On Tuesday we went to the maternity outpatients to ask for our ticket to fly home, fully expecting to be told no chance, however we were pleasantly surprised when the Consultant said we could go home. Hurray!
So on Thursday we took our child friendly taxi to Dublin's airport and after a half hour delay took our flight to Paris. Now the delay of half an hour might not sound like much, but when you only have an hour's connection time & you know there is a slim chance of me being able to get across to the other terminal & through security again in time for the connection to Montpellier.
Luckily we had arranged assistance at Paris to push me through the whole process without too much physical exertion on my part in case I laboured on the plane or something...ha! So after being disembarked by a funny van on stilts then chauffer wheeled into CDG we found our flight had gone some 20mins ago. We were advised this was the last flight of the day to Montpellier & we would have to stay in a hotel overnight.
Once again my chariot took us miles through CDG airport which I think looks like a large ship with all its wooden decking everywhere. We were passed off to Air France Flight connections who booked us in at holiday inn about 10 mins by navette (I thought this was a type of vegetable?!). We didn't expect to wait long, but were a bit huffy when after 25 mins (it was now 10pm and we had not eaten yet!) the vegetable shuttle hadn't moved.
Eventually with me playing the small child, pregnant woman card, we set off with our dinner & breakfast vouchers in hand.
On arrival at holiday inn, the receptionist was surprised we wanted a baby bed & said 'no sorry none available' nice - what were we supposed to do sleep with her on the floor? (we had a twin room of single beds so it wouldn't have been that easy to share safely without elephant me squashing her or her Daddy having no sleep for fear of her falling out of bed. Eventually she went to look & surprise surprise came back with a brand spanking new bed in the box (no sheet but beggars can't be choosers).
We then went for our airline meal which left us going to bed at midnight & then up again at 5am for the vegetable shuttle to take us back to CDG. I had about 2 hours sleep as I was suffering from back & lower abdomen pain again.
The flight back to Montpellier was interesting as I spent most of it with a 'reserved for pregnant lady' sign on the secretary's door leaving my poor hubbie to look after la petite who thankfully slept the whole journey.We descended the airplane at Montpellier again by funny wobbly truck & then I sat outside waiting for my husband to come back with the car to collect us.
After 30 mins & no show (Montpellier car park is not THAT big!) I began to worry a. the announcement in Dublin that they had found a set of keys could have been ours b. the car was stolen c. he'd been kidnapped d. he'd had enough & done a bunk.
Eventually he showed up explaining he couldn't see the car (fatigue!) and as I was now having contractions again I just got in & cried with relief at being almost home!
The moral of the story - don't even bother travelling more than 1 hour from home when you are over 30 weeks pregnant. Even if it's not your first pregnancy, I now realise they are all different & things just happen that you never in a million years expected. I was probably over-confident, perhaps foolish but hey what an adventure!