Pregnancy wouldn't be fun without several stressful business trips

February – my 4th month of pregnancy. I felt back to my old self, full of energy and thus announced to my boss that I felt up to traveling as needed. I was quickly lined up for 4 trips (one to Mexico got canceled).

Trip 1 - Drive to Orlando, boss was supposed to drive but got hang over from watching super bowl the night before - claimed he got chest pains - maybe it was a little both, ended up driving myself and co-worker on 3 hour drive. It should normally be an easy trip but was surprisingly tired in client meetings. Fortunately co-worker was the one to do all the talking.

Trip 2 - Fly to LA, meet with client, fly back next morning at 6am. We met up with LA based co-worker and she drove us to the meeting. She had a really bad cold and I cheerfully ignored this potential hazard. Meetings went well and we found our way through the LA airport at 5:00am the following morning with no problem (surprisingly full at this hour).

Trip 3 – New York/London Trip - scheduled 3 days after the LA trip. 2 days prior, I fell sick with the worst cold in my entire life, on Valentines Day (see below post).
Left for New York on the 17th with an extremely stuffy nose but at least the breathing had improved; spent the next 2 days walking around New York with a handbag full of tissues and Vicks. Toy Fair on Monday, visiting the shops in SoHo to find new toy ideas, non-stop nose blowing and eating Vicks, the weather was horribly cold and rainy – miserable. 2nd day was a meeting in morning where I had a massive nose bleed shortly before the meeting was to start and spent the entire breakfast in a paranoid terror that nose would betray me, meanwhile the pancakes were wonderful. Went to FAO Schwartz and was really disappointed in how the store has gone downhill in the last few years, it used to be such an exciting toy store. I really hated New York. Everyone I know loves this city but it’s enormous and cold – the streets are like 6 lanes, the buildings are enormous, and I was incredibly grumpy with my cold in the cold. Even left New York in the worst way possible, red eye flight to London leaving at mid-night. My bedtime is 10pm!!!

Got lucky on the flight; airline attendant blocked 2 seats next to mine and I got to sleep on 3 seats, granted it’s a challenge to find a comfortable position while pregnant but lying in a C shape seemed to work. Surprisingly I got to London at 11am and felt fantastic! I really love this city but I was still surprised at how energetic I felt after sleeping only 5-6 hours on the plane. Here’s the part where I explain the only reason I agreed to continue on the NY trip with miserable cold was to reach London – my favorite city in the world.

Met up with boss and his wife in afternoon and immediately stopped in cool café for cappuccino and tea (we do have real café’s in cold US city’s but in Florida, only Starbucks). Went shopping on Oxford Street at The Disney Store (of course to view our products), a gift card store (love the Mother’s day bear cards) and oddly Nike – boss felt the designs might be inspiring. Surprisingly, Nike has totally different clothing lines then US and the styles are much more interesting and exciting – more colors and designs, US tends to rely on lots of whites which is reason I’ve never seen Nike more then a shoe store. It was a really fun store. Went to eat at Thai restaurant.

2nd day – didn’t have meeting schedule until noon, so was left to own devices for morning. 1st priority – find bookstore. I love buying books in London because all my favorite author’s have totally better dust covers in UK then in US. Take for example Sofia Kinsella’s “Remember Me” – US version is giant sunflower, UK version cute lilac car covered in sunflowers. I promptly purchased the following:
Sophia Kinsella’s “Remember Me” – bonus points, bought few days before it came out in the US
Louise Bagshawe’s “Sparkles”
Zina Rohan’s “The Officer’s Daughter”
Wendy’s Holden’s “Filthy Rich”

Following the book store visit I joined boss for meeting with clients and a visit to Hamley’s (much better toy store then FAO Schwartz). Evening dinner was at an amazing Tuscan restaurant near our hotel.

Last day was spent with the Disney Store and I suffered with my damn stuffy nose the entire day. Morning meetings are the worst, after an hour I’m just holding my breath and trying not to choke on a drizzle of snot and make any disturbing sniffles, etc. Afternoon meetings got better as I made an hourly dash to the bathroom to clear nose. Evening was spent at Wodka with the head buyer and it was a lot of fun.

Saturday I took a 10am flight back to the US and finally after all above flights combined, had nice seat passenger who offered to help with my overhead bag – cheers London man, you are so sweet!

Spent all day Sunday sleeping, resting, eating and relaxing.

Not planning to business travel again for remainder of pregnancy.