Air-travel with carry-on luggage of a different sort...

About the time that I really started faining in earnest, we decided to fly 11 300 kilometers around the world, pack up a house and move to a new country, a move that included not only a household of furniture, but also a car and two very large dogs.  We could not envision trying to do this with twin babies in tow, so this appeared to be the best option open to us at the time.  In hindsight, I am not so sure. 

We arrived at the airport, with your's truly giving a good impression of being an ocean liner at full sail.  At seven months and counting, the boys were growing at a tremendous rate, and my stomach was by then already preceding me through doorways by several seconds.  The airline staff took one horrified look at me and promptly told me I was not able to fly without a letter from my gynae.  Smugly, I pushed the Sweetpea forward and said "I can go one better - I have brought him along for the trip".  Unable to deny this fact, they grugingly let us on board for the thirty hours of travel time to Africa at the height of summer (they don't call it suicide season for nothing!).


We made it there after what seemed like two weeks of traveling, and I spent the next weeks lying in the pool under an umbrella (literally!) calling instructions to the Sweetpea through an open window as he frantically tried to pack up an entire household (and two dogs) in time for us to fly back to have my kiddies on home territory soil. 


If the faces of the airline personnel dropped when they saw me the first time, imagine their consternation when I arrived back at the airport six weeks later and declared my intention to fly the thirty hours back around the globe in this state!  By now, people often came up to me in the streets and said, "You must be having twins!" so it was evident that the feeling of being enormous was definitely not only in my head.  Reluctantly on the part of the airline, I was allowed to travel back, although I was immediately moved to first class (yay!), which were coincidentally probably the only seats on the plane that would fit me in.  The Sweetpea got consigned to coach with about fifty screaming kids, and for the flight, I tried to sneak him goodies from first class to try to make his journey bearable.  I am sure that the airline stewards thought "Wow, that pregnant lady can sure eat a lot!"


Have you traveled while pregnant?