And really, it's not like taking cold medication makes that much of a difference, so how much could they possibly be missing it now that it's off limits?  Well, now I understand.  Being sick while pregnant sucks!  I have a regular old cold.  Because I don't work outside of the house, I would still probably be laying around feeling sorry for myself even if I wasn't pregnant, but I feel so much sorrier for myself now.  It's making me a little depressed, and it hurts my pelvis area when I cough, which of course makes me worry about the baby.  But that is not really why being sick is worse when you are pregnant, it is all the extra needs you/baby has, then added on to a cold.  For example, my bones hurt anyways.  I don't feel good if I veg out on the couch for too long because my back gets stiff and my head starts to hurt.  So I am resigned to my bed, which still hurts, but less.  Also, usually when I have a cold I'm not very hungry.  I look for some matzo ball soup at dinner time, and I'm happy drinking water.  Now my baby is hungry and I am hungry.  I am so sick of being hungry.  I don't like eating that much, I'm not a very hungry person.  In fact it is the reason I have weight issues in the first place, I am a poor eater.  But now I am hungry and have to pull myself out of bed every few hours, walk down two flights of stairs, and eat something tasteless and borderline nauseating, in the hopes it will fill me up enough to last a few hours.  Even water tastes gross, and it all gives me a stomach ache, and I have absolutely no choice, I HAVE to do it, I am not in charge of my body.  Also, I have to pee a lot.  So I need to drink water to try to stay hydrated, and then I have to pee a ton.  The toilet is down some stairs too (we live in a classic British back to back) and by the time I get back upstairs I am so out of breath I'm panting.  I'm already short on breath now that I'm pregnant, and short on breath cuz my lungs are full of gunk, and add the stairs and I'm wide awake by the time I get back to bed and have to start winding down all over again.  Finally, being sick is scaring me.  I have a tendency to get really sick in the winter, and have had pneumonia a number of times, and used to get bronchitis every year.  I've been good this winter, taken my nose spray, sanitized my hands, but our trip to Switzerland really took me out I think (more on that in another post).  So now I'm worried about getting sicker, and not totally sure how to prevent it except to lie in this damn bed and feel sorry for myself.  Boo freakin hoo.

18 weeks- about a day ahead of myself :)

The only pattern I've noticed in movements is that I think the baby woke up when my husband came home the other night and started talking.  I think it jumped around!  So cute if this is true!  I also feel it, of all places, on the bus!  I can't tell why, the only times I have felt strong movement have been two times when I'm on the bus.  Maybe I have a little bus driver on board!

week 17 (sorry I missed a few)

17 weeks and cramps and peeing a lot

Well, this has been a bit of an uncomfortable week.  I just haven't regained the energy I was promised, I'm still sleeping badly, and now I'm peeing ALL THE TIME!  I always worried that I wasn't getting that pregnancy symptom before, but now I'm making up for lost time.  Also, I've had some pretty strong cramping.  They were strong enough that I called my midwife, but she said that I probably didn't need to worry about it, but that I could call the hospital if I thought it was necessary.  Again, I'm so glad to have this doppler.  I know the baby is alive and healthy, and the cramps mostly scare me more than they hurt me, so I'm not wasting another ultra sound- I want it at the right time this time- 20 weeks!

Is that movement?

Okay, I'm turning the corner into my 18th week and I'm still confused about whether I'm feeling movement or gas.  I have been feeling something since 15 weeks, and it got stronger last week, but it is so inconsistent that it is impossible to tell.  Up until last week it felt like there was a caterpillar in my belly, now it feels more like something bumping around.  I am beginning to get impatient, I want to feel my little munchkin!