Baby on Board! An Exciting Announcement

We've taken a bit of a break from blogging over the past couple of months whilst we've been sorting out a few other things; but now we're back and we have an exciting announcement!

There will be a 3rd little person joining us on all our future adventures! Baby Mullan is due in April 2019 and we cannot wait to welcome the newest addition of our travel gang!

Things will definitely be changing around here; we've just bought a house in our hometown and cannot wait to get the keys! We've booked our last long-haul adventure before the baby comes and we leave 4 weeks today! We're both super excited about all these upcoming changes and although this post is a little different to our usual travel posts, we would love to bring you all up to speed on everything that's been happening over the past few months.

I found out I was pregnant back in August and as weird as this sounds, I knew almost instantly I was pregnant. Even though I was only a week or two along, I just felt pregnant but had to wait until the 4 week mark to take a pregnancy test. And, although the pregnancy test confirmed what I already knew; I still felt in a state of disbelief. We were really going to have a baby!

As far as pregnancies go; this one has been pretty great so far. I've been one of the lucky few that hasn't experienced much morning sickness, cravings or food aversions at all! The only thing I have felt is extremely tired; I've always been a great sleeper but since I've been pregnant, I'm usually asleep for 10pm and can sleep for a solid 10 hours without waking. Thankfully, as I work from home I've had the luxury of being able to take naps when I need them and have not had to adhere to a strict alarm clock! This combined with an easy pregnancy has been such a blessing.

I'm now just over the 15 week stage and my bump seems to have sprouted from nowhere this week! Last weekend, as I dressed up in my halloween costume I didn't have much of a bump at all but fast forward 1 week and suddenly it's there!

I've also ordered my first pair of maternity jeans which should arrive any day now as I can no longer fit into my old jeans comfortably. I'm looking forward to getting a few more maternity pieces as my existing clothes gradually get tighter on me; trying to squeeze into tight fitting clothes is not fun at all!

We had our first scan a couple of weeks ago as well, which was truly amazing. Our little baby was moving around and wiggling his/her fingers. It was also a huge relief to know that everything was developing as normal and our baby was doing well. We have our next scan in a few weeks and we cannot wait to see the baby again! Pretty soon I should start to feel some little kicks which is something I'm really looking forward to. We've both decided we don't want to find out the sex of the baby and would rather have a little surprise in April!

I've really enjoyed my pregnancy so far, waiting for that first scan seemed to take forever but now that I'm into my second trimester, time just seems to be flying by!

Over the past 6 months or so, David and I had been talking more about long term plans. As all our friends began to buy houses and settle down; we started to discuss our future and how travel fitted into that space.

We've had an amazing 7 years full of travel, with our South America trip another big tick on our never-ending list. However, as we spoke about in this post, our recent backpacking trip made us realise that solid, long-term travel wasn't our favourite way to see the world. Over the years we've missed so many weddings, births, funerals, engagements and everything else in-between. And as we've got older, we've realised just how important our friends and family are to us. We started to pull together the idea of having a base at home; of owning our own house that we can fill with the numerous boxes of things we've accumulated whilst travelling. We started to crave a balance between being at home and seeing the world. And now, with our baby on the way, it finally seems like the time is right to slow down a little.

This doesn't mean we aren't going to travel; far from it actually. We are flying out to Hong Kong and New Zealand at the start of December for a 6 week trip. Our last long-haul journey before the baby arrives a few months later. And as we can work from anywhere with a wifi connection; we plan to take our baby on all of our trips with us. We are both sure that travelling with an infant will no doubt change travel for us; no more late night beers on crowded corners in Hanoi or 4 day treks through jungles. However, we both feel incredibly lucky to have done and seen all we have and now feel ready for the next stage and everything that comes with it.

We fly out to Hong Kong on 3rd December and will spend 5 days there. This is a first time for both of us so we are really looking forward to being back in Asia and exploring somewhere new. After Hong Kong, we are flying into Auckland where we will spend the next 5 weeks in New Zealand. We already have trips to two of our favourite places arranged, Wellington and Queenstown! And want to explore more of the country we haven't seen as well. Christmas will be in Auckland with Davids family before a trip up north for New Year!

We cannot wait to be back on the road again. Although the past couple of months at home have been great, we're ready for another little adventure. When we return to Scotland in January, we will be moving into our new home and will only have about 14 weeks before the baby arrives!

Of all the adventures we've been on, we are fairly sure the arrival of Baby Mullan will be the greatest of them all!