So, can I start a baby's first trip PTR before the baby even arrives?

[CandleontheWater]

Hello everyone, and welcome to our pre-trippie! Right now I have two very important dates circled in red on my calendar, the first, Nov 17, 2009, is the due date for our 1st little mousketeer, Baby Pirate. The second is April 12, 2010, and it will be Baby Pirate’s first day at WDW!

Now I know all new parents look forward to various baby milestones, their first smile, first word, first steps, but I am also looking forward to some more unorthodox firsts, such as first monorail ride, first stroll down Main Street, first attraction, first character breakfast… Needless to say, this is going to be one amazing trip and I’m looking forward to sharing it with my friends here on the Dis!

Well, I guess I should start with introducing myself and my DH and Baby Pirate and explaining why Disney means so much to our family!

I am Marissa, age 31, and a life-long Disney fan! My parents took their first trip to the World on their honeymoon in 1976 and were completely hooked! They took me for the first time when I was 7 months old and I’ve been back around 60 times since then. My parents took us on annual (and sometimes- bi and tri annual!) trips to the world throughout my childhood and up until when I graduated from high school; however, my trips really started adding up when I moved to Florida in 2001, but I’ll talk about that a little more later.

As a neat side note, we stayed at the Treehouse Villas on my first trip in 1978, and for the bulk of Baby Pirate’s first trip we will be once again staying at the Treehouse Villas. I think it is so cool that we are starting a multi-generational tradition!

My DH is Mark, age 27, and he too is completely nuts about Disney (though, not as much as me!). He took his first trip when he was 7 and even though he didn’t return again until he was 22, he definitely made up for lost time, and now has approximately 25 trips under his belt.

Here are some photos of DH and I at Disney! The first one is from our last trip that we took in May. We were so lucky and got chosen to be the Grand Marshalls of the parade, and the photos are from us getting ready to be in the parade. The second photo is us at the Food and Wine festival last year.

The third member of our family is Baby Pirate! I’m 27 weeks pregnant with my little man and we can’t wait to meet him and show him everything Disney has to offer! He has already been to Disney three times in utero, which is pretty impressive for a fetus! He has also been really good, I’ve had a really easy pregnancy, and I’m crossing my fingers that it means he will be an easy baby as well. We haven’t fully decided on a name yet, but we will keep you updated! We are decorating his nursery with a pirate theme, and I’ve been listening to a lot of park audio in an attempt to turn him into a Disney fan before he is even born- we’ll see how that works out.

I’ll have to take some recent pictures of me and the belly so you can “see” how big Baby Pirate is.

Well this is getting long, so I’ll save why Disney means so much to our family for our next installment and then we can get into the nitty-gritty of planning!! I hope you will stick with me for the ride!

 

[CandleontheWater]

Hello again everyone! I figured I’d keep plugging along and talk a little about why Disney is so special to my family. As I had mentioned previously, I took my first trip at 7 months old and we went on annual trips throughout my early childhood; however, these trips became extra special in 1988 when my beloved grandparents moved to Deltona Florida. I was always very close to my grandparents and it was a big change for me to go from having them 15 minutes away and seeing them constantly, to having them all the way down the eastern seaboard. My parents wanted to make sure that we still saw my grandparents regularly, so our trips to Florida became much more frequent, sometimes three and four times a year, and they always involved a few days at Disney.

I have such wonderful memories of those trips and I have always been so thankful that even though my grandparents were far away, I still got plenty of chances to see them and have such wonderful experiences with them. Even though they are no longer with us, I can still picture them every time we go to the parks and remember how much fun we all had together, and I smile every time I ride their favorite rides!

After I graduated from high school our family trips became less frequent due to me being away and my brothers having busy sports schedules. We were still able to get to Disneyland for New Years Eve in 1998, which was awesome, and in 2001 I moved to Florida, which opened up a whole new era of Disney adventures. I went to graduate school in Pensacola, but it was much less expensive for my parents to fly into Orlando, and it was (incidentally) near Disney, so family visits would turn into Disney trips! Of course my brothers wanted to get in on the action as well, and my parents made the decision to buy into the DVC as an excuse to get everyone together once a year for a big family vacation.

We still love vacationing in Disney, even though we are much older now and married and starting our own families. It is so wonderful to think about introducing the a whole new generation to Disney, starting with Baby Pirate.

 

[CandleontheWater]

Well I’m going to keep plugging away, and see if I can entice some readers!

My husband took a different route to a love of Disney, and I think I can claim most of the credit. He went as a child, and when he was 22, he decided to take advantage of the military offer that Disney had going on after Sept. 11th and went with 3 friends to Disney for Thanksgiving. He had a really nice time going on the rides and made good use of the plus options on his ticket at PI every night. I still don’t think he would have been entirely hooked though, if not for me!

DH and I met in Pensacola when I was a graduate student and he was in flight school learning how to fly helicopters for the Navy. As much as I said I wasn’t going to get involved with a Navy man, he stole my heart and we fell in love. We had gotten pretty serious, but I was still nervous when the time came for him to be assigned to his next duty station. I was still finishing my degree and he could have been sent to places as exotic and far away as Japan or Guam. When I got the phone call saying that he was assigned to Jacksonville, Florida, I couldn’t have been happier! He asked me to move with him and I was able to find a job and finish my thesis from Jacksonville.

Now we had talked about getting married, and I figured he would propose sometime, but I wasn’t quite sure when. We (or shall I say I) had planned a quick weekend trip to Disney for 4th of July weekend to celebrate our new house and our big move. I won’t lie, I was super excited about moving a mere 2 ½ hours from the mouse, and I wanted to start taking advantage of our proximity as soon as possible! Since I had done all the planning, and I was the Disney expert, I definitely wasn’t expecting a proposal on that trip!

There certainly was pixie dust in the air that morning, because shortly after we arrived, while I was happily bouncing my way down Main Street, we were approached by a cast member. I chatted with him as we walked towards Space Mountain, telling him about how much I loved Disney and how excited I was to be back, and the CM started asking me questions about the afternoon parade. Now I’m not much of a daytime parade person, and I told him that we probably wouldn’t watch the parade, to which he replied, “how would you like to be IN the parade instead?” We were offered the exalted position of Grand Marshalls for the afternoon parade, and I about passed out! It was amazing! The photo in my siggy is from that day and I will never forget it! (as a side note, yes we were asked to be Grand Marshalls a second time, 4 years later, during the last trip we took in May. I think it was fate that we were Grand Marshalls on our first trip as Floridians and we were able to also be Grand Marshalls for our last trip as Floridians! It was an amazing way to start and end such a special phase of our lives!)

After our Grand Marshall experience I didn’t think the day could get any better, I was just walking on air! However, things got even better when after Illuminations, Mark got down on one knee and asked if I would make all his dreams come true. It was so special, but also really rather funny. I (of course) had a plan that we would watch Illuminations from the front of WS facing the American Adventure, then my plan was to rush to monorail and get back over to the MK for Spectromagic and EMH. My plan was to move as quickly as possible to try and beat the crowds to the monorail, however, DH was just hanging around and walking really slowly and letting the crowds thin out. At one point I was starting to get a little frustrated and started walking a little faster and got in front of him, at that point I turned around to yell at him to catch up and he was on one knee with a ring box in his hand! At that point I panicked and said, “I wasn’t ready, do it over!” He thought that was pretty funny, and since he now had my full attention, he got back on one knee and properly proposed!

After that trip we continued to visit WDW frequently, usually about once a month. It was so close and such a wonderful escape, we really took advantage of our proximity. We, of course, became annual passholders, and with our dining and hotel discounts, we were able to get away for a weekend for not much more than we would spend on a normal weekend, going out to dinner, seeing a movie, meeting up with friends at a bar. It was a wonderful, wonderful time and I enjoyed every second of it! In June of this year DH got a new assignment working for the office of Naval Intelligence in Washington DC. We now live in Alexandria VA, which is an awesome place, but I do miss Disney. We are still going to be taking trips (3 next year if all goes well), but they will be fewer and involve much more planning. I’m writing this trip report to fill the time between trips and try to stretch out the magic between visits to the mouse!

Next up- the nitty-gritty of planning with a baby on the way!

 

[reyasmommy]

Your PTR title caught my eye right away!

I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant ((with a boy too)) and planning his 1st trip to WDW also. We're going in March so he'll be 3 months old! I'm soooooo excited!

Congratulations!!! And I look foward to hearing more!

 

[MickeyisBeast]

I am joining in! Can't wait for more! You must be very excited!!!
~Sara

 

[CandleontheWater]

Your PTR title caught my eye right away!

I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant ((with a boy too)) and planning his 1st trip to WDW also. We're going in March so he'll be 3 months old! I'm soooooo excited!

Congratulations!!! And I look foward to hearing more!

Hey there! Congrats on your little one! You are just a few weeks behind me, so we can commiserate and the trials and tribulations of being preggo in the heat of summer! I'm excited to hear how your March trip turns out, I'll be looking for tips and tricks!

I am joining in! Can't wait for more! You must be very excited!!!
~Sara

Welcome and thanks for joining along!

 

[CandleontheWater]

Ok, so I promised some nitty-gritty trip details, and I will deliver as promised!

The plan for this trip is to fly from BWI airport (about an hour from our house) into Orlando on Thursday evening April 8th. We are patiently waiting for Southwest to release the flight schedule, because ideally we would like a flight around 7 pm, that way DH can work a whole day on Thursday and not have to take an extra day of leave. We need to save those leave days so we can use them for our Disney trips in June and Oct! We would ideally like to fly SW, and we are hoping we can score a good deal. I am certainly not a light packer and I know with the baby we will be bringing even more stuff than usual. I just hope that SW keeps with its "bags fly free" policy.

Our other option (and one that might be easier, but much more expensive) is to fly out of Regan National Airport. That airport is two metro stops up from our house and would be really, really easy to get to. Unfortunately prices out of National are crazy, but I still probably will check, and maybe some pixie dust will float down our way!

We will be taking Magical Express to WDW, and this will be our 1st Magical Express adventure! I don't think I appreciated how spoiled we were living a 2 1/2 hour drive from the mouse. There was no worries with packing or transportation, we just got up and went. I swear we drove down so much that the car just knew the way, and all we would have to do is get behind the wheel and it would drive us straight to WDW!

Our accommodations are a little more complicated! We are going down as part of a grand gathering, with 10 other people! Mark and I decided that we wanted to go down a few days early, to see some friends and so I can plan and execute baby's first days at Disney the exact way that I envisioned. I know that this is a little selfish, but I have been dreaming of taking my children to Walt Disney World since I was a child myself, and I really want his first days to be perfect. Not that the trip isn't going to be wonderful when everyone arrives, but it is going to be much more hectic, and I won't be able to concentrate just on Baby Pirate. I really want our first day to be just about him, and not have to take into account the wants and needs of 10 other individuals.

So getting back to where we are going to stay! When Mark and I arrive I'm still debating about going to Pop or three nights, or staying at POR. POR is my favorite resort, and it is right across from Saratoga, which is where we are staying for the next 6 nights. We don't have a car, so we will have to count on Disney transportation, and count on Disney bell services to move our luggage. We've done split trips before and had no problems, but this was all pre-baby. I guess it doesn't really make a difference, but it may be faster and easier to transfer our luggage from POR, since it is so close.

I'm going to make our first 3 day reservation at the end of this month, and I think I'm going to make it for Pop, but I can always change it to POR if I convince hubby that the extra money is worth it!

Next up- I'll do a mini-TR about my weekend at the REAL Saratoga Springs! Photos of the actual grandstands, Carousel restaurant and Congress Park coming up!

 

[figment41]

Just joining your trip report.

I am so excited for you. Congrats on the new baby and best of wishes on all of those firsts.

The other day we were flipping through some pictures with my inlaws and my husband said well there is Laura's pride and joy. I must have given him a puzzled look because they were all pictures of my DD and puppies.

He said it is her first picture with the Mouse and Pluto. Those were some great memories. Our DD was already 1 but they were still cute. I would love a pic of my DD beng held by Mickey at the age of your son.

Just remember you may not get much done so take in every moment. This age is also great because they just do and go along with anything you say at this point.

No I do not think you are slefish at all for taking him ahead of time to make sure you get all of his firsts in the way you want them!!!

 

[Gabes_mommy]

Yay! I'm so excited you started your PTR!

And to answer your thread title - Yes! Planning baby's first trip to the world is such a special experience.

Your engagement story is so sweet. That is so great that you found a fellow Disney lover.

My last name actually rhymes with pirate so we have always called my DS "baby pirate" as well, so I love that! I can't wait to see pictures of your pirate themed nursery when it's all done.

That is so great that you are staying at one of the Treehouse villas - they look amazing.

Ok, that's enough from me for now.

 

[jgazda]

What an exciting trip for you to be planning. Congrats!

 

[lbuzz52]

hi!
we are taking a trip with a baby next month- but he will be almost 9 months. still, it will be interesting. we are staying at ssr but decided against the treehouse with no car.
you aren't the only one who counts trips in utero, either!

 

[CandleontheWater]

Just joining your trip report.

I am so excited for you. Congrats on the new baby and best of wishes on all of those firsts.

The other day we were flipping through some pictures with my inlaws and my husband said well there is Laura's pride and joy. I must have given him a puzzled look because they were all pictures of my DD and puppies.

He said it is her first picture with the Mouse and Pluto. Those were some great memories. Our DD was already 1 but they were still cute. I would love a pic of my DD beng held by Mickey at the age of your son.

Just remember you may not get much done so take in every moment. This age is also great because they just do and go along with anything you say at this point.

No I do not think you are slefish at all for taking him ahead of time to make sure you get all of his firsts in the way you want them!!!

Thank you so much for your well wishes!! I am definately planning on taking in every moment, especially the small ones. I am a (former) park commando, so I think taking the time to smell the roses with our little pirate will be extra sweet!

Yay! I'm so excited you started your PTR!

And to answer your thread title - Yes! Planning baby's first trip to the world is such a special experience.

Your engagement story is so sweet. That is so great that you found a fellow Disney lover.

My last name actually rhymes with pirate so we have always called my DS "baby pirate" as well, so I love that! I can't wait to see pictures of your pirate themed nursery when it's all done.

That is so great that you are staying at one of the Treehouse villas - they look amazing.

Ok, that's enough from me for now.

I hope you are having fun on your trip and I'm looking forward to your TR so I can pick up some tips! Thats awesome that your last name rhymes with pirate, how cool!

I will definitely post pictures of the nursery when we are finished. We are waiting on the crib right now, it should be here soon. Who knew it would take so long to get in baby furniture!

What an exciting trip for you to be planning. Congrats!

Thank you and welcome to my PTR!

hi!
we are taking a trip with a baby next month- but he will be almost 9 months. still, it will be interesting. we are staying at ssr but decided against the treehouse with no car.
you aren't the only one who counts trips in utero, either!

I'll be excited to hear about your trip too! I'm not sure how the treehouses are going to work with no car, but I guess we'll see. We are die-hard Disney transportation people, so hopefully it won't be too different than staying at SSR proper.

 

[CandleontheWater]

So, since the last time we spoke, I have made some real headway on our April trip! I contacted our trusty travel planner and booked Pop for the nights of April 8, 9, and 10th! On the morning of the 11th we are going to check out of Pop and into the Treehouse villas (which I am SOOOO excited about!). The only bad thing about booking the trip were facing the room rates!! We are traveling the tail end of Easter week, so it peak season and all AAA discounts are blacked out. I’m still holding out hope that maybe an AP discount will come or way, or maybe they will extend the military 40% discount that has been awesome this past year. Anyway we are paying $149 a night for Pop, I can’t justify spending more on POR. I’m not too disappointed however, because I really do love Pop! I know there will still be enough room for all of us and we are only there for three nights.

I have requested DH and my favorite section, the 80’s!! We were both children of the 80’s so that decade holds a fond place in our hearts, and I think it is well located in the resort. Its pretty close to Everything Pop and I do like the computer pool. I also really like the 80’s section for an admittedly silly reason. The poster in the 80’s room has Oliver from Oliver and Company on it, and we have an orange tabby cat named….you guessed it…Oliver! I do miss him and our other cat Oscar when we are away, and waking up and seeing his likeness every morning makes me almost feel like he is on vacation with us.

So, we now have our accommodations all taken care of for the trip, yippee!! Our next big hurtle was airfare. We have been admittedly spoiled living in Florida for the past few years. Not only were we able to take trips to the World on a whim, but we didn’t have to deal with airfare. I had never spent any time on the transportation boards before, but I got myself over there to familiarize myself with the lingo and hopefully figure out how to score a good deal on airfare. Now I have discussed my BWI/Regan National issues, but I saw on the boards people talking about how the April airfares for Airtran had been released. I knew Airtran flew out of Regan, and I decided to take a look. I didn’t get my hopes up too far, because I knew that typically the fares out of Regan are pretty steep! Well low and behold I found two non-stop flights out of Regan on our travel days, with the fare being $54 per person on the way down (super awesome) and $79 per person on the way back (not as awesome, but still really good). This was really great news since it is so easy to get to Regan from our house, and we wouldn’t have to deal with the expense of getting a shuttle or driving and parking our car, and we wouldn’t have to drag along Baby Pirates car seat. We will have to pay baggage fees on Airtran, but considering the parking along for 10 days at BWI would be well over $100, we will definitely make up the difference. Maybe we could have gotten the airfare a little cheaper on Southwest, maybe we could have found the flight back for closer to $50, but I think that the time and energy saved is going to be well worth it!

Now that I’ve gotten our room and flights figured out, I feel like this trip is so much closer! Now I get to work on the really fun stuff- our itinerary!!

 

[CandleontheWater]

The real Saratoga Springs

Well I promised a mini-TR about my adventure to Saratoga Springs New York and here it goes!

My parents are huge fans of thoroughbred horse racing. They have traveled all over the country to see races and they own a race horse named Saratoga Russell. When they began to think seriously again about becoming DVC owners, it was a no-brainer which home resort they wanted to have- Saratoga Springs! Since their purchase a few years ago, I have been to the SSR resort on many occasions, but I have never been able to make it to Saratoga Springs New York. Well, as it turned out my husband was going to have to go to Atlanta for a week for work training, and my parents invited me to come home for the week and spend some time with them. It just so happened that while I was going to up visiting my parents, their horse, Saratoga Russell was going to be in a race in Saratoga New York and I was lucky enough to be able to come along. I was really excited not just to see how the real thing compared with the resort, but because I had not met my parents horse or had been able to see him race, since we had been living in Florida and he mostly races in the Northeast.

Well as soon as we arrived I began to look for where the imaginers took their inspiration for the resort and I was not disappointed!

Here is the entrance to the racetrack, does this remind anyone else of the entrance to the resort?

I recognized the color scheme of the Grandstands pool area immediately

Does this remind anyone of the water play area at the Grandstands pool?

Here is one of the famous Saratoga Springs, located at the race track. The water from the springs was really gross (alot like Beverly ) It tasted like sulfur and iron, yuck!

Here is my dad and I at another spring located across from Congress Park

Here is a bronze horse statue located in the Paddock, similar to one at the entrance of Saratoga Springs

Here is the actual paddock area, where the horses are saddled before they run

The Carousel is a restaurant at the track

There also is a historic Carousel in Congress Park. It was closed when we went there so I couldn't take a ride or get any close up photos.

I also know why the grounds are so pretty at Saratoga Springs, they are modeled after Congress Park! It was really beautiful there!

And there were more springs!

My parents horse was in one of the last races of the day. He had won at Saratoga racetrack a couple of weeks before and he was the heavy favorite to win. He had 1/1 odds when the race was run.

Here he is in the paddock, I think he is a very handsome horse!

Here he is on the big screen getting ready for the gate.

Unfortunately it was not his day and he did not run a great race. He started out good, but then just tuckered out. He ended up in 8th place out of 10. It was a real disappointment, but we didn’t let it ruin our day, you win some, you lose some. He actually didn’t look great in the paddock, really antsy and unfocused, so maybe he just wasn’t feeling it. That is part of the excitement about horse racing, you never know what is going to happen, and how a horse feels that day has so much to do with the outcome of the race.

All in all it was an awesome experience, we had so much fun at the racetrack and it was neat to see Saratoga Springs. If you ever get the chance to go up there, I would highly suggest it!

 

[figment41]

Wow that is great for airfare. Good job.

You guys look so happy at Saratoga!!

Disney here you come!!

 

[CandleontheWater]

Well I thought I'd take a moment from my Disney planning to give you all a little update on Baby Pirate! I had my 32 week appointment today ( I can't believe I only have 2 months to go!). I had to step on the dreaded scale and confirmed that I have gained more weight than I will ever admit to anyone outside my immediate family. My DH has been very sweet and tells me that I look exactly the same except for my belly, and helpfully suggested it might just be water weight. If that were the case, I'd be sloshing when I walked!

I have been really lucky so far this pregnancy and I haven't had too many issues. About my only pregnancy related complaint is that I have been really swollen lately, and even my Dr. remarked on how my feet do look more puffy than usual, maybe DH is on to something!

The Dr. then got into the knitty-gritty of the appointment, listening to the baby and measuring my stomach. The good news is that Baby Pirates heart rate is 140, which the Dr. says is perfect. He is also quite the little mover and shaker, and I have no trouble getting in my kick counts every day. The bad news is that I am now measuring 3 weeks ahead of my due date I think Baby Pirate has decided that he'd rather be a baby elephant. They have scheduled another ultrasound to measure how large this baby is getting, and then we can discuss our options.

My mother thinks this is all very funny, she said that I should have expected it since we grow big babies in our family. My middle brother was 9lbs 10 oz, and my youngest brother was 8 1/2 lbs, and a month early. As a first time mom-to-be I don't think this is funny at all, the thought of giving birth to a 10 lbs baby scares me witless! Well I guess we'll just see what happens!

The upside to Baby Pirate being large is that maybe he will be a little early. This would be wonderful because my middle brother (the really large baby) is getting married on Dec 5th. I would really, really love to be there and with a Nov 17th due date I'd be cutting it really close. If the baby came a week or two early, then I'd have plenty of time to recover, and I'd have more time to get the new mommy routine under my belt before Baby Pirate's first big social event.

I will keep you all updated!

 

[figment41]

Just think of the scale as that is all baby pirates weight gain.
Big healthy babies are great!!
2 more months hooray!!!!

 

[Gabes_mommy]

Great updates!!!

The pictures from Saratoga are gorgeous and you look so cute with your baby bump! Great job on the airfares too - those sound really good to me.

I have to tell you that I went through the exact same thing in my pregnancy with Gabe (aka baby beefcake) - I measured big throughout my pregnancy. At a certain point I started getting concerned about my size and asked one of the doctors in the practice and he blew me off. At my next appt (39 weeks I think) I saw my regular doctor and she was really concerned about my size too and sent me for an U/S. They said that Gabe was approximately 9 pounds at that point so 2 doctors sat me down and had a serious talk with me about scheduling a c-section. I had always planned on giving birth naturally, but I spoke to my family and we agreed that I should have the c-section. It ended up being the right thing for me because I went into labor the day of my scheduled section and DS was actually stuck and I would have had to have the section no matter what. He weighed a whopping 9 pounds 13 ounces. No, it was not the delivery I had planned but it all worked out and I had a healthy baby boy. So, all that to say please feel free to ask me any advice about big babies or PM me anytime.

 

[lbuzz52]

the wedding will be a great opportunity to show off baby pirate! don't let it get you nervous- the small babies are typically the best behaved kiddos at events. if your family is anything like mine, they will grab the baby as soon as you arrive and you will actually have empty arms for the rest of the day.
can't say much on the big baby side- mine were both average sized babies- but i did have an emergency c-section with dd and a scheduled c-section with ds. don't worry if you end up having to go this route- it's not really bad. and i believe that everything happens for a reason. the doctor's really have your and your babies best interests at heart. so soon! are you nesting yet?

 

[CandleontheWater]

Just think of the scale as that is all baby pirates weight gain.
Big healthy babies are great!!
2 more months hooray!!!!

I've been trying to think that way, but its hard when my oh-so-clueless husband says things like "Wow, you weigh more than me now!"

Great updates!!!

The pictures from Saratoga are gorgeous and you look so cute with your baby bump! Great job on the airfares too - those sound really good to me.

I have to tell you that I went through the exact same thing in my pregnancy with Gabe (aka baby beefcake) - I measured big throughout my pregnancy. At a certain point I started getting concerned about my size and asked one of the doctors in the practice and he blew me off. At my next appt (39 weeks I think) I saw my regular doctor and she was really concerned about my size too and sent me for an U/S. They said that Gabe was approximately 9 pounds at that point so 2 doctors sat me down and had a serious talk with me about scheduling a c-section. I had always planned on giving birth naturally, but I spoke to my family and we agreed that I should have the c-section. It ended up being the right thing for me because I went into labor the day of my scheduled section and DS was actually stuck and I would have had to have the section no matter what. He weighed a whopping 9 pounds 13 ounces. No, it was not the delivery I had planned but it all worked out and I had a healthy baby boy. So, all that to say please feel free to ask me any advice about big babies or PM me anytime.

Thank you for sharing your story, it definitely helps to hear from people who have been there. It is a little daunting, but I'm taking it one day at a time and keeping in mind that the most important thing is to do what is best for my baby and my body. I would really like to avoid a C-section because the thought of major abdominal surgery scares me! I've never had any surgery or even broken bones or stitches, so I don't have any experience to go on. The ultrasound is on the 21st of Oct, so I'll keep you all posted.

the wedding will be a great opportunity to show off baby pirate! don't let it get you nervous- the small babies are typically the best behaved kiddos at events. if your family is anything like mine, they will grab the baby as soon as you arrive and you will actually have empty arms for the rest of the day.
can't say much on the big baby side- mine were both average sized babies- but i did have an emergency c-section with dd and a scheduled c-section with ds. don't worry if you end up having to go this route- it's not really bad. and i believe that everything happens for a reason. the doctor's really have your and your babies best interests at heart. so soon! are you nesting yet?

I think you are probably right about having many willing and helping arms at the wedding. This is the first grandchild so he is kinda a big deal My youngest brothers girlfriend is absolutely baby crazy, so I think I'm going to have to pry him out of her arms to take him home at the end of the weekend. Then again, maybe I should let her keep him until he is sleeping through the night

I'm also glad to hear that your c-sections went well, I'm hoping to avoid that route, but hearing positive stories will help me be less apprehensive if I do have to have one.