Disney Days 4-6

The last half of the Disney trip was just as much fun. We spent Day 4 at Hollywood Studios. In the past, we haven't done a full day there b/c many of the shows and attractions were for older kids. This time, we spent all day there- Maddyn was truly having a blast. Shows like Beauty & the Beast, Little Mermaid, Muppets, and Playhouse Disney were a hit- along with rides like Toy Story. Dave wanted to do the American Idol show/tryout- but we didn't have time. So next time, I promised him we'll do it!!

Before we headed out that night, Maddyn and I hit the pool. She was a riot! They have a Volcano slide in the pool, so it attracts a lot of kids. So there is a DJ set up for Kid activities at the Pool too. She was just dancing away, having fun with the other kids. She kept telling me it was her "wet dancing". The pool at the Poly is nice b/c it is zero depth. Perfect for lots of fun for the little kids. Definitely a plus for the hotel!

We went to dinner at T-Rex on Tuesday night with some friends. Maddyn and Quinn (their daughter) had a blast. The restaurant was a lot like Rainforest Cafe with a dinosaur flavor. The food was good, but it was enjoyable b/c it was so loud in there, I didn't care that Maddyn was loud and a little crazy! LOL Downtown Disney was fun- and to top it off, we saw Paula Abdul! Well, at least Dave says he 99.9% believes it was her. She looked too tall to be Paula in my opinion- but maybe that's b/c I picture her being like 4' nothing...I dunno. But it truly did look like her, and the woman appeared to have a bodyguard of some sorts. The only downside to Downtown Disney is the bus ride back. Ouch- that was a long one. It was a last night getting back to the hotel, but it was such a good fun day!

Wednesday was our last full day at Disney, and the plan was to go to MK all day. I was a little nervous since MK was so packed on Saturday. But as luck would have it, Wed was much different!! The lines were short, nothing longer than 15 minutes. Maddyn got to ride all of the rides she was tall enough for- including Splash Mountain (A "big people' ride, as she called it). We got to do roller coasters and all the basics. The down side was that Winnie the Pooh and Tea Cups were both closed until Nov 10th- so we didn't get to ride those. But everything else was open. We also got to see the Princesses again- so Maddyn and Halas both got more photos with Sleeping Beauty, Belle and Cinderella. We ended up staying until Park Close and getting the most of our day. It was such a fun time, and at the end of the night, Maddyn told us she had so much fun (Without us even asking). All that stress was worth it, lol

We flew back Thursday. That was a wake- up call. It was 90 degrees and 95% humidity when we left Florida. It was 30 something when we landed in Chicago. Holy cow, it was cold!! It was nice to be back though. Now reality sinks in. I go back to work in 3 weeks - I can't believe the time has gone by so fast. I know I'm meant to be a working mom, but it still is tough to go back those first few weeks. So I'm planning on just snuggling with the girls non-stop the next few weeks ;)

I'm hoping to get photos posted to the Shutterfly site here soon. I didn't take as many, so it shouldn't take long to post. Overall Disney was a great trip. Maddyn is the perfect age for this trip this time. We had fun when she was 18 months and 24 months- but this trip, she just "got it". She enjoyed the rides, understood the shows and just had a blast. It was a pleasant surprise. I'm sure we'll be back there again next year- though, I have to say, I do think going in Nov/Dec would be better. We couldn't believe how hot it still was!!

Disney Days 2 & 3

Just a quick summary of Days 2 & 3. I'm beat, but wanted to write this down before I forgot.

Day 2: We went to Animal Kingdom. We started the day with Breakfast at the Tusker House. It was such a great breakfast. I'd highly recommend this one to anyone with an older Toddler. If Maddyn was any younger, I don't think she'd have as much fun. They have a parade through the restaurant and they get to dance with the characters- she loved this!! She met Donald, Daisy, Mickey and Goofy. Goofy scared the crap out of her- but she loved the others.

We spent a good portion of the day at AK- hit the safari and the age appropriate things like Lion King, etc. AK is our least favorite park, b/c there really is not a ton to do for Maddyn's age group. So we went back to the hotel after that.

We had dinner at Le Cellier over in Epcot. Best steak I've ever had in my life- and I've dined at some nice Steak places before. It was SO good. However, Maddyn decided to act like a crazy 2 year old, so dinner was quite eventful. At least there were lots of kids in the restaurant. Ack! We finished the night walking around the World Showcase and grabbing some drinks and snacks. It is the International Food and Wine Festival- so it was pretty crowded- but so much fun!!

Today we went to Epcot for lunch at the Askershus. This is a Princess Lunch. Maddyn was ear to ear smiling the entire time. She got to hang with Belle, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Snow White, Cinderella, and Ariel (Little Mermaid). I have quite a few photos- and can't wait to show her. She keeps asking if we're going to have lunch with Belle tomorrow too. LOL- if only she knew how hard it was to get THAT lunch!!

It is insanely hot/humid down here. So we spent the rest of the day at Epcot, and came back here tonight and swam. The heat has really exhausted us all. Tomorrow is Hollywood Studios and pending how long we are there, we might also hit MK later in the day. We're going to dinner with friends at T-Rex Diner tomorrow night. I have heard good things about it too, so we'll see!

One other note- each restaurant we have dined at, the chef has come out to walk us through the entire menu. Even at the Buffets, they walk us through showing us what contains tree nuts, etc. Disney is just AWESOME at this food allergy awareness. It is really so comforting!

Will post more as I can!

Oct Disney Trip- Day 1

First off, let me say that 6am didn't seem that early when I booked our flights. Heck, with Halas's crazy schedule, we are up at all hours. But getting two kids out the door, Halas fed, getting to the remote parking lot, checked in, through security and to the gate by 5:30, meant getting up at 2:30 am. Ugh- Dave and I are exhausted!! never again.

But we got there and minus a few temper tantrums from Maddyn (Status Quo though), the flight was terrific. Halas nursed at the beginning and slept the rest of the flight. Maddyn watched her DVD and just enjoyed the flight. We landed, and forgot how hot & humid Orlando is. 89 today and the dewpoint was in the 60s..crazy! We got to the Polynesian, around 10:30. Check-in was at 3:00, so we were expecting the worse on our room. I was sweating (we were in our "Chicago/autumn/when-we-left-it-was-27-degrees" clothes) and really needed to nurse badly. Sure enough, we checked in and our room wasn't ready. They told us it could be three. I had requested a room (the same one we had last time) and asked if we'd be getting it. It is rare that you get your request, but I figured why not try. They told me I'd be getting the room next door to the one requested. I then asked if they had any "mother's" rooms where I could nurse until the room was ready. She called over the manager- who took pity on me I believe - and she made a call. Within minutes, they were able to get us a different room-- THE ONE I REQUESTED! How crazy is that! So we were able to get to the room right away.

I had been reading the dis-boards (A Disney forum for travelers wanting tips/advice/etc) and there had been concerns posted as of late on the conditions of the rooms, housekeeping, etc. Granted it is only day 1- but we got to our room and were quite pleased! No peeling paint, so clean you could smell the 'bleach scent' and great location. Just like we remembered it.

We ate lunch and then napped. Maddyn was in rare form and needed sleep desperately. She was quite the 2 year old at that point. She napped well and we headed over to Magic Kingdom. First- I must say we got REALLY lucky last year. We were at Disney in the "off season" both of our trips. Crowds were low, prices were low and it was pleasant temp-wise. Today was somewhat hellish. The crowds were INSANE, and it was super hot and humid. We barely had time to do any rides. To top it off- the Teacups were closed, and Pooh & Philharmagic are temporarily not doing Fast Passes. It's a MESS over there. Lines were 45-75 minutes long, and it was crowded. They also are expanding Fantasyland and adding some new rides- so a huge chunk of the park is now blocked off (like Pooh's playland and that whole area by Dumbo)- so there's not "resting spot/play area" for kids anymore. I totally didn't realize this and it was quite a disappointment.

Right now, we're going to hope it was just b/c it was Saturday and that the crowds are less during the week. Fingers crossed.

We ate dinner at The Plaza Restaurant. Nothing fancy, but you needed an ADR (Advanced Dining Reservation) or the wait was 75+ minutes. Location is right down Main Street by the Castle. We loved the food- basic stuff like sandwiches and such (Think Colonial Cafe/Perkins/etc) and it wasn't too pricey. They have an Ice Cream Parlor built in (that's what they are known for) and fantastic desserts. With Maddyn's tree nut allergy, we informed Disney before the trip of our reservations. When we were seated, the chef came out and greeted us- and told us she'd be personally making Maddyn's meal and make sure that everything was tree nut free and there would be no cross contamination. She brought out the allergy book showing all of the ingredients of every item on the menu and how she could substitute many items if need be. We were so impressed at how seriously Disney took her allergy- what a relief! We carry those EpiPens everywhere, but it's a relief knowing we won't need to use it.

We hit a few rides after dinner and came back and got ready for bed. What a long day. We just put the baby down, so I'm writing this up and hoping to get to sleep here soon. We were worried about the baby and Maddyn both being in the same room- so we're really praying that it works out and Halas sleeps long stretches without waking Maddyn up. Otherwise, this could be very interesting (and tiring)!

More to come. Tomorrow we have a character breakfast with Micky, Donald, Daisy and Goofy over at Animal Kingdom (Tusker House). We're hoping to spend time at Animal Kingdom and then head back to the hotel to enjoy the pool. The weather is supposed to be nice. Then we have the "coveted" Le Cellier reservations tomorrow evening over at Epcot. It's a steakhouse that's hard to get reservations for (I only got them b/c of a fluke that someone canceled and I stumbled upon the opening). Looking forward to it (not as much as Dave is, lol).

I'll try to post again if I'm not too tired!

ETA: Thanks Jared and Amanda for house sitting this week and watching Ry! We appreciate it!

You just have to laugh...

Today was one of those days, where you have to laugh or you'll end up pulling your hair out.
I wasn't sure who was going to drive me crazy first- Maddyn or Rylee.

I was changing Halle's diaper and Maddyn offered to put the diaper away. I wasn't really paying attention, so I assumed she put it in the Diaper Genie. She does this for me a lot, so I didn't think twice. Well, turns out she put it in the laundry basket....so I found out (the hard way). When I did the girls' laundry today, I dumped it all in the washer and left. I came back to a flooded laundry room floor. I look at the Washer and open it up. The drain was clogged with all kinds of gel-like beads that have a glue-like consistency. Essentially the diaper was in the Washer and had exploded. The insides form a glue-like gel-ball when massive exposed to water. Those gel-balls clogged the washer drain somehow and the Washer flooded. Ugh!!!

After vacuuming out the Washer, and cleaning it more times than I can count I was able to run 2 rinse cycles. That seemed to help a little. I think ran a load of junk towels and that helped too. So I think its finally back to normal. Ugh!!! How crazy!

Then to top it off, Ry had an accident and I needed to wash the blankets. So today was just a day where you want a do-over immediately!!! I didn't get anything crossed off the to-do list at all!


I didn't get any photos- but it did remind me that I need to take more short video clips of Halas. So I'll try to do that this week!

First Half of October

Ok, trying to bring the blog up to date!! The first half of October.....

Halas
Health:
She had her two month appt back on Oct 1st. I unfortunately, had been very sick that day. It started as allergies on Wed and turned to flu-like symptoms by that Friday. Halas was fever free though, so they gave her all of her shots (for the 2 month, there are a TON). They told us if her fever got past 100.4 to call. After about 12 hours, we noticed she was on a nursing strike, had fewer wet diapers (none in 10 hours) and no stools. We took her temp and it was 101.3. So we called the doc and had to keep a watchful eye on her. After a very long night of bouncing fevers, we eventually got her temp to go down in the next 24 hours. We thought it might have been the flu that I had - but since the tylenol seemed to help, and it went away so quickly- the dr thinks it was just a reaction to the 2 month shots. So stressful!!

I on the other hand, might not have had the flu. After fighting 103/104 temps all weekend, I ended up getting diagnosed with mastitis (a breast infection). Talk about painful!! One of the downsides to nursing I guess. They put me on an antibiotic right away and it got better. But it turns out that one of the side effects of mastitis is flu-like symptoms. So it is possible that I had it 4 or 5 days prior when all that started! Now I know!!!

We went back to the doctor last week for more follow up on her meds. They have added mylanta to the pepcid and think that might help with the acid as well. We're going to give it a few more weeks and see how it's going.

Stats:
2 months: 12lbs, 13oz adn 23"
2.5 months: 13lbs 9 oz

Sleep/Feeding:
We've been lucky that Halas has been sleeping better at night!! At the beginning of the month, we were getting mostly 2, 4-5 hour stretches at night, and about 2 nights a week with a 6-7 hour stretch. As of last week (10 weeks old), she was giving us a 7 hour stretch about 4 nights a week. This week (11 weeks old), we have had 3, 11+ hour stretches, but we paid for it the other nights, lol. Tonight is one of those nights!! Ha! We're doing the every 2 hour rule though, and have been since she turned 2 months. It seems to be working fairly well.

She's feeding well. Based on that sleep schedule, I've been able to push out daytime feedings to about once every 4 hours - but she nurses longer. At night, when she goes the longer stretch, she wakes up starving! But I'll take it :)

We're getting quite a few walks in with the nice warmer October weather. We hit an apple orchard back at the end of Sept and the Pumpkin Patch last weekend. Maddyn picked out pumpkins for everyone :) We've been able to get together with some old friends and really get out a bunch, so it's been nice!!

We are going on another vacation before I go back to work. With Maddyn's food allergy and Dave's work schedule- we decided to hit Disney again. Maddyn is totally into princesses right now (Beauty and the Beast just came out again and she is obsessed) and we know she'll have a blast. With Halas being so young, they have lots of places for me to nurse and it just seemed to be the "easy" vacation for us right now. Jared is going to house-sit/Rylee-sit for us, so Ry will get a nice vacation away from the chaos (Maddyn/Halas) too!

Maddyn has picked out her Halloween costume this year. She's going to be Belle!! I found one, but it was super horrible and over priced, so mom found a better one. We just tried it on yesterday and got photos. She's going to wear it to Disney too, so that should be fun.

I'm trying to get caught up on photos- so I'll be posting loads of October ones soon!! Hopefully before the week is over!! So check out the Shutterfly site in the next few days.

September in a nutshell

I have been horrible at updating the blog. I realize how much I blogged for Maddyn and I'm so glad I did. It is acting as my journal- and I go back and read a lot of those posts to see how she was doing at x weeks, and compare it to Halas. So I'm going to try to update with some past events on Halas and journal better going forward.

Health:
September was a crazy month. We finally started to adjust around here. At Halas's one month appointment she was diagnosed with GERD as I had mentioned. It still seemed nowhere near as bad as Maddyn's. However, throughout September, we had to go back to the doctor weekly, as the meds were not working. She had some weight checks to see if dosing could be adjusted, but overall it wasn't providing relief. It wasn't until her 2 month appointment that we finally saw a little bit of improvement. She was on the Axid (a few different doses) and then went to Pepcid. The latest dosage seems to work the best. We haven't had to move to Zantac/Prevacid/or Reglan yet. Right now- we are holding off on going to the pediatric GI. If we don't see improvement by end of Oct/Early Nov- that will be our next step.

Overall, we haven't had the breathing issues we had with Maddyn (no apnea monitor this time), so it's been much calmer. Halas still does the dry choke/gag, but her spit up is less and she's gaining weight- so those are good signs.

We also had her hip ultrasound done in early September. It came back good. We have to go for a follow-up in 6 months to make sure all stays clear, but the doctors didn't see anything wrong with the joint, which is what they were worried about.

Sleep/Feeding:
Halas continued to be EBF (Exclusively breastfed), but I pumped once a day so Dave could give her a bottle and we could start to build a large supply for when I go back to work. Bottle feeding went well, though Dave was really the only one feeding her from a bottle. I tried once and it was a complete fail. LOL As for timing, I usually fed every 3 hours during the day and then fed on demand at night. She slept 2 good 4-5 hour stretches at night, so I fed every 4-5 hours at night.

Weight/Height Stats:
1 month: 10lbs, 5oz 22.0"
1.5 months: 11 lbs, 2 oz


Events:
We had Halas's Baptism on Sept 18th. My cousin Leah is Halas's Godmother and Dave's brother Kevin was Halas's Godfather. We had 50+ people at the house, and all went well. I'll be posting photos of the Baptism to the Shutterfly site soon.

We also had lots of playdates this month! It's been fun having time off of work and getting to spend time with other friends and family, with both girls and just Halas. We had wonderful weather in September, so it was lots of fun! I have loaded all of the September photos to the Shutterfly site (except the Baptism ones).



MADDYN:
Maddyn had a great Sept as well. She started early preschool at the end of August, and started getting into the full swing of things last month. She is going 3 days a week while I'm home on Leave. She did the Race for the Cure with me at the end of September, and attended her first Ice Capades (Disney on Ice). With all of the GTGs and these fun events, she really had a fun Sept.

Healthwise, we had more allergy testing on Maddyn and it came back clear. This was for the enviromentals. Round two of tests is in October. We're really starting to get a better grasp on her tree nut allergy- it's insane how many things have tree nuts/were made in a facility that makes products with tree nuts/are made on the same equipment with tree nuts.


That's about it for Sept. I'll update with October and get myself back on a more consistent update schedule!!