Hailey finished kindergarten on a Tuesday.  On Wednesday morning we got up and told her to get ready for a surprise trip!  She got ready super fast and kept asking where we were going.  We would not tell her or give her any hints at all.

In the car, all ready to go- so excited!

Hunter was not as excited, nor did he enjoy the car ride hahaha

When we got to Niagara Falls Hailey recognized the area from when we were there last year.  She still didn’t know where we were staying though.

The Great Wolf Lodge

She was just a little bit excited when we got inside.  She loved that she could walk around howling

Check-in isn’t until 4, but you can start playing in the water park at 1pm on your arrival day.  We got there around 2 and our room was ready when we arrived.  Yay!!  So, we went to go check out our room.  Instead of room keys the Great Wolf Lodge uses bracelets that you hold up to the door to open it up.  Hailey thought that was pretty fun!  We also added a credit card to our bracelets (mine and Rich’s) so that we could make purchases without having to carry any money or credit cards.

Our room

Hailey stayed in the Wolf Den- she loved it!  She had her own little room and her own TV.  She thought that was really neat!!  And it worked out nicely at night because I could put Hunter to bed out in our room (they provided a Pack and Play for him) while Hailey could stay up and watch TV.

More of our room

After checking out our room we got ready to head to the water park.

Hunter all ready for his first swimming experience.

We were on the lobby level (I had requested this), which I had thought was going to be the same level as the water park.  The water park was actually down one more level, but it worked out perfectly and I’m actually glad we were on the level we were.

We looked around the water park while we were trying to find a table to park at.  We brought Hunter’s stroller in with us, which worked out great!  I’m so glad they allow strollers.  He liked being strolled around while he watched all the action.  Then later when he was ready for a nap I had somewhere to put him while he slept.

Some of the water slides.  They are all actually much bigger than they look.  They go outside of the building and swirl around before coming back in, so it’s hard to tell how big they really are.

Hailey loved floating along in the Crystal River.  We spent a lot of time relaxing in there!

Then I put my camera away so I could swim too.  We stayed in the water park for quite a while.  Hunter took a little nap in his stroller while Rich and I took turns taking Hailey on the various rides.  She had so much fun!

Then we ate dinner at Antler Shanty.  It was a buffet, and the price was a little high ($22 per adult, $10 for a child) which we expected, so we weren’t shocked.  The food was just okay.  We decided we would not eat dinner there again.

After dinner Hailey got her pajamas on to go to story time.

Hailey loved story time!!  When I asked her if she liked it, she said, “No, I didn’t like it.  I LOVED it!”

The girl who did story time the first night we were there did an amazing job!  Her name was Jill and she was so animated that she kept my attention the whole time.  I can not say enough about what a great story teller she is.

After story time Hailey got to meet Wiley.

Then we went to the store to buy Hailey a wand so she could play MagiQuest.  She picked out a pink wand and a unicorn topper.  Then we had to pay for her to play the game.  The total was around $50.

At that point it was getting late so we headed to bed.

In the morning we ate breakfast at the Antler Shanty, which was a buffet again.  The food at breakfast was much better than it was at dinner.  We thought there were characters at the breakfast buffet, but we never saw any.

Hailey brought her wand to breakfast and figured out that if she cast her wand at a tree in the restaurant the tree would light up.

The tree lighting up.

Hunter during breakfast.  I loved that we could bring our stroller in, that was so much easier than trying to put him in a high chair.

Overall breakfast was much better than dinner.  (Price was $16 per adult and $10 for a child.) Our only complaint was that the service was super slow.  We had to wait forever for drinks and for plates to get cleared.  When we were trying to leave it took forever- I had to leave with Hailey and Hunter while Rich waited to pay the bill because it was taking so long.

I love the fireplace in the lobby.  Someday when we build our dream house, I will have a fireplace like this

Hailey posing in the lobby.

Next we did a Quest which was a lot of fun.  Hailey definitely needed help, so it was a fun family activity.

Then we were off to the water park for more fun!

Hailey had a blast:

Hailey and Hunter in the wave pool.

Hunter enjoyed the water too.  They had a couple of zero entry pools and he loved sitting in the very shallow water and splashing.

It was all very tiring, so he took a good nap in his stroller.

More water slide fun.

We played for several hours in the water park, then took a break to get something to eat.  To be continued in my next post.

The story of Hunter actually begins in September 2010.  I had my regular yearly checkup and decided to talk to the doctor about wanting to have another baby.  She told me that we wouldn’t be able to have anymore kids unless I went through infertility treatments.  I left the appointment feeling pretty sad because we knew we wanted another baby and I was afraid it would never happen.  I just wasn’t sure if I could ever go through the infertility treatments again.

Fast forward to April 2011… and no infertility treatments… after 4 positive pregnancy tests I finally believed it was true- I was pregnant!

Most of my pregnancy was pretty normal… I was very nauseous for the first trimester and everything made me gag.  I used to dread brushing my teeth because I knew it would start the gagging.  I never did throw up, I just felt awful.

The second trimester was great, as second trimesters tend to be.  We even went to Disney World for 10 days and other than being super hot and having sore feet it was a wonderful trip.

Hailey and me (24 weeks pregnant) at Epcot.  Hunter’s first trip to Disney!

Once the third trimester hit I was pretty exhausted!  It was definitely a much harder 3rd trimester than I had with Hailey.  I was trying to get everything done for Christmas before Hunter arrived so I was probably doing too much, but I was so exhausted!  Two days before Thanksgiving I started having a horrible pain on my right side.  It was probably the worst pain I have ever had and I could hardly even get off the couch.  I had also had slight twinges there before and had asked the nurse about it at my last appointment.  She had told me it was probably just ligaments being stretched and not to worry about it.  So I figured that’s what it was again.  On Thanksgiving the pain was much less and just felt sore.  It continued to feel sore but never as extreme as it had been for those 2 days before Thanksgiving.

The week after Thanksgiving I had an appointment and my blood pressure was a bit high.  Not super high, but considering mine is usually pretty low the doctor was concerned.  I also mentioned to him the bad pain I had been having and I was also extremely swollen.  He sent me for a non-stress test and everything looked fine.  My blood pressure was normal while I was laying down and Hunter was moving around a lot.  They put me on modified bed rest- told me no shopping, no doing a lot of walking around, and no heavy housework- but to just stay home and take it easy.  I did my best to do that…

That same week on Thursday night (December 1st) Hailey was in a parade with her dance group.  I couldn’t miss her being in the parade so of course I had to go.  Rich walked with her so that I didn’t have to do all the walking.  I waited with my parents to see her go by.  After she went by I took a step to take a picture of her and I tripped over a road block barrier thingee… the trip happened in slow motion but I couldn’t stop it from happening.  My hands and knees broke my fall, but I landed on my stomach.  Once we got in the car to head home I called the doctor and was told to go to the hospital to get checked out.  My parents stayed with Hailey so Rich could go with me.  They did a bunch of blood work and found that there were fetal cells mixed in with my blood, which meant something had probably happened with the placenta.  That could be fatal to me and the baby, so they kept me in the hospital.  In the morning they did an ultrasound and couldn’t see any bleeding or damage.  The levels of the fetal cells mixed in my blood were very low, so they said it was probably just a small abrasion.  But they wanted me to stay for 24 hours just to be sure everything was okay.  They released me that night with strict instructions to do nothing but a lot of resting.

At my next appointment (December 6th) the doctor told me that the ultra sound I had done while in the hospital showed the cord was around the baby’s neck.  This scared me and I told him we should do my c-section right away.  He told me that it is very common for a baby to have the cord around the neck and I should not be worried.  I was very, very worried though.  He had me getting non-stress tests every other day to make sure everything was okay.  I also called and had an extra one done because I didn’t think the little man cub was moving around enough.

That weekend I broke out in this rash on my side.  It was very sore and itchy.  Remember the bad pain I had on my side at Thanksgiving time?  Well the rash was right above that spot.  At my appointment the next week (December 13th) I showed it to the doctor.  He told me he thought it was shingles and he did a test to confirm.  He put me on some medication for it.  When I got home and googled being pregnant with shingles I was scared to death and spent the rest of the day crying.  Since I was at the very end of my pregnancy it wasn’t as bad as if I was in the beginning stages when it can cause birth defects.  The scary part at the end was that I could pass it on to the baby, giving him chicken pox, which can be very serious, even fatal in newborns.  As if I needed any extra stuff to worry about.

The doctor wanted to go ahead with the delivery as planned, so on December 16th we went to the hospital for my c-section.  I was so nervous, excited to finally meet my little man cub, but worried about my fall, the cord and of course my shingles.

Off we went to the operating room.  The minutes sure did crawl by waiting for the c-section to start.

Finally at 10:25 am the little man cub was born!

Welcome Hunter Andrew… 9 lbs, 20.5 inches

Our hospital stay was pretty routine.  I worried pretty much non-stop that he might get chicken pox, but he never did

2 weeks after Hunter was born I was running a fever and I felt awful.  Rich told me that I was fine, but when I called the doctor’s office, they wanted me to go to the emergency room (it was New Years Eve weekend and they couldn’t get me in at the office).  I decided to go to a walk in and found out my c-section incision was infected.  I found out almost a week later that it was staph and strep infection.  It cleared up and then came back a few days after I finished my antibiotic.  After a second time on the medicine it was completely gone.

Of course there have been lots of worries here and there since Hunter was born.  But the last month of pregnancy was rough- my fall, the cord around his neck and the shingles.  I know there were a lot of people praying for Hunter’s safe delivery and I know that’s why he is a healthy little baby today!  We are so thankful for Hunter!