How to Plan a Babymoon
It’s been a while since I’ve posted on this blog, but I have two very good reasons: 1) no one traveled during COVID, and 2) I’m pregnant! Matt and I are expecting our first baby, a girl, on Halloween this year. To celebrate, we decided to take a “babymoon” to Hawaii, and I wanted to share a few tips about planning such a trip.
Go During Your Second Trimester
The second trimester is well-known for being the “easiest” trimester during your pregnancy. After about the first 12 weeks, you shouldn’t be experiencing as much morning sickness, and generally your energy levels improve. The third trimester (the last 12 weeks or so) also isn’t a friendly time to travel because many doctors recommend against travel after you’ve reached a certain point in the pregnancy.
Matt and I weren’t wildly thoughtful about this common piece of advice. We just chose a two-week period towards the beginning of my second trimester and hoped for the best. We got very lucky. Our trip ended up happening right in the middle of the second trimester (weeks 20 and 21). Little did I know, as soon as I returned home from Hawaii and hit Week 23, my energy levels plummeted and haven’t rebounded since. If we had gone on our trip any later than we did, it’s likely I wouldn’t have been up for much activity. 🙂
Don’t Overdo It
This was hard for us. Matt and I travel well together because we both like to see and do everything. We’re not big on spending time lounging, relaxing, or eating nice meals. Rather, we prefer to bounce around from activity to activity, taking in as much as we can see in the time we have.
Being pregnant forces you to slow down. Going into the trip, I tried to have the mindset that I wouldn’t be able to do or see everything I wanted to do and see. I would need to get lots of sleep at night and maybe even a nap during the day (an idea which was truly abhorrent to me in my past life). Likewise, we couldn’t skip meals like we normally do while traveling. In fact, we had to throw in time for a mid-morning and afternoon snack! And finally, at 20 weeks pregnant, you plainly don’t have much energy. I couldn’t walk 15 miles through a city on a hot day like we did in Barcelona, or hike 11 miles through Patagonia in the wind and rain. So the goal of this trip was embracing a word that used to make me shudder–relax.
Some of the pregnancy-friendly activities we opted for in Hawaii were attending a luau, snorkeling in calm waters, and going on short hikes!
Pick a Pregnancy-Friendly Location
Most doctors will recommend against traveling to certain regions or countries while pregnant in order to avoid the Zika virus or other potentially dangerous situations. While I will leave those recommendations to the experts, I can suggest choosing a destination that is accommodating to pregnant women.
By this, I mean a few things: it’s relatively safe, the government hasn’t listed it as a no-travel location for pregnant women, there are reputable hospitals and doctors nearby in case of emergency, and . . . there are plenty of places to stay and eat! You may be scoffing at this last point, but in some of the more rural places we stayed in Hawaii, Matt and I actually ran into problems finding restaurants to eat at. This was a bit stressful when I was hungry and tired.
Do Some Baby Shopping
We visited every local baby store we could find while on the islands. It was fun to pick out locally-made Hawaiian baby clothes, toys, and books for our little girl. For example, in Hawaii, we found that many baby boutiques sold a local brand called CoCo Moon, and you bet your bottom dollar we bought our baby a onesie decorated with pink and purple hibiscus flowers. Check back in a few months and I’ll be sure to post some photos of her wearing her new gear!
Coco Moon onesie 
Bring Lots of Snacks and Helpful Gear
This has to be the most I’ve ever discussed food in a blog post, but I can’t talk about it enough–bring so many snacks! I went through dozens of emergency protein bars and almond packets while traveling in Hawaii. They came in handy for all those times we couldn’t find a restaurant or when I started to feel shaky or tired when we were away from our hotel.
I also found it helpful to travel with compression socks for the longish (6-8 hour) flight from Denver to Hawaii. During the long plane rides, I made sure to get up every 1-2 hours to walk the length of the plane to ensure that I wasn’t developing a blood clot from sitting for too long.
These are just a few tips that caught my attention after our trip. I’d love to hear other peoples’ perspectives on how they planned their babymoon–leave me comments about where you went, how far along you were, and what advice you’d give to other women and couples planning their adventures! By the way . . . any guesses on what we’re naming our little girl? Here’s a hint:
