Beach vacation!!

I realized something. My baby boy is so spoiled! He is only 2 and he’s been to the beach now 3 times in his life (4 times if you count while I was pregnant with him)?! I guess that’s what happens when you have a momma that loves the beach like I do!! I just can’t stay away for longer than a year- most of the time I find a way to go more often than that?! In the past 10 years I think I have gone at least once a year (sometimes more) except for 1 year. I have now been to the beach during both pregnancies, too?!  Haha! There’s nothing like that smell and the sound of the waves crashing. . . ahhhh, I sure do love it!

We had such a good time on vacation. Stratton was pretty good, for the most part. And the weather was awesome (for once) most days. We stayed at a condo in Orange Beach and it was on the smaller side, but it worked fine. We have been to Gulf Shores/Orange Beach at pretty much every time of the year- but so far this trip was the best as far as weather and it wasn’t crowded at all! I think we will plan to go back this time next year!

Wednesday:: Left Jonesboro around 4pm. Stopped for supper along the way and made it to Jackson, MS by 9pm. Checked into our hotel and hit the hay!!

Thursday:: We were in no hurry to get up early, since we couldn’t check into our condo till 3pm, we ate breakfast at the hotel and took our time getting ready. We left Jackson around 10am. Had lunch in Hattiesburg, and made it to Orange Beach around 3:30pm. We got all our stuff unloaded and went to the beach for a little sand digging before heading to supper at The Hangout. Stratton was really tired and was quite cranky. We still had to get some groceries, so we ran to Winn Dixie really fast. We got back to the condo and crashed. I was hoping that he would sleep late. . .

Friday:: Hit the beach early in the morning, Stratton got us up at 6am!! We got rained out around 11 am. Had lunch in the condo and a nap. Had dinner at Lulu’s and went into Foley for a quick trip to the outlet mall.

Playing in the sand on the beach

Playing in the sand at Lulu’s

We really love Lulu’s!

Saturday :: We were on the beach by 8 am, and S played hard! We went to the pool for a bit, then back up to our condo for lunch and a nap. Stratton had noticed the “race track” across the street from the Lulu’s entrance the day before, so Jarrod looked it up and to ride the go carts you only had to be 3 ft tall! So, after dinner at Doc’s we took Stratton to the Track and he got to ride with Jarrod in a go-cart! I was really nervous, but he loved it. I shouldn’t be surprised! We tried to get him to ride the bumper boats but after he saw some kids spraying each other with water guns, he decided he didn’t want to do that afterall, so they went for another ride on the go-carts.

There were lots of parasail boats

Yep. That’s my BABY on a go-cart!! He loved every min. of it!

Sunday :: I started feeling bad Saturday night. I was extremely sore and my whole body ached.  I woke up in the middle of the night with a fever. I guess it was just a passing thing, because after I rested Sunday morning I felt better by that evening. Jarrod was nice enough to take S to the pool Sunday morning so I could rest. Then we all took a nap Sunday afternoon. We went back down to the pool around 3pm and stayed for about an hour and then came in, got cleaned up and went to dinner at The Oyster House. We browsed the shops there, before heading in.

Haha- love this pic! They are really tired of the camera!!

Much better!

Can you believe how big he looks?!

“Stratton say cheese!”

Monday :: Our last day. Sigh. We spent the morning at the beach, it was so nice! The breeze was blowing and the temperature was perfect. Stratton had gotten much braver and would go up to the water by himself and even played right at the water’s edge. We stayed on the beach till after noon, till Stratton actually said “I wanna go in”. . .haha. This gal didn’t want to leave but I had to give in. We had planned to take S on a Dolphin Cruise. I had called on Friday and they said they had private parities till Monday, and the cruise time was 4pm. So I knew we wouldn’t have time to go back to the beach that afternoon. After we got S down for a nap I hurried to get ready. Jarrod just happened to ask about calling to make sure the cruise was still going out, so he called and guess what?! They were booked already?! On a Monday night?! Soooo. . .I was really disappointed. And I knew Stratton was going to be too. After all that’s what he’s talked about for weeks! We decided to just run down to the Crab Trap for dinner and then go back to the beach till dark and let S play. He didn’t mention the dolphin thing till on our way back to the condo and he teared up and threw a little fit, but once we got his bucket and hit the beach, he never mentioned it again! We stayed on the beach for a long time and then played in the pool for a little while before going in. It was after 9pm before we got Stratton in bed. Then we stayed up and packed everything and loaded the car. AND I had somehow come in contact with something that made me break out in an awful, ichy rash! I started taking benedryl every 4 hrs, but it looked horrible and man it was ichy!!

“Farming” in the sand

Jarrod and Stratton WAY out there. Stratton loved it.

Playground at the Crab Trap!

See what Jarrod does on vacation? Always with the Twitter?!

They are trying to write Stratton in the sand. . . .

. . . .before it washes away!

Tuesday :: Sad day. We were up and gone by 7:30. We made it to Hattiesburg and stopped to eat brunch at Cracker Barrel. We had to stop several time throughout this trip. Traveling with a pregnant woman and potty training child don’t really equal making “good time”. We actually stopped in Memphis at Gigi’s for some cupcakes!! Yay! And then had supper at On the Border- Mexican sounded so good after 5 days of seafood! We got home around 5pm.

We had such a good time. I’m so glad we are blessed with jobs that allow us vacation time. It’s the first time that we have been to the beach just the 3 of us and it was sometimes hard- but worth it. I just can’t even think that the next time we go it will be four of us!?

Stratton's diggin' the beach!

First full day at the beach and its been a long one! We got woke up by a beach ready boy at 6am! We made it down to the beach about 8am and stayed till it started to rain around 11. We ran up to the condo soaking wet! Then we had lunch took a nap. Stratton got up around 3pm so we decided since there was still a chance of rain that we'd go to Lulu's a little early and then hit the outlet mall. Stratton loved Lulu's probably because of the sand pile! We did some shopping and got back to the condo about 9:30, Stratton fell asleep in the car of course. It's been a good day but I'm tired! Looking forward to a couple of days with no rain in the forecast. . .hopefully!

Saturday night out with friends!

Saturday night we had a small get together for our friends Matt and Carla, who are expecting their first baby in a couple of weeks! We had already given Carla the normal “baby gifts” at her shower, so we all got Matt some things. We had dinner at Skinny J’s and let Matt open his “gifts”. We had such a fun time. I am so grateful for our group of friends, and hope that our kids will great friends, too!

 

Rachel, Carla, Me and Amy

Matt got some fun stuff! Razorback baby stuff from us (Carla is a Texas fan and avid Hog hater!), he got baby drumsticks for baby Sawyer (Matt’s a drummer) and he also got a pack of RedBull (for those upcoming all nighters!)

1st trip to the zoo this year!

We decided since the weather was so nice we’d try and take Stratton to the zoo after my Dr. Appt. We went to Copeland’s to eat lunch and then headed to the mall for a bit, I just knew Stratton would pass out in the stroller and get a nap before the zoo- I was wrong! We got to the zoo around 2pm and it was nice and sunny (there was a chance of rain) but it was HOT! Apparently all the animals thought so too, because a lot of them were no where to be found! The LR zoo was a joke compared to the Memphis zoo. The more zoo’s we visit the more I realize how great the Memphis zoo really is! We still had a good time, but only stayed a little over an hour since it was so hot!!

Clinging to J for dear life! He was scared of the lion!!

We stopped in Searcy on our way home and dropped S off with Jarrod’s parents for the weekend. I have a LONG to-do list for this weekend before we are off on vacation on Wednesday! I hope I can get it all done by the time Sunday rolls around!!

Whew! We’re already halfway there!

Pregnancy Stats:

How Far Along: 20 weeks

Size of baby: About the size of a cantaloupe, 6.5 inches and 10.6 oz

Weight gain: Finally gained some weight! 7 whole pounds!

Maternity Clothes: wearing only maternity pants now, can still wear some regular tops

Gender: Don’t ask?! {see below}

Movement: Still feeling lots of movement. Jarrod got to feel it for the first time last week!

Sleep: About the same, still tossing and turning a lot and finding it harder to get comfy.

Cravings: Nothing new here. Just hungry all the time!

Symptoms: Ichy skin, soreness and back pain

Best Moment This Week: Seeing the baby in 3d & 4d at our ultrasound!

20 week appointment: Our doctor’s appointment on Friday was at 10am, which means we need to be leaving at 7:30. Well. . . .we accidently slept in and didn’t get up till 6:30! To my surprise we were actually leaving our house at 7:45am! That’s record timing!! Especially for all three of us! We had the ultrasound scheduled first! I was so anxious and ready to finally find out if we were having a boy or girl! The u/s tech we had this time wasn’t the friendliest gal, and I know she had a lot to look for at this ultrasound (they try and find all the organs and measure a bunch of stuff to make sure the baby is growing normally and there are no problems) BUT she could have been a little more talkative- she said like 2 words the whole time! It took forever, she told us the baby was breach and she had a hard time getting the pictures and measurements she needed, and Stratton was getting restless, I was trying to be calm but then at the end she asked us if we wanted to know the gender (I assumed she already knew) we of course said yes, and she looked and looked and then said “I’m not seeing a boy, so I’m thinking it’s probably a girl”. I was so surprised. Last time it was the exact opposite!! We did get to see baby in 4d, she switched it over for us to look at, and you can’t see a whole lot, but the baby has mine and Stratton’s nose- I can see that already! After the u/s the nurse took me to get weighed, and we were talking and she asked if we found out what the gender was and I told her what the tech said. She said “Well, it’s a girl and I think it’s a girl are two different things” so then the nurse went in and talked to the tech and then she came in the room and told us not to get anything monogrammed or buy anything pink, that the results we not clear enough to really say one way or the other! They also said they didn’t get all the shots they needed of baby and couldn’t find it’s bladder at all, so they’d have to do another u/s at our next appointment. Another 4 week wait. . .  .this is getting old. Hopefully next time we will have the other u/s tech, too. She was much nicer and made it a better experience.

Otherwise the baby looks great. The Dr said it’s measurements are right on target, and everything looks normal. HB was good and my blood pressure was good. They did routine blood work again this time. The Dr. was actually also really surprised that they couldn’t make out any “boy parts” she said that the last u/s she was pretty confident it was a boy, even though they couldn’t tell for sure! Ha! So who knows!! It’s more of a mystery now than before!! My next appt is on May 25th, I will be 24 weeks, so this baby better be on it’s best behavior that day! Hopefully that u/s won’t be as long, either! Stratton was good but he just gets impatient in a dark room with nothing to do! He was also not at all convinced that the baby might be a girl. I think he’s in denial.  He kept saying “Noooo, it a boy!”. I guess we can’t really argue with him, I just throw in the idea that it MIGHT actually be a girl and he dismisses it immediately!

It’s hard to think about being halfway there already. I feel pretty good. I had an episode last week with my back. My guess is I carried Stratton around too much and pulled something. Anyway it took almost all week of babying it for the pain and soreness to go away. I got the Dr. to give me a script for some muscle relaxers if it should happen again! I am just starting to “show”. One of my friends at church told me that I actually look pregnant now- gee thanks! Haha! And another girl that we are not close to, asked Amy if I was pregnant, so that makes me feel pretty good, halfway there and people are just starting to notice? Not bad. I have gained a whopping 7 lbs so far. When I was 23 weeks with Stratton I had gained 18, so I am hoping that I won’t gain so much this time around. I am also feeling pretty good about my blood sugar levels. I feel a lot less bloated and swollen, I am thinking that’s a good sign and maybe I won’t have to mess with gestational diabetes this time around! Well see, at my next appointment I’ll have to do another 1 hour glucose test.

I guess we are just going to have to move on with the naming process. I thought I shouldn’t worry about it until we knew what we were having, but this could be a repeating problem so I guess we’d better go ahead and pick something out for both just in case! I’ve had a few people tell me I just need to wait until he/she is born now, since it’s already given us so much trouble. . .I’m thinking I can’t wait that long!!

Wore out from the weekend!

Friday night while Stratton stayed at Jarrod’s parents house and played with his cousin Archer, Jarrod and I went to the Sara Bareilles concert at Harding. Actually I went and he tagged along as my chauffer. But I think he was surprised at how awesome she was! I am so glad we went. I almost backed out because it was raining and I was really tired and it didn’t start till 8pm. . . anyway I’m glad we decided to go it was really good! She is amazing live! We got back to Jarrod’s parents house around 11pm.

We stayed the night in Searcy Friday night since our garage sale was Saturday morning. So we go up (really, really) early and were busy with the garage sale till about noon. Things slacked off so we called it a day! We sold SO much stuff! We haven’t had a garage sale since Stratton was 3 months old, so we had WAY too much stuff! We won’t wait that long till the next one, that much stuff equals too much work!! And since it was a 3 family sale, you can imagine all the stuff!!  Jarrod and I had mostly .25 and .50 cent items and we made almost $300! I was really happy we made that much with such little items. But I am mostly glad that we got rid of all that junk! After lunch and packing up the stuff we didn’t sale (we donated a lot of the leftovers to a local church), the guys took all the tables and racks down and Stratton and I took a nap! We got up about 4pm, got ready and then headed to KJ’s in Judsonia for Jennifer’s bday dinner. I got a huge plate of fish, shrimp and stuffed crab for Stratton and I to share. . . bad idea. That boy ate almost all my food! After supper we came back to Jonesboro and got home around 8:00pm. Sunday we didn’t do much. Since we had been out late and up early, Stratton and I both needed to catch up on some zzzzz’s so we both took a long nap Sunday afternoon!

Also, my phone crashed on Saturday. So, Saturday afternoon Jarrod had to go to Verizon and get me a new one, and of course my contacts won’t sync with this phone! Oh the joys of a new phone!

This week will be a short work week (Yay!), since I have an Dr. appt in Little Rock on Friday. It will be the longest week ever because they will do another ultrasound to determine the gender (again) and hopefully the baby will cooperate this time! It’s at 10 am, so hopefully by at least noon we should be sharing the news! I am really anxious!! We are planning on taking Stratton with us again this time, I hope it all works out. I feel like if it’s a girl, he’s going to need to hear it from the Dr. He’s convinced it’s a boy (baby brother) and even when we ask, “what if it’s a girl”- his answer is “but it’s a boy?” and looks confused! We’ll see. . . .

In other news, Stratton is doing awesome with potty training. The only time he is wearing a pull-up is to sleep in! He went all week last week without a single accident!! He got to go to TSC with Jarrod and pick out a new tractor! He got a John Deere spray rig, of course! He is excited about going to the beach and talks about it a lot! He is also starting to ask more questions about the baby. The other day he asked me “Mommy, we going to have a baby?”.  Then when I asked him if he would sing to the baby when it cries he said “Nooooo, we put him in his bed and shut the door when he cry”. . . haha!

Vacation?! Yes, please!!

I am sooo excited!! 2 weeks from today, I hope to be on my way to the beach!! And I’m telling you we NEED a vacation!!

This is a pic taken from the balcony of the condo!

Pretty much as soon as we found out I was pregnant, I started trying to plan our next beach visit! I knew I couldn’t go a whole year without at least one trip! And, yes I was just there less than a year ago, but to be honest, our trip last September (during the tropical storm) wasn’t a real beach vaca- since it lacked the sun, and we didn’t get to spend hardly any time on the beach! Plus that trip was a miserable! The tropical storm with all the rain and wind was bad enough, but then that poor kid drowned, and on the way home Stratton got sick- real sick- and that was awful! I hope we have better luck this time around!!

This time it’s just going to be Jarrod, Stratton and myself. We thought we’d better do something just the three of us while we can. We usually like to go with others to the beach, but it just seemed like we should have some family time before the summer and things get real crazy!! And plus, I don’t plan to travel very far after 25 weeks. I think the farthest I will be going is Little Rock to the Dr. and maybe the lake! (I’m even going to miss the Monsanto partner meeting in Kansas City in June- boo!) So it’s now or never for a vacation!

Our plan is to leave Wednesday, the 2nd, around 3pm and drive to Madison, MS and stay the night. Then we will get up and drive the rest of the way on Thursday morning, hopefully getting there around noon or a little after. We are trying to break the trip down there up a little to make it easier on Stratton- and me! And this way we’ll get a little out of the day on Thursday instead of driving all day long and getting there late!

We will be there from Thursday to Tuesday- 5 nights. Which seems weird, I know. But that’s just worked best with Jarrod’s schedule. We are trying to avoid him taking too many days off, since I’d rather him save as many as he can in the event that we have a repeat of what happened when I was pregnant with Stratton.

I am working on an itinerary (you know me, I have to have a plan!) but unless it rains (or we get scorched), I figure we will be spending all our time on the sand! Stratton is already talking about it non-stop!  He asks me almost everyday “We going to the beach tomorrow?”. . .I can’t blame him, I’m really looking forward to it too!!