Welcome to the Kingdom Little Prince- a Feb 21, Baby’s First Trip Report- new 1/24!

[lvcourtneyy]

Hello out there! Anyone remember me….

Crickets I’m sure.

My name is Courtney, I’ve been around the Dis off and on for some time now and have a wonderful habit of starting trip reports and not finishing them .

I did finish one about our trip in June 2019 and started two others after about trips in October and December 2019.

Those were both wonderful trips and I fully intended to finish the reports but as we all know, the world changed in 2020 and they no longer felt relevant.

Some of you may now, that our world also changed in 2020 as we welcomed our first baby into this crazy world and as you may have guessed, time is a precious commodity these days.

If you made it this far into my babbling, thanks! Here’s some pictures to break it up.



Here’s our most recent family photo from Christmas at my parents’ house!

Our little Robert turned one earlier this month & I’m still not sure how it happened so fast.



He is a ball of chaos and energy and the absolute light of our lives. He hasn’t met anything he won’t try to climb and it’s just amazing to me how quickly he’s learning and developing. He’s had some issues with his ears and hearing and had surgery at 6 months and another coming up in January but in the last few weeks, he went from saying no words at all to quite a few! His vocabulary now consists of dada (his first word ), mama, Stitch (our cat’s name), cat (used for any animal he encounters), moo , hi and bye!

I love watching Disney vloggers on YouTube and put Tim Tracker on the other day. They were watching the Christmas parade and he got so excited and was yelling and waving to the characters. We called daddy at work to tell him it was a sure sign we needed another Disney trip.

While I could talk about my boy all day, you might wanna know a little about the adults of the family.




I’m the Disney nut and planner of the family. I work as an ER nurse and let me tell you- the pandemic burn out is real. My favorites include the Little Mermaid, Halloween, Animal Kingdom, collecting souvenir cups & popcorn buckets, Harry Potter, roller coasters of all kinds, Halloween Horror Nights and obsessively shopping for baby clothes.

Last but not least is my fiancé, Mike.




He proposed in May of this year on Robert’s second WDW trip . We have made 0 wedding plans though because we bought our first house this year and moved from NYC to NJ! We actually closed less than a week after coming home from Robert’s third trip to WDW. Our lives are a whirlwind for sure!

Anyway, he’s a manager at a grocery store and kinda just goes along with my Disney obsession (even though I know he likes it more than he lets on). His favorites include Nightmare Before Christmas, Donald Duck, Halloween, Casey’s Corner and beef lo mein from Yak and Yeti.

Phew. Anyone still with me??

So this trip took place in February when Robert was a mere 10 weeks old! As you can imagine, he looked much different then.



We drove down . We left home on February 11 and came back on February 27 with stops in WDW, Universal and visiting family along the way.

Stay tuned if you wanna know what a road trip is like with a 10 week old! ​

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Day 0: February 11,2021

Our story starts, as many trip reports do, the day before our travels began.

We’ll call it day 0. It was a pretty uninspired day for the most part. Mike worked and I had a follow-up with the OB and an appointment for my second dose of the Covid vaccine.


I received a lot of opinions about it being a poor decision to get the vaccine the day before traveling but I was due to go back to work shortly after our trip and I wanted to be vaccinated before doing so.


Spoiler alert: I felt 100% fine after it and felt as well as someone on a 16 hour road trip with an infant can feel.

We also visited my parents who were very unamused that we were taking their only grandchild away from them for 2 weeks.




Once we returned home, we had a stressful night of last minute packing and trying our hardest not to forget any essentials (which are numerous with a baby) and then playing car Tetris to get everything to fit.

Nonetheless, it all got done eventually.

We had debated leaving to drive through the night but ultimately decided not to since Robert was sleeping through the night at the time and we didn’t wanna totally throw him off his routine.

So we got a good night’s sleep and would leave in the morning. ​

 

[rdkeim]

Following!

 

[suse66]

So happy to see you back on the boards, Courtney! I cannot believe your sweet boy is one already! And he has been to Disney three times already...clearly that boy is living his best life! I love it!

Congrats on so many wonderful things happening in your life, I am so happy for you!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Following!

Welcome! Thanks for reading.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

So happy to see you back on the boards, Courtney! I cannot believe your sweet boy is one already! And he has been to Disney three times already...clearly that boy is living his best life! I love it!

Congrats on so many wonderful things happening in your life, I am so happy for you!

Thank you so much.

I can't believe he's 1 either. Time is such a thief. It's been a wonderful year (covid aside) and I can't wait to see what 2022 brings!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Day 1: February 12, 2021

Let the road trip begin!

Except we ended up leaving much later than I’d hoped. Mike had to run over to work to attend to some last minute crisis.

But eventually we did leave and I don’t remember what time it was anymore.

At this point in time, one of us always sat in the back with Robert for car rides so we continued that for the trip.

We also were following the guideline of stopping every 2-3 hours to give him a break from the car seat and to eat so the trip seemed much longer than our usual drives which feature me making minimal stops.

Somewhere around noon, we stopped at a rest stop in Maryland. I’m pretty sure we picked it because it had an Earl of Sandwich but when we got inside, it was closed so we ended up eating Wendy’s.

Road trip to Disney

Road trip to Disney

Naturally, he'd pooped through his outfit and most of his clothes were packed in bags other than his diaper bag so he ended up in a lovely non-matching outfit. Learn from my error. Pack baby clothes in every bag.

Most of Robert's time was spent sleeping.

Road trip to Disney

He spent months SO attached to that hedgehog. It vibrates and helped soothe him to sleep.

Looking back at these car seat pictures makes me cringe cause I've since educated myself on car seat safety and learned that the bundle me he's in isn't considered safe. I'm so thankful nothing happened.

Anyway, the drive was pretty uneventful. Just long. Lots of feeding Robert bottles and changing diapers.

Virginia- snowy and cold.

https://imgur.com/V2SVoVT

North Carolina- no snow but still cold.

Road trip to Disney

Road trip to Disney

Just before 7 pm, we stopped in Rocky Mount at Cracker Barrel.

Road trip to Disney

We had to wait a little while for a table and I eyeballed things I could buy for Robert but ultimately didn't.

Road trip to Disney

Road trip to Disney

Road trip to Disney

Finally we sat. Robert wanted no part of being in the baby carrier during dinner and we didn't want to put him in his car seat so we swapped off holding him and eating. This was one of the harder parts of the trip honestly. He was too little to sit up on his own and he got tired of being confined all day so meal times were a lot of switch off.

Road trip to Disney

Road trip to Disney

No real food pictures but some of my shrimp snuck into that one lol.

The smart thing to do at this point would've been to find a hotel and call it a night. However, Robert fell asleep again when we got back in the car and we tried to push our luck and drive longer.

The result was at around 10 pm, he woke up inconsolable. He wanted out of the car seat immediately and wanted no part of going back in. Hedgehog, baby shark and the pacifier were all lost causes.

I quickly got onto one of the hotel apps and found a Tru by Hilton in Florence, South Carolina and we stopped.

When we went to check in, the woman working the front desk said "Oh no".

I expected her to tell us something terrible and instead she said "Your booking is for a King bed but we only have 2 queens. Is that ok?"


Uhh you hear this screaming baby? We'll take anything lol.

So I took Robert up to the room to stretch out and unwind and Mike unloaded what we'd need for the night from the car.

Road trip to Disney

He was much happier now.

He was perfectly content to just lay there and flail his arms and legs in every direction.

Road trip to Disney

Also, he was a peanut when he was first born and we got so many 0-3 month Christmas clothes that we were still wearing them now .

Road trip to Disney

The room was nice, modern, clean and most importantly, had beds for us to sleep in.

Road trip to Disney

Road trip to Disney

After some snuggles, Robert was asleep quickly and went in his travel bassinet and slept the night away.

Road trip to Disney
​

 

[lvcourtneyy]

February 13,2021
Driving Day 2

We woke up when Robert got up the next morning, somewhere around 8 am. He probably would've gone back to sleep but we wanted to get moving.

The hotel had breakfast included so we stopped in the lobby to grab some. Most of it was prepackaged due to Covid but it did the job.

Mike went to pull the car around while I waited with Robert and some other guests started talking to me. It started innocently enough (I've learned people love talking to babies) but ended with them telling me they'd never take a baby so little on a road trip.

Something else I've learned- people love offering opinions on your parenting.

Anyway, their opinion did not change our minds and we continued on with our trip..


I feel like his eyes are saying "Am I really back in this car?"
But he fell asleep not 15 minutes later.

I started to wonder when it would get warm considering we were already in South Carolina.

Around 11 am, we hit Georgia and it was still pretty rainy and cold.

And just before 2 pm, we were finally in Florida! Wooohooo



We finally got to Mike's sister's house around 4:45 and Robert was great the whole drive until the last 30 minutes when he just was over it (and so was I so I can't blame him).

I was trying all the tricks I had and nothing was doing in until he got to escape the car.
We spent the next few days visiting family (Mike has 3 sisters and 2 brothers and all 3 sisters live in Florida so he had a lot of people to meet), enjoying his first taste ever of warm weather and celebrating Robert's first Valentine's Day.








Facetiming Grandpa!

His cousins picked out this adorable Jack outfit for him!


As we were outside in the warm weather, I realized I was woefully unprepared for keeping a baby protected from the sun. We made a trip to Walmart for shorts because I had none in this size since it was cold at home. I ordered sunglasses on amazon to ship to Mike's sister's house but I was having trouble finding an infant sunhat that would come in time so I was hoping to find one in Disney.




Finally, the morning of the 18th, it was time to go to Disney!
I had ordered Robert a 1st visit magicband even though he didn't need one lol.


We left his sister's house around 8:30 am and I was squealing with delight as we pulled up this beautiful sign around 9:30!


Up next: our Disney trip officially starts!​

 

[disneyAndi14]

Yay to a report from you! Of course, I am following
Robert looks so little compared to your recent Christmas pictures, time flies and with kids even more so!
I think your road trip went pretty darn well overall!

 

[Isabelle12345]

Following! I am really excited to hear about baby’s first trip!
He has grown so much - he is a handsome little boy!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I'm here! And ready to hear about the trip!

I received a lot of opinions about it being a poor decision to get the vaccine the day before traveling but I was due to go back to work shortly after our trip and I wanted to be vaccinated before doing so.

A little dangerous but VERY important to get! Worth the risk, if you ask me.

We also were following the guideline of stopping every 2-3 hours to give him a break from the car seat and to eat so the trip seemed much longer than our usual drives which feature me making minimal stops.

Oh man! That adds alot of stops but probably best for everyone.

Ro

he was so little

Something else I've learned- people love offering opinions on your parenting.

That they do!!! Everyone knows better than you! It's crazy!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Yay to a report from you! Of course, I am following
Robert looks so little compared to your recent Christmas pictures, time flies and with kids even more so!
I think your road trip went pretty darn well overall!

Thanks for reading! Time certainly does fly especially with kids. It’s hard to even look at these pictures without getting emotional about how different he is now!

It did go pretty well and I think he did fabulous for a 2 month old but I am in no hurry at all for another road trip

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Following! I am really excited to hear about baby’s first trip!
He has grown so much - he is a handsome little boy!

Thank you so much!. It’s crazy how big he is now and how fast a year went.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

A little dangerous but VERY important to get! Worth the risk, if you ask me.

Exactly! I was happy to risk some side effects for better overall safety. And in the end, I had no side effects at all!

Oh man! That adds alot of stops but probably best for everyone.

SO many stops. It was definitely needed for him but it really made the trip seem so much longer.

That they do!!! Everyone knows better than you! It's crazy

yes! It’s one thing when it’s from people I know or when I ask for it but perfect strangers in a hotel is pushing it lol.

 

[SEAGULL59]

Following!! Love reading trip reports to get us through to another trip. Robert is adorable!!

 

[Paulaparm]

Following along. What a cutie

 

[eliseisawkward]

Following! As a mom of a now 11 week old who doesn’t sleep well, I am in awe of your ability to pack up your baby and travel at such a young age. I have struggled to get mine out to door to visit grandparents!

 

[footballmouse]

Congrats on your new addition!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Following!! Love reading trip reports to get us through to another trip. Robert is adorable!!

Welcome! Thanks for reading.

Thank you so much

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Following along. What a cutie

Thanks for reading! And thank you so much