Flying from North Carolina to California is rough (about a 5 - 6 hour flight depending on if you have any layovers or not.) Adding the extra flight from California to Hawaii is a double whammy. As Yoda would say: POOPED, I was. Some of the toughest things about flying pregnant in this day in age are:
Food. They don't serve it on the plane (except for snacks) or you have to buy something(Alaska Air sells meals for $6 or so.) So you have to stockpile your snack bag, otherwise you'll just be eating peanuts and crackers. My tip is to bring an empty water bottle refill it at the drinking fountain at the gate. Bring fruit if you can (you can't bring fruit from Hawaii!) Granola bars, carrot sticks. I even brought a salad. Make a sandwich.
Luggage. Lifting it up is tough so you either lift it yourself or ask someone for help or hopefully someone will offer to help. I got two offers to help on my roundtrip flights and asked one person to retrieve my bag on one of the legs. The bag that I put underneath the seat in front of me is harder to access now. Bending over is rough; I feel like I'm squishing the baby. I used my feet to raise up the straps on my bag for more reachability and less baby squishing.
Comfort. There's no legroom anymore on planes unless you get first class or the emergency row seating. Reclining is nice, even if it is just 6 inches of recline. Luckily my torso is long enough that my head rests perfectly on top of the seat back, I just have to sit up nice and straight to do that. Sitting up straight feels better anyways when you've got a little glow worm in your belly (my friend from N.C., Emily, coined the term glow worm for the baby.) Slouching feels like squishing. Make sure you have a blanket or pillow that you can tuck behind you for back support.
People. I have decided that I do not like Southwest Airlines. Yes, you get more substantial snacks and yes the flight attendants can be funny but I really don't like the cattle call and pick your own seat scenario. I prefer assigned seating, like on Alaska or Delta (or American or United). I was in the C boarding group on every flight and on one leg I sat between two men; one had really bad breath. Now that I'm pregnant my gag reflex is awfully sensitive and that was pretty gross. On my way back home I sat in an aisle seat, YAY! (that's a sincere yay.) but it was next to an obese mother/daughter duo and the mother, who I sat next to, spilled 1/4 to 1/3 of the way onto my seat. And when she saw that I was pregnant and learned that I was 6 months along she put this crazy expression of concern on her face while saying, "You're carrying that low and you're only 6 months?!" Please don't freak me out and criticize my body unless you are my midwife, thank you. Before we took off she asked if she could have my barf bag for her daughter who gets air sick. BLEH. Her daughter was throwing up while we took off and throwing up while we landed. Talk about gag reflexation. I was imagining the barf-o-rama scenario from the movie "Stand By Me." Luckily that flight was only an hour, from SJ to Las Vegas. On my last flight I sat between a quiet, skinny young man and a big tall guy. One of them had gas. I plugged my nose A LOT. The people in front of us reclined their seats like maniacs making the already non-existent legroom a little painful (especially for the tall guy next to me.)
Jet Lag. OY. The best remedy for this is rest and relaxation. I will definitely be taking a nap or two today.
Here are some traveling tips from Baby Center, which is also where I got the above image: http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/tips-for-traveling-while-pregnant/
No comments:
Post a Comment