It’s been over a year since we’ve taken a “big” vacation. I’ve shared snippets of smaller adventures on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, but somehow never got around to writing about them here.
In 2025, I decided to do something completely different with our vacation fund. Instead of spending it on a short-lived getaway, I invested it into something my sister and I have been dreaming of for about 14 years—a start-up thrift like business with her.
We opened a variety store filled with new and used treasures. My sister poured her heart into prepping our rental space. She also built a beautiful shiplap wall and a sales counter entirely from reclaimed pallets—her creativity absolutely amazes me.
We’ve now been open for two months, and it’s been a crash course in small business ownership. Almost every day brings something new—sometimes a challenge, sometimes a surprise, often a mix of both. But the best part? Meeting so many interesting and lovely people in our community.
I’m so grateful we were able to create a business built around saving items and helping them find their way to someone else who will love them. It feels like more than just a store—it’s a little piece of our shared dream, finally out in the world.
I decided to take on a challenge that could have gone either way—magical or mildly chaotic: camping by myself with our four older kids for two nights in our pop-up camper.
Night 1 was the perfect warm-up. I only took two kids with me that night. We joined friends at a camp for a potluck dinner, swimming, and an evening of hanging out. The kids ran wild while the adults talked and shared food, and the air was thick with that “summer night” magic. We swam, had a big breakfast together and just enjoyed each others company.
Day 2, I went and picked up 2 more kiddos as we moved to the lake almost 2 hours away. The day was pure sunshine bliss—swimming, hanging out, and relaxing—until the rain clouds rolled in. I had just started the firepit which was a pain in the rear since we literally had nothing to burn as we scoured the wooded areas for any debris. Short-lived. Luckily we had already eaten our dinner of tuna packets and gummies, had a little tiny fire, then fast darkening clouds. Sprinkles at first, then getting a little heavier, a little faster, before it completely started coming down. Luckily it was almost bed time by then. We ducked into the camper as the storm really got on as soon as we closed the door, grateful for our little dry refuge. There was a bit of fussing and moodiness in the small space, but overall the kids did great.
The next morning, we showered and packed up camp. Instead of heading straight home, we made a stop at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. The kids got hands-on with science exhibits, wandered through outdoor animal habitats, and burned off that last bit of camping energy before the drive. Then we stopped and grabbed a bite to eat.
Two nights. Four kids. One mom. A camper. Friends, lakes, rain, science, swimming, and tuna. Exhausting? Absolutely. Worth it? Every single second.
I had this in my drafts for a while. I intended to post our last Disney World trip that we did in September 2022. It was indeed a magical experience. It was our second time as a family, but our first with our oldest and youngest. That year we did so many trips and I just put blogging it on the back burner. So this entry is going to be a bit vague. I hardly took any pictures this time either. Alright. So when we took 8 kids to Disney World (all four parks) for a week long vacation to Florida it was for a little over $7,000. Here is the break down in a nutshell.
Resort Stay – For those who have followed my previous posts, you’ll know my husband and I have a timeshare. We stayed the first time on a Disney resort but we’ve since realized we could have just as nice accommodations by booking with our timeshare when we visit places instead and that was especially the case this time. So the cost of our suite for 7 nights was an exchange rate of $249. (I’m not including timeshare monthly or annual costs. Just simply what they charge for the week) We stayed at Holiday Inn Club Vacations on Orange Lake in Kissimmee FL.
Our 1st full day after arriving we visited Magic Kingdom. We had a really enjoyable day here. It only sprinkled briefly when we very first got there, but then stopped. We had coffee and drinks when we first got there. I had packed lunch that day but I did get them drinks and popcorn as a snack.
Our 2nd Day we visited Hollywood Studios. This one is one of the kids’ favorite parks. They had so much fun on the rides. We packed snacks but bought lunch and drinks at this park. It never ended up raining, but it had thunder and lightning, so some of the shows got delayed or stopped mid-way, but overall it was a good day in the park.
Day 3 and BIRTHDAY DAY for our 1 year old – We spent it at Animal Kingdom. At this park my grandma and great-uncle met us there to celebrate the day with us. It was so much fun. We got some snacks here, grandmas treat was ice cream. I got lunch and drinks for everyone. It was also the only day we got stuck in the monsoon of rain. Luckily it was at the end of the day and we had already done everything we were going to do.
Last but certainly not least, one of my favorite parks. Day 4 – Epcot We got lots of snacks here, we ate lunch here. The kids did end up breaking down on Test Track, but they got to ride some other stuff. The frozen ride was broke down for a little while but we did end up getting on that and it was fun. I took the little kids on the Nemo ride while the older kids went to do a few things with dad. So everyone had fun. We ended up leaving this park early because the kids wanted to go swim the rest of the day.
I had a breakdown of food/drink costs, but I have no idea where that is right now. So instead of daily, I’ll just give the whole trip food cost instead of per park. This includes groceries for the suite, food in park, food outside of park and during travel. $1,000 total.
Souvenirs… $300 (this is a rough estimate for cash because we had about $250 to spend in Disney rewards gift cards, so the total would have been $550) That includes all in park purchases that wasn’t food related.
Gas cost for travel from southern VA to Orlando/Kissimmee FL and back (about 1,350 miles round trip with riding around included) in a 15 passenger Ford Econoline E350 (11city/15hwy/12combined). Total was $425.62
Park Parking was $100 ($25/day) Resort Parking was $175 ($25/day)
WDW Tickets for the 9 of us (Our 1 yr old was free) $4,812.92 (that was memory maker and the four 1-park per-day.
That brings the grand total up to like $7,050. Which is actually a bit cheaper than the last time we went. We plan on going again soon with the kids, but I think my husband and I are going to go just the two of us before we go again with a bunch of kids. I want to experience it “kid-free”, that’s a bucket list thing for me. Not so much for the rides as just the shows and experiences that the kids don’t really like to sit and enjoy.
This is our 2nd annual visit to the mountains. This is our “home resort” for our timeshare, so we were able to use our points for this stay. We stayed the same style villa last year and my husband and kids loved it so much, we stayed in the same layout this time but with a different view. In this entry I will go over our budget (my rough guess of what it would be was $1,200) and what we did all week, which was a lot of pretty much nothing with a few fun things sprinkled in. This trip is specifically for turning our phones off (since we have our own business they literally ring all day long. This trip is for mommy and daddy to really unplug.)
So for starters, with our timeshare points system, the week long stay only cost $239 for 7 nights.
We loaded up the van with the groceries and suitcases the morning of after sending the kids off to school, we were going to check them out early so they would at least be there for about 3 hours before we left (plus side: giving us plenty of time to get everything ready without a bunch of chaos)
Once we had everything packed we started making our school rounds. We have our 7th grader home schooled, so he was with us already. First we picked up our preschooler, then our elementary kiddos, then our 2 high school girls. We headed to say hello and goodbye (give hugs and kisses) to my mom. Just so happened my grandma and great uncle were up visiting from FL (we just saw grandma last month at Universal, so it was great to get in a hug before she headed back down) Afterwards we stopped at the gas station to top off our tank and use the bathroom. That only took about $35.[My whole gas budget for the trip is $150.] We stopped and got everyone lunch before leaving town, total cost of lunch was about $30. [I didn’t really have a concrete idea of food cost for this trip but I estimated about $500 including out to eat and groceries for cooking.]
The Massanutten Resort is only 3 hours from home, so it wasn’t a super long drive. It went smoothly. The kids were all super duper quiet. It was amazing. We all just listened to music. When we got there and checked in, we unloaded the van and everyone just spread out and started putting things in different rooms and areas. Our view this time was hole 8 of their golf course. It was kind of pretty. Not a wooded view like we had last time. I actually preferred the openness of it this time and the mountain ridge in the background behind the tree line.
The closest Walmart was 30+ minutes away, so we took the 2 younger kids and our 13 year old with us while the teenagers stayed with the others. We had to get the groceries for the week and bring back dinner since it was already 6pm. We ended up getting swimsuits for 5 kids, paper plates, paper for coloring and plastic cups… that plus extra food for dinner and snacks all came up to $300. Then the girls had requested Chinese for dinner, so we stopped and ordered that for $51 for the 4 of us. The other kids wanted to eat the food we had brought.
Night one was pretty much over by the time we got back, ate and settled down.
The next two days everyone just hung out and we played different board games together, watched movies and just enjoyed the time together. The kids didn’t bring their electronics (except the 3 who have cell phones) and the entire trip they were just pretty much present, so it didn’t matter.
Everyone was just spending time together. The older girls went to the pool by themselves and stayed for a few hours on Sunday. It was pretty chilly both days. It was so cold after being outside for a little while we made hot cocoa and watched movies, some playing word searches and one playing phone game. (I know these little ones are in the same PJs, they were washed 2 times during our stay since the unit has washer and dryer.)
Monday we had our tickets to the indoor waterpark. I cooked tacos before we left, so that we wouldn’t have to buy a bunch of snacks at the park. The tickets were $267 for everyone. It was overstimulating for Claudia, so she just stayed out and sat with us the whole time. We did end up getting snacks and drinks for Claudia and us while we sat the entire time. [That came up to $28] We hardly saw the other kiddos, they were off having fun. We were there for 4.5 hours before heading back to the villa and they ate the leftover tacos and some other things they wanted for dinner.
Tuesday we spent the morning inside until it was time to go to the pool. The older 3 walked there while we got everyone ready and I fed the baby. (He’s breastfed, so I wanted to get him nice and full before leaving) The older kids spent almost 4 hours there, us and the others spent 2 hours. [$6 on vending machine]
Then we went back to the villa to cook the kids requested mac & cheese with hotdogs. Hubby wanted to order out for us, so we got food from Virginia BBQ & Pizza at the resort. — Half chicken, ribs, BBQ pork, coleslaw and potato wedges. [$45]. — That was alright, probably wouldn’t order it again though. I made tacos out of the BBQ pork, topped with cheese, onion and jalapenos.
The following day was one of our daughters’ 5th Birthday! We celebrated with hotdogs, cake, presents and then went to play mini-golf since (just the kids game $56) it was the nicest weather day so far at 63 degrees. Our 13 year old won with the lowest strokes, then it went next youngest to oldests.
On Thursday we headed about 40 minutes north to visit Luray Caverns and museums. It was a first for all of us to go there. The Caverns were really neat and the kids all loved it. The museums were really neat too. The kids were amazed at all the vintage toys in history and the carriages & cars over the eras. For this day we spent $186 for everyone’s tickets. $22 on fudge. $45 on souvenir photos and $85 in the gift shop.
When we got back we prepared food and just relaxed the rest of the night after we cleaned up and packed everything back up. I put it all by the door because it was thunderstorming we couldn’t take it out to the van until morning. The next morning we are breakfast, got everything and everyone loaded up. Cleaned the last time and made sure nothing was left.
We stopped and filled up our tank $104, took some photos on an overlook and that wrapped up our trip for the week. I’ll let you know if we stayed within my budget below!
So the final tally had us at $1,499 for the whole trip, that was $299 more than I guessed. It was fun and worth it. The kids voted to make this trip a permanent every year thing.
Next big trip… July to visit family 11 hours away!
My husband is a coast guard veteran and during part of his enlistment he was located on Cape Hatteras. He hadn’t been down there in over 20 years and I had never been. He wanted to make a trip out of it to show the kids where he used to live, where he used to hang out and where he used to work. I was also interested in looking at the area, the lighthouses, etc. We wanted to do it in the non-touristy season.
The drive was much shorter than the one we had just taken to Florida, which I already knew, but the kids were worried about it. It went smoothly too. We only had to stop 2 times for bathroom break, lunch, and feeding the baby. When we got to the island we started towards where we were staying (Barrier Island Station Resort) while looking around at all the different buildings and storefronts. Many closed for the season. Once we arrived we picked up our keys. Hubby and I went inside first to take a look and figure out where everyone was going to sleep. We were staying on the 3rd story, in a 3 bedroom 3 bath unit and everyone would have their own space and no one was on top of each other. It was nice. We settled in and ate some leftovers/snacks from the drive. You could hear the ocean standing out on the deck, but we were a tad too far away to see the ocean in that particular building. (If we go back to that location, we’ll get a unit closer to the water) After the kids were to themselves and the baby was fed and calm, we ran the Jacuzzi and relaxed in it for a little while. Then we watched a movie and went to bed.
DAY 1: It ended up being much better weather than we thought, it was windy but the temperature got up to 70 degrees, it was a beautiful day. We went to lunch at a restaurant on the beach called Black Pelican. The kids orders were 4 shrimp and fries, 1 fish and fries and 2 beef brisket sliders and fries. I like that my kids like seafood. I got beef brisket sliders too, but to be honest they were not that good. A bit cold, but flavor was okay. I ended up eating part of hubby’s Mahi Mahi and fried swordfish that he couldn’t finish, those were in fact delicious! Everything was so good there were no leftovers. Lunch was $115 and our server was great, we left her a $25 tip.
After we ate we took the walkway to the beach and let the kids run around and check it out, looking at the ocean and they even stepped in the FREEZING water. Bunch of nope for me. After we took some photos we headed back to the van and cleaned our feet off. Then we started down the coast to explore and look at the lighthouses. Beautiful! I love lighthouses.
I made sure to grab some souvenirs while we were out because I wasn’t sure where else I’d get any. There were so many things I wanted but I knew I wanted to stay in my budget this trip. (whole trip less than $200 on giftshops)
We drove back up to the resort and before heading in for the night we got some groceries to eat quick dinner. The kids ate subs and I got a salad and ate a spicy ramen cup. Hubby seasoned some steak he bought for the next night. At about 8pm the older girls and one of my boys walked to the beach to look for seashells to take home. Then once we got back we relaxed and eventually went to bed.
DAY 2: The next morning I woke up at 7am and made coffee. The older girls bundled up in 2 layers of clothes to go down to the beach to look for more shells. It was 33 degrees outside and windy! I tried to stand outside on the deck and it was way too cold for me. They stayed gone less than and hour. It was definitely an inside day. We just relaxed and watched superhero movies all day. The kids had their tablets, they would go between playing on those to watching tv with us. We shared a cheese ball and crackers and snacked a bit. It was just a calm day and I only took these photos.
For dinner they wanted cup ramen and mac n cheese. Three of the kids, hub and I had the steak, mac n cheese and mashed potatoes. The other kids didn’t want that and I ate the rest of the sides after asking. Breastfeeding makes me so hungry ALL THE TIME. After dinner I went through and started getting our stuff together, cleaning up and taking things down to the van. Tomorrow was check out day.
DAY 3: Less cold than the day before, thank goodness. Sprinkling rain a little bit. I woke up earlier than I wanted to, but only about 30 minutes before my alarm clock. I started getting the stuff prepared to take down to the van that I hadn’t the night before. I showered and got dressed, make up and hair dried. This was the final day and we had reservations to go to the NC Aquarium before going home. I got the kids up and made them get dressed so I could put the rest of the dirty clothes in a bag. Once everyone was up and ready I had them carry down the bags to the van and get inside. We did a walk through of the place to make sure everything was clean, in its place, check the outlets – make sure they didn’t leave chargers, clothes, etc. One kid left a headset and the other a tshirt. So doing these walkthroughs are very important when leaving from these stays.
Once in the van we took the keys to the office. Headed towards Manteo. Stopped for lunch at Wendy’s because we knew it was something everyone would eat and like. We got 7 Biggie Bags for the kids, hub and I got the #6 spicy chickens. We ate in the van to keep it simple. We were still 40 or so minutes from the Aquarium. We got there right on time for our reservation. It was free for us to visit with the Reciprocity program (AZA / since we have a Zoo Membership).Bathroom break first and then on to see the animals. We got our photo taken on the greenscreen. Walked in to see the rescued Sea Turtles. The kids loved this place. It was smaller than the other places we’ve visited, but they enjoyed it none-the-less. It was neat. They were intrigued that the animals there were able to be found in the wild locally in NC.
When we got through to almost the end, one of the kids said “this place is nice, thanks for bringing us.” Then when we were through we stopped in the gift shop. The older girls bought themselves stuffed animals. I got my souvenir pennies, of course. The kids went out and walked to the van. I fed the baby so we could go ahead and drive 4 hours back home. While sitting in the back with the kids, they were all raving about how cool it was and thanking us for taking them on this whole trip. It made me smile. I was so happy to see that they enjoyed themselves and were showing gratefulness for what we do for them. It makes everything so worth it for me.
We only had to stop one time on the way back home. It was to take a bathroom break and grab snacks. Then only 2 hours left. It was such a relief when we finally pulled in the driveway at 5:20pm. There truly is no place like home. We unloaded the van and I put the dirty clothes in the laundry.
Here is a breakdown of what we spent, not including lodging & fees. Gas $223, Food $375, Gifts $183. We stayed under budget, so I call that a win-win. It was a good trip and I can’t wait until our next trip.
1 week in the mountains next month and celebrating our baby girl’s 5th birthday while we’re there!
I know $6k looks like a daunting number even without thinking about all it entails. In here though, I’ll be giving you the quick breakdown of our budget and what we actually spent. [I came up with this number based on what we spent 2 years ago going to Disney and made some adjustments in my head. We spent $8k at Disney, so I knew if I cut out the resort cost we could reduce the budget by at least that difference.] I started guessing we could do it between $5-$6k. After getting the tickets and locking in the hotel, I really started looking into the spending aspect of the trip. I like round numbers, so I dived in, thinking roughly $5,450. Here is what it took in reality...
Side Note: We didn’t tell the younger kids we were even going until we got down there and in the hotel. We secretly packed the van 3 days before leaving. We successfully pulled off the biggest prank we ever did. The video reveal is posted on my instagram.
TICKETS
Firstly we had to secure our tickets. When we were buying the 4-day tickets (1 park per day), they count ages 10 and up as adult price, so in total we had to purchase 7 adult tickets (the extra is for my grandma to join us) and 3 child tickets. Our 5 month old didn’t need one. Our total ticket expense was $2,476.
This part was the best part. Spending time with my grandma and being able to have the kids spend time with her and make memories. She was an additional surprise for them and a very special guest for joining in on our adventure! I miss her already!
HOTEL
We didn’t stay at a resort for this trip. Since we were doing this pretty last minute, finding something for our family size (2 adults, 8 kids) and the dates (Feb 6th-12th) was to rush and get what we could get and also stay within our budget. We ended up finding a great deal (compared to shopping around at other places at the time) for a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom at Holiday Inn & Suites Across from Universal, 6 nights was a total of $1,058.57
GAS
We drove our 15 passenger (with the backseat out for storage it seats 11)Ford Econoline van. Before we left town we pumped up our tire pressure at the gas station and topped off. Gas on the trip was a difference of .30cents from home (southern Virginia) to Orlando. I had $315 budgeted for gas just in case because I wasn’t sure of the price differences. So over the whole trip we only spent $223.51, making us under by 91.49
FOOD
I am just going to say before moving along in this section that we did not stay in budget with this one. I intended to be more frugal with this category but my husband had other plans. When he wanted to eat, he wanted to eat and none of the snacks and stuff we packed was good enough. Shhh. “I shouldn’t have said that.” (Hagrid joke) So with that being said. Between out of park and in park foods, meals, snacks, etc. I budgeted $500… the final tally on food for the whole trip was a whopping $802.51. Way over budget by $302.51
I can’t give an exact breakdown, but the first big meal expense was night one with pizzas from Little Caesars at the hotel $57.88. The next was after park day one we sat down and enjoyed a nice meal at Fridays which was $200. Then park day two it includes one sit down meal at The Three Broomsticks in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which was $139.95 for everyone to eat. The other was ordering Panda Express Chinese delivery to hotel for $89.95. The rest of the food expense was drinks, popcorn, snacks in & out the park and some fastfood/quick service that just added up here and there. The kids had packed drinks, snacks and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches each park day too.
Park Tip: If you buy the $12.99 (+tax) popcorn container, you can get refills for $2.18 (+tax). If you buy the $16 (+tax) souvenir drink cup you can drink all day by refilling at the Coke Freestyle stations. If you go more than one day, you’ll have to pay something like $9 to reactivate the microchip in the cup and you can get refills all day too. Side Note: If you continuously put the cup in a soda machine (say to fill another cup, it will lock you out for 8+ minutes) We did this one time because the other kids wanted some soda in their bottles. Not doing that again.
The kids all had their own colored lunch containers and drink bottles. They snacked a lot and ate their packed lunches. The older girls bought their own drink cups and ate their snacks and lunches. My husband and I shared one cup all week and he would get some food in the park. I mostly ate popcorn and some of the snacks I packed. It was super convenient to just be able to stop and refill without waiting in line anywhere, except for the popcorn. I already mentioned we ate one sit down meal in the park. I posted those pictures below. On the last day I finally got the turkey leg I wanted and I shared it.
SOUVENIRS
I collect stamped pennies, so of course I needed to get them throughout the park even though I’m sure I missed a ton and that does disappoint me a little. I managed to get several, plus a book and spent $32.52. I knew we would be buying souvenirs and things for the kids, I had $500 budgeted overall for this category. We ended up spending $503.34, including 3-day photopass package for $95 (+), which put us $3.34 over budget.
PARKING
We anticipated $200 in prime parking but we ended up coming in under by $92, spending only $108 because handicap parking is the same price as prime. I didn’t look into this prior to going, so to find out on the first day was pretty neat.
ACTIVITIES
We were planning on taking a break day and going to an aquarium, which we did. We didn’t know exactly how much it was going to cost to do extra things, but we budgeted another $400 just in case. We only ended up spending $164.79 for them to go to the aquarium one day (we saved 50% off the aquarium by being members of the AZA, but I already took that into account.) and the arcade another day, that making us $235.21 under.
Making the entire trip for my husband, myself, and our kids ages 16, 15, 13, 10, 9, 8, 4 and 5 months old, and including 2 park days and meals with my grandma… a grand total of $5,337.15… $112.85 under our budget. We saved in some categories and were over in others. End result was still favorable. I see where we could have made some adjustments, but it was a good experience and it was fun.
Another side note: Our 4 year old did really great during the whole trip, she has autism and loud sounds are triggering. Her headphones broke before we left, we didn’t have any noise blockers with us, so were just hoping for the best. I was also worried that since she just got potty trained last month full-time she might have problems in the park or on the drive, but she didn’t. No accidents or anything. She did have some brief sensory issues but overall she was calm and able to be talked through different situations when she was overstimulated or having overwhelming auditory sensitivity. Our 5 month old breastfed son also did incredible the whole trip. He slept a lot in the parks, but had windows of being awake and wanting to eat and see everything. The ride down and back was also pretty good. We didn’t need to stop as much as I thought we would have to. They did great on the trip and it went much better than I anticipated.
More photos of our trip can be found on my instagram @insidethestones in my Universal highlight and my feed. You can find my links at my LinkTree, plus I have photo slideshows on my TikTok @QueenofBeans30 FAREWELL FLORIDA! UNTIL NEXT TIME! Sooner than you think!
We already had several big trips planned this year (they’re listed at the end) but out of nowhere my husband decided that in less than 2 weeks time, we were going to take all 8 children with us to Universal Studios Orlando!
That’s super short notice, even our Disney World trip in 2020 was at least 20 days in advance. He said the spontaneous aspect is what makes it that much more exciting, that, and the fact that the children already know where we’re going this year and he wanted something to be a huge surprise.
Now we have a budget of about 8% of our annual income for our total vacations for the year. This one was not in the budget, so I had to increase our budget to around 10%. That’s a total budget of $23,000 for the whole year (which we’re going to try and stay below as much as possible.) According to Google, the average American family spends about 2-4% of their income on vacations and generally takes 1 or 2 a year. However, I have no statistics to base my numbers on because of my family’s large size (2 adults, 8 children), so I have to just do the math of percentages by knowing how much we will spend typically. This year we are spending a tad more because we are doing multiple big trips and lots of smaller things too.
Our major goal for 2022 is to spend more time with our family together, traveling and going places while creating memories and strengthening bonds. I think we’re going to have that one down pat.
Ironically enough today was National Plan a Vacation Day and here we are.
Meaning in 11 days we’re toting 8 children, all our luggage and driving down to Orlando in our 15 passenger van. This will be the first trip of 2022 and the kids are not going to know until the day we leave. We’ll be staying 6 nights at a hotel a mile from the park (I opted for no resort as to save as much money as possible this trip) and we got the 4-day one a day park passes for all of us and the photopass (no park-to-park). The absolute plus side… we made the plan to include my grandma (the kids great-grandma) to join us on this adventure. We’ve never been to Universal Studios and she hasn’t been in like 15 years. It’s going to be incredible for us to experience this all together. I am going to be keeping track of my budget throughout the trip so that I can possibly make a follow-up entry about our stay. My husband wanted to go to the store today to buy licensed t-shirts to wear to the parks. I think it’s adorable. I love that about him, we did that for our Disney trip too. I also ordered 9 new (different colors) fanny pack/water bottle holders to use for the trips this year. They were a lifesaver for Disney 2 years ago, but the ones I originally bought were not very good quality. These ones look like they will work better for us. I also ordered more luggage that will be here Friday, because it will make packing for these trips so much easier. We had crammed everyone’s clothes in 3 suitcases before. It’s going to be nice to have more space for everyone’s things for traveling this year. I’ll tag those things at the end of this entry. Next year, I think we’re going to be looking into buying a travel trailer, so we can start making our way exploring the mid-west.
Upcoming 2022 Trips:
Universal Studios Orlando- February OBX Beach – February Mountains VA – March Zoos & Museums – April-June Niagra Falls & NY Camping – July VA Beach – July Disney World – September Washington D.C. – November
I had a hard time finding the motivation to update this blog. I am going to start by saying it’s been a crazy 4 months, but things have calmed down and now we’re in the new year! There is so much going on, but this post is for the update on our little boy.
So my last post was about getting pregnant after loss, finding out he was a boy, some organ concerns, his due date, etc. Well let’s just start with we didn’t get to the due date. I was sent nearly 2 hours away to maternal fetal medicine doctors and induced to have him 7 weeks early because of pre-eclampsia, labor lasted 15 hours (they had me on pitocin & magnesium *counter productive, put a balloon in my cervix, broke my water, etc) My blood pressure and the contractions were so stressful on the baby and myself that they did an emergency c-section. He had a rough start. He was born at 10:18am, 3 lb 12oz and 17 3/4″ long. He wasn’t breathing well right away and he was taken up to NICU as soon as they got him breathing.
I never got to see or hold him until he was over a day old. I was not allowed to go walk myself to the NICU floor and had to wait for them to unhook me from all my IVs before I could get a nurse to wheel me up there. At that point I wasn’t allowed to hold him yet.
After I was medically cleared the following day and could go visit him without a wheelchair, I walked from the floor I was on and took the elevator to the NICU so I could take them the milk that I pumped. I went and held his hand and the nurse came over and I was finally able to take him out and hold him for the first time. We did some skin-to-skin and I was so relieved to be able to have him in my arms.
Later that day I got discharged from the hospital and being nearly 2 hours away I had my sister come get me. It was so weird leaving him there. I was so sad, never have I ever quite had a sadness that felt like that before. It’s hard to explain. I know you NICU mothers out there will know what I’m talking about. I went through a very emotional time once I got home, I kept trying to figure out when I could go back up to see him, and I needed to take him the milk I had pumped. I had been determined since I was in the hospital to continue to pump on a schedule and saved it all.
We were getting updates from the NICU nurses daily and I was following his charts. We spoke to the supervising doctor and everything for him looked good, all that needed to be worked on was regulating temperature and feeding.
After I think 3 more visits, of which we only had 1.5 hours with him before having to hurry back to get our preschooler from school.
I had ended up getting unwell. It started as chest pain and then it became hard to breathe and extremely painful. I dealt with the excruciating pain for 3 days, working and making a plan to go see the baby on our day off while the kids were in school. On the night before we were supposed to see him, I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t breathe. I had to take in air very shallowly. I was crying it hurt so bad, but it hurt to cry so it was absolutely miserable. I felt like I was going to die… but I didn’t want to go to the hospital. My husband told me I was going anyways. I screamed and cried and I just hated everything.
5am he said get dressed, we’re going. Our middle schooler got up and went to school and then he woke up our teenagers and told them we were going to the ER. Then he notified my sister who lives up the street to let her know that the kids needed to be looked after. I brought my breastpump with me because I knew I’d be there a while and I wasn’t going to get off schedule. Once we got to the hospital and registered, I was called back pretty quickly. It was so nerve racking. I had so many people prodding me and everyone standing around me asking me questions. I explained everything, let them know I just had an emergency c-section 13 days prior, and they had me setting up straight in the bed because the pain was positional and when I breathed. They did an EKG, they ran labs, they told me my heart was fine, blood pressure was high though, that they expected it was a clot. Doctors came in to talk to me. They said my D-timer results showed that it was more than likely a pulmonary embolism and wanted to get an image to see exactly how bad it was and where exactly.
So for the first time every in my life, I went to get the MRI. Then waited. They were constantly coming in to check on me and they did another EKG. The doctor came in again and said that I have a massive pulmonary embolism taking up my entire right lung. They said they were going to admit me. This was a Wednesday. After everything was said and done I was admitted, started on anti-coagulants, and referred to a cardiologist. While I was there they also did an ultrasound of my heart. The cardiologist said that as long as that came back fine that I would be able to leave, the day now being Thursday. The overseeing doctor said not Thursday. I was disappointed because I wanted to go see my baby. I had been pumping on the schedule. I wasn’t going to mess it up. I needed my milk to be perfect for when my baby came home.
Finally the cardiologist came in on Friday and I told him I really wanted to leave and go see my baby. He said he would discharge me on the Coumadin and Lovenox injections, and that I HAD to go see him in his office Monday. So there it was, I was discharged Friday. I was able to see the baby Saturday and for way longer than 1.5 hours. I couldn’t breastfeed him though while on the injections, but they had plenty of my pre-med milk. I was so relieved to be able to see him. I thought I was going to die and he wouldn’t know me, wouldn’t have a picture of me and him without wearing a mask. I was still worried about dying so I took my mask off and took a picture with my son so that if I died, there would be a picture of me and him without my face covered. I know it sounds dark, but I can’t help that’s what went through my head.
We didn’t get to go back up for a few days. He improved eating on his own. On the next time we got to go see him, he had passed his carseat test and the night before when we called to check on him they said he could probably go home. We didn’t tell anyone because we were not 100% sure they would discharge him. We drove up on day 20 of his NICU stay and sure enough they started the discharge process as soon as we got there. It took a few hours to go over everything and get his stuff together, so we just spent time with him.
Taking him out of the hospital for the first time, having him be FREE, not hooked up to machines and all mine, I was over the moon.
I rode home with him in the backseat. He was so small I just wanted to stare at him and make sure he was okay. He was discharged at 4 lb 12oz and 18 inches.
By the time we got home the kids were just getting off the bus. We surprised them all with the baby. It was amazing!
One cycle after our loss we were pregnant again. Terrifying. Like any pregnancy after a miscarriage. We were nervous.
February 7th, 2021 we took the tests, and 2 days later after more tests, I posted it for friends and family.
We had higher hopes for this time. My husband still of course wanted twins, but I had a feeling this time it was just one. I didn’t have the twin symptoms that we had last time.
At the first ultrasound March 10th, I was a bucket of nerves. 8 weeks along, but yes… yes there it was. A heartbeat! Another noticeable thing… Only ONE and measuring on time. Due October 19, 2021.
It was a little reassuring, of course at this point we were still nervous because it was obvious the twins had to have heartbeats at some point that we never got to witness (being as we couldn’t get into an appointment earlier on because of COVID)
It’s pretty much a waiting game. I started keeping a pregnancy journal, for me to write down my emotional, feelings, symptoms, appointment updates and everything.
We started buying more decor and baby items for the nursery, even some neutral clothing.
April 6th, 2021 we went out of town to get our second ultrasound done for 12 weeks. During that visit, more views of baby heartbeat and he/she was just a swimming around. Heartbeat was 165 bpm.
This visit was also to do a genetic screening. I spoke the the genetic counselor and gave a full work up of our family history. Then proceeded to the lab for bloodwork. I knew by next week we’d know the gender of our baby and that was exciting.
I had some scares with bleeding early on with this one March-April, but after checking and doing the ultrasound views, the doctors say everything is fine and that the bleeding doesn’t pose risk to the baby. Thankfully it has not happened since.
April 13th, 2021 I got the phone call from the genetic counselor. All the screenings came back clear and normal. No risk for abnormalities and…. It’s a BOY!
I was so thrilled, I just knew it was a boy. I kept dreaming about it being a boy. I went out to the store while my husband was away and I bought a black balloon, blue confetti and got ready to do my own gender reveal to surprise him. He just knew it was a girl and it’s all he talked about so I just couldn’t wait to see his response.
I’m not able to post a video here, but I can post the link to my youtube channel. The video is here.
We had names picked for 2 years, so we just knew if it were a boy he was going to be Gabriel. The nursery was always going to be this theme and we were ready to customize, not to mention start buying for a boy.
May 28th, 2021 we had to go back out of town for our anatomy scan. 19 weeks 3 days. He measured on time. Heartbeat 144 bpm. Then just to clarify… yes… he’s a boy.
They discovered his one of his kidneys had a little extra fluid in it. So they scheduled me to come back in 4 weeks. Our next scan is June 25th. They said it’s nothing to be concerned about, they just wanted us to be aware. I’m hoping they are right.
I’ve been able to feel him since I was 12/13 weeks pregnant. He’s gotten a lot stronger now of course at 22 weeks. I have been able to feel him on the outside for about 3-4 weeks now. It’s reassuring feeling him. I love feeling him. We’re about 127 days left until our due date. The past couple days I’ve been having Braxton Hicks, it’s uncomfortable. 4 more months until we get to meet our little man. You can follow me on instagram for more current updates because I probably won’t update here again until he’s born, so…. TO BE CONTINUED….
I put a disclaimer in the title, for anyone who may have a strong emotional response from pregnancy loss. Please proceed with caution.
In October 2020 we found out we were pregnant finally, after 2 years and 2 months of trying. Unfortunately the excitement was soon turned to agonizing heart-ripping pain as we found out not only did we lose a baby, we lost two. My husband has wanted, manifested and dreamed of twins for years and it was so traumatic to learn we even conceived two babies in the first place. We both were very torn up about it, but I think he took it the hardest.
We did our announcement in October, basically as soon as we found out, because everyone knew we had been trying and I don’t believe in waiting until the “safe zone”. There never really is one, is there.
We had already built and decorated a nursery earlier on to store all the baby stuff we’d accumulated and to have a place to go and manifest a pregnancy and make it more “real” during our roller coaster of trying to conceive.
December 1st, 2020 was my first prenatal visit. I was supposed to be 10 weeks along. Here is my announcement of our loss that I posted for my friends and family.
” The saddest most heart wrenching thing we’ve ever had to endure during our marriage. This pain is something I would never wish on anyone. We tried for so long for this pregnancy. During my first doctor appointment at 10 weeks, I received the news that no heartbeat was found. They wanted to send me off for a formal ultrasound at a different facility to ‘double check’.
Off I went, full of worry and knowing exactly what I was about to hear next. At the ultrasound, I diligently watched the screen as she did her measurements and that’s when she scanned over the uterus… that’s when I saw it. There would have been two. Two! I couldn’t be excited. I couldn’t feel. I just ached. I just said “there was gonna be two?”… she said “I’m sorry, I’m not supposed to tell you this but neither have a heartbeat”. I said “I know, they told me. I just didn’t know there were two. My husband really wanted two. I can’t believe they both didn’t make it.” I let the tears slowly slide down filling my ears with their warm wet puddles. This was a nightmare.
I hadn’t completely broken yet though my body was hot and I felt suffocated. I asked her to please print their pictures for my husband and she said of course. Texting him was the worst of it yet because I knew it was going to tear him apart. I got out to the lobby and trying to speak I said let’s go to my mother. Trying not to crinkle their picture. I pushed through the door. That’s when I lost it. I felt weak. Defeated. Broken. My ears rang. I wanted to scream. I just sobbed. “THEY DIDN’T MAKE IT” and showed her the picture. She knew how badly this hurt. She held me. I couldn’t breathe. I just couldn’t believe this was happening. Twins. We lost our twins.
I had a missed miscarriage (silent miscarriage), I had no signs or symptoms of loss. I have yet to pass the babies. The sad part of knowing they are still in there and will never be here does hurt so much, but I opted to wait it out naturally for now. I just want it this way. I’ve done it this way before in 2007 and it is the only way I wanted to do it. It still amazes me the ability to love a child this much that was never even here, then the pain of the news of losing TWO! We loved TWO babies whom we’ve never met but will remember until the end of time. “
We didn’t know if they were boys or girls or one of each. So to help us cope, my husband chose a name for each. Dorian and Danika.
I thought I could wait it out. It was getting closer to the holidays and I emotionally just couldn’t do it anymore. I had prepared an appointment to do a follow up ultrasound at my hometown office, just to make 100% sure before taking the medication to pass the babies. Once it was verified still no heartbeats a week later, I took the medicine to pass them.
December 10th, 2020 at 6 in the evening, I took the medicine. I started spotting at 9pm. I couldn’t let them be flushed. I put a drain strainer in the bath. Then I spent that time in the empty tub waiting. Turning the shower on to heat myself up. At 10:20pm I got to hold my little embryo’s. I took pictures of them (which are for my personal viewing) then once I was done sobbing and waiting in the tub for another hour, my husband prepared a box for them and we planned on burying them under our willow tree in the morning.
December 11th, 2020 my husband and I and the kids buried the twins under our willow tree in our backyard. We put their memorial plate down and now we have this place of comfort where we can go and talk to them and remember them.
The holidays were a little hard to get through, things we had bought for ‘the baby’ got put away in the nursery. Instead we had a memorial piece (My Missing Peace) added to our living room shelf and an ornament put on our tree, gifted by my sister-in-law (who owns Norsk Moon).
Winter weather came then started dwindling. I went out to sit often.
I knew one day would come, I just didn’t know that it would be so soon. That I would go out there and tell them they have a little brother or sister coming. It was one cycle after our loss that that came to be. February 7th, 2021 we found out we were expecting our RAINBOW baby. Of course super nervous, we were ready to hold each other and get through this next phase together. It didn’t take the pain away. Being pregnant is happy of course, but it doesn’t make losing the twins any easier. It doesn’t replace them.
My next entry will be about our current pregnancy.
Madhouse - Life inside the Stones 