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A LONG summary of our trip
I plan to expand this into a full on review for Trip Adviser 
Tuesday Jan. 31
Our journey began with our drive from Colorado Springs to Denver and 1 night in a hotel near the airport. We don't do offsite parking with kids in tow. It's just too much to try to lug luggage plus kids across a satellite parking lot. So, normally we pay the $$$ to park in the garage right next to the airport where we can rent a luggage cart and all that jazz. It turns out that a lot of the hotels run stay and park specials where you can stay 1 night and then park your car for 7, 14 or 21 days and that's actually cheaper than the close parking, so we decided to give that a shot. It worked out really well! We had a slightly less early morning on Wednesday, no luggage hauling across parking lots and they dropped us off right by the airport entrance where we easily grabbed a luggage cart.
Wednesday Feb. 1
Grabbed the 7:30 shuttle from the hotel to the airport. We checked everything except a backpack for each of us and the stroller and the Ergo. Ergo worked out really well for this leg of the trip. They let me walk through without taking DD out and then swabbed my hands. DS had a small tantrum at security. Sigh. They don't require kids to remove shoes anymore but he saw everyone without their shoes and then had a fit that we wanted him to keep his on. DH got him through though. The flight was pretty turbulent but both kids traveled pretty well and DS even took a short nap. In Cancun we had a private van reserved. The most challenging part was getting our luggage from baggage claim to the van. We had 4 adults and 2 children and between us there were 2 car seats, 2 backpacks, my parents' very small carry-ons, 3 suitcases, 1 hanging bag and 1 duffel bag. I wore the baby and pushed the toddler, drug a suitcase and wore the backpack. Good thing it was a short walk. Once we got to the van the rest was easy. The van driver loaded everything. We got ourselves in the van (kids in carseats) and took off! At the ferry dock someone loaded our luggage on a luggage rack right away and got the luggage on the ferry for us for a small tip. The most stressful thing about this is that our luggage was temporarily out of sight. On the other end we drug our luggage to the end of the dock and then loaded it all on to a bicycle cab. My dad and my sister's fiance (now husband) accompianied the luggage. The rest of us took a short break so that DD could nurse and then we walked the 12-15 minutes luggage free. We ate dinner at the hotel and then crashed.
Thursday Feb. 2
We started off the day with breakfast at the hotel. The continental breakfast was fresh fruit, granola and yogurt. We added huevos rancheros which were pretty darn good and we ended up adding that on every morning that we ate at the hotel. DS even loved it. After breakfast I was going to hand off DD to my dad and go get my nails done. This is when DH noticed that DD's toe was turning purple. Seemed that something had gotten wrapped around it and was cutting off the circulation. It was probably a hair. DH messed with trying to get it clipped off for a bit. We didn't want to pull it because that was just going to make it tighter. Finally we decided we needed a doctor who would hopefully have better tools, so my dad ran off to find someone to help. The hotel staff called a doctor to the hotel. Well, it turns out they had actually called an ambulance to the hotel. The EMTs (or the equivalent) came in and didn't speak any English, but the hotel staff translated for us. we ended up in an ambulance on our way to the hospital. The hospital turned out to be basically a room with a bed and some iodine. I was stressing. I thought they were going to have to cut some kind of hair off her toe and I was imagining them cutting her with some rusty tools and ending up with some kind of infection. Luckily, the doctor (who spoke English) looked at it and decided that whatever had been cutting off her circulation was already gone and that the remaining redness and swelling was just from the injury. They decided not to charge us and we left. Good thing DH pays good attention because then we got to walk back to our hotel. And, sure enough, within a few hours the redness and swelling were greatly reduced. The indentation is still in her toe and we are having our own pediatrician look at it tomorrow. We were back at our hotel before noon and went out on the beach with DS. That day he was loving the sand. By the time we got to lunch he was falling asleep at the table and DH was successful in getting him down for a nap. Hooray! We wandered around downtown a bit in the evening and got dinner away from the hotel.
Friday Feb. 3
We decided to make this our adventurous day. We rented a golf cart and piled in. DH and my dad sat in front with DS in between. My mom and I sat in back and I had DD in the Ergo. DS LOVED the golf cart. First stop was a turtle farm. Good fun for the toddler. Then we continued on with a tour of the island, stopping for lunch. By the time we were done, DS was exhausted but we had missed his "window" and he absolutely would not nap. Sigh. That night there was a cocktail hour for wedding guests from 8-10. DS was in bed by around 7, but with so much family there we were able to alternate care a bit and step out and visit. Tequila was flowing (I did not partake, LOL, but my dad certainly did).
Saturday Feb. 4
Wedding day! Unfortunately the forecast called for rain so my sister and her fiance spent a good part of the day debating what to do. They thought about moving the wedding up but had no idea how to tell people. They thought about moving it inside, but really wanted to have it on the beach. They decided to just risk it and come wedding time it was pouring. Boo! So, the hotel staff moved everything to the covered (but still open) restaurant area and they had the ceremony as close to the beach as possible. We still had to wait for a break in weather because there was a bit of a walk from the room where we were hanging out and the restaurant, so the ceremony started 1.5 hours late. Oi! A few hiccups. They don't rehearse weddings in Mexico, so we were all a little unsure what to do. The men escort the women in, which is different from typical here and then we weren't all sure where to stand. The officiant didn't know that my dad wanted to give my sister away so he stood there ackwardly until my sister interrupted and asked that they do that. But, they are married and that's all that matters! By the time the ceremony ended and dinner was done, DS was asleep at the table and we had to depart the festivities. But, the ceremony was lovely and so was dinner. My sister's new SIL had put together a slide show with pictures and video (I had contributed the photos and such on our end but the end product was a surprise). It was really nice and had my sister bawling! We sat on our patio and had champagne and cake and listened to the party for a while and then turned in.
Sunday Feb. 5
Relaxation day! We went downtown for breakfast and then went back to the hotel where we hung out on the beach. DS decided he didn't like walking on sand or in water but he wanted to be in the ocean, meaning that he wanted one of us to carry him into the water. What a diva, LOL. Did I mention that at this point DS hadn't napped since Thursday? His nighttime sleep was ok but he was becoming more and more crabby as he missed more and more naps.
Monday Feb. 6
Travel day. My parents spent the morning haggling with the hotel over the bill. We spent the morning getting all of us packed. We left the hotel around noon. My dad got in a cab with all our luggage and the rest of us walked. At the dock we paid a guy with a rickety luggage rack to load everything onto the ferry, so once again the bags disappeared from site. We rode the ferry across and a man with a much nicer luggage rack lugged everything from the boat to our pre-arranged van. At the airport, another man loaded all our luggage onto another cart and drug it all the way to the ticket counter for us. We checked it all in and forgot about it for a while! Again we had DS in the stroller and DD in the Ergo. In Mexico, everyone gets to leave their shoes on which actually makes things quite a bit easier. But, when I got to the front of the line, they made me take my sleeping baby out of the carrier. Bummer. Travel was smooth. DS slept most of the flight. In Denver, we got through customs easily. Carts were free for international arrivals! We loaded everything up, met the shuttle to go back to the hotel where the cars were parked and then finally got in the cars and drove the remaining 1.5 hours home. DS slept until 7:30 this morning, which is unheard of. Hopefully he takes a good nap today!
General:
-I nursed exclusively except for 2 bottles during the wedding. I pumped Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings which produced plenty of milk for that time. I used the Medela bags that hook directly to the pump and cleaned the pump using the Medela wipes. We used playtex drop in bottles, but really, we could have just brought 2 clean bottles, but we weren't sure how many bottles we would need/want.
-I'm actually unsure what the culture is in Mexico surrounding things like nursing in public, but I nursed all over the place and no one acted offended or said anything.
-It's almost impossible to get in a comfortable position to nurse on an airplane.
-The Ergo was a godsend.
-My toddler has all kinds of new vocab words: Mexico, golf cart, wave, sand, lounge chair
~Working Mom~Breastfeeding Mom~Cloth Diapering Mom~BLW Mom~
Blog - No Longer on the DL ~ The Man Cave
Shawn and Larissa
LO #1 - Took 2 years and 2 IVFs ~ DX - severe MFI mild PCOS homozygous MTHFR (a1298c)
LO #2 - TTC 7 months, surprise spontaneous BFP!
Re: A LONG summary of our trip
4 losses: Blighted ovum 1/11, CP 12/11, CP 3/12, and our perfectly healthy baby girl Charlotte Grace, missed M/C 5/31/12 at 8w5d
Surprise unmedicated BFP 9/21/12!! Beta #1 9/22 (10 DPO): 46 Beta #2 9/24 (12 DPO): 226! Heartbeat 136 bpm at 7w! It's a BOY! Theodore Joshua 5/23/13 7:36am 7lb 13 oz, 19.25 in
Married Bio
Holy cow, we're going to have a little sister!!
How did you work out the sleeping arrangements?
Sounds like everyone was very helpful while you were there
There was some room swapping when we got there and saw the room they had put us in. We ended up in a pretty standard room with 2 double beds. DH slept with DS in a bed pushed to the wall and I slept with DD. There was no fridge, so we drug the fridge from my parents' room to our room.
~Working Mom~Breastfeeding Mom~Cloth Diapering Mom~BLW Mom~
Blog - No Longer on the DL ~ The Man Cave
Shawn and Larissa
LO #1 - Took 2 years and 2 IVFs ~ DX - severe MFI mild PCOS homozygous MTHFR (a1298c)
LO #2 - TTC 7 months, surprise spontaneous BFP!
I am glad you got it figured out. The fridge thing sounds annoying though.
*photo removed*
how was your trip?
~Working Mom~Breastfeeding Mom~Cloth Diapering Mom~BLW Mom~
Blog - No Longer on the DL ~ The Man Cave
Shawn and Larissa
LO #1 - Took 2 years and 2 IVFs ~ DX - severe MFI mild PCOS homozygous MTHFR (a1298c)
LO #2 - TTC 7 months, surprise spontaneous BFP!