Traveling and Family Vacations : We are here!

We started our adventure at 9am on Saturday morning and by 3pm we were in our room at Saratoga Springs Resort in Disney! My son was beyond excited and so was I.  We chose our room for a few very specific reasons.  1) it had a kitchen 2) it had a washer and dryer 3) we had two places to sleep separated by a door so that Aubrey's night feeding wouldn't disturb Trey or my husband. One of us had to have a full night sleep and energy to run on.

We decided early on that we would not be visiting a park every single day.  We needed down time and so did the kids.  We organized our trip months in advance along with our reservations for meals(which is a must for a Disney trip.  Reservations for character meals book up months in advance).  We sat down with a piece of paper and listed which park we wanted to be at on a particular day.  Next we scheduled our character breakfast, lunch or dinners.  We did not always have a scheduled meal and would write that down too.  Needless to say with a husband that is an engineer and my OCD we were very planned.  I believe this is super important when traveling with children with the note that plans change and everything must be tentative. For us, having a plan allows us to relax more and enjoy the trip.  We were not worried about what we were going to do for meals and where we were going to be when.

Our kick off event for the trip was a character dinner called Mickey's Back Yard BBQ.  We told Trey about it the second we were walking out the door of the hotel room.  He was so excited!  I was kind of worried about Aubrey getting over stimulated and freaking out but she was fine.  Trey on the other hand was extremely over whelmed.  The music was very loud and there was a ton of people moving in all different directions.  At first, he kind of shut down and stayed close to me then his brain needed to increase the intensity of a already very intense situation and he wound him self up.  He had a good time but at some point he kept asking to go to the bathroom and when I took him the second or third time I asked him if he was okay.  He flat out told me it was too loud and he did not want to re enter the BBQ.  So, we left. We had already eaten and he had seen Mickey so it was fine with us.  It was already around 9pm when we got back to the room so we settled in and went to bed.

First Character meet-up at Micky's Back Yard BBQ

The rest of the trip was equally as over whelming for Trey and I took notice of situations where the music was too loud or the situation was to intense.  We watched parades from a distance and would tell him to put his hands over his ears.  This helped a ton and he really enjoyed himself.

Watching from a distance with the best seat in the house

We are very lucky to have a child who doesn't ask for much so we never spent any money on expensive gift items(You already read the post where I pre bought items and packed them).  The one thing Trey asked for was a fan that squirts water but I refused to get it.  Well, to make a long story short we were waiting for a custodian to bring us a screwdriver to put batteries in the stroller fan for Aubrey for the 2nd time that day (note to self bring a screwdriver on vacation!) and the souvenir lady felt bad that it was taking so long and gave Trey the fan!

The fan!

Lets talk about NIP.  You all know I exclusively breastfeed Aubrey and I have to give a big thumbs up to Disney for this! They have air conditioned nursing stations in each park.  They are so nice! I met some wonderful women in the room and it was a nice quite place to let Aubrey relax and cool down and to give me 15 or 20 minutes to relax myself!

The nursing lounge in Magic Kingdom

I also nursed all over the place and not one single dirty look or rude comment! I became very comfortable with NIP on this trip and I never used a cover.  It was far to hot.  I did get a suggestion to get a A&A blanket in the nursing center.  I had never seen them before and now I really want one.  I did use my Undercover Mama so we kept it discreet.

All in All it was an amazingly exhausting trip filled with memories that I will never forget.  My son still talk about it a month later so I pray he still remembers it as an older child and adult. We already are planning our next trip to Disney.  We want to go for Halloween, Christmas and once in the summer to enjoy the water parks :)

My favorite family picture

It is National Breastfeeding Week!!!!

I am a day late and dollar short as usual but it is National Breastfeeding Week. I feel we need to pay homage to the boob! It does more then just supply endless enjoyment to the world of men. As a society we have over sexualized a part of the body that is suppose to be used for sustenance and comfort not just to look and snicker at like Beavis and Butthead.  I have been fortunate enough to be able to exclusively breastfeed my daughter who is now a little over two month.  My son and I were not so lucky but I was able to pump the liquid gold and supply it to him though a bottle.  I need to say that I in no way criticize a woman's choice to formula feed.  There are many reason a woman may choose to formula feed.  Maybe she can't supply breast milk, maybe her child wasn't thriving well, maybe she just didn't want to or her work schedule wouldn't allow her to pump.  What ever the reason, I know that every decision that a woman makes for her child has not gone without rigorous thought and in the end she is loving her child either way and providing food to help him or her grow and that is all that matters in the end.  

Let's talk about public breast feeding...I am a major advocate of breastfeeding if you can't tell and yes I feed in public.  By that I mean I will feed anywhere, in the theater or at the table in a restaurant ect.  Where ever and when ever.  I refuse to hide away in a nasty public restroom and sit on a toilet or go to my car. I pray that in the future there will be a nursing lounge in every public area.  Although, I think there have been major leaps forward in this department.  There are three nursing lounges in our local mall! Here are some public breastfeeding tips.

1) Practice at home. You probably won't have your  My Brest Friend Breastfeeding Pillow  or Boppy to help you out. Practice walking around or holding your baby in different positions and find out what works best for you.
2) Relax. With everyone and their Grandmother choosing a side on the "breastfeeding issue" these days you may get some stares or even soft whispers but who cares! You are feeding your baby the best stuff on earth and you know what they say about opinions....yeah. Besides, you may get a thumbs up or a pat on the back (both of these have happened to me and startled the hell out of me and made me feel really good at the same time)

With all that said, I do believe in modest breastfeeding but nursing clothes are expensive and ugly. Who has the money or desire to replace their whole wardrobe in the first place? So lets talk about products that will make your life easier on the journey of breastfeeding. The most traditional way to nurse in public is to use a nursing cover. My favorite cover is the Balboa nursing cover. They are stylish and very thin fabric that is not see though which is very important when feeding in warmer weather.  They also have pockest to hold anything you need. I placed a couple of quarters in the pockets to weigh it down when I feed walking around to keep the cover from flying around. This cover is very inexpensive at around 36$ also which is awesome if you have ever been taken in by cute baby related items that were never worth your hard earned money.  My second favorite public breast feeding item is the UnderCover Mama.  This is a strapless tank top that attaches to your nursing bra to keep you from exposing the lower half of your body. This is great for those who don't want to use a nursing cover or if it is just to damn hot to use one. It will turn any of your clothes in to nursing clothing.  This product sells for 24$ to 27$ and is beyond worth it

Balboa Nursing Cover

Undercover Mama

Breastfeeding basics/pros and cons will be later this week....