Update on Annie -- 9 Months

Annie recently turned 9 months old. What a milestone for us! I remember seeing her for the first time in the NICU and wondering how on earth something that tiny could possibly survive, yet here we are.

We had her 9 month check-up last week and things went so much better than I could have ever imagined.  It has been such a long 9 months and yet things are looking so bright and she is making such great progress. 

STATS:  weight – 12 lbs 15 oz           length – 24.5 inches     

She is eating 4 solid foods a day and drinking 30-40 oz a day.  She takes 2-3 naps a day and wakes only once at night to eat, but at 12 lbs, can you blame her?! (We would love to be sleeping through the night, but we figure that will come when she weighs a bit more!)  She crawls and rolls all the way over.  She has also begun pulling herself up on things and she has begun cruising along things.  She pulls herself to a sitting position and she loves to interact with other people.  She is a very social person.  She can say Mama, Dada and Hey.  She loves to play with Elizabeth and she can grasp toys and knows how to push and pull them.

On the flip side, we can’t understand why she is still so tiny.  I wish she were a little bigger.  Her doctor wishes she were a little bigger.  When we spend time with other NICU moms I see their babies and they appear normal sized and then I see Annie and she so teeny tiny!  I am reassured by her health and developmental progress, but there is something to be said by my daughter barely graduating to 3 month clothing on her 9 month birthday! 

But hey, let’s look on the plus side, she is happy and healthy, and I pat Jason and me on the back for it!  We are good parents and because of that we have a micro-preemie who has made it and who is thriving!  Happy 9 months baby girl!  Your parents love you!!

St Marteen

St Marteen was our final port.  It was my least favorite but was enjoyable enough.  I thought it was overpriced and there wasn’t much going on. 

We arrived the first day of Carnivale which was super fun and we were very lucky to have that timing.  There was a ton of shopping to be had and a LOT OF WALKING.  We walked for miles along the beach and through the shops.  We walked through the city and around the port.  I wish I had a lot more to report at this port, but that was all there was to do.

 It was very hot and we had fun just checking out all the shops, but we really didn’t find any good deals, in fact just the opposite, but tried to enjoy ourselves anyway.  The funny thing is that a lot of the people we talked to said that this is one of their favorite islands.  They are probably the group that ended up at the Nudist Beach.  I might have enjoyed it more had I taken the time to do that too.  LOL!  Either way, it was nice to say I have been to this island, but it’s probably not one I would return to again.

St Kitts

Our next stop was St. Kitts.  St Kitts was really fun.  We hung out on the beach at the Marriott Resort with several members of the crew that we had made friends with over the course of the cruise.  They invited us along to the private beach that they have been given access to.  It was way fun.  While we were there one of the guests that was diving off the coast found an octopus hiding in a shell.  It was the coolest thing to see.  I was super excited to be able to see that.  I have never seen a wild octopus up close and personal. 

Another great thing about St Kitts is that they boast that their island has a population of 100,000 – 40,000 people and 60,000 monkeys – and boy they aren’t kidding!! The monkeys run wild there.  We were walking back to the ship and one just ran right up my leg.  You want to keep a hold of your bags though.  They have grabby hands.  I am not 100% sure they aren’t trained to do that, but I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt and just think that they are curious.  They are the cutest little things though.  They like to lift things from the local carts, including liquor bottles, so you can see some pretty interesting things. 

Overall, St. Kitts wasn’t our most exciting island but a great place to visit.  We had fun relaxing in the sun with new friends and then had fun walking the boardwalk and visiting with the monkeys!

St Lucia

Our next stop was St Lucia.  We were scheduled to do a nine mile zip line.  We were very excited for this visit.  We were told to prepare for rain the entire time and being in a rainforest certainly didn’t give us much hope for a better outcome, but we came prepared. 

The island was beautiful.  St Lucia is one giant volcanic island.  It is very small in size.  I think I remember them telling us that it was only 5 miles wide and 7 miles long or something like that.  That might even be a little generous.  Everyone drives on the opposite side of the street, so that took a little getting used to.  Also, they have over 60 kinds of Mangos that grow on the island.  They range in color from normal mangos like we are used to all the way through the rainbow.  They even have purple ones.  It was cool to see all the different kinds.  They are a very poor country though.  They gather water in big buckets on the roof of their homes.  It is gathered from the rain, heated by the sun and then used in the home.  It was very interesting to see how that worked.  Gas is over $7 a gallon there and milk is almost unheard of.  If you want a gallon of real milk you are likely to pay over $11 a gallon for it.  They have public schools and each school has a different colored uniform.  The neighborhood a child lives in is identifiable by the school uniform they wear. 

When we got to the zip line, we suited up.  I was very surprised by how clean they were and how concerned with hygiene the company was.  It was a very nice surprise.  We went through the extremely quick safety briefing, LOL, and then we were on our way.  I somehow got volunteered to go first as I was the only one in our group who had any sort of experience with zip lining – although let’s be clear that my experience is nowhere close to the kind we were doing.  LOL!

 The nine miles consisted of 15 platforms, a 50 free fall, a Tarzan swing, and several short trail hikes.  We went in a group with several other couples and it was very fun to visit with them and get to know them as we hiked along. Overall, it was a fantastic afternoon.  We learned a lot about the culture, had a wonderful time and we loved our tour guide.  I would definitely recommend this excursion to anyone visiting St. Lucia.  It was worth every penny. 

Barbados

Our next port of call was BARBADOS and was by far our favorite.  We will be adding this one to our MUST GO BACK FOR MORE TIME list.  This was an amazing place.  The locals were amazingly nice and the countryside was beautiful.  We had not booked any excursions this time so we got of the ship and we weren’t exactly sure what to do.  We went to the local tour office and asked what there was to do around town.  We were shocked to find out the cost of what they suggested to do.  We were not about to pay what they were suggesting.  While I was looking at brochures I came across a pamphlet for a local rum distillery.  Having missed the one in Puerto Rico I thought it might be fun to try the one in Barbados.  So Jason and I grabbed a cab and headed out. 

Turns out the cab rides in Barbados are super cheap.  The US dollar is worth a lot in Barbados. When we arrived at the Mount Gay Rum distillery, we had to wait a little while for the next tour to start.  We were invited to hang out in the bar area, grab a drink and visit with the bartender.  We most certainly did!!  The bartender, Ryan, was very friendly and super knowledgeable.  He mixed me the most amazing Rum Punch that would knock you off your feet but I couldn’t get enough of it.  I was starting to become concerned at what the cost of our bar tab might be!  LOL.  I asked him how much this was costing us and he laughed.  He said, “Juice is the most expensive thing we have on tap here.”  Turns out he was right.  Each of my 16 oz. Rum Punches was costing me less than $3 US.  LOVE IT!!  And the rum was amazing.  Jason and I ended up picking up a bottle and bringing it home with us. While you can get some Mount Gay rum in the US, you can’t get them all.  The one we love has to be imported and you can bet we will.  IT was so smooth, perfectly aged and wonderful!!  We got to taste almost every type of rum they make and so we were able to learn about aging differences and how to identify them.  It was so much fun and quite educational.  But WOW on being strong!  LOL. 

On our way out, Ryan recommended we swing by this great Cigar factory.  He hooked us up with this great cab driver who said he would take us.  Not quite sure what made me think it was totally safe to go with a cab driver we had just met recommended by a Barbadian bartender who had spent the afternoon getting us drunk, but hey, seemed safe at the time.  Our cab driver, who was super friendly, had all gold teeth, braided hair with a bright colored cap and a very laid back style, drove us up to this worn down apartment building.  It wasn’t until I was climbing the stairs to the second floor that I started actually worrying about whether it was safe.  Turns out, it was totally legit!!  IT was really a cigar factory on the second floor.  Handmade Barbadian cigars.  They were so fun to watch.  The woman hand made them and hand stuffed them.  Of course, they don’t tell you until you are standing there that all Barbados cigars are stuffed with 100% pure Cuban tobacco.  LOVE IT.  Because they are banded with Barbados seals they are safe to take onboard the ship and safe to bring in the US but I was assured that all Barbados cigars are made with Cuban tobacco.  Guess you learn something new every day. 

We tipped the cigar makers well, in return they gave our cabbie a free cigar, we purchased several and we were on our way back to the port.  We did some shopping around the tourist trap and then boarded the ship for the next port.  It was a truly great day.  We loved BARBADOS!!

St Thomas

Our first port was St Thomas.  Jason and I booked a tour group to go Open Water Helmet Diving with Sharks.  It was truly exciting.  For those that really know me, they know that I DO NOT like the water.  And that is NO exaggeration.  This was quite a feat for me to actually get in the water.  I was really calm and really excited to tour St Thomas and head to the water until I actually got there and got suited up.  Then the anxiety hit.  When I got down to the water edge, the water was so cold that I just about called it quits.  I started to walk down the ladder into the water and was stopped by our tour guide and was asked to exit the water.  The individual who had gone in before me was having problems equalizing the pressure in his ears.  Jason later told me that he would have sworn that once I got out I was not getting back in.  He said the look in my face said there was no way I was getting back in the water.  To be honest though, getting in the second time was a lot warmer.  The water felt much better and it was a lot easier to proceed. 

Let me tell you a bit about the equipment.  The helmet we were wearing weighed 75 lbs each.  They are designed so that we can wear our glasses, not get our hair wet and not feel quite so claustrophobic but man was it heavy.  Even under water it was heavy.

We went into the water in groups of 12 and we spent about a half hour 30 feet under the water.  We got to see a lot of cool things and got videos and pictures.  It was so much fun.  We got to walk around on the ocean floor and view wildlife.  It was very sporadic because it was open diving so the animals came and went at their own leisure.  What our group saw wasn’t necessarily what the next groups got to see.  It was pretty great.

 When it was over we got to tour the aquarium that surrounded the open water dive area.  The aquarium held arenas of other sharks, large tortoises, iquanas, starfish, crabs, and other fish and sea wild life.  It was a great day spent outside and I felt great feeling like I succeeded in overcoming a small part of my fear of water.