TR | Tent Camping (while pregnant)

[ilovedisneymm]

Hello Happy Campers!

I have been home a week now and thought it was about time to get started on my trip report before I forget what we did.

I didn't keep a day by day journal of this trip like last year. By evening time, I was exhausted and most nights asleep by 8pm. So this trip, I think I will just hit the highlights!

BABY​

We ended up changing our arrival and departure date and several details along the way to accommodate my doctor's appointments and overall health. I have been keeping something from you all.....

We are PREGNANT!

Now, I'm passed the age of 35 (not by very much) 38 to be exact and with my past history plus my "advanced maternal age", my doctor is keeping a watchful eye over me.

I'm nauseous, like 24 hours of the day nauseous, for the past FOUR PLUS MONTHS. Plus I'm tired, like really tired. A few days on this trip, all I did was sleep!

We also received a phone call half way into the trip from the nurse. We had sonogram and lab tests done the day we left and they called to let me in on the results. All is well, baby is growing strong and it's a GIRL! We decided to tell the kids and this was their reactions! Little Daniel was clearly disappointed and Grace shot up like a rocket with excitement! Poor little Daniel...

TRAVEL TO FL​

We had planned to leave Central IL around 5am and drive through to Lake City, FL the same day, and then finish up the last couple hours to the Fort the following day (just like last year). This year, with the sonogram and lab work we finally left around 12pm and then drove a solid 8 hours to Birmingham, AL. We stopped in at the Hyatt in Hoover (right next to Ed). That was all I could handle with the pregnancy for one day. The next day we drove another 8 hours and landed in the Disney Bubble. Since we knew ahead of time about our traveling changes, we decided to stay at AOA before moving over to the Fort. No use in trying to set up camp at 5/6 pm with our tents. AOA is a cute little resort. We stayed in the Little Mermaid Room and it was clean and comfortable too. Grace & Daniel loved all the larger than life statues.

I'll post more soon...

 

[bjschil]

Congratulations Melissa and Dan. We kept that little secret till you shared with all!! Glad your trip ended in a good note, and dry, with the pixie dust as a result of the noisy campers next to you. Stay healthy and strong, and the next time your husband drives to Ruf's Farm Service in Wisconsin for a part, look us up, we are only five miles away! Looking forward to more of your trip report. Still loved your setup and amazed at your resilience. Barb and Bill

 

[G719]

Yay a trip report!

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Thank you Barb! That is exactly what hubby said on our way home, that I need to go with him next time and stop in for a visit with you all. We are in awe of your cattle operation and would love to see that in action. I'm sorry we didn't make a trip around to visit with you & Bill at your site. I had grand intentions, but cool weather, overall tiredness, or park days interfered.

We have plans to take the kids on a short vacation before baby comes and thinking Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconin Dells. I can sit pool side like a bloated whale and the kids can water slide until they pass out. Do you know anything about this resort?

 

[texasroni75]

Your last trip report and pictures of your tents/campsite has inspired us. Even my very-hard-to-impress teenage DD said the setup from that trip looked amazing, and clearly wants me to duplicate your campsite. Oh, sure! LOL. We will be headed to the Fort in June for the first time and will be staying in tents. It will be the furthest we've ever camped from home without a travel trailer (we sold ours, before moving to TX from the Northeast), and we need to come prepared if we want to be comfortable and not end up going over budget with things overlooked. So, basically we aspire to be just as organized and tidy as you all seem to be! Following along to hear more about this more recent stay!

 

[bjschil]

We have plans to take the kids on a short vacation before baby comes and thinking Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconin Dells. I can sit pool side like a bloated whale and the kids can water slide until they pass out. Do you know anything about this resort?

Melissa, we have been to Great Wolf, the Kalahari, and the Wilderness. They all have great indoor waterparks for indoor winter swimming. The Great Wolf has nice family suites, and might be best suited for younger kids ages as yours, and is very nice. If you go during the week, you might want to inquire as to the waterpark closing times in the evening, as I know they do close earlier on weekdays. I know homeschooling allows you to going during the week. Your kids might also like the Kalahari,but it might be more $$$$. The Kalahari does host lots of conventions in the spring, so you might want to keep that in mind as well. Two of our kids, spouses, and families are going to the Wilderness Lodge in early March for a mid week getaway. They decided that is their waterpark choice this year!!! You are welcome to stop here one your way up or back for a break, or overnight. We will show you our dairy farm and a tour of sw Wisconsin. Was looking at the camping in Tennessee posted on the forums earlier this week. Have not responded yet. We had an accident on the way home, and were able to get the fifth wheel home, although, not sure if they will not total it! Sad, but no one hurt but out pride!

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Barb - I wanted to go after planting season but hubby feels that it is pushing it to close to the due date. So likely, end of March for us. Thanks for the tip on the other two, I'll check into those as well. I have never been to the Dells for a vacation and looking forward to a new experience. Back when I was a hot on demand newborn photographer, I travelled a few times to Chicago and worked with other newborn photographers on posing, lighting techniques, etc. up there. I was still nursing lil Daniel, so the whole family came along and we stayed at a water park by Chicago (Key Lime Cove). The kids and hubby would water park by day and I would join them in the evening time. It was great fun but a little on the cheesey side I guess. It felt like a glorified Chunkie Cheese with a water park. Now, I assume Great Wolf will be somewhat similar. If you think one might be less "cheese" than the other, please speak up. I'm limited on how far we can travel, days to be away, and the time of year really limits our options so indoor water park just seems to make the best fit.

We will likely take you up on your offer to see the working dairy farm. Drive wise, it's only 5 hours so not bad at all.

I'm sorry to hear that about your accident. That sounds scary. You both ok?

 

[PaHunter]

Melissa, first of all, Congratulations to you and your husband !!! Look forward to the rest of the TR and Pics.

Bjschil, sorry to hear about the trailer, glad you all are ok. That is most important.

 

[rideswithchrist]

What a great surprise to find out at Disney!
Can't wait to see your set up this year- I am amazed it has already been a year since!

We have our Nephew until March so ouFeb trip got pshed back to Sept/Nov ish so I will have to live through you!

 

[bama_ed]

Melissa, first of all, Congratulations to you and your husband !!! Look forward to the rest of the TR and Pics.

Bjschil, sorry to hear about the trailer, glad you all are ok. That is most important.

^^ This ^^

The looks on the kid's faces, MM, are precious. As a brother (with other brothers), though, I feel for Daniel.

Bama Ed

 

[bjschil]

Melissa, after some soul searching, and remembering your kids, I believe they would like the Wilderness best. They have three waterparks, but I believe both the others do as well. The Great Wolf is best for the younger crowd, under five, but is appealing to older kids too. Great Wolf has, or had a bedtime story hour in the lodge that is somewhat cute. We have stayed there. Also been to Kalahari, both as a family, and as a convention goer. Busy, busy, busy. Lots of other activities if you do not wish to swim for kids, beading, pottery, etc. there is a huge $$ indoor amusement park attached to the Kalahari. Our kids chose Wilderness this year as best suited for the 8 and 5 year old, and for the other group, which are 14, 13, 8 & 6. I would ask if all the parks are going to be open the days you go, and if they are open for evening hours. The Kalahari does accept people outside of paying guests to swim there, so busier! The Dells is only about 90 miles from us. Typically we camp up that way every summer for a few days. As a matter of fact, a couple stopped by our fiver in our loop at the Fort who are the hosts at a Wisconsin Dells camping resort. Small world it is! We will check out that Wisconsin River resort this summer. You will have fun wherever you go. Getting away from winter in the Midwest is always refreshing, especially with the "big storm" that is heading our way next week.

 

[Teamubr]

Congrats! Melissa.

Exciting news. Don't you love the "advanced maternal age" label. We decided after 15 years of marriage to try having kids. I was 35. DW 36. And that's the first thing the doc said.

I hope the nausea subsides. I know this isn't your first rodeo, but 2nd trimester usually brings some relief.

Can't wait for the rest of the TR when you have the energy... in 10 or 11 months.

Bjschil- That gave me chills reading about your incident. Sounds like you are OK. I hope you can get the trailer fixed up and maybe join us in TN this August.

j

 

[Disneypeach]

Congrats on the new baby! Looking forward to more of your trip report!

 

[2goofycampers]

Congratulations!!!

 

[North of Mouse]

Congratulations, and the best to you in this pregnancy. I can relate to your experience - was 36 when our third (last) was born - and was also in that 'special' category of being an 'older' mom! 12 yrs. between our last two as a result of several 'issues'. 'One' nice thing about the unintentional spacing - you have older 'helpers'!!

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Thanks all!

Thanks again Barb! I sure will look into the Wilderness park. I told hubby about stopping in and he is all for that. Really looking forward to seeing a family owned dairy operation like yours. It will be quiet the experience for us and the kids. Hopefully, timing wise, it will work out!

@North of Mouse it will be twenty years between my first and likely last baby. I'm feeling my age for the first time in my life.

OUR CAMPSITE
​

We were up early and out the door from AOA and then checked in to the Fort around 8am. The cast member that checked us in told us our site was not ready yet and I was expecting that, no big deal. I asked him nicely what our site was going to be and crossing fingers it was in the 1500 loop. He hesitated but I guess we didn't look like a family of stalkers so he told us our site number but let us know that current guests were still occupying the space. I was not thrilled to hear it was right next to the road I like some privacy. So in my sweetest nicest voice ever, I asked if possibly site 1509 or 1521 were to be available at some point today. He said 1509! Yes, Yes, Yes! Good ol 1509, same spot we had last year. I asked to be moved to 1509 and he did and I was over the moon trilled!!! A good site when your tent camping can make or break a trip. This spot too was currently being occupied so we left and went grocery shopping.

Around 10 am we were back and decided to do a drive by (a non stalker like drive by) and there she was, site 1509, empty! Hello FORT. We are here!!!

Setting up took some time, a lot of time. In fact, it took all off that first day and most of the next. We should have been done by 5pm that first day, but unexpected trips back to Walmart and me and the pregnancy required many more breaks than I anticipated.

We did two tents just like last year. One for sleeping and one to house the food and other misc items. My oldest daughter and her boyfriend stayed the first three nights with us and they slept in the second tent.

The only real change we had from last year was we decided to do double high queen air mattresses instead of the cots. The sleeping tent fit a queen air bed on each end perfectly. I slept on one with little Daniel and hubby on the other with Grace. It's a toss up which I liked better, both were comfy. We also kept the cooler outside the tent this year and moved one of the card tables outside for easy access.

I will add that space heaters and electric blankets make all the difference when tent camping in January. For most of this trip, we barely needed the electric blankets but a few nights they were a necessity in my opinion. It got down to the 30s a couple nights. Not one of us woke up due to being cold with the electric blankets and heaters. Some external lights are very helpful no matter what you are camping in. We use a few strand of white xmas lights.

So here are some pics of our site for your viewing pleasure...

 

[ilovedisneymm]

AROUND THE FORT
​

Kids did a lot of looping on their scooters. Yes, Grace & Daniel do have eye make up on. This was the day after their Pirate's League visit and well, you kind of have to let that stuff wear off on its own around the eyes.



New Disney tents. Not sure if I like the old ones or the new ones best.



Campfire singalong....do da do da. The crowd was very very light and we like light crowds Cowboy Anthony must have had the night off and the other guy was just as good.



Found this cross stitch in at the Meadows and really wanted to buy it but for $80.00 WOWZA! I better brush up on my cross stitch skill as I sure would hate to mess that up. Maybe next visit.



The view from the dock on an early MK rope drop morning.



The clock at the bus stop is a nice addition. You do have to hunt for it though, I missed it the first bus trip out.



Fishing for the afternoon. Grace was working on catching a bass and little Daniel was working on catching an alligator. I guess the day we arrived a deer was killed crossing the canal by an alligator. Not sure how much truth there is to that story but Disney patrol was fishing it out (we did see Disney patrol headed to fish something out) and little Daniel really got thrilled with the idea of alligators near by.

 

[jenny2]

Congratulations on the pregnancy!! Now I'm off to start reading your report - me and my 2 kids are thinking of camping at FW in the near future. We've stayed at the Fort before, but in our camper. Anyways... so glad you're doing a report!

 

[MotherRunner]

Thank you Barb! That is exactly what hubby said on our way home, that I need to go with him next time and stop in for a visit with you all. We are in awe of your cattle operation and would love to see that in action. I'm sorry we didn't make a trip around to visit with you & Bill at your site. I had grand intentions, but cool weather, overall tiredness, or park days interfered.

We have plans to take the kids on a short vacation before baby comes and thinking Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconin Dells. I can sit pool side like a bloated whale and the kids can water slide until they pass out. Do you know anything about this resort?

I've been!!! I have done GWL in VA, TX and WI. They are all different. The Dells one was very nice and had lots of things to do. It was 3 separate rooms of waterpark activity. It was great for varying ages of kids

 

[MotherRunner]

Congrats on the pregnancy! I am also at this "advanced stage of life" lol. I can't imagine being pregnant. More power to ya for camping!! I was nauseous my entire 2nd pregnancy. No way I could have camped and not killed someone

I was waiting for your TR. Keep it coming!

What camping stove is that in the last pic with your daughter?