Weekend Wrap-up: our Florida trip + surgery + recovery

We have so much to catch up on! I didn’t blog last week while we were in Florida, but I’m glad to be back. Let’s rewind to last Friday – I spent most of the day frantically trying to get Coop and myself packed. I started packing Monday, but it always seems to get a little crazed the day before a big trip. Here is all of our stuff. I wasn’t sure if it was going to fit into the bag we were sharing…

It fit! We checked one bag and carried on two. It worked out great for us.

We met my family at the airport and all had breakfast together.

A Bloody Mary during the flight? Yes, please.

Our flight went well – Coop did great. We grabbed lunch once we landed and then threw our suits on to hit up the pool for a little bit before dinner.

We stayed at the Tradewinds resort in St. Pete. They were doing a bunch of remodeling/construction on the building we were in, so that was a little crazy to navigate, but the resort was pretty. They have five pools – a baby pool, three family pools, and an adult pool. We spent our mornings at the baby pool, which is next to one of the family pools, and after naps, we usually walked to the beach, which is right behind the resort. I drank so many piña coladas. They were incredible.

Little man was obsessed with the ocean and loved jumping through the waves with us. It was so fun to watch him.

We had a blast trying new restaurants. I had a seafood dish every night and loved each meal I had. This was a tuna dish that was incredible from a place called Rumfish. We walked to every restaurant from Tradewinds, so everything is pretty close by.

My sister and her family, my parents, and my grandparents were all on this trip with us. It was so nice to spend time together.

I sure do love these boys.

I had the stuffed grouper at Snapper’s and it was SO good.

We watched the sunset on the beach most nights. Coop loved waving good night to the sun. It was adorable.

Just doing a little work in the bathroom while Jake put Coop to bed. Ha! We shared a single room, so once Coop was asleep, we went to bed, too. I needed to do a little grading one night, but the door to our room was suuuuper loud and always woke Cooper, so I got everything set up in the bathroom to not have to leave our room. It worked great!

Just living his best life as king of the baby pool.

This seafood pasta was outstanding. This was from a Greek restaurant called Skidder’s right across from our resort. So. Good.

Oh look, another piña colada….ha!

Jake won gold in getting Coop to nap at the pool. I could never get him down; we always had to go to our room for naps. But Jake always did it! My hero.

Our naps always looked like this, which I soaked up.

Dinner our last night was at Mad Fish and it was maybe my favorite place. Coop loved it, too.

I had the Chilean sea bass and it was delicious.

One last night of watching the sunset on the beach.

Coop was sad saying goodbye to the beach, but we already can’t wait to take him back.

We landed in Springfield Thursday about 2pm. My parents dropped us off at our house about 3pm, we unloaded all our stuff, and hopped in our car to head to my preop appointment for surgery Friday. It was a crazy day. After my appointment, we grabbed a quick dinner with Jake’s parents and then came home and I tried to unpack/start laundry since I’d be down for the next few days. My surgery was scheduled for noon on Friday. Jake let me sleep in Friday morning, and I woke up to Coop in this onesie – Strong like Mommy. My sweet boys.

Jake’s mom came over to spend the day with Coop and we headed to check-in at the surgery center about 11am. WARNING – right below this picture of me smiling in the hospital gown is a picture of part of the mass they removed. There’s no writing above the picture, so you won’t miss out on any reading if you want to scroll past the picture. But the blue thing in the picture is part of the mass they took out – it was almost the size of a 32 ounce Nalgene water bottle. Huge.

Once my surgeon got in there, he saw that it wasn’t even my tubes that were the main issues. He did end up taking out both fallopian tubes – they were both covered in scar tissue and one did have fluid in it, but the huge mass we had been seeing was not either of my tubes. My surgeon thinks it started out as a cyst and just kept collecting fluid and growing. He drained it completely, and took the rest of the mass out along with my tubes (this has all been sent to pathology). I don’t need my tubes for IVF and when he asked me about keeping them at my preop appointment, I told him to take anything that looked sketchy, so that’s what he did. I still have have both ovaries, though one had a cyst on it, but he removed that, too. He told me he can’t imagine how much better I’m going to feel not having all of that in my belly.

My sweet friend, Chelsea, brought over Peking House and flowers Saturday afternoon.

Our sweet neighbor, Ellen, brought over dinner Saturday night. We felt so spoiled all day! I felt pretty decent the day of surgery (Friday) and wasn’t in too much pain the morning and afternoon the day after (Saturday), but I didn’t take pain meds in the middle of the night like I had done the night of surgery and I woke up in so much pain. It was awful. I felt like I couldn’t move. I immediately took my medicine and went back to sleep.

Just a little band practice after dinner Saturday night. Cooper is probably our best band member on the maracas…ha!

We also made an ice cream run because I wanted a chocolate milkshake. We ate our ice cream outside while Coop ran through the grass.

Jake has been my rock the past few days (as always). Poor Coop has an ear infection – Jake took him to urgent care Saturday morning, so we got him started on antibiotics right away. But between Coop feeling lousy and me recovering and not being able to help at all, Jake has been taking care of both of us. We’re so thankful for him! Coop isn’t sleeping right now unless he’s touching one of us, so it’s just been a rough few days!

I felt okay yesterday afternoon, so I did a little meal prep – Italian chicken and veggies. We’ll put this over rice. Quick and easy.

Jake went back to work today after a whole week off, so we’re really missing him. My mom came over to play with Coop while I worked. I can hold Cooper, so I’m okay at home with him, but if he gets wild of wants to be held for a long time, I start to hurt. I’m thankful the worst of my pain is behind me. Ready to recover and get back to running!

Happy Monday, friends!