Buntington
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 30, 2011
Hi all! I was active on the boards for a while in 2011 as DH and I planned our sixth anniversary trip to Disney World in August. I loved the site and it helped so much in making ADRs, planning our parks strategy, etc. I was also 14 weeks pregnant at the time of our trip, which was very exciting. We thought of it as baby's first trip to Disney, and I had all sorts of plans and dreams about what I would do with the baby at Disney once it was born. We bought special onesies and other souvenirs that we planned to use for the baby.
Fast forward to fall 2011. I was working on my dining reviews and enjoying the pregnancy when we went in for our anatomy scan at 25 weeks and discovered that our precious daughter had anencephaly, a fatal neural tube defect. Basically, she was missing almost all of her brain and skull. Anneka Maye was born at 35 weeks and survived for 4 hours. We were devastated. I didn't want to think about Disney for a long time and stopped visiting the forums, never finishing our dining reviews. My memories of the trip felt tainted--the whole time I was carrying her, excited, not realizing that she had no future and that she would never get to do all of the things that I had hoped for, that she would never get to see any of the wonderful things we were experiencing during our trip.
After another early miscarriage in 2012, DH and I were very lucky to conceive a healthy son. Søren Lukas was born in April 2013 and is now almost three months old. He is amazing! I will always miss our daughter, but he has brought a lot of healing and joy into our lives. I have begun to look back on our 2011 trip more fondly, and we will be using the clothes and other items bought for Anneka for Søren. I like the idea that he will be able to connect with his older sister even though he will never meet her.
Finances are tight right now, as I am finishing grad school and we have a lot of new baby expenses, so there is no Disney World in our immediate future. However, I have started thinking about Søren's first trip to Disney and I definitely have Disney fever! As a native Floridian, I visited Disney frequently as a child and loved every minute of it! I can't wait to introduce him to the wonders of Disney. We may be moving back to Florida next year, and even if we don't, I'm hoping to plan a short Disney package for us (maybe 3 nights, 4 days) in November or early December of 2014. We would like to experience Disney at Christmas. My family has always stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, so we will definitely be looking to stay there again. Søren will be about 19-20 months old at the time. So I'll be browsing the boards here, looking for trip ideas for toddlers! I know it will be a very different experience from when we went as adults. We did take my five-year-old cousin to Epcot last fall when I was in the first trimester of my pregnancy with Søren, and we had a great time there, but it wasn't the same as taking your own child for the first time.
Anyhow, I'm glad to be back! Wish we could be at Disney already!
Fast forward to fall 2011. I was working on my dining reviews and enjoying the pregnancy when we went in for our anatomy scan at 25 weeks and discovered that our precious daughter had anencephaly, a fatal neural tube defect. Basically, she was missing almost all of her brain and skull. Anneka Maye was born at 35 weeks and survived for 4 hours. We were devastated. I didn't want to think about Disney for a long time and stopped visiting the forums, never finishing our dining reviews. My memories of the trip felt tainted--the whole time I was carrying her, excited, not realizing that she had no future and that she would never get to do all of the things that I had hoped for, that she would never get to see any of the wonderful things we were experiencing during our trip.
After another early miscarriage in 2012, DH and I were very lucky to conceive a healthy son. Søren Lukas was born in April 2013 and is now almost three months old. He is amazing! I will always miss our daughter, but he has brought a lot of healing and joy into our lives. I have begun to look back on our 2011 trip more fondly, and we will be using the clothes and other items bought for Anneka for Søren. I like the idea that he will be able to connect with his older sister even though he will never meet her.
Finances are tight right now, as I am finishing grad school and we have a lot of new baby expenses, so there is no Disney World in our immediate future. However, I have started thinking about Søren's first trip to Disney and I definitely have Disney fever! As a native Floridian, I visited Disney frequently as a child and loved every minute of it! I can't wait to introduce him to the wonders of Disney. We may be moving back to Florida next year, and even if we don't, I'm hoping to plan a short Disney package for us (maybe 3 nights, 4 days) in November or early December of 2014. We would like to experience Disney at Christmas. My family has always stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, so we will definitely be looking to stay there again. Søren will be about 19-20 months old at the time. So I'll be browsing the boards here, looking for trip ideas for toddlers! I know it will be a very different experience from when we went as adults. We did take my five-year-old cousin to Epcot last fall when I was in the first trimester of my pregnancy with Søren, and we had a great time there, but it wasn't the same as taking your own child for the first time.
Anyhow, I'm glad to be back! Wish we could be at Disney already!
