10-hour flight at 5.5 months?

[foreignerforlife]

Would you do a 10-hour flight at 5.5 months pregnant?

I just found out I’m pregnant (woohoo!!) and my husband and I are now debating whether we should take our annual trip to visit my family over the holidays (we live in Germany—the fam’s in Washington State). This trip is about 20 hours door-to-door, with the longest flight about 10 hours. Would you do it?

I should say that I only see my family once a year, so this trip means a lot to all of us.

[donutmolly]

Yes! I've done 10+ hour flights at that stage in 2 of my pregnancies. I think it's a perfect stage to fly, you're over the yuckies, and not so huge to be super uncomfortable. I just made sure to drink lots and get up and walk regularly during the flight. And what a special time to spend with your family!

[MaerynPearl]

i totally would!

I took a 10 hour trip including 2 flights at almost 30 weeks... I had no choice as I was moving... but I would have easily done twice as long earlier in the pregnancy!

Just make sure to stay well hydrated and move around as much as you can (which may not be much, but try!)

[Baby~Braatens~Mama]

Do it! Enjoy the time with your family! You should still be comfy-ish and hopefully over the intial yuck and exhaustion. As the pp's said, make sure you drink plenty of fluid and take the time to wander back and forth from your seat to the bathroom to encourage circulation.

[spargel]

I just did it at 4.5 months (Italy to the east coast). No big deal, but I made sure that I drank a ton of water, walked a lot, and brought my own food. Good thing since they served lunchmeat sandwiches!

I ended up getting my flight cancelled and had to stay overnight at at a hotel and on my way back, my 18 hour flight got cancelled/rescheduled and ended up closer to 24 hours.

If you can break up your flights to give yourself an extra day (ie, fly from Wash to east coast, stay overnight, and then from east coast to Germany). Also - keep your number of legs to a minimum. I had a 3 legged flight in order to keep costs down and I should have juts done the 2 legged flight - much less stressful!

I'll probably be doing it again in November when I'll be 8+ months. I know that will not be fun!

[xekomaya]

Yup! I did a few of them this pregnancy, alone with a toddler in tow. You should be fine. And congratulations!

[nia82]

With DS I traveled between 18 and 22 weeks to Germany, and my hometown is a good three hours from Frankfurt... And then you factor in that the baggage belt was broken in FRA and my poor dad waited for 90 minutes at the gate for me before I finally emerged, it took forever!!! 12:30h from San Fran to FRA, then the waiting and drive... But I was fine. The trip back I felt fine as well, despite a layover in Washington Dulles that turned out to be 5 hours due to a broken plane... I was pretty exhausted when I was back in SFO, but my first stop still was In and Out Burger, so I wasn't too groggy I guess

This time I will fly next week, so 17-21 weeks, but with a 2 year old in tow. Layovers both ways... Should be fine, exhausting, but fine.

When I was pregnant with DS I traveled at 30 weeks from SFO to some small airport in Alabama which entailed a layover in Atlanta, and apart from the heat I did good. Just keep drinking water and try to get some rest.

[LindsayK]

One more suggestion - the only health related risk I would worry about is DVT - pretty rare, but being pregnant increases your risk. The solution? Walk around frequently (which you'll be doing since you are going to the bathroom from all the fluids you're drinking!) and wear compression stockings. See:

Article on DVT

Example of socks

[foreignerforlife]

Thanks for the positive support and for sharing your positive experiences! That's exactly what I wanted to hear. :-) I would so hate to miss the family get together.

[Quinalla]

Definitely would, I did several 1-3 hour flights at that time. I know a 10 hour is much more, but just make sure to get up and walk often (just having to pee often will take care of a lot of that) and stay well hydrated and fed (bring snacks if needed). And yeah compression/travel socks are great for helping circulation!

[chicoandthemama]

I did it in May at 14 weeks. Our flight back was delayed, so 6 hours at the airport, plus the Icelandic volcano rerouting and a medical emergency landing as soon as we reached the States made our turn trip 16 hours in the air. My feet swelled about 8 hours in, which never happens to me, but otherwise no issue. I think 4.5 months is a great time to go, right in the middle of the usually pleasant 2nd trimester.

[cb718]

I'm also planning a long flight when I'm 5-6 months pg. Total travel time will be about 24 hrs. The longest flight is 13-14 hrs.

Like others said, I'm sure I should get up and walk around often, but I know that sleeping makes this long flight go by a lot faster. So what if I fall asleep for several hours. Are my feet going to get really swollen? Doesn't sound like fun...

[rkpearson]

I'm going to fly to Shanghai next week and have a 13 hour flight (plus 3 hour ones before and after it) to look forward to. I'll be at 24/25 weeks (6 months).

I've bought compression socks to wear on the plane (Magellans and TravelSmith both sell them). I've never used them before but it seems like a good idea while preggers.

I'm planning to request the bulkhead for extra leg room (American Airlines told me they reserve for people with medical conditions). And of course cross my fingers that I don't have to sit near anyone with a cold.

A friend of mine who has hemorrhoids recommended bringing a seat pillow as well. So if you have them around the time of your trip you might want to do that to take some of the pressure off your butt.

Anyway thats all the flight related stuff I can think of right now. Good luck and go for it!