Our Cruise Vacation!

Ryan and I were SO lucky to be able to get away for a week and spend some time together just the two of us. It was SUCH a fabulous break for us to get out of parent-mode and just enjoy ourselves! Other than our honeymoon, we never really got the chance to travel much as husband and wife (with no babies in OR out of me), so this trip was extra special to us. (Shout out to my in-laws for watching Heidi for a whole week!! We weren't sure who was going to have the most fun - or be the most tired... Heidi, Ryan and Me, or Mimi and Poppy!)

I have cruised before with my family, but I have just been dying to go on a cruise as an adult (and with my hubby)!  It's such the perfect balance between "doing stuff" and laying by the pool, napping and having someone deliver drinks to you.  That's the kind of vacation we tend to go for ;).  However, Ryan has never been on a cruise before, so it took some convincing...well okay actually I just forced him.  I knew once we were there he would like it, but Ryan is not really a crowd person (nor am I) and I think to a lot of people who have never cruised before they just assume it's like living at the Galleria on a Saturday for 7 days straight. For those of you wondering... it is NOT like that!  Sure there are some times where you are around other people, but it's not like going to Disneyworld or anything.  (I also figured hey - if I can get Ryan to fall in love with NYC I can probably get him to enjoy cruising.) Just a few short weeks beforehand, we booked a cruise on Royal Caribbean that sailed to Cozumel, Belize and Honduras. I couldn't WAIT!

We were also concerned about leaving our baby for a whole week.  Ironically, Ryan was the most worried about leaving her/missing her too much despite the fact that he has been away from her for longer periods of time for work trips. I on the other hand have only left her for 24 hours - hard to believe! I really felt like I would be fine... SO because I felt like a week would be an okay amount of time to be away from her I was worried I was underestimating how much I would miss her. It truly ended up being perfect. We both missed our angel of course, but not so much that we weren't able to enjoy ourselves - even on day 7. It was bittersweet coming back really.  I wasn't quite ready for our getaway to be over (especially knowing how long it probably will be before we get another opportunity like that) but was obviously excited to see our baby again. It was QUITE difficult getting back into mommy-mode, especially since Heidi had gotten much better at walking while we were gone. That was a rough Monday. (Heidi's routine was also thrown off as she was used to her routine at her Mimi and Poppy's. She was just as upset as I was that vacation was over!)

We had a FABULOUS week and highly recommend cruising to anyone who enjoys pool time, mai tais, napping and fun excursions in beautiful countries. Can't wait until we get to do this again!

Here is a little photo "tour" of our week together!!

Day 1 - Embarkation, Galveston, Texas

Boarding the ship!!

First drink - Mai Tai!

First meal!

Lunch.

 

The view from our room.

Our "illegal alcohol" made it on board!! (You are technically allowed to carry on two bottles... but we decided we needed to bring a few more - and champagne for mimosas in our room of course!)

There is a channel on the TV that shows a view from the front of the ship during the day and then a view of the interior promenade at night.  If you look reeeaalllly closely, you can see someone in the window above the "S" on the right hand side of the TV screen ;). 

Our room above the wine bar!

         
Day 2 - At Sea

Day 2 (first morning - a little post-yoga shuffleboard (and no Ryan did not participate in the yoga part of that).

In action.  Mochas every morning were a must.

Aaah :).

Chillin on the helipad at the very front of the ship.

Each morning we would grab some coffee and then come up here and spend some time enjoying the views.

Pool time!  We found an area on TOP of the top deck (right over the bar) and we had the whole space to ourselves!  I did a bad job of taking a picture that actually shows this... oops.  

The view from on top of the top deck!

Panorama (click picture for full effect)!

Ditto.

First formal night!

After dinner.

Day 3 - Cozumel, Mexico

Looking straight down as we are about to dock.  Such a crazy shade of blue it almost looks fake!

Oh hey there Cozumel!

Pouring.  The towel idea sounded like a good one at first... until we realized we had to cart soaking wet towels around with us all day long.  Oops.

Sought refuge at the closest covered area.... which just so happened to be a bar!

Nothing like a 9:30 a.m. beer.  Hey it's vacation!  

Made it to Margaritaville after a 3 mile hike from the ship!

Crystal.

Beach. Pool. Beer.

Thanks Cozumel!

Adios Mexico!

Day 4 - Belize City, Belize

Good morning Belize!

Moments before we realized getting on the tender boat was a HUGE mistake - trapped in a crazy huge storm at sea!!  In a tiny double decker boat!   It was quite terrifying...

As soon as we got to shore in Belize we turned right back around and went back to the ship.  Our excursion was an open boat river tour (not conducive to stormy weather) and we were already too stressed by our death ride on the tender boat to enjoy it.  Plus, we knew that there was coffee, bars, hot showers, etc. back on board! I am so sad that we weren't able to see Belize because I feel like it would have been the most beautiful of all 3 ports we stopped at. Hey Belize I'm coming back for you one day!!

Back on board hittin up the pub!

Tom Collins let's do this!

Ryan sitting outside of the pub.

Picture frame pic!  

Double fisting it on vacation because - why not??  (It was a good idea at the time...)

Super dark pic of semi-formal night!

Day 5 - Roatan, Honduras

Rainy day in Roatan.

On our way to dolphins!!

Taking a long narrow boat across the way to where the dolphins are!

We had 30 minutes of more "instructional"/guided interaction followed by 30-45ish minutes of free swim and snorkel with the dolphins.  It was incredible!

     

Warming up and relaxing in the hot tub after a long but fun day of being cold and wet!

Thanks for a fabulous day Honduras!

Day 6 - At Sea

Our go-to spot!

Formal night!

Day 7 - At Sea

Last day enjoying our daily morning routine.

Sunset.

Day 8 - Debarkation, Galveston, Texas

Screenshot of the Galveston webcam I took on my phone... if you look reeeeallllly
close towards the front of the ship... you just might see us ;).

We had such a fabulous time and truly enjoyed getting to spend a whole week together uninterrupted!  Not sure if/when we will get this chance again so we definitely soaked in every minute!!

Month 12 - Heidi

Month 12: Baby!

Age: 1 year!

Weight: 20 lbs. 

Major calendar events: Mothers' Day, birthday party, turned 1!

Milestones:  Sleeping in her crib woo woo!  Walking while pushing/holding on to something (but still not super into pulling up, crawling or walking on her own) and talking a lot!  Says "balloons, bottle, bye bye, hi" and much more!

Sleep:  Sleeping great!  Sleeps 10-12 hours at night and is now napping once a day IN HER CRIB!  This is huge people!!  I miss our nap times together, but I must say having a couple of hours to myself to get stuff done (or whatever I want!) is INCREDIBLE!  Liberating!

Likes: Army crawling, bathtime, giggling and laughing, walking all over the place while we hold both her hands

Dislikes:  Foods that are green and/or vegetables

Best moment:  So many good moments.  So many laughs and hugs and kisses... but I just LOVED asking Heidi "where's mama" in a picture and then she pointed at me!  That was great. 

Worst moment:  Holding my screaming baby down while a nurse inserted a catheter to get a urine sample.  Here are the details: Heidi got very sick this month.  At first, she had a low grade fever and you could tell she just felt crappy.  All she wanted was just for me to hold her so she could rest her head.  Since she had no other symptoms, I just chalked it up to teething (even though she has NEVER been bothered by teeth before).  However, the following night I checked her temp and it was 105.3 (and this was with a rectal thermometer)!!!  So off to the pediatric urgent care clinic we went.  Turns out or angel had a terrible UTI that was pretty far along.  Poor baby.  Looking back, a UTI  had crossed my mind at some point, and I tried to pay attention to see if she showed signs of discomfort while on her potty.  She never seemed to cry out in pain or anything like that.  However, we did have a few random moments of crying that must have been related!  SEVERAL days before she got a fever, she randomly started screaming in the middle of church.  This NEVER happens!  Ryan had to take her out for a few minutes and then she was fine.  We are now wondering if she was already experiencing pain at this point, even though it was DAYS before we took her to urgent care!  (We took her to a nearby "Night Light Pediatric Urgent Care Clinic".  Which if you live in the Houston area and need an after hours clinic for your little one - I HIGHLY recommend this!!  I was very impressed and truly renewed my gratitude for those whose jobs require them to work off hours. I am so grateful!!) 

Eating:  Weaned!!!  I breastfed Heidi for the last time the morning of her 1st birthday and it felt amazing to say - I DID IT!!!!  By the time that we were just a couple of weeks out from her 1st birthday, we had already cut down the breastfeeding to once every couple of days and had started to replace nursing sessions with bottles of cow's milk. I will post more about our weaning experience later...but after some initial stress it went really well!  She loves fruit (well, anything that is sweet really) but she does not like things that are green and/or vegetables.  

Things I want to remember:  Her chunky legs that are starting to disappear :(

Month 12: Mama

I am loving my life as Heidi's mom and I am so grateful for everything the Lord has blessed us with.  I can't believe that I get to spend each and every day with my angel!  I will say... one thing that threw me of (that I was not prepared for AT ALL) were the hormone crashes that came with weaning!  I felt very moody and irritated and I had just never considered that even a year after birth... this was yet another thing that my body had to get used to and adjust to the change!  It didn't last too long but it was definitely annoying.  I miss breastfeeding for a lot of reasons but it is SO nice to have my body back and be 100% MY body again - a little person is not growing in it or relying on it to survive!

Here are some pictures from our 12th month!

Can you say crazy?

New diaper bag - if your baby can fit in it, then you know there is enough space!!  (Btw it's a Skip Hop Duo Double and it's literally the best diaper bag EVER!! If I were to design my own diaper bag THIS is what it would look like!)

My poor sick angel...

She just wanted to be held.

Sick.

Post urgent care clinic visit + 105.3 fever + sweat = rooster hair.
Could not wait to get those meds into this poor miserable babe!

Post bath smiles.

My 1st mother's day with a baby on the outside!!

:)

Sleeping in her crib like a big girl....!  (Woo woo!!)

Because sometimes you forget to bring a backup outfit... #nakedinacoffeeshop

I swear she's the craziest.

A birthday cupcake!  Diving in...

Happy birthday girl.

My perfect little mermaid!  She's the best!

Heidi's 1st Birthday Party!

Just a few days shy of her official 1st birthday, we celebrated Heidi turning ONE! Despite the fact that it absolutely poured most of the day - we still had an excellent turnout to celebrate our little princess!  It was the perfect day and I was so happy with the way everything turned out.  Here's a little taste of the day:

Madly in LOVE with our invitations from ThePaperMango!!

Front door!  (Don't let this sunlight fool you. It was basically a hurricane the whole day.)

Pink, roses and pearls everywhere! 

Dessert table!  (Not pictured: the cheesecake bites that I totally forgot
about and never even made it out of the refrigerator.  Oops!)

A little dark but you get the gist!  Diapers and onesies from birth till now!  (Easy, free and still personal as we already had all of the diapers/clothing on hand!)

My birthday princess!

My people.

Time for ("healthy" banana) birthday cake!

Heidi is not sure about this whole "getting your hands dirty" thing...

...but it's too good to pass up!

With her Nana and her Mimi!

In lieu of gifts for Heidi, we asked our guests to bring a bottle, sippy cup or pacifier to donate
to the Star of Hope Mission!  We were able to donate so much more than I had anticipated!
A HUGE thank you to all who donated!!  Such a fun tradition that I hope to keep up for many
years to come - I can't wait until Heidi is old enough to choose what she is passionate about!

(Photo cred for most photos to my amazing sister, Emily who has her own wedding photography business Something Gold Photography.  You should check her out bc she's awesome!)

gDiaper Series Part 4 - Registry Checklist

The first gDiaper we received - a gift from my moms best friend.

Continued from gDiaper Series Part 3 - Ways to Save Money on gDiapers (Yes You Can Afford It!) and More!

So, you've decided to cloth diaper using gDiapers.  Yay!  Now you're probably thinking "What the crap do I need to buy in order to do this thang?!"  Good news!  I have created a list (with links!) of exactly what you will need to cloth diaper using gDiapers until your child is 36 lbs!! (This is based on if you decide to use cotton prefold diapers as inserts.)

Here we go!!

gDiaper Registry Checklist

1.  8-10 of each size gPants -  small, medium and large 
(Notes: Each gDiaper comes with one gPant and one pouch.  These can be found on gDiapers.com, Amazon.com and Babies R Us and Target also carry *some* as well.  I personally recommend purchasing through Amazon or gDiapers.com! Also, we never used the newborn size, small fit Heidi fine and she was 7 lbs. 12 oz. at birth.)
2.  12 extra pouches - 1 additional pouch for each gDiaper
(Notes: You will only need to purchase extra pouches for the small sized gDiapers IF you buy medium and large sized gPants at the same time.  Medium and large gPants use the same sized pouches so you can just take all the pouches out of the larges and to use when baby is in medium gPants and then continue to use all pouches when you upgrade to the large size gPants.)
3.  24+ cloth inserts
4.  Diaper pail
5.  2-3 Diaper pail wet bag liners
6.  60+ cloth wipes 
(Notes: I chose this shop because the size wipes fit perfectly when laid flat in the warmer we had selected.  Some people fold their wipes accordion style so that it pulls the next wipe up through the slot.  After trying this once, I decided against it because when the wipes were folded, not many would fit into the warmer at one time.  We just lay our wipes flat and open the top up instead of pulling the wipes up through the little slot.)
7.  Wipe warmer (optional)
8.  Travel wet bag 
9.  Diaper rash cream
(Notes: When using cloth diapers it is very important that you not use cream that contains certain chemicals.  This brand is very popular with cloth diaper mamas and is zinc and lanolin free, and also doesn't contain any petroleum products. Plus, it smells so good!)
10.  Detergent
(Notes: This is what we use.  Check out this link for other info/options, expecially if you plan on using microfiber/hemp inserts and NOT cotton prefolds!)
11.  Disposable items for emergencies/travel
(Notes: We have successfully gone on 2-3 overnight trips and a long weekend trip to California and cloth diapered the while time while traveling!!  Yay!!  However, I never take cloth wipes out of the house - they just take up too much space and I would only be able to take a few with me at a time.  We do have disposable wipes in our diaper bag which stay in there 100% of the time.)

Well, there you have it!!  That is literally every single thing that I know personally about gDiapers.  I spent a long time collecting my thoughts for these posts (which trust me, my thoughts are scattered about like you wouldn't believe).  I SO truly hope that this helps others to learn more about cloth diapering and gDiapers and also shows people that cloth diapering isn't so scary after all.  :)  Because if I can do it (and my husband can do it - and LIKE it) then you can!  Thanks for sticking with me!!  

The tiniest cutest cloth diaper hardly bigger than an iPhone (size small)!