I have been so lucky with my prenatal care experience this time around with Hattie. So lucky, that I’m now partnering with my birthing center, Baby+Co, to tell you mamas-to-be all about my babymoon experience! Baby+Co’s slogan says it all: A modern birth center, built on evidence, delivered with love. Learn more about Baby+Co here.*

Things are a lot different when you already have a child and are planning for your second (or third… or more!). Vacations take on a whole new meaning when you have a kid in tow. We like to call them “trips” instead of “vacations” now because these are two totally different things post-kid. Back when I had Jude, a Babymoon wasn’t really a big thing. They were slowly gaining popularity, but much like gender reveals and birth photography, they weren’t the norm. I was also in a much different place in my life when I had Jude and didn’t have the extra money to spend on vacations. This time, I was determined to have a babymoon, with my son too!

I try so hard to be superwoman ninety-nine percent of the time. So when I realized the only free weekend we had for a babymoon would be a little into my third trimester, I thought it was no big deal, even after my wonderful midwives at Baby+Co told us that the best time to travel is in the second trimester. While they didn’t discourage me from any of my traveling, they did provide great insight into how to prepare for travel.

I hate to say this… but boy, was I wrong! Not only did we have our babymoon in the third trimester, but it was after I came home from two weeks in Europe in my third trimester. I can officially say: I am superwoman no more. I did my best, don’t get me wrong, but I would have given anything to have pushed both trips back by about ten weeks. If you’ve read Autumn’s journey on the Baby+Co blog, you know that she traveled on her babymoon at 22 weeks. She is the real MVP here for listening to all of the advice given to her and going during trimester two.

While I struggled with travel, I know that my boys absolutely enjoyed the trip. Jordan and I picked up Jude from summer camp a little early on Friday. He had no idea what was happening that weekend, I’d only told him that mommy had a surprise for him. Summer camp completely exhausts him, so he fell asleep on the ride to the airport. Once we parked, I revealed we were going on a plane. His excitement was palpable as we took the shuttle to our terminal, went through security, and finally sat down at our gate so I could reveal our destination.

I somehow had procured a brochure for Legoland over the last year (don’t ask me how, but I’m a hoarder and things just appear out of nowhere sometimes – sorry, not sorry). I pulled the brochure out of my backpack and handed it over. Once Jude saw all of the legos, his excitement reached an all-time high. I explained we were going to Florida and the next day we would be visiting Legoland!

I think we can all agree that I now hold the title of mom-of-the-year. Sorry, y’all. I’m never giving this trophy back. 😉

After a short flight, we arrived in Tampa, greeted by a good friend of mine who graciously accepted my plea for a free place to stay while in Florida. She even drove us around the entire time we were there. Thuy is the definition of an accommodating host and I’m so lucky to have her in my life. Jude loves her a lot too. She took us both to Disney when Jude was two. Maybe her trophy is bigger than mine at this point…

Our “plan” was to spend all day Saturday at Legoland (Special thanks to Legoland for providing complimentary tickets for our trip) enjoying the rides and the waterpark and then we would spend Sunday relaxing on the beach. The beach would be my reward for surviving a whole day walking around a theme park. However, the weather was not in our favor (darn hurricane season!) and both days ended up being dreary and full of thunderstorms.

We made the best out of Saturday and while the rides were open only occasionally throughout the day, we did end up with a good two hours of time at the water park enjoying the wave pool and the lazy river. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Saturday:

Sunday ended up being spent bowling, playing arcade games, and then walking around and eating one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. If you’ve been following my pregnancy journey, you know that during my glucose screening, they found out that I’m anemic. I’ve never been a big meat eater, but this pregnancy has me eating meat all the time (baby girl gets what she wants!). Angela, one of my midwives, sent me a list of food items I should consume more of, in addition to taking Floradix twice a day. I love how accessible this kind of information is on my Maternity Neighborhood account. I can easily go back and see emails from the Baby+Co staff on my phone or computer and they have tons of useful documents in their library.

Since I have vowed to eat a lot more red meat per the advice from my midwives, and burgers are plentiful at both theme parks and restaurants around Tampa and St. Petersburg, I had three burgers in the time I was there. The picture of the one from Sunday does not do it justice. Just imagine heaven in a bun.

While my babymoon may not have ended with relaxing on the beach like I had hoped, I’m still glad I took the time to enjoy this last little vacay with my growing family. The look of excitement in Jude’s eyes throughout the weekend was enough to make it worth every ache and moment of tiredness. If there ever is a baby three, I’ll know to follow the advice of my midwives at Baby+Co and have a relaxing babymoon in my second trimester. Maybe we’ll even get to go alone without the kids. A girl can dream!

*While this is a sponsored post, as always, all opinions are my own.