Should I Wait to Get Pregnant After a Couple of Vacations? A Parent’s Honest Look at Timing
The calendar was still on the kitchen counter, next to a half-empty mug and Nina’s permission slip, when my husband said, “Maybe we should wait until after Portugal.” He didn’t say it like a decision. He said it like a man looking at two trips—Portugal in April, the family beach house in August—and trying to fit a pregnancy between them. I was 36, we already had a 4-year-old, and I teach preschool. I spend my days helping children move from one activity to the next without melting down. Apparently I’m less skilled at moving myself.
I understood his point. Portugal meant long flights, a lot of walking, and the kind of late dinners we haven’t had since Nina was born. The beach week meant cousins, sandy sandwiches, and a rented house with one bathroom. If I got pregnant now, I might be nauseated on the plane or exhausted by the cobblestones. If we waited, I’d be older. Not dramatically older. But older. And no one hands you a guarantee that waiting six months will make anything easier.
So we did what we usually do when we’re stuck: we made tea, opened a shared note on my phone, and wrote down actual dates. Not “spring” or “after summer.” Dates. April 12. August 3. My last period. The two months we’d need to get through before travel. The question changed from “Should we wait?” to “Wait until when, exactly?” That felt less like a philosophy problem and more like a schedule problem. I could work with a schedule.
The first useful thing I did was call my OB’s nurse line. I expected a vague answer. Instead she asked concrete questions: How regular are your cycles? Any pain? How long did it take to conceive Nina? Had I been taking folic acid? Was I on any medications? I was 36, so she said if we were thinking about waiting more than a few months, it was worth a preconception visit first. Not because something was wrong, but because fertility and health don’t always follow the vacation calendar. If my cycles had been irregular or painful, she would have said not to wait without getting checked. That was the kind of detail I needed.
She also asked where we were going. Portugal wasn’t a concern for Zika, but if we’d chosen parts of the Caribbean or South America, that would have changed the conversation. Some vaccines, like live ones, need a wait before pregnancy. Malaria medication matters. Travel insurance matters. Even food and water safety matters. I hadn’t thought about any of that. I’d thought about swimsuits and airplane seats. The nurse’s questions made the decision feel less like a coin flip and more
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