Travelling while pregnant

[Conflictedmumof1]

Hi, my DH and I are currently discussing the possibility of having a 2nd child. I am apprehensive about it tbh because I found the baby stage extremely difficult and I feel guilty about taking 1-to-1 time away from my DD. But if I’m honest I know deep down we aren’t done and will have another if we can so really it’s about timing.

We have a 2.5 week road trip around Europe planned towards the end of the year. We’re taking our DD to Disney and then driving to Italy and so it will be a lot of time in the car. I would like to avoid being pregnant on the trip for obvious reasons, however, I work on a fixed term contract so I would need to try to conceive within a certain timeframe to ensure mat leave. So my choice is to either be possibly pregnant (anywhere between 0-5 months if I do conceive) on the road trip or wait another 2 years afterwards to try again. My DH is older than me and so is inclined to give up on another if we have to wait that long so I’m feeling conflicted. I had PGP with my first so I would be stressed about being uncomfortable in the car and would hate to not enjoy the Disney experience with my girl. It’s a big once in a lifetime holiday for us.

There’s always a chance my work situation could change and we could try sooner but I’m not sure how likely that is.

Has anyone had any experience (good or bad) going on a driving holiday whilst pregnant?

Hi,
Will you be stopping off in towns on route through France to Italy or just doing the full slog?

I've not done a driving holiday per say, but have driven the length of England on my own while 7 months pregnant, plus a 7 hour drive through France while early weeks pregnant plus also live there (also the drive a 5 hrs motorway drive in England and the return in france while going through a miscarriage again on my own but with two kids in the car)
The motorways in France are sooooo much more doable that the English ones. We have rest areas that have toilets about every 20 or 30 minutes or so that also more often than not have picnic tables and a grassy area to stretch legs and let kids have some wiggles out.
In the towns toilets are a little harder to find unless you know the area, and then you may find that they close at particular times too.
My sister did an Italy trip with her friends and during summer, she found it also found it difficult for toilet finding (however she was somebody that did need to pee literally every 20 minutes on the dot, and also was a picky and gluten free eater and found it tricky to find foods she could stomach, but she also found pregnancy really difficult to cope with)

If you're doing in in just a car, have plenty of snacks as always, but some services in france will have snacks too but not all the Aires do.
If you're in a motor home, going through france is absolutely way easier and way nicer.
Tbh it's the English drive over here that's the hardest.
Have 0 advice on the disney front though!

DLP while pregnant will be horrible. The drive not so much.