When a pregnancy changes your travel plans

Many of you probably remember that we’ve been planning a trip to India for over a year. Well, my husband, sister, and brother in law are there. I am not. I’m home with the two boys for ten days in a row while my husband is traveling across India.

Why? Because I’ve been keeping a little secret for the past few weeks. That’s right, I’m pregnant with baby #3!

When I found out I was pregnant I didn’t think anything about the India trip. I just assumed I would go. Sure enough my doctor gave me the clear, but told me to watch what I ate because I couldn’t get the typhoid shot while pregnant.

Several other doctor friends also gave me the go ahead. They said it was perfectly safe.

But then we actually asked our friends who had been to India and they all said they had gotten sick on their trip. Every single one of them. While I’m pretty sure I’d be fine, the last thing I wanted was to get typhoid fever, not be able to treat it because I’m pregnant, and then lose the baby. I know that is the worst case scenario. What probably would have happened is that I’d get sick with Delhi belly and feel miserable because I’d be pregnant, tired, and sick in a foreign country. Bottom line, if anything had happened to the baby during this pregnancy, I’d probably always feel guilty for going on the trip.

Aside from getting sick, I was also concerned about the non-stop traveling. I talked to Tom yesterday and he said they’ve been on the go since they arrived. The itinerary is filled with several plane rides, a 12 hour train ride, and a 4 hour car ride. I’m exhausted walking to the park 4 blocks away in our neighborhood. Did I really think I could handle backpacking across India?

So, that’s that. I’m insanely jealous that my family is traveling without me.  Being pregnant and emotional just makes it worse. One minute I’m super happy that they are enjoying an amazing trip, the next minute I’m crying out of jealousy just looking at this picture that he sent me.

For the record, I also cried during the opening song of “Moana”. It doesn’t take much to make me cry these days.

While I’m pretty sad to not be traveling with Tom, this has just made me more determined to find ways to travel the US with my kids this year. If I can’t go to India, I might as well explore the US.

Meanwhile, these two boys are pretty excited to be big brothers to a new baby coming in September.

Robert is already teaching Jackson how to be a big brother. It really is the most precious thing I’ve ever seen. I thought seeing Robert become a big brother was great, but no, watching him teach Jackson how to be a big brother is even better.

There will be more opportunities for me to travel the world. There won’t be many more opportunities for me to be a mom to young children and babies (because I’m not a Duggar- I plan to stop at 3). It’s still okay for me to be completely emotional though, right? It’s also okay for me to expect Tom to take care of the kids for ten days in a row by himself when he gets home, right? Just kidding. Or am I?