35 weeks along, Barrett is 3 years old
Another month in the books and only 35 days left to go!
I've had a number of doctor appointments in the last few weeks that need some documentation. I had a simple follow up with my endocrinologist Dr Said and everything is looking just right. My A1C went up just a tiny bit but not in a range that makes them concerned. My blood glucose readings have been, for the most part, really good. I have on average 2, maybe 3, high readings a week which is fine at this point. Occasionally, I get a low reading that leads to a drink of OJ or a snack but those are easy to handle. My high readings always bring about pretty crappy physical feelings so I do try to avoid them. I see him again on Wednesday for a follow up. It may be my last one depending on when I end up delivering. If my readings stay consistent, he is good with just keeping track of those and then seeing me for the 6 week follow up after delivery. We'll see.
I had an appointment with Dr Bennett at 33 weeks along. They scheduled my first growth ultrasound which I was looking forward to since we haven't had one since the 20 week anatomy. It was a pretty simple sono. My tech got her profile really quickly and even caught her breathing which is something that they will look for during my 35/36 week growth in a few days. She said it was a bonus that she saw it already at this point. She had to get the size of her head and then, I believe, the size of some arms and legs and various measurements to average out her current weight, which was 4 lbs, 5oz or about the 51%. Totally average which is just what they are looking for with a gestational baby who usually "run big." Barrett didn't run big so I'm not too concerned about her but it is nice to keep it in check. We also got confirmation that she is a girl which was nice to hear. We would be in trouble if that had changed! I have another ultrasound scheduled for Wednesday. I also have to do my Strep B test and get with nurse Brittany to schedule out my remaining appts now that we are moving to weeklys. Awesome!
Otherwise, the rest of the check up with Dr Bennett went fine. Blood pressure was normal, nothing in my urine. I was measuring at exactly 33 weeks. I'm up 10 pounds total which is a 0 increase in over a month. No surprise for me since I feel like I'm always starving.
How I'm feeling with about a month to go? Not the greatest. I've been pretty uncomfortable for about a week and a half now which makes me think I've gained some weight. I'm bigger for sure, regardless. My day to day has become a bit more difficult. Sitting at a desk all day makes me really sore. I definitely have the waddle down when I get up from my seat after a little while. Thankfully, I only have 4 more working days left. My stomach just overall hurts quite a bit. She both feels like she's going to fall out and break my ribs in half at the same moment. Sleep is hit or miss depending on the night. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night but the previous was closer to 10 hours. No rhyme or reason. Dry skin is back with a vengenence and making everything itchy.
We went crazy this weekend on finishing up some to-do's so I'm feeling overall much better about where we are. Curtains should arrive by Wednesday and Joe needs to install the shelf he built. Otherwise, the room is ready to go. I want to stock up a few more diapers so we have them and get a few other nursing necessities. I'm trying not to buy more clothes. My March to-do is getting bottles organized and my pump ready to go. That's pretty much it.
My only stress or worry at this point has nothing to do with little sister and everything to do with big brother. I'm not worried about how he will be because frankly, there is nothing I can do about that. I'm certainly not stressing over it. I am stressing about where he will need to go when I go into labor. Living away from family members is not my favorite thing and this exacerbates it. I hope that whatever happens, I have 3 hours to get in contact with my mom so she can head down here before we need to leave for the hospital. We have our overnight sitter handled and a number of backup options but I just like to have a plan. There is nothing about this I can plan for. Add in the fact that my parents are in Florida for a week when I'm 38 weeks and I'm really stressing. Just please let her either come before or wait until after they get back. Otherwise, Joe is probably not staying with me in the hospital. We can't ask people to keep Barrett overnight when he needs daytime childcare as well. People have jobs. Induction sounds mighty fine to me!
Either way, we are about to the home stretch!
Monday, February 23, 2015
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Day 3- Hollywood Studios
Sunday, January 4 was our first full day at Disney. We had plans to go to Hollywood Studios today. It happened to be the last day for the Osbourne Holiday lights so we wanted to get a chance to see those before they were removed.
Joe, B and I made reservations at Hollywood & Vine that morning so we could have breakfast with all the Disney Jr characters. The others went to Olivia's which was the restaurant in our hotel. This was our earlier morning but the early night in meant it was fine getting to the bus at 7am. I'm pretty sure we had the bus to ourselves and arrived quickly at the Studios. The Christmas tree was still up and since it was barely 7:30am, we had the place to ourselves. Barrett made sure to run around like a crazy person. He was still getting used to all this freedom which was very exhausting for his mom and dad.
Quick, you have two seconds to take my picture, Mom. I don't care that you need to get your camera settings set.
Our reservations for breakfast were at 8am which was an hour before the park actually opened. There is a special line that you get into for those exact reservations and a cast member with an iPad comes to check you in before allowing you entrance into the park. Crazy enough, there were about 20 other people already lined up at the main gates to get in for the day. You might be a little early, folks! We got checked in and were released about 7:55 to walk to our restaurant. It was really nice to get to walk the streets with about 30 others rather than the normal stampede that can happen when entering parks with 1000s of others. We only had about a 40 second wait before they seated us at our table.
I tried to run to the buffet first so we could have our food before characters started coming but we ended up being the first table to be seen and I almost missed Jake and Sophia! Bad quality photos for documentation. I missed Doc completely because the characters were coming at us to quickly. Handy Manny worked though! If you do this, I suggest you wait a bit until you know the characters are not coming to you.
This would be Barrett's first experience with the characters and we were unsure how he would do. He actually LOVED them and waving and saying Hi to them but getting close was sometimes touch and go. It took him a bit to get used to the idea that they were right there. Hugs were not going to happen just yet. I thought this was a good way to get started for our day. The food was standard (Barrett ate almost nothing because he had other distractions....JAKE is right there!) but otherwise I was happy. Joe even got to take some coffee to go which was a bonus. I will mention here that we paid for everything with our magic bands. The servers hold up this machine and it scans the band and sends the bill to our hotel. We never carried cash or cards for anything. Even the popcorn carts had this and it was super convenient. Definitely the way to go and a huge on-site perk for those who are able to stay in a Disney hotel. Anyways, we finished up at almost exactly 8:55am and got outside just as they were letting the rest of the crowds into the parks. Couldn't have timed it any better!
The rest of the gang were a little behind the pack so we ended up going to crawl around the Hat. Barrett saw it from afar (see yellow curly cues in above picture) and thought it was a big slide. He couldn't figure out how to get up the entrance though. :) A few minutes of climbing around there and we met up with the others. The boys were going to do Rock n Rollercoaster and use fastpasses for Tower of Terror while us girls took Barrett to meet some characters. He wore his Buzz and Woody shirt so they were the first set we had to meet! It was like a 2 minute wait. Perfect! And this time he was comfortable enough to approach them by himself. Wouldn't take the picture alone and needed his security blanket (finger nail biting...ugh) but he enjoyed it.
After strolling around for a little while, waiting for the boys, we ended up heading into the first Disney Jr live show. At this point Rock n Rollercoaster was down and the boys were waiting around to see if they could get on so we went ahead without them. The theater is set up to where everyone sits on the floor and the show is of Mickey and friends who use Mouseketools to surprise Minnie for her birthday. The Mouseketools are borrowed from friends Jake, Doc and Sophie who help along the way. Barrett loved this! The theater was full and somehow my kid was the only one who was up and jumping and dancing. All the others were nice and comfortable sitting on their parents laps. Exhibit A:
After that was over, we met up with the boys as they were just getting off Great Movie Ride. They never did get to ride RNR because it was closed to repairs all day. Next, we had fastpasses to use for Toy Story Mania which would become Barrett's first real ride. This was fun. Totally over Barrett's head but he likes to pull strings and pretend shoot even if he only hit a few targets the entire ride. I don't quite remember but I think Joe beat everyone in the score category. We waited less than 2 minutes probably with our fastpasses.
The last real plans we needed to do were to meet Mike & Sully and Lightning & Mater. We are big Monsters fans and this became one of my favorite meets from the entire trip. Barrett went right in for the hug which surprised the hell out of me. His huge smile says it all!
At this point, it was about 11am and the only thing left on the agenda was for the others to use their fastpasses for Star Tours. B and I couldn't go on it and Joe's stomach wasn't feeling so great this day (he caught the sickness B and I had the few weeks prior) so instead of waiting around, we decided to head back. I was hoping to maybe see the Muppets show but Barrett doesn't know them so it wasn't a definite.
Our luck was with us again as we walked right onto the bus and had a solo ride back to our hotel. It was here we had our best transportation experience and a wonderful driver. He told us a bunch of Disney trivia and even gave Barrett the coveted bus trading cards as a souvenir. He was awesome! One of his trivia information was: Add all the miles the Disney buses drive in a month (I think) and it would equal going around the equator 7 times!
We got back to our hotel and stopped to get some lunch before taking about a 2 1/2 hour nap. The early morning made us tired for sure. Here is a photo of the main lobby of our hotel.
Joe was still feeling pretty rough and we ended up deciding that he and Barrett would stay in and rest while I went with the group back to finish up our plans at Hollywood Studios. I really wanted him to join us for Fantasmic as Fantasia is one of his favorites but his head was so stuffed and his stomach just wasn't back to normal yet. We didn't have anything important to accomplish that night so it was a good time for him to try to recooperate. We had a long week ahead of us still.
About 5pm, we all head back to the Studios. I had one task to finish first before we entered. I had saved a number of flashback pictures on my phone of our family Disney trips of years passed. We happened to be there almost that exact week back in January of 1997 and took a classic sister picture in front of the big Christmas tree so we had to recreate it.
We were all hungry so we set out to get some food and ended up at ABC Commissionary (I think?). Nothing exciting here, just basic fast food but we found a spot at a table over looking the Jedi Training show and got to watch some kids train to become a Jedi. Our next stop was to check out the Osbourne Lights. This was really really cool. Pretty dang packed with little room to move around but fun to experience. The snow falling was neat too.
We took our time and just really relaxed for most of this before heading back around to the Animation building. We wanted to try to make an Animation Academy class as it was a big hit with us when we visited the Walt Disney exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry last summer. You sit down at drafting desks and follow along as an animator has you draw one of the characters. The pencils have no erasers which can be daunting but it is really cool to follow along in the process. We ended up drawing piglet!
Lastly, we headed over to the amphitheater to get seats for the nighttime show, Fantasmic. Allyson and Eric are the only ones that have seen this and I think the rest of us enjoyed it. It's a mix between a water show with boats, fire, music and characters.
We decided that when it was over, we would all just head out and if we get separated to head to the hotel without the others. We did get separated for quite a while but somehow ended up at the turnstiles back together and made it on the same bus. Kind of crazy when there was like 10,000 people leaving at once! We also got right on the bus and had seats even! So much bus luck!
We got back to the hotel about 9:30pm where Grandma and Grandpa had arrived to join us for the next few days of the trip.
Joe, B and I made reservations at Hollywood & Vine that morning so we could have breakfast with all the Disney Jr characters. The others went to Olivia's which was the restaurant in our hotel. This was our earlier morning but the early night in meant it was fine getting to the bus at 7am. I'm pretty sure we had the bus to ourselves and arrived quickly at the Studios. The Christmas tree was still up and since it was barely 7:30am, we had the place to ourselves. Barrett made sure to run around like a crazy person. He was still getting used to all this freedom which was very exhausting for his mom and dad.
Quick, you have two seconds to take my picture, Mom. I don't care that you need to get your camera settings set.
Our reservations for breakfast were at 8am which was an hour before the park actually opened. There is a special line that you get into for those exact reservations and a cast member with an iPad comes to check you in before allowing you entrance into the park. Crazy enough, there were about 20 other people already lined up at the main gates to get in for the day. You might be a little early, folks! We got checked in and were released about 7:55 to walk to our restaurant. It was really nice to get to walk the streets with about 30 others rather than the normal stampede that can happen when entering parks with 1000s of others. We only had about a 40 second wait before they seated us at our table.
I tried to run to the buffet first so we could have our food before characters started coming but we ended up being the first table to be seen and I almost missed Jake and Sophia! Bad quality photos for documentation. I missed Doc completely because the characters were coming at us to quickly. Handy Manny worked though! If you do this, I suggest you wait a bit until you know the characters are not coming to you.
This would be Barrett's first experience with the characters and we were unsure how he would do. He actually LOVED them and waving and saying Hi to them but getting close was sometimes touch and go. It took him a bit to get used to the idea that they were right there. Hugs were not going to happen just yet. I thought this was a good way to get started for our day. The food was standard (Barrett ate almost nothing because he had other distractions....JAKE is right there!) but otherwise I was happy. Joe even got to take some coffee to go which was a bonus. I will mention here that we paid for everything with our magic bands. The servers hold up this machine and it scans the band and sends the bill to our hotel. We never carried cash or cards for anything. Even the popcorn carts had this and it was super convenient. Definitely the way to go and a huge on-site perk for those who are able to stay in a Disney hotel. Anyways, we finished up at almost exactly 8:55am and got outside just as they were letting the rest of the crowds into the parks. Couldn't have timed it any better!
The rest of the gang were a little behind the pack so we ended up going to crawl around the Hat. Barrett saw it from afar (see yellow curly cues in above picture) and thought it was a big slide. He couldn't figure out how to get up the entrance though. :) A few minutes of climbing around there and we met up with the others. The boys were going to do Rock n Rollercoaster and use fastpasses for Tower of Terror while us girls took Barrett to meet some characters. He wore his Buzz and Woody shirt so they were the first set we had to meet! It was like a 2 minute wait. Perfect! And this time he was comfortable enough to approach them by himself. Wouldn't take the picture alone and needed his security blanket (finger nail biting...ugh) but he enjoyed it.
After strolling around for a little while, waiting for the boys, we ended up heading into the first Disney Jr live show. At this point Rock n Rollercoaster was down and the boys were waiting around to see if they could get on so we went ahead without them. The theater is set up to where everyone sits on the floor and the show is of Mickey and friends who use Mouseketools to surprise Minnie for her birthday. The Mouseketools are borrowed from friends Jake, Doc and Sophie who help along the way. Barrett loved this! The theater was full and somehow my kid was the only one who was up and jumping and dancing. All the others were nice and comfortable sitting on their parents laps. Exhibit A:
After that was over, we met up with the boys as they were just getting off Great Movie Ride. They never did get to ride RNR because it was closed to repairs all day. Next, we had fastpasses to use for Toy Story Mania which would become Barrett's first real ride. This was fun. Totally over Barrett's head but he likes to pull strings and pretend shoot even if he only hit a few targets the entire ride. I don't quite remember but I think Joe beat everyone in the score category. We waited less than 2 minutes probably with our fastpasses.
The last real plans we needed to do were to meet Mike & Sully and Lightning & Mater. We are big Monsters fans and this became one of my favorite meets from the entire trip. Barrett went right in for the hug which surprised the hell out of me. His huge smile says it all!
At this point, it was about 11am and the only thing left on the agenda was for the others to use their fastpasses for Star Tours. B and I couldn't go on it and Joe's stomach wasn't feeling so great this day (he caught the sickness B and I had the few weeks prior) so instead of waiting around, we decided to head back. I was hoping to maybe see the Muppets show but Barrett doesn't know them so it wasn't a definite.
Our luck was with us again as we walked right onto the bus and had a solo ride back to our hotel. It was here we had our best transportation experience and a wonderful driver. He told us a bunch of Disney trivia and even gave Barrett the coveted bus trading cards as a souvenir. He was awesome! One of his trivia information was: Add all the miles the Disney buses drive in a month (I think) and it would equal going around the equator 7 times!
We got back to our hotel and stopped to get some lunch before taking about a 2 1/2 hour nap. The early morning made us tired for sure. Here is a photo of the main lobby of our hotel.
Joe was still feeling pretty rough and we ended up deciding that he and Barrett would stay in and rest while I went with the group back to finish up our plans at Hollywood Studios. I really wanted him to join us for Fantasmic as Fantasia is one of his favorites but his head was so stuffed and his stomach just wasn't back to normal yet. We didn't have anything important to accomplish that night so it was a good time for him to try to recooperate. We had a long week ahead of us still.
About 5pm, we all head back to the Studios. I had one task to finish first before we entered. I had saved a number of flashback pictures on my phone of our family Disney trips of years passed. We happened to be there almost that exact week back in January of 1997 and took a classic sister picture in front of the big Christmas tree so we had to recreate it.
We were all hungry so we set out to get some food and ended up at ABC Commissionary (I think?). Nothing exciting here, just basic fast food but we found a spot at a table over looking the Jedi Training show and got to watch some kids train to become a Jedi. Our next stop was to check out the Osbourne Lights. This was really really cool. Pretty dang packed with little room to move around but fun to experience. The snow falling was neat too.
We took our time and just really relaxed for most of this before heading back around to the Animation building. We wanted to try to make an Animation Academy class as it was a big hit with us when we visited the Walt Disney exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry last summer. You sit down at drafting desks and follow along as an animator has you draw one of the characters. The pencils have no erasers which can be daunting but it is really cool to follow along in the process. We ended up drawing piglet!
Lastly, we headed over to the amphitheater to get seats for the nighttime show, Fantasmic. Allyson and Eric are the only ones that have seen this and I think the rest of us enjoyed it. It's a mix between a water show with boats, fire, music and characters.
We decided that when it was over, we would all just head out and if we get separated to head to the hotel without the others. We did get separated for quite a while but somehow ended up at the turnstiles back together and made it on the same bus. Kind of crazy when there was like 10,000 people leaving at once! We also got right on the bus and had seats even! So much bus luck!
We got back to the hotel about 9:30pm where Grandma and Grandpa had arrived to join us for the next few days of the trip.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Day 2- Travel & Magic Kingdom
Saturday, January 3 is our first real day of vacation. I was way too wired and stressing over the following day that I didn't sleep very good. I was too worried about making it in time and having things go smoothly. I needed to be up by 7:30 and instead got in the shower about 6:45am (which felt like 5:45). We all get ready and head out the door right on time at 8:30am. We make a Starbucks run for Joe and guess what we find as we are pulling away? The missing wiper pieces! Joe is able to change the second wiper blade but of course, if my memory is correct, we hit no other rain the rest of the trip.
::this is where my notes end::
We make decent time heading into Florida. Our goal was about 11:30am arrival time which would be just prior to the rest of the group who were to land at 10:50am. We hit a little bit of traffic as we approach Orlando and decide to make a detour. It is only a few minutes after that Barrett needs to pee. He ends up leaking just a tiny bit before we are able to stop off at a (very shady) gas station. The boys take so long inside that I eventually call Joe because I am afraid they were taken hostage. No joke.
Back on the road, our detour ends up again taking way longer than it should but by about 12pm we get off only a few miles from Disney property. A fear of ours, along with potty accidents, was motion sickness for Barrett. He has it every so often especially on an empty stomach and when things are really stop & go. Unfortunately, large cities can come with stop & go traffic so only about 5 miles from our hotel, we have a puking incident. I felt so bad. Barrett was so sad and after 17 hours in the car, he was so done. A huge trooper though, I got him wiped up while we hurried to our hotel, Old Key West. It was not quite the way we had invisioned arriving in Disney but we had made it!
Of course, I had packed our days worth of outfits in a separate bag so we didn't need to get out our luggage in the hotel the night prior. The puke meant we were rummaging through bags in the parking lot and stripping B down next to the car before going to check in. The Saxton's and Bauman's had just finished checking in so we really timed things perfectly. A big positive? Weather was awesome! Hot already!
Our check-in went very smoothly. We did online check-in (which I highly recommend) so we got to bypass the line and a lady with a iPad came up to us immediately to double check a few things and then we were on our way. We got room 6410 which was in a great villa just around the corner from the main Hospitality house. Saxton's were in 6415 and Bauman's in 6417 so we were all really close to each other. We unpacked a bit and cleaned up before heading to Magic Kingdom for the day. Our goal was to leave by about 1:30 so we were right on time!
Unfortunately, we had a pretty unlucky wait for the bus that afternoon at probably 20 minutes. Barrett was in full crazy town mode as it was nap time (we were getting crazy and skipping it today) along with being cooped up in the car for 17 hours. Again, not the best way to start out. But, as I said it was gorgeous and we were excited to get the trip going. Our plans for the rest of the day were to eat and use our 3 fastpasses but mostly make it an early night. I'll preface this by saying, I would usually avoid Saturdays at Magic Kingdom if I can at all help it. Not to mention, the afternoons are crazy busy. I know this. I don't know why we thought we should disregard it but it was our first day and we needed to see the castle so off we went. It was madness. I don't usually care if people are around me but it was hard to move around Main St at 2pm on this Saturday. We got there just as the "Move it, Shake it" parade was happening and it was craziness. It was not a good starting point.
I should mention here that Joe was not overly excited about this trip. He'd never been and had no real need to go but was obviously willing to give it a try. He was afraid all it would be were lines and lines and people. So needless to say, not a good starting off point. Also, Barrett was INSANE. He is a hyperactive kid and it became very noticeable, as he ran away from us, that we were not going to handle him in this crowd so off I went frantically to find something to help us contain him while Joe went to find some food. After being sent on a wild goose chase by a cast member, I found another super helpful one who found me a wrist leash to use in the mean time. Joe had made it down to Casey's in the absolute madhouse and was waiting outside just standing around trying to contain the kid who refused to touch his stroller. It was very stressful and we about put in the towel. Joe was so miserable and I was so stressed. I had never dealt with that kind of crowd and add in a scary situation of a kid who would not stay close to us and it was just an awful experience. The others went elsewhere to find food and eventually Joe got in line to get us some hotdogs. While he was gone, the piano player at Casey's came out and B was so excited. He even let Barrett play a few notes at the end of the song but it wasn't long before he was off and running again.
No sense in recapping the negatives but we managed to eat standing up outside before finding the others and making our way up to the castle for our Fastpasses for the afternoon parade. This was the main reason we were here at this time because we wanted to catch the 3pm parade. Our schedule made it difficult to catch it other days so it was now or never. We knew for sure to schedule our fastpass for this as it allowed you to enter a roped off area just across from the castle that allowed plenty of space for guests. They only let so many enter so it was a great scenario for us. Thank heavens we were able to stand against the rails with more than enough room for us and lots of open space to spread out.
The parade started and I pretty much started bawling. I can blame some of it on pregnancy hormones but a lot of it was stress of the situation and being overwhelmed along with Barrett's absolute perfect reaction to it all. It was exactly as I hoped. He was totally infatuated and couldn't get over seeing all his favorite characters. We had a perfect spot and were so close to the action. I couldn't contain my tears. It was all this pressure I put on the trip coming out at once. I was also feeling really bad that Joe was not enjoying himself even in the slightest. In the end, it was probably worth it because Barrett had such a wonderful introduction to Disney and I will have fond memories of that parade but never again.
Our pleasant parade experience ended and it was pretty clear we needed to make an early exit. I didn't want to continue this bad streak and subject anyone to more bad stuff so we missed our 2 other fastpasses and headed back to the hotel. We had only been there about 2 hours but we just needed to take a break and try to start fresh the next day. His first ride was supposed to be Peter Pan and we were going to meet a few princesses but it just wasn't worth it. Going to Disney, and even traveling, with young kids needs flexibility so we chose to call it quits for the day. Luckily, a bus came very quickly and if I remember correctly, there were very few people on it with us. From here on out our bus luck was excellent. It was maybe 4:30pm by the time we made it back to the room. We picked up some dinner at the hotel and relaxed that evening close to the room. Joe met up with the others out at the pool bar that evening and had some drinks and we all made it an early night as we had an early morning to get to Hollywood Studios.
::this is where my notes end::
We make decent time heading into Florida. Our goal was about 11:30am arrival time which would be just prior to the rest of the group who were to land at 10:50am. We hit a little bit of traffic as we approach Orlando and decide to make a detour. It is only a few minutes after that Barrett needs to pee. He ends up leaking just a tiny bit before we are able to stop off at a (very shady) gas station. The boys take so long inside that I eventually call Joe because I am afraid they were taken hostage. No joke.
Back on the road, our detour ends up again taking way longer than it should but by about 12pm we get off only a few miles from Disney property. A fear of ours, along with potty accidents, was motion sickness for Barrett. He has it every so often especially on an empty stomach and when things are really stop & go. Unfortunately, large cities can come with stop & go traffic so only about 5 miles from our hotel, we have a puking incident. I felt so bad. Barrett was so sad and after 17 hours in the car, he was so done. A huge trooper though, I got him wiped up while we hurried to our hotel, Old Key West. It was not quite the way we had invisioned arriving in Disney but we had made it!
Of course, I had packed our days worth of outfits in a separate bag so we didn't need to get out our luggage in the hotel the night prior. The puke meant we were rummaging through bags in the parking lot and stripping B down next to the car before going to check in. The Saxton's and Bauman's had just finished checking in so we really timed things perfectly. A big positive? Weather was awesome! Hot already!
Our check-in went very smoothly. We did online check-in (which I highly recommend) so we got to bypass the line and a lady with a iPad came up to us immediately to double check a few things and then we were on our way. We got room 6410 which was in a great villa just around the corner from the main Hospitality house. Saxton's were in 6415 and Bauman's in 6417 so we were all really close to each other. We unpacked a bit and cleaned up before heading to Magic Kingdom for the day. Our goal was to leave by about 1:30 so we were right on time!
Unfortunately, we had a pretty unlucky wait for the bus that afternoon at probably 20 minutes. Barrett was in full crazy town mode as it was nap time (we were getting crazy and skipping it today) along with being cooped up in the car for 17 hours. Again, not the best way to start out. But, as I said it was gorgeous and we were excited to get the trip going. Our plans for the rest of the day were to eat and use our 3 fastpasses but mostly make it an early night. I'll preface this by saying, I would usually avoid Saturdays at Magic Kingdom if I can at all help it. Not to mention, the afternoons are crazy busy. I know this. I don't know why we thought we should disregard it but it was our first day and we needed to see the castle so off we went. It was madness. I don't usually care if people are around me but it was hard to move around Main St at 2pm on this Saturday. We got there just as the "Move it, Shake it" parade was happening and it was craziness. It was not a good starting point.
I should mention here that Joe was not overly excited about this trip. He'd never been and had no real need to go but was obviously willing to give it a try. He was afraid all it would be were lines and lines and people. So needless to say, not a good starting off point. Also, Barrett was INSANE. He is a hyperactive kid and it became very noticeable, as he ran away from us, that we were not going to handle him in this crowd so off I went frantically to find something to help us contain him while Joe went to find some food. After being sent on a wild goose chase by a cast member, I found another super helpful one who found me a wrist leash to use in the mean time. Joe had made it down to Casey's in the absolute madhouse and was waiting outside just standing around trying to contain the kid who refused to touch his stroller. It was very stressful and we about put in the towel. Joe was so miserable and I was so stressed. I had never dealt with that kind of crowd and add in a scary situation of a kid who would not stay close to us and it was just an awful experience. The others went elsewhere to find food and eventually Joe got in line to get us some hotdogs. While he was gone, the piano player at Casey's came out and B was so excited. He even let Barrett play a few notes at the end of the song but it wasn't long before he was off and running again.
No sense in recapping the negatives but we managed to eat standing up outside before finding the others and making our way up to the castle for our Fastpasses for the afternoon parade. This was the main reason we were here at this time because we wanted to catch the 3pm parade. Our schedule made it difficult to catch it other days so it was now or never. We knew for sure to schedule our fastpass for this as it allowed you to enter a roped off area just across from the castle that allowed plenty of space for guests. They only let so many enter so it was a great scenario for us. Thank heavens we were able to stand against the rails with more than enough room for us and lots of open space to spread out.
The parade started and I pretty much started bawling. I can blame some of it on pregnancy hormones but a lot of it was stress of the situation and being overwhelmed along with Barrett's absolute perfect reaction to it all. It was exactly as I hoped. He was totally infatuated and couldn't get over seeing all his favorite characters. We had a perfect spot and were so close to the action. I couldn't contain my tears. It was all this pressure I put on the trip coming out at once. I was also feeling really bad that Joe was not enjoying himself even in the slightest. In the end, it was probably worth it because Barrett had such a wonderful introduction to Disney and I will have fond memories of that parade but never again.
Our pleasant parade experience ended and it was pretty clear we needed to make an early exit. I didn't want to continue this bad streak and subject anyone to more bad stuff so we missed our 2 other fastpasses and headed back to the hotel. We had only been there about 2 hours but we just needed to take a break and try to start fresh the next day. His first ride was supposed to be Peter Pan and we were going to meet a few princesses but it just wasn't worth it. Going to Disney, and even traveling, with young kids needs flexibility so we chose to call it quits for the day. Luckily, a bus came very quickly and if I remember correctly, there were very few people on it with us. From here on out our bus luck was excellent. It was maybe 4:30pm by the time we made it back to the room. We picked up some dinner at the hotel and relaxed that evening close to the room. Joe met up with the others out at the pool bar that evening and had some drinks and we all made it an early night as we had an early morning to get to Hollywood Studios.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Disney: Day 1- Travel
I only took notes on our first day so we will see how much I can actually remember for those of you that have any interest in reading the trip recaps!
Friday, Jan 2-
I got up for the day at 6am. I was too restless and couldn't fall back asleep so eventually I got up with Barrett following shortly behind. We moved to the couch for Mickey and relaxed for a bit. I could only take that for a little while so I eventually got in the shower and got ready for the day. I could have slept in but of course, that was too good to be true. We got Barrett ready and headed off to daycare so he could get a few hours of play in before we started the drive. It allowed Joe and I to finish our to-dos and get packed without him. Plus, we already had to pay for a full day so might as well use some of it! I finished my last minute packing stuff (toiletries, etc.) and did a little last minute house cleaning. Dishes need to be washed, beds made, floors swept. I wanted to be sure to have a spotless house when we got home because that would have been the last thing I wanted to do after the week of being gone. About 9am, I'm sitting on the couch completely ready waiting for Joe to run a few last minute errands.
Just before 10am, we head to daycare to get Barrett. Our goal was before 10:30 so we were going good. You will see that it was good we left early and really should have left even earlier but 10am worked. Barrett was excited when we got there and told everyone bye for the next 10 days. This would be his last day with Ms Kelsy as she was getting induced and started maternity leave while we were gone.
It was quickly into the trip that we realized we made a small error. Back story: Barrett had watched How to Train a Dragon for the first time during Christmas break while we were at my parents. I had bought it on itunes for the iPad as we could tell it was a major hit and would help get us through the roughly 14 hour drive. We had some issues with the download and apparently it didn't work completely. Not good! I told Barrett we had a special treat for him and he could watch the "dragon movie" in the car only to find that it wasn't working. Not okay in the 3 year old's eyes! So fast forward to Joe calling AT&T to get a hot spot added to his phone and $30 bucks later we can start the re-download in the car as we are driving. WiFi was so spotty it ended up taking almost 4 hours to download! It was only the start to our bad luck that trip.
We didn't make it very far before stopping in Vandalia, IL to have lunch. We wanted to load B up on food so that he would take a good nap so it was just over an hour into the trip before we were making a pit stop. We also had our first pee stop but after about 30 minutes we were back on the road and mostly happy! Joe drove all the way to the IL/KY border where we stopped in Metropolis to pee (again! yes, newly potty trained kid makes for lots of these) and to load up on gas. I take over the drive and only make it about 2 1/2 hours. I really can't sit still for much longer and it just so happens that B needs to pee. :) We are only a few miles to Nashville at this point. Unfortunately, we get to gas station and Barrett refuses to go. Great! No way can we force him so onward it is!
It's nearing about 4pm and we are working our way through Tennessee. Have I mentioned that Barrett didn't take a nap yet. So much for that plan to get him to sleep. He is luckily behaving really well for the most part though. We have no shame in reporting that he had unlimited iPad and DVD player access which helps greatly. In true Barrett attention span, I think he watches 45 minutes of Woody and maybe 30 minutes of Merida along with some of the Dragon movie and playing various apps. Have at it, kid! Finally, at about 5pm he succumbs to sleep for about an hour which gets us into Georgia.
We decide to stop for dinner a little bit north of Atlanta about 6:30 central time zone. It's 7:30 where we are currently and literally no one in the Arby's that we choose. Barrett runs off a bit of energy and is in crazy good spirits. Must have been the nap. We fill up with gas and Joe continues the trek. We have reservations at a hotel in Valdosta, GA so we just need to make it to the south part of the state and we can take a break for the night. So begins, even more bad luck.
We make it about 45 minutes down the road before hitting some rain. Joe had wanted to replace his wipers before leaving but it never happened and eventually we decided we need to stop to find some new ones. It's 9pm eastern time zone and luckily find a big enough gas station that has what we need. At this point, it's coming down pretty hard. Not crazy storm but a steady pour. Joe comes to switch them out (in the rain) and ends up dropping pieces and having a heck of a time. He's in and out of the car trying to get them put together and eventually manages to replace the driver side before giving up after not finding the necessary pieces. Onward, we make it through Atlanta easily but just south of there we hit a big detour. Huge accident has closed all lanes and we create this makeshift route all the way around. Lots of drama later, Barrett not falling asleep for the night until after 11pm and we end up making it to our hotel at 1:45am. Our goal was about 11pm so you can say we hit a few snags. We were all in good spirits though hoping that day 2 would bring some better luck!
Friday, Jan 2-
I got up for the day at 6am. I was too restless and couldn't fall back asleep so eventually I got up with Barrett following shortly behind. We moved to the couch for Mickey and relaxed for a bit. I could only take that for a little while so I eventually got in the shower and got ready for the day. I could have slept in but of course, that was too good to be true. We got Barrett ready and headed off to daycare so he could get a few hours of play in before we started the drive. It allowed Joe and I to finish our to-dos and get packed without him. Plus, we already had to pay for a full day so might as well use some of it! I finished my last minute packing stuff (toiletries, etc.) and did a little last minute house cleaning. Dishes need to be washed, beds made, floors swept. I wanted to be sure to have a spotless house when we got home because that would have been the last thing I wanted to do after the week of being gone. About 9am, I'm sitting on the couch completely ready waiting for Joe to run a few last minute errands.
Just before 10am, we head to daycare to get Barrett. Our goal was before 10:30 so we were going good. You will see that it was good we left early and really should have left even earlier but 10am worked. Barrett was excited when we got there and told everyone bye for the next 10 days. This would be his last day with Ms Kelsy as she was getting induced and started maternity leave while we were gone.
It was quickly into the trip that we realized we made a small error. Back story: Barrett had watched How to Train a Dragon for the first time during Christmas break while we were at my parents. I had bought it on itunes for the iPad as we could tell it was a major hit and would help get us through the roughly 14 hour drive. We had some issues with the download and apparently it didn't work completely. Not good! I told Barrett we had a special treat for him and he could watch the "dragon movie" in the car only to find that it wasn't working. Not okay in the 3 year old's eyes! So fast forward to Joe calling AT&T to get a hot spot added to his phone and $30 bucks later we can start the re-download in the car as we are driving. WiFi was so spotty it ended up taking almost 4 hours to download! It was only the start to our bad luck that trip.
We didn't make it very far before stopping in Vandalia, IL to have lunch. We wanted to load B up on food so that he would take a good nap so it was just over an hour into the trip before we were making a pit stop. We also had our first pee stop but after about 30 minutes we were back on the road and mostly happy! Joe drove all the way to the IL/KY border where we stopped in Metropolis to pee (again! yes, newly potty trained kid makes for lots of these) and to load up on gas. I take over the drive and only make it about 2 1/2 hours. I really can't sit still for much longer and it just so happens that B needs to pee. :) We are only a few miles to Nashville at this point. Unfortunately, we get to gas station and Barrett refuses to go. Great! No way can we force him so onward it is!
It's nearing about 4pm and we are working our way through Tennessee. Have I mentioned that Barrett didn't take a nap yet. So much for that plan to get him to sleep. He is luckily behaving really well for the most part though. We have no shame in reporting that he had unlimited iPad and DVD player access which helps greatly. In true Barrett attention span, I think he watches 45 minutes of Woody and maybe 30 minutes of Merida along with some of the Dragon movie and playing various apps. Have at it, kid! Finally, at about 5pm he succumbs to sleep for about an hour which gets us into Georgia.
We decide to stop for dinner a little bit north of Atlanta about 6:30 central time zone. It's 7:30 where we are currently and literally no one in the Arby's that we choose. Barrett runs off a bit of energy and is in crazy good spirits. Must have been the nap. We fill up with gas and Joe continues the trek. We have reservations at a hotel in Valdosta, GA so we just need to make it to the south part of the state and we can take a break for the night. So begins, even more bad luck.
We make it about 45 minutes down the road before hitting some rain. Joe had wanted to replace his wipers before leaving but it never happened and eventually we decided we need to stop to find some new ones. It's 9pm eastern time zone and luckily find a big enough gas station that has what we need. At this point, it's coming down pretty hard. Not crazy storm but a steady pour. Joe comes to switch them out (in the rain) and ends up dropping pieces and having a heck of a time. He's in and out of the car trying to get them put together and eventually manages to replace the driver side before giving up after not finding the necessary pieces. Onward, we make it through Atlanta easily but just south of there we hit a big detour. Huge accident has closed all lanes and we create this makeshift route all the way around. Lots of drama later, Barrett not falling asleep for the night until after 11pm and we end up making it to our hotel at 1:45am. Our goal was about 11pm so you can say we hit a few snags. We were all in good spirits though hoping that day 2 would bring some better luck!
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