St. Thomas it is!

Well after researching so many options we made reservations from Dec 29-Jan 5 in St. Thomas (USVI). We will also visit St. Croix and St. John during that trip. It seems the airfare is less if we add on a couple of days so we might make it a 10 day trip and come back on Jan 7. Paul's bday is Jan 3; this will be his first bday spent off the continental USA (although still within the USA technically). Yesterday I spent all my time researching cruises, and I had it narrowed down to three choices. I was leaning towards a Royal Caribbean cruise that left from Puerto Rico, but when Paul heard about the dress code for RCI cruises he was not interested in that! The idea of getting dressed up for dinner doesn't appeal to him at all! He's definitely a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy. The Norwegian cruise would have been better for him as you can get away with khaki type pants and a collared knit shirt for all dinners on their "freestyle" cruises, but by last night their cheaper rooms were all booked up. Plus yesterday I almost threw up at the smell of Paul's pizza as he ate dinner. So I thought a cruise at the end of the 1st trimester might not be a good idea if my morning sickness is still here. And we can't wait later to go on a cruise as then school starts back up for both of us. So this morning I did more research into non-cruise options and narrowed it down to Puerto Rico (a different resort than the one that had been available the last week or so) or St. Thomas and we chose St. Thomas. Now the fun begins of planning the details of the trip! We paid $139 for seven nights at the resort this morning, and then at the end of our stay we'll have to pay a $126 "energy surcharge" to the resort. But I still say $265 for 7 nights isn't bad. The airfare is a lot more to St. Thomas than Puerto Rico (twice as much). That was a big "plus" in favor of going to PR, but we didn't go on any vacation in 2007 so we can afford to pay a little more for airfare for our 2008 vacation.

I have been going to bed between 8-8:30 lately. Two nights ago I slept 10 hours! I didn't sleep as soundly last night so I will try to stay up later tonight. I am definitely lacking in energy even with all this sleep! As far as eating goes, I lost 4 lbs from week 4 to week 5 but since then have maintained my weight which is my goal at this point (not to gain or lose weight). I am learning what I should avoid. Chocolate is a definite no no as it leads to heartburn right away. And really I am learning to avoid sweets altogether which is hard for me! Yesterday I was doing pretty well in terms of nausea and heartburn until after I ate dinner I had a handful of marshmallows (left over from making sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving) and immediately the nausea hit and didn't go away for awhile. I threw the rest of the bag away to remove the temptation! Totally not worth it! I have started eating 2 yogurts a day instead of my usual 1 to increase my protein intake since I rarely eat meat. My second dairy product each day used to be ice cream, but I've only had ice cream twice in the last 3 weeks. Of course yogurt is healthier than ice cream!

Today is the second day of no shots since Sept 27. Tomorrow I'll have one shot of estrogen. My butt is appreciating the reprieve and the nausea is reassuring me that baby is doing okay even though I'm only on suppositories now. Of course I keep praying for this little one many times a day, and I am sooo appreciative of all the other people who have also told me they're praying for this little one. This little child just has NO idea how many people are out there interceding on his/her behalf many times a day. Wow. It's hard to express my gratitude appropriately.