Where did I leave off? That’s right- the close of 2018 brought us to our Resident Camp Host position at Chatfield State Park in Littleton CO. We moved in around Sept/Oct 2018 and settled in for the remainder of the year. If you are here to learn about exiting RV travel adventures- skip this post. But I treat this blog much as a journal, so if you are interested in our story-read on. By January I was pregnant with our 5th (and God willing-last baby). You are probably thinking “How on earth do you even get pregnant in a 23 ft travel trailer with 4 kids?!”. Haha. Someday I will discuss the big question – “Sex & RV life”. But not today. I enjoyed my previous pregnancies. We are a blended family so this was my third pregnancy. My first was a lifetime ago- at the age of 17. Then Joshua came along in 2016 after I married my husband and adopted his two children. There are 8 years between Joshua and the next youngest and I just couldn’t see him being an only child at the age of 10, so we decided what’s one more baby (or two more feet)? We knew we were hoping to be on the road traveling by summer 2019 at the latest, so now seemed as good a time as any to go through another pregnancy.
Now, I’ll be honest here, we are not doctor people. We have our babies at home and go to the doctor only when necessary (Usually for school or camp paperwork of some sort). We do however, keep up with all of the family dental appointments. As far as navigating those things on the road, each situation is unique. Most traveling families seem to have a “home-base” of some sort, somewhere they go periodically to take care of business and visit family. For us that is Steamboat. So many medical nessesities are able to be handled virtually these days which is helpful too. Our plan was to finish up our volunteer commitment in June and then head to Steamboat to wait for the baby to be born. So I never actually got a midwife or doctor in the Denver area. Periodically we would make a weekend trip to Steamboat and I would schedule to see my midwife/doctor while we were there. If you are a full time travler and expecting a baby, you will need to decide how you want to handle that- if you need regular doctor appts for peace of mind, you can strategically plan your appts according to where you will be. You will have to explain your situation repeatedly and have records sent to the new one every time- but I don’t think they will turn you down. I usually like to see a doctor between 18-22 weeks for the anatomy screening, that is just my preference and it makes me feel better knowing everything is as it should be. But I don’t need more then that before or after. You do you! As far as routine stuff and dental, schedule it when you are at that “base camp” and you should be able to keep the same providers long term and only deal with finding new ones for emergencies.
I spent this final pregnancy at Chatfield, chasing around my two year old and trying to keep up with homeschooling the older 3 in between volunteer responsibilities. I lucked out with my volunteer position and was usually either at an entrance gate or at the Main office sitting at a desk answering phone calls and fielding questions. None of these duties were very physically demanding and it’s a good thing! This pregnancy was hard, I don’t know if it was because I was older, or because he was my largest baby or because I wasn’t active enough during this pregnancy…probably all three! But this one did a number on my body and made me very much ready to never do it again!
In June we headed back to Colorado Mountain Ranch in Boulder so the kids could get a couple weeks of summer camp in before we went back to Steamboat to wait for baby # 5 to get here. We were back by July 1st and he was due July 26th. We had a very easy going midwife that helped us with Joshua’s pregnancy and birth. We knew we did not want to have a baby in the travel trailer- too little space and not nearly a big enough hot water heater or fresh water tank for that nonsense! So we had a few weeks to gather supplies and set up a room in my parent’s house with a birthing tub and whatnot. That is also where Joshua was born. Then we waited…and waited…and oh my gosh that last month of pregnancy always feels like FOREVER!
In the end Baby Radford arrived just after midnight on August 1st. My husband got to take several weeks paternity leave and we had travel plans coming up so he worked all the way up to the day baby arrived so he would could make the most of his time afterwards. We had to get creative to add another bed for the baby in the travel trailer as well as another seat-belt to our F250 in order to make room for family member # 7. I was able to try to relax (as much as a mom can with 4 kids and a newborn) for about two weeks before hitting the road.
Then off we went! Baby #5 saw much of the country before he reached 1 month old!
