Pregnancy - Getting knocked up while riding RTW
 

Hello all!

Well it took me a while to get to this, we've been busy;) But I wanted to throw a lil something up here for the ladies who find themselves procreating on the road. I'm definitely not the first to have done it but there isn't much here on the HUBB.

My husband and I left in May 2012 aiming for at least India with no end date. Really we intended to travel until we got sick of it (that never happened) or ran out of money (hooray that didn't happen either). As I wrote on another post here about birth control, I had an IUD which is so ideal for long term travel. I hadn't had to think about pregnancy or even aunt flo barely, definitely a plus for camping. Indeed I didn't really want kids and we were just wild & roaming the earth. But...somewhere along the way that turned into "oh hell lets see what happens." So we worked out the minimum timing to coincide with getting Obamacare, worked out some what if plans, ditched the birth control and despite what doctors tell me is advanced maternal age (36 ha!) I got knocked up right away.

We were making our way through SEA at that point, enjoying the hiking, beer, culture , roads...crashing a little - but that was before. Somewhere in vietnam, the magic happened, and so special because they actually let us in. (jeff has joked that we should have named our daughter Ha Noi). Of course I didn't notice for some time, but by the time we got back into Thailand via Cambodia, I didn't feel quite right. I felt very tired.

We met up with another biker and were touring some of the islands. I picked up a test at a lil market and peed on it. holy crap! We figured I was about 6 weeks along. Now about 25% of early pregnancies end up in miscarriage, more if there is any spotting (I had a little 2 days later) and most of the danger is past at about 12 weeks. Age is also a factor. We kept it to ourselves, apart from the other bikers we rode with and our immediate family. Thankfully I had no morning sickness but my seasickness got much worse, making all of those Thai island boats and funky indonesian ferries just wretched.

As far as riding, we played it by ear. The internet isn't much help in answering the question should you ride. There is a lot of accusatory bull out there. I felt fine riding so we kept going. The major adjustment was dealing with the 1st trimester fatigue. I needed a short nap in the afternoon all through indonesia which I would usually do on the ground at a petrol station. Our big wooly came in very handy!

Being on the road, we needed to arrange for some medical care. At 7 weeks we had arrived in Penang, Malaysia to arrange for the onion boat to Belawan, Indonesia. This took some days so while we were marinating with other riders in a nice beach town, we visited the hospital. It was very modern and I had a great doctor who gave me an ultrasound & checked me out. The fee was very inexpensive ($80 including the doc vs. $1000 in the USA for just the ultrasound!) & we even entertained flying back to malaysia for the delivery, the doc said she'd do it for $300:) We hadn't worked out health insurance in the US - major changes just went into effect for 2014 so until then we were out of pocket.

By the time we got to Timor Leste, I was at about 12 weeks so I went for another ultrasound. Their hospital was a bit more rustic...The doctor had no printer on his very old machine so he drew a funny diagram. But all was still well. We had intended to get to Australia but Toll/Perkins was majorly delayed of course, and time was running out. The expense to ride Oz for a month at the most was horrifically expensive, so we sent the bike sea freight to Canada.

While it was in transit, we bounced around a few places and spent a few weeks at home trying to work out medical care. The US is the worst place to navigate by far if you don't have insurance. I had some pricey tests to make sure everything was going well, and I hooked up with a birth center that would work with the crazy travel schedule because we still had some miles to ride! The midwives gave me the ok to keep going.

Before getting back on the bike we did a week on the road in Canada in a car with Jeff's parents, I didn't feel so good. I get carsick easily. Once back on the motorcycle I breathed in relief, I didn't care about the oregon rain. We had a marvelous last 5000 miles camping in the US, it was too short! but we had set a date to be back (we had booked a flight to istanbul for 3 more weeks on the road in a car with my parents - squeezing it in while childless!) We arrived back home on our bike in a miserable rainstorm after being stuck in 2hrs of traffic - very anticlimactic. I was 6 months pregnant.

A word about camping...It wasn't that comfortable but we had decent expel mattresses (and the wooly!). Getting up to pee in the middle of the night was a bit arduous with my increased girth but by that time I was very old hand at squatting anywhere with no shame.

A word about hiking. I could handle a 10k hike at 5 months but I started to slow down after that. I was still moving myself about but at 7 months it was getting really arduous. After 8 months I had to get more sedentary which was hard.

Another word about food. SEA can be what we call in the US a food desert. The most convenient options are gas station fried chicken, 7-11 snacks, padang in indonesia where you eat semi identifiable dishes of questionable freshness that can be delicious...you can get fruit & whatnot but all in all it is nowhere near the fancy organic groceries we have in the states. I tried not to stress about it too much, cut out caffeine (painful), sugar (really hard - no soda, juice etc...) but avoiding all processed food is impossible. If it was Kazakhstan Id've been up a creek, we were subsisting on snickers, pepsi and camel meatballs. I think!

So at 7 months we were back in DC. We didn't have a car so I kept riding. I figured my body would give me the finger and tell me to cut it out but it really didn't. The last month I felt a bit unwieldy with some too fast acceleration & braking but Jeff took it easy. I could still hop on and off the back no problem. On the occasions we used a carshare it felt much bumpier. huh, go figure.

Our daughter Eojeni was born 1/22/14 and she totally fits in the topbox;) Just kidding but it is tempting! Sometime we will scheme to get back on the road, as you can see from our route map we have so much more of the world to see. Perhaps with a sidecar, or on 4 wheels! for now hope to see y'all at the next HU UK meet;) Please forgive us if we come in a minivan...

Si (& Jeff)


route
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Killed time in Vancouver...Burma & Singapore were on foot.
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Retrieving Bumblebeast in Vancouver
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Eojeni our hellspawn/lovechild
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Congratulations! Great story for your kid to tell when she grows up. Already been around most of the world, by motorbike no less, before the age of 0!

Congratulations, a side car sounds the best way to go, I have photos from very early 60's of me in a side car with mum on the R Enfield, with Loch Ness Behind us, Dad took photo.

Congratulations, fantastic story, wish you all good health for the continuing chapters

sent from my thingy, using whatchamacallit

We went round a lot of the east coast US when my wife was pregnant with our son. All that effort and he doesn't remember a thing. Kids can be so ungrateful! :rofl:

Great story though!

Congratulations
 

Wow Si, what a great story and thank you for sharing it. I'm a strong believer in doing what feels right for you and in your case it obviously worked out.

I look forward to meeting the three of you at HUBBUK - maybe you could do a talk about travelling while pregnant.
Best wishes
Tiffany

Congratulations to you both.
I didn't own a car so my daughter spent 0-6 years of her life travelling by side-car. Then I found clip-on pegs which fitted to the rear bars which made it legal for her to ride pillion in the UK.

Too many folk put their own life on hold whilst they have kids but the fact is, kids are part of your life - enjoy it together doing whatever you love doing! :)

Congrats. What a lovely story.

I named my daughter Jordan as it means "great traveller"... and has proved to be correct.

Congratulations!

well done! Its good to see what you can do if you listen to your body and are sensible!

And yes you can travel with the little one there are some threads on here about that too! Just me careful with them!

I started my one young!

Love it! Well we just got Eoni her passport. First stop Iceland, then Wales, and then we will see y'all at HUBB UK!

I love this story! Congratulations, and what a gorgeous souvenir ;)

This is really helpful though and is something I've often thought about so thanks for sharing :)

Children are a blessing! congrats!

Congrats, when my CCM blew up I purchased my next ride from a woman that had got knocked up on a RTW trip. everyones a winner in my book :thumbup1:

Eojeni following "yer maun" Joey? No better role model. And no better parents. Congrats.