I wasn’t planning to fly to NY at 37 weeks pregnant, but that’s exactly what happened.

Last month I wrote about how I wished we could have bought a house before the baby came, but I had to wrap up some property stuff with my ex before I could even think about buying something in New Orleans. Well, seemingly out of nowhere (but not really – it’s been over a year of back and forth with the bank, buyers, etc.), my ex called me up at the beginning of February and said that I would probably have to fly to NY before the end of the month to attend the closing of the property we were getting rid of.

I was so excited when he told me this. This property has been a thorn in our side for many, many years, and was one of the final remaining things that needed to be dealt with after our divorce. The thought that it could all be over by the end of the month was beyond thrilling! I was also happy that I might be able to get in a visit with family and friends before the baby came.

Of course, there WAS a tiny part of me that was wary about flying during my third trimester. I knew it was allowed, since I had looked it up when I was thinking about a “last vacation before baby,” but that was back when I was only 28 weeks pregnant. Now I was already 34 weeks! And by the end of the month, I would be almost 38 weeks pregnant – wayyyy too close to my due date to be traveling!

Ultimately, however, I knew that if they needed me to attend the closing, I would be there. There was too much to lose if I didn’t go. I asked my ex to find out if the bank would be okay with doing a power of attorney thing so I wouldn’t have to go, or if not, then to at least schedule the closing for as soon as possible (and NOT wait until the end of the month!).

Neither of those things ended up happening. I spent several weeks wondering wtf was going to happen, until finally, last Thursday, I got the confirmation that (1) the closing was scheduled for the following Monday (February 29th – gee, thanks for not waiting until the end of the month) and (2) I had to be there in person. So I booked myself a ticket to NY for the next day. I figured I’d go up on Friday, spend the weekend seeing people, go to the closing on Monday, and then fly home on Tuesday.

My flight up was the worst. It was a small plane, and the guy sitting next to me was like 6’5 and 250 pounds. It was such a tight fit! I couldn’t reach any of the stuff I’d put under the seat in front of me, and bending over to put my shoes back on when I had to go to the bathroom was both comical and painful.

(I had chosen not to upgrade to a bigger seat when I booked the ticket, because I was really pissed about how much it cost. When I had checked the price in the morning, the flight was only $610, but when I came back a few hours later to book it had jumped to $860! Dafuq!?! I was really bitter about that, and “refused” to give Delta any more money. That turned out to be a mistake.)

As soon as the plane took off, I had one of those – “Oh f*ck, what am I doing!?” moments. What if I went into labor while I was in NY!? Obviously I had thought about that beforehand, but I’d kept telling my myself “I’ll be fine” and “No way will I go into labor THAT early.” But once the plane was in the air, it suddenly became a very real possibility. I didn’t wanna have my baby in NY!! I wanted to be home, with Dave, when it happened!! If I had the baby in NY, how long would I be stuck up there?? I might not be able to come home for a month!! Why had I agreed to this!?

At that point it was obviously too late lol. I decided that the only thing I could do to keep myself from going into labor early was move as little as possible while I was in NY. I hadn’t planned on doing TOO much while I was up there – just dinner with friends and stopping by the office to say hi – but I nixed those plans pretty quickly. Once I landed I texted my friends and told them they were welcome to come visit me at my mom’s house, but I wasn’t going into the city.

All in all, it was a really low key trip. My aunt and one friend came over on Saturday, and another friend came over on Sunday.  I also got to see my brother and father, which was nice since I didn’t get to see them when I was here for Thanksgiving. I was pretty sad not to be able to see some of my friends and coworkers (who I love!) when they were so nearby, but I couldn’t justify the risk. Maybe nothing would have happened, who knows…but in the end I’m happy I made that decision.

As for the closing, it took place on Monday as planned. I can’t even express how happy I am that it is over! Every time I signed my name, it was like a weight was being lifted from my shoulders, little by little until the last signature, when I was completely unburdened. I was practically skipping out of the closing…okay, I was waddling, not skipping. But with a huge smile on my face! A huge pain in the ass has now been removed from my life. It was totally worth all the labor fear and paranoia I suffered through for four days.

And now I’m on my flight going home. It’s been so much better than the flight up! I upgraded to the bigger seat, and this time no one is sitting next to me, so I have plenty of room to move around. I spent most of the day worried that my water would break and I wouldn’t be able to fly home, but that never happened, and now I’m only 20 minutes away from landing, so if I were to go into labor right now, it wouldn’t even matter…

Yikes, shouldn’t have said that, I don’t want to jinx it!