gellybean
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2008
Have you ever had one of those moments in your life, that it felt like no time had passed at all, yet it felt like a lifetime had gone by at the same time?
Thats how I felt a few weeks ago, as we were putting up our Christmas tree. My husband was unwrapping all the ornaments and he came across one he did not recognize and asked me where it had come from. He held up a glass peppermint Mickey head. I had completely forgotten about it. It was the ornament that I had bought on our Christmas trip last year. It was even hand painted with 2010. A keepsake ornament. An ornament meant to bring you back to a certain time and place in your life. It definitely achieved its goal.
It brought me back to a great trip. A trip full of memories. A trip that I had wanted to relive here on the DIS not just for those to follow along but for me. For the Disney lover in me that never wants to forget a trip. For the mom in me, that wants to cherish the memories Im making with my children. For the planner in me, that is always jonesing for my next trip.
But something happened last March that derailed my TR. And as I was looking at that Christmas ornament, I felt a renewed energy and determination to relive our trip.
So here I am. Ready to start again. Ready to relive again. I hope that youll go on this journey with me. I hope that I am able to finish this time. I do have a few TRs under my belt:
"So is this when they bring out the Mickey Mouse cattle prods?" An August Poly TR here
"Look at those chompers!" AKL DxDP January 2010 here
Hop, skip, and a week! A TR full of Mayhem, Masticating and Mortification here
As well as a few PTRs:
THREE for the price of one here
You know it's time to start a PTR when.... here
Hey honey, let's take both our moms to WDW instead of going to Vegas just the two of us! here
Last March, I went to what I thought was going to be another routine growth scan at 28 wks. We had already had the 20 week fetal anatomy scan and to our great surprise and delight we were told we were having a healthy baby girl. A wonderful completion to our family of two boys. We had just gotten back from a trip to visit my mother in law in Jacksonville, Florida and I went into the sonogram room by myself. Mr. Incredible and Jack Jack stayed in the car in the parking lot because children under 6 werent allowed in the exam rooms.
I made jokes with the sonogram tech about watching out for falling boy parts, just knowing that they were going to tell me Just kidding. Return all that pink bedding, its really a boy!
As the tech was doing all the measurements, I noticed something I had never seen on an ultrasound, black voids in the area of the babys brain. I had my fair share of ultrasounds between three pregnancies, two of which I had gestational diabetes and therefore a lot of scans, so I knew something didnt look quite right to my been there a few times eye. I asked the tech and she mentioned the babys ventricles but said the doctor could answer any of my questions. The doctor, a man I had been seeing for nearly 9 years for all my ultrasounds, came in and began to go over the scans again. His words were Aimee, theres a problem. A hot wash of emotion fell over me and I just stared at him. There I was, sitting in a room alone, getting the worse news I had ever been given. And then he said "It looks like the baby has hydrocephalus."
Those words began a journey I never thought I would go on. A journey that was both the hardest and best thing that has ever happened to me. A journey of pain and hope and faith and patience and perseverance and love. We went through many more sonograms. Many more doctor visits. We met with specialist after specialist, toured the hospital, the NICU, met with neurosurgeons. Our daughter had enlarged ventricles in her brain, water on the brain, fetal hydrocephalus. The spinal fluid that is made in her brain was not draining like it should and it was filling her head up like a balloon, squishing her brain as the fluid level grew and grew. Nothing to do but wait til we were full term to deliver. Wait and watch as the fluid grew and worry and pray. Her prognosis was unknown and there was a very wide spectrum of possibilities.
It was a whirlwind of 9 weeks. And in that nine weeks I posted here on the DIS what was going on and then left the DIS. It wasnt a conscious decision, it was a byproduct of what was going on in my life. I went from posting on the DIS to researching ad nasuem about hydrocephalus. I went from reading TRs to reading blog after blog of parents with kids that had hydro.
I was doing good to put one foot in front of the other. I, honestly, still dont know quite how I made it through those 9 weeks. Not only was I dealing with a life changing diagnosis for my daughter, but I was so so sick (the cough I mentioned back in the first few posts). And because of her condition I was measuring weeks ahead of where I should be. I measured 45 weeks when I was just 34 weeks. I was miserable. And worried sick.
For those that were on the TR back then, I want to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers! They meant so much!
For those that are medically minded and want to know more about Addies diagnosis, here is a great website www.fetalhydrocephalus.com that will explain this more in detail and here is a link to my blog that details all of the medical specifics of Addison http://youjustmightfindyougetwhatyouneed.blogspot.com
As far as this TR goes, we are going to be celebrating her life, not her condition!!!
Addison is here and is amazing. She is six months old already and as of now is developing normally. She is such a joy, and is our miracle. Our last two vacations have been to Duke University to have her cord blood infused back into her body in hopes of repairing any damage to her little brain from all the pressure. Quite a change from Disney trips, let me tell you. But so worth it. Disney can wait. And it will. Though I have just recently begin to believe that we might actually make it back there. With Addison. Oh the joy that fills my heart at that thought. I didnt know if she would make it to this world breathing, I didnt know if she would be able to leave the hospital, didnt know if she would be able to travel five minutes from our house, much less 1000 miles. She does have a shunt in her head that drains the fluid away from her brain to her stomach. And we have to watch her all the time for shunt malfunctions. But I have talked to her neurosurgeon and he knows a surgeon in Orlando, in case we were to need one while we were there. So we are good to go whenever we are ready. Not yet, obviously. But its good to hope again. Its amazing to hope again.
So here I am. Full circle. Back on the DIS. It feels so wonderful, so mundane, so normal. I had no idea when I bought that ornament what an important part it would play in my life a year later. I had no idea what a year later would be like in my life. How things have changed, how I have changed. But I look at that ornament, hanging on our tree and it just makes me smile. Disney World has been such a large part of my life for as long as I can remember. I was prepared for that to change. And the fact that it doesnt have to, well thats just gravy.
I do not know what my future holds. Truthfully, I never did. I assumed too much. But I do know that hope is a good thing. And planning is a good thing, as long as you know that they are plans and not set in concrete. I do know that my life is so much better for what I have went through in the last year. I do know that the Christmas trip and the couple trip for my husband and I were two trips that I am so thankful we got to take, because of how much this year has changed our family.
I am ready to go back and finish these last two trip reports. I feel like its something I need to do. Close a chapter. The chapter of being a mom of two at Disney. The chapter of not having a daughter but wanting one desperately. The chapter of not having to have a neurosurgeons number on speed dial wherever we go. And then, I will be able to move forward with new Disney chapters. A PTR even. We have plans to return for the boys 10th and 5th birthday, before Addison is 2. Just typing that makes me a little giddy. I always get excited when a new trip begins to take seed in my brain, but this trip means so so much more than any trip has in the past. Our lives have changed so much, and to be at a point, already, that we are able to think about a vacation in the future with realistic hope of going is an amazing thing.
For those that were reading the original Two Trips TR, I had promised pictures of the nursery. We had just painted the nursery shortly before we got her diagnosis. To be honest, we didnt touch that room for awhile. It was just too hard, the not knowing. It was painted and the bedding was ordered. We started to pick up a few things here and there. Edna honestly finished most of it for me. We put the final touches on it shortly after she came home from the NICU.
And here are a few pictures of Addie while she was still in the NICU
And here are a few from 11/20 her half birthday. The day we put up the Christmas tree. Its our new tradition. Since the boys share a birthday, their half birthday is always a big deal. So I wanted to do something for her half birthday . so from now on it will be our tree trimming day!
I will be back soon to update day 3. Thank goodness I took a ton of pictures that will help me remember!
So lets go back to the beginning:
Here are the links to the original thread, including the post where I explained about Addies diagnosis and that I might not be on the boards for a while.
Chapter Links:
Day 1: Arrival day.... for some of us!
Day 2: An Easy-going Epcot day and Arrival day for the rest of us!
Update on Baby Girl
I'll also repost Day 1 and Day 2 on this thread to keep things chronological.
I know it may be a no no to quote a non Disney movie here on the DIS but I hope you will forgive me just this once.
I am waiting for you, Vizzini. You told me to go back to the beginning. So I have. This is where I am, and this is where Ill stay. I will not be moved.
I know someone can name that movie!!
Best Wishes!!
~Aimee aka gellybean
For now I will leave y'all with a repost of original intro:
everyone to my fourth and fifth trip reports!
This was an extraordinary year of Disney trips for us, me especially. I have never gone to Disney more than once a year, and between January 2010 and 2011 I went FOUR times! Somebody pinch me! I still can't believe it. Two of the trips were planned all along and two kinda landed in my lap. This trip report will include one of each. And let me tell y'all the two trips couldn't have been more different. I can't wait to share both experiences with you all!
To keep things straight, however, I will be going in order of trips taken and writing about the December trip first.
Christmas time at Disney World!
A little background info:
I'm the youngest of four children. My oldest sister is nearly 20 years older than I am and is mostly responsible for my love of Disney. She would pay half my way to Disney as a child to get my mom to go with her to Disney World. She started my obsession and continued my mom's.
She turned the big 5 0 last November and had always said she wanted to wake up the morning of her birthday in Paris and call us all and let us know where she was. The real Paris wasn't an option for any of us monetarily or time wise so being the Disney minded person that I am, Epcot was my next immediate thought! I just had to convince her!
I talked Mom and my sister into it back in April 2010 (not that it took a lot of convincing), early enough that my mom was able to buy an annual pass for herself as she was going with a girlfriend last May! We took advantage of mom's annual pass and got a great deal at the Wilderness Lodge for 7 nights! Wilderness Lodge was the perfect hotel for Christmas time as for as we were all concerned. We had in fact visited it for the first time, just the three of us back in 1993 -- the only other time we had been there at Christmas.
If anyone would like more back ground info, please click the Three for the Price of One PTR link in my signature!
Now that you know why the trip came to be, let me introduce us all!
me aka Momma, gellybean, and Elastigirl - 31 , mom to two boys and wife to Mr. Incredible (who will never be able to travel in December and thus was unable to go this time). Planner of all things Disney. I am currently planning two trips for family members even though I'm not going with them!
We found out last October that I was expecting another child and found out last week that I'm having a little girl!! To say that I am happy to be adding a Violet to our little Incredible family would be a major understatement!!
Being pregnant in Disney was not something I would have planned on but I was determined to still go and make the most of what was available to me! I was 15 weeks along at the time of the December trip.
Dash - 8 as of last week. My oldest son that loves it as much as I do if that's possible. He not only gets to go to WDW in Florida with us but Disneyland in California with his dad and step mother! He loves the rides but is still too chicken to ride the 'big' coasters.
Jack Jack - 3 as of last week. He was finally old enough to get 'it' this trip. I loved watching his reaction and awe this trip. He recognized the characters, and the castle and the 'monowail'. I tried my best to soak his reactions up this trip!
My mom aka Fairy God Mother - 68 years young. She went the first time in the early 50s to Disneyland and has loved it ever since. Already has her next trip planned to eek one more trip out of her hot little AP.
My oldest sister aka Edna - celebrating her 50th birthday. This was her 14th trip and she hadn't been since 07 so it was time!! She works in the education field and lives about 10 mins from me!
When :
December 14th-December 21st
So there you have it! All the important details to get this show on the road!
Thank you all for reading and commenting along!! Can't wait to share all the wonderful, and COLD memories with you all!
Up Next: Arrival day.... for some of us!
Thats how I felt a few weeks ago, as we were putting up our Christmas tree. My husband was unwrapping all the ornaments and he came across one he did not recognize and asked me where it had come from. He held up a glass peppermint Mickey head. I had completely forgotten about it. It was the ornament that I had bought on our Christmas trip last year. It was even hand painted with 2010. A keepsake ornament. An ornament meant to bring you back to a certain time and place in your life. It definitely achieved its goal.
It brought me back to a great trip. A trip full of memories. A trip that I had wanted to relive here on the DIS not just for those to follow along but for me. For the Disney lover in me that never wants to forget a trip. For the mom in me, that wants to cherish the memories Im making with my children. For the planner in me, that is always jonesing for my next trip.
But something happened last March that derailed my TR. And as I was looking at that Christmas ornament, I felt a renewed energy and determination to relive our trip.
So here I am. Ready to start again. Ready to relive again. I hope that youll go on this journey with me. I hope that I am able to finish this time. I do have a few TRs under my belt:
"So is this when they bring out the Mickey Mouse cattle prods?" An August Poly TR here
"Look at those chompers!" AKL DxDP January 2010 here
Hop, skip, and a week! A TR full of Mayhem, Masticating and Mortification here
As well as a few PTRs:
THREE for the price of one here
You know it's time to start a PTR when.... here
Hey honey, let's take both our moms to WDW instead of going to Vegas just the two of us! here
Last March, I went to what I thought was going to be another routine growth scan at 28 wks. We had already had the 20 week fetal anatomy scan and to our great surprise and delight we were told we were having a healthy baby girl. A wonderful completion to our family of two boys. We had just gotten back from a trip to visit my mother in law in Jacksonville, Florida and I went into the sonogram room by myself. Mr. Incredible and Jack Jack stayed in the car in the parking lot because children under 6 werent allowed in the exam rooms.
I made jokes with the sonogram tech about watching out for falling boy parts, just knowing that they were going to tell me Just kidding. Return all that pink bedding, its really a boy!
As the tech was doing all the measurements, I noticed something I had never seen on an ultrasound, black voids in the area of the babys brain. I had my fair share of ultrasounds between three pregnancies, two of which I had gestational diabetes and therefore a lot of scans, so I knew something didnt look quite right to my been there a few times eye. I asked the tech and she mentioned the babys ventricles but said the doctor could answer any of my questions. The doctor, a man I had been seeing for nearly 9 years for all my ultrasounds, came in and began to go over the scans again. His words were Aimee, theres a problem. A hot wash of emotion fell over me and I just stared at him. There I was, sitting in a room alone, getting the worse news I had ever been given. And then he said "It looks like the baby has hydrocephalus."
Those words began a journey I never thought I would go on. A journey that was both the hardest and best thing that has ever happened to me. A journey of pain and hope and faith and patience and perseverance and love. We went through many more sonograms. Many more doctor visits. We met with specialist after specialist, toured the hospital, the NICU, met with neurosurgeons. Our daughter had enlarged ventricles in her brain, water on the brain, fetal hydrocephalus. The spinal fluid that is made in her brain was not draining like it should and it was filling her head up like a balloon, squishing her brain as the fluid level grew and grew. Nothing to do but wait til we were full term to deliver. Wait and watch as the fluid grew and worry and pray. Her prognosis was unknown and there was a very wide spectrum of possibilities.
It was a whirlwind of 9 weeks. And in that nine weeks I posted here on the DIS what was going on and then left the DIS. It wasnt a conscious decision, it was a byproduct of what was going on in my life. I went from posting on the DIS to researching ad nasuem about hydrocephalus. I went from reading TRs to reading blog after blog of parents with kids that had hydro.
I was doing good to put one foot in front of the other. I, honestly, still dont know quite how I made it through those 9 weeks. Not only was I dealing with a life changing diagnosis for my daughter, but I was so so sick (the cough I mentioned back in the first few posts). And because of her condition I was measuring weeks ahead of where I should be. I measured 45 weeks when I was just 34 weeks. I was miserable. And worried sick.
For those that were on the TR back then, I want to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers! They meant so much!
For those that are medically minded and want to know more about Addies diagnosis, here is a great website www.fetalhydrocephalus.com that will explain this more in detail and here is a link to my blog that details all of the medical specifics of Addison http://youjustmightfindyougetwhatyouneed.blogspot.com
As far as this TR goes, we are going to be celebrating her life, not her condition!!!
Addison is here and is amazing. She is six months old already and as of now is developing normally. She is such a joy, and is our miracle. Our last two vacations have been to Duke University to have her cord blood infused back into her body in hopes of repairing any damage to her little brain from all the pressure. Quite a change from Disney trips, let me tell you. But so worth it. Disney can wait. And it will. Though I have just recently begin to believe that we might actually make it back there. With Addison. Oh the joy that fills my heart at that thought. I didnt know if she would make it to this world breathing, I didnt know if she would be able to leave the hospital, didnt know if she would be able to travel five minutes from our house, much less 1000 miles. She does have a shunt in her head that drains the fluid away from her brain to her stomach. And we have to watch her all the time for shunt malfunctions. But I have talked to her neurosurgeon and he knows a surgeon in Orlando, in case we were to need one while we were there. So we are good to go whenever we are ready. Not yet, obviously. But its good to hope again. Its amazing to hope again.
So here I am. Full circle. Back on the DIS. It feels so wonderful, so mundane, so normal. I had no idea when I bought that ornament what an important part it would play in my life a year later. I had no idea what a year later would be like in my life. How things have changed, how I have changed. But I look at that ornament, hanging on our tree and it just makes me smile. Disney World has been such a large part of my life for as long as I can remember. I was prepared for that to change. And the fact that it doesnt have to, well thats just gravy.
I do not know what my future holds. Truthfully, I never did. I assumed too much. But I do know that hope is a good thing. And planning is a good thing, as long as you know that they are plans and not set in concrete. I do know that my life is so much better for what I have went through in the last year. I do know that the Christmas trip and the couple trip for my husband and I were two trips that I am so thankful we got to take, because of how much this year has changed our family.
I am ready to go back and finish these last two trip reports. I feel like its something I need to do. Close a chapter. The chapter of being a mom of two at Disney. The chapter of not having a daughter but wanting one desperately. The chapter of not having to have a neurosurgeons number on speed dial wherever we go. And then, I will be able to move forward with new Disney chapters. A PTR even. We have plans to return for the boys 10th and 5th birthday, before Addison is 2. Just typing that makes me a little giddy. I always get excited when a new trip begins to take seed in my brain, but this trip means so so much more than any trip has in the past. Our lives have changed so much, and to be at a point, already, that we are able to think about a vacation in the future with realistic hope of going is an amazing thing.
For those that were reading the original Two Trips TR, I had promised pictures of the nursery. We had just painted the nursery shortly before we got her diagnosis. To be honest, we didnt touch that room for awhile. It was just too hard, the not knowing. It was painted and the bedding was ordered. We started to pick up a few things here and there. Edna honestly finished most of it for me. We put the final touches on it shortly after she came home from the NICU.
And here are a few from 11/20 her half birthday. The day we put up the Christmas tree. Its our new tradition. Since the boys share a birthday, their half birthday is always a big deal. So I wanted to do something for her half birthday . so from now on it will be our tree trimming day!
I will be back soon to update day 3. Thank goodness I took a ton of pictures that will help me remember!
So lets go back to the beginning:
Here are the links to the original thread, including the post where I explained about Addies diagnosis and that I might not be on the boards for a while.
Chapter Links:
Day 1: Arrival day.... for some of us!
Day 2: An Easy-going Epcot day and Arrival day for the rest of us!
Update on Baby Girl
I'll also repost Day 1 and Day 2 on this thread to keep things chronological.
I know it may be a no no to quote a non Disney movie here on the DIS but I hope you will forgive me just this once.
I am waiting for you, Vizzini. You told me to go back to the beginning. So I have. This is where I am, and this is where Ill stay. I will not be moved.
I know someone can name that movie!!
Best Wishes!!
~Aimee aka gellybean
For now I will leave y'all with a repost of original intro:
everyone to my fourth and fifth trip reports!
This was an extraordinary year of Disney trips for us, me especially. I have never gone to Disney more than once a year, and between January 2010 and 2011 I went FOUR times! Somebody pinch me! I still can't believe it. Two of the trips were planned all along and two kinda landed in my lap. This trip report will include one of each. And let me tell y'all the two trips couldn't have been more different. I can't wait to share both experiences with you all!
To keep things straight, however, I will be going in order of trips taken and writing about the December trip first.
Christmas time at Disney World!
A little background info:
I'm the youngest of four children. My oldest sister is nearly 20 years older than I am and is mostly responsible for my love of Disney. She would pay half my way to Disney as a child to get my mom to go with her to Disney World. She started my obsession and continued my mom's.
She turned the big 5 0 last November and had always said she wanted to wake up the morning of her birthday in Paris and call us all and let us know where she was. The real Paris wasn't an option for any of us monetarily or time wise so being the Disney minded person that I am, Epcot was my next immediate thought! I just had to convince her!
I talked Mom and my sister into it back in April 2010 (not that it took a lot of convincing), early enough that my mom was able to buy an annual pass for herself as she was going with a girlfriend last May! We took advantage of mom's annual pass and got a great deal at the Wilderness Lodge for 7 nights! Wilderness Lodge was the perfect hotel for Christmas time as for as we were all concerned. We had in fact visited it for the first time, just the three of us back in 1993 -- the only other time we had been there at Christmas.
If anyone would like more back ground info, please click the Three for the Price of One PTR link in my signature!
Now that you know why the trip came to be, let me introduce us all!
me aka Momma, gellybean, and Elastigirl - 31 , mom to two boys and wife to Mr. Incredible (who will never be able to travel in December and thus was unable to go this time). Planner of all things Disney. I am currently planning two trips for family members even though I'm not going with them!
We found out last October that I was expecting another child and found out last week that I'm having a little girl!! To say that I am happy to be adding a Violet to our little Incredible family would be a major understatement!!
Being pregnant in Disney was not something I would have planned on but I was determined to still go and make the most of what was available to me! I was 15 weeks along at the time of the December trip.
Dash - 8 as of last week. My oldest son that loves it as much as I do if that's possible. He not only gets to go to WDW in Florida with us but Disneyland in California with his dad and step mother! He loves the rides but is still too chicken to ride the 'big' coasters.
Jack Jack - 3 as of last week. He was finally old enough to get 'it' this trip. I loved watching his reaction and awe this trip. He recognized the characters, and the castle and the 'monowail'. I tried my best to soak his reactions up this trip!
My mom aka Fairy God Mother - 68 years young. She went the first time in the early 50s to Disneyland and has loved it ever since. Already has her next trip planned to eek one more trip out of her hot little AP.
My oldest sister aka Edna - celebrating her 50th birthday. This was her 14th trip and she hadn't been since 07 so it was time!! She works in the education field and lives about 10 mins from me!
When :
December 14th-December 21st
So there you have it! All the important details to get this show on the road!
Thank you all for reading and commenting along!! Can't wait to share all the wonderful, and COLD memories with you all!
Up Next: Arrival day.... for some of us!