Happy New Year!

I hope each of you had a very Merry Christmas and that 2008 has gotten off to a good start for you and your family. We spent Christmas morning and afternoon with Paul's family and then drove to MD to spend the evening with my family. We visited with them the next three days as well. On the 28th we had a family photo taken which is not an easy task with 5 children ages 5 or younger! We hadn't all been together for 2 years, and it will likely be another 2 years until we're all together again. There will be at least 6 children in that photo!

Most of the gifts we received were centered on BABY - children's books, a Snugli, baby view mirror for the car, maternity clothes for me, etc. My parents also said we could pick out a rocker or glider for upstairs (we don't have any chairs in any of our 3 bedrooms), and for Paul's birthday gift (January 3) they said we can pick out a crib. I will be able to rock baby to sleep and have a place for him or her to sleep! I normally wear a size medium in most things, so my mom had bought me some medium and some large maternity clothes (several shirts and one pair of pants). Well almost all of them did not fit. Most of the shirts had an empire waist (as most maternity clothes seem to have). Well it turns out that although I often wear dresses with an empire waist in non-maternity clothes - 99% of maternity clothes with an empire waist do NOT fit me At All. The seam hits much higher than it's supposed to and looks well just plain awful! So we went back to JcPenney, Walmart, and Motherhood to exchange the clothes for bigger ones and also ones without empire waists. We did find ONE shirt at JcPenney on the clearance rack that had a seam that did hit me correctly (and we got it). So it was a bit depressing to be buying large and extra large shirts, pants, and shorts especially as I'm only 3 months pg now! The non-maternity pants I was wearing while shopping were size medium and still fit perfectly fine so it was rather puzzling to me. Of course anything that buttons/zips does not fit any more. :-) Most of the clothes I wear you can't tell that my belly has grown, but if I flatten my shirt, you can definitely see my little baby belly!

December 29 we left my parent's house at 5am (thank you, Mom!) for the airport and flew to Puerto Rico and then to St. Thomas. After we checked in at our resort, we headed straight for the beach. Our unit was just a few feet away from the beach!!! We didn't even put on shoes when we'd head out. We spent 7 nights at this resort and 4 of those days we never left the resort. The other three days were spent at Coki Beach (great snorkeling!), Charlotte Amalie (touring Blackbeard's castle and such like that), and more great snorkeling at Trunk Bay on St. John. Then on January 5 we took a ferry to Tortola and spent 3 nights at a hotel within walking distance of Road Town (the capital). While on St. Thomas we ate breakfast and dinner in our unit (I went grocery shopping on the 30th) and ate out for lunch, but on Tortola we just had a hotel room (no kitchen) so we ate lunch and dinner out every day. Sunday we went to Cane Garden Bay beach; it was the only day of the trip that it rained for more than 3 minutes. We couldn't go snorkeling as planned, but Paul had a blast body surfing the waves! Monday we took a ferry to Virgin Gorda and went to the Baths where we walked through huge boulders (sometimes we had to practically crawl and other times we had to hang onto a rope as we walked across a boulder). We also went snorkeling here. It was quite an amazing beach! I would not have fit between some of the boulders if I had been farther along in the pregnancy.

So all in all we had a great trip. Paul got a cold (that most of my family had) and then I got it while on vacation and then after he had felt much better for about 5 days he had a relapse and wasn't feeling well again on Tortola. Adam had pnumonia, Susie and my dad had bronchitis, etc. Unfortunately I can't post any pictures yet. First of all, our camera was ruined on Jan 3 at St. John. Five years ago I bought a special aqua pack for our camera and had taken the camera with us for snorkeling etc many times over the years, and it always stayed dry. I am not sure if I sealed it incorrectly or it is no longer working, but our camera was ruined. I was hoping that at least the memory card was not ruined as although a camera can be replaced, pictures cannot (and I had taken quite a few!), but sadly today when I put the card in my laptop I learned that the memory card was also ruined. We bought a disposable camera on January 5, so once we finish using that and get it developed I can scan and post some photos from the last couple of days of the trip, but that's all we have.

We only bought one souvenir and it was for baby! We bought a t-shirt and short set that says "St. Thomas." We had a hard time finding one that would be okay for a girl or a boy - the shorts are lime green. I definitely don't want to buy any more clothes until we know the baby's gender as I don't want everything to be yellow or green, LOL!

January 1 was my last shot (estrogen), and Monday was my last day on the progesterone suppositories. Yahoo! Sunday (or Tuesday) I hit the 2nd trimester (depending on which EDD is used). I'll stop switching between EDDs once Dr. Owusu tells me what he thinks my EDD is. I can't wait for my next appointment (6 more days!). I am to meet with the nurse for 1 hour and then the OB for 30 minutes. I am not sure if I'll have an u/s or not. Of course I'd love to see baby again if possible!!! I am just looking forward to the reassurance that baby is still doing fine. The morning sickness and heartburn lessened during the trip, but I still have my moments (like I've had heartburn most of the day today). Emotionally that doesn't bother me at all as I find these "symptoms" very reassuring that yep I'm still pregnant. I definitely increased my activity level during the trip, so I plan to start exercising again. One of my sisters got me a pgcy exercise DVD for Christmas. I hadn't done much At All the previous 2 months - a big change from my routine of walking or jogging 3.4 miles almost every day. I did a lot more walking on the trip and also a lot of swimming. I still get very winded rather easily, and I still sit down if I start having any cramping, but I don't feel as scared about getting some exercise. Well I am exhausted so it's off to bed for me. I was sleeping about 11 hours a night on vacation! I doubt I'll sleep that long tonight, but I am definitely ready for bed!