Changing travel plans: we are expecting

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As I wrote earlier, we have some exciting news. We are expecting!

Yes, our family will expand soon, hopefully in April. Probably it is not so surprising as Karol asked my hand on the boat on Amazon in 2015 and we had our wedding in Lapland almost a year ago. We have now a little one on the way. You might have heard earlier about our plans to go to Australia after my PhD studies. Well, now that is postponed for a while. Or at least we cannot get there anymore with the work and holiday visa that Karol already got.

We received numerous and very similar questions from our friends and family about our future plans. We will try to answer them below. You might have the same questions in mind 🙂

We will need a roof over our heads every night, but no need to settle down.

Will you finally settle down?

Will you stop traveling? We hear these kind of questions very often and I totally understand that many people can’t imagine having family AND traveling at the same time. Luckily we do!

Of course the plans had to be changed, adapted to the new situation, and will still be modified a lot, I’m sure. We met other traveling families on the road during the last years and that introduced us to the idea of traveling with kid(s). It is not unfamiliar to us anymore. Yes, it will be different, sometimes I’m sure harder and will require a bit more planning than spontaneity, but definitely doable.

We’ll have to make sure to have a roof above our heads during the night and not to end up in the middle of nowhere without food, but these are small adjustments we are willing to take for this new adventure.

Soon we would give anything for some silent afternoons enjoying the sunset.

How are you?

A tricky question, and not so travel related, but I feel important to share. I spent the first four months of my pregnancy in Canada while working in Vancouver. And I was very sick. I had no idea what morning sickness is, that actually it can last for months and be 24/7 state, not only a MORNING problem. We were in a totally new environment, new people surrounding us, new project to work on and I was continuously sick.

Imagine you have a bad hangover (throwing up continuously) and it lasts for 3 months. That’s how I felt. I worked. I went hiking on the weekends. I didn’t want to stay at home and loose time when I had the opportunity to explore the beautiful British Columbia.

It was extremely tough to experience this in an unknown, new place. I couldn’t have done it without the support of Karol being next to me, my Mom, few friends “online support”, my very understanding new colleagues and the Canadian doctor who did his best to improve my situation with tests, medicine and telling me this state may last 5 months. At least I avoided hospital and by now I feel much better.

Sometimes we will be sweaty, but for sure happy.

Where will you give birth?

This is also a good question. We decided on Finland as it has good healthcare system and I still have to be around for work. Even though Finland, we opted for Rovaniemi, Lapland. We will move there to spend my maternity leave (starting in February), enjoying the longer and longer days, northern lights, reindeer and wonderful winter scenery. This also means a bit of slowing down in travel for the next few months. Actually it will be the most constant stay since we have met 6 years ago. We always had at least short trips in every 2 or 3 months. Now we will be staying in the same city for about half a year without going abroad, having a 2 weeks off or going for a month or two backpacking. It will be weird!

Of course we keep being outdoorsy and sportive. The Finnish doctor told me I can do cross country skiing, yay! So we can explore all the national parks of Lapland! Challenge accepted!

Finland was the obvious and safe choice for the last and first months.

Where will you travel with the baby?

This topic is still under discussion. A variety of countries in Europe, Southeast Asia and even Australia are on the top of the list currently. Wherever we go, we will need easy access to healthcare, safe and, preferably, clean environment. Karol wants warm weather, I want to surf and swim more. Both of us want to hike. Couple of criteria but numerous countries fit to it. For shorter periods we can imagine also Myanmar (my big dream, Karol has already been there), or some Pacific or Caribbean Islands. We will think about it more.

But it can also happen that we choose the first kind-of-baby-friendly location where it will be cheap to go. It is hard to resist buying the extra cheap (error fare) tickets. That was the same reason of our Brazil backpacking trip.

Maybe we will end up at the seaside.

How will you travel?

Assuming that we will be exhausted in the first few month, we prefer to relax. Options of a (slow!!!) car trip or just staying on a beach somewhere are both appealing. During the summer we will start traveling again, and by the winter get back to Finland to finalize my studies.

Slower way of travel is always better.

And in long term?

One idea is half a year in Finland, half a year out. This way the baby will have chance to learn proper Finnish (so will we!) and get to know the culture, while the other part of the year we can explore new places. But as everything else, this is just the initial idea.

We are growing (4th month) with Las Vegas in the background.

Do you know any traveling families? Are you one of them? We would love to hear your experiences especially about the first few months/years!

 

 

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23 thoughts on “Changing travel plans: we are expecting”

  1. Pingback: Baby Box & Giving Birth in Finland (Being Pregnant While on the Road)

  2. What wonderful news! Congrats guys, I’ll be following y’al as you take the world by storm with your baby in stow Xx Good luck for the future.

  3. Natalie Anastasia

    Congratulations! I love that you guys are embarking on this new adventure without ending your current ones. Your child will be extremely well-cultured and I can’t wait to hear more along the way. Thanks for sharing.

  4. Alice @ WIW

    Congrats! I have seen more and more people traveling with babies! I think that’s a super wonderful way to grow up.

  5. Danielle from Boots not Roots

    Congratulations! We don’t have a family yet, but have been thinking about it and love your plan to just keep traveling, but slower. That’s our thought as well. 🙂 Good luck and looking forward to following along in your journey!

  6. Patricia Steffy

    Congratulations! I’ve met a number of traveling families when we’ve been out — some of the little ones we’ve seen have been better hikers than I am! I know that it can take extra planning traveling with small children, but they’ll love it. I traveled by car a lot with my parents when I was younger, and those are memories I’ll have with me always.

  7. Rosirma Corney

    Congrats. I have seen many people travel with family. it adds its own joys. Enjoy

  8. Jessica Flynn

    First of all, congratulations! That is one lucky kid! 🙂 I was raised into the travel business by a single mother, so as someone who can’t remember half the places she’s been…Take pictures! Take as many as possible! Good luck with everything x

  9. Congratulations for the big news <3 From now on you will be experts at family travel 🙂

  10. Wow!! Congratulations! This baby already has the coolest parents and life. I look forward to reading more as you become a family of three. Congratulations again!!

  11. Congrats! To be very honest I’m on the fence about having kids for the reason of not being able to travel as much and adventure. I really look forward to hearing about your experiences – they will be an inspiration to me!

    1. I think you could travel as much as earlier, just your travels would change a bit. I’m pretty sure we can be on the road as much time as before, just spend more time on fewer adventures and places. Check out our blog later, by the end of year we should have a bunch of tips for sure!

      1. I definitely will! My boyfriend and I have been talking about this a lot. We’ve decided to take the next few years to go to the places and do the things that would be difficult to see with a child IE trekking in super remote areas. Save the other (just as fun) destinations to show a child to!

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