Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter!!  We had a wonderful Easter weekend in Dallas this year.  Frankie woke up on the right side of the bed this morning and was (for the most part) a sweet angel all weekend.  This morning we woke up early and went to the first church service.  It was raining when we left our house, but by the time we got to church it was sunny and it turned out to be a beautiful day.  After church the Easter bunny came and brought Frankie a bunch of eggs and a stocked Easter basket.  His favorite gifts were his new markers and his jelly beans :)  This kid LOVES candy.  After lunch we headed up to the Four Seasons for their big Easter egg hunt and pictures with the Easter bunny.  Frankie's best bud Bennett was up there, so they got to hang out a little bit.  Frankie had an egg hunt at school earlier this week and his teachers told us he was not too interested in getting a bunch of eggs, but at this egg hunt, he was all over the place, and he may have gotten more eggs than any other kid in the room.  It did help that the room was half full of kids who were younger than him though.  Frank watched the big kids' egg hunt and he said it was absolute madness.  I am sure we will be there before we know it.  It was a little sad not to have a big traditional Easter dinner with my family, but I made some delicious enchiladas and that worked for us.  It was a great weekend spent at home as a family of three--only 10 more weeks until we become a family of four! 

Montreal Anniversary Trip



Here are a few pictures from our anniversary trip to Montreal! I have to admit that this was probably our worst trip ever.  I have had this annoying cold for two weeks, and it really made no sense to be going to a freezing cold destination while pregnant and sick.  Although it was great to get away from work and spend a few days of quality time with Frank, it was unfortunately not the relaxing, luxurious getaway we had planned.  Instead of just recapping our trip, here are some of the lessons I learned from this vacation:

(1) Do not travel to Canada in the winter (unless you plan to ski)
This lesson is so obvious that several Montreal natives felt compelled to ask us why on Earth we chose to vacation there at this time of year.  We heard "You need to come back in the Summer" or "It is so much nicer in the Summer" too many times to count.  I think I remember Frank asking me why i wanted to go to Montreal in the winter and telling me it was a stupid idea when I booked the trip, but I didn't listen.  I thought it would be romantic to go somewhere cold and cozy.  Oops.

(2) Pregnancy + coughing do not mix
I was coughing non-stop the day we left Dallas, and by non-stop I mean approximately 1 cough per minute.  I felt so sorry for the poor person who was sitting in the aisle seat next to me on the flight out.  Not only did I cough all the time but I also had to get up at least 4 times to go to the bathroom.  I discovered during this cold that when I could not walk and cough at the same time without risking inadvertant bladder issues.  This made walking through an airport, and walking around a city, extremely difficult and frustrating.  I had to wear a maxi pad and stop and duck into bathrooms ALL.THE.TIME.   Thank goodness I never had a true accident while out in public.  Ahh, the joys of pregnancy!

(3) Pregnancy + cold + cold weather can = asthma
On Saturday night, we were supposed to go out to our big fancy anniversary dinner that I had planned months ago, but instead, I was having breathing problems that scared me and sent us to the ER.  The issue started the first night we arrived when we walked across the street to a pub for dinner and I noticed that I was having some strange spasms in my chest while breathing.  It is so hard for me to describe, but it would feel like my chest was tight and I would have to gasp in for air for just a few seconds.  This happened a few times Friday night and then again all day Saturday.  I started to panic on Saturday and frantically researched "pneumonia and bronchitis and pregnancy" and saw enough scary things that I decided to go the hospital to get checked out.  The doctors checked my lungs and said they sounded fine, so they concluded that I was having asthma brought on by the cold, pregnancy, and cold weather.  They gave me a prescription for an inhaler and told me to use it only if necessary and to stay inside as much as possible.

(4) When a 28-week pregnant woman shows up at the ER, they take you seriously
We were seen immediately and whisked upstairs away from the rest of the sick people to the maternity ward where I got my own room with a bathroom.  This was nice and comforting at the time, but I am not-so-eagerly awaiting the bill to find out how much this special treatment is going to cost us. 

(5)  Montreal is nothing like Paris
The only similarities I noticed were that people speak French there and they serve a lot of similar food.  Otherwise, the two cities seemed completely different to me.  Although, we did go to Paris in the middle of Summer, so that may be influencing my opinion.

(6) Everything is really expensive in Canada
It is amazing to me how expensive everything is in Canada.  Frank paid $15 for two burgers and two orders of fries at a cheap fast food place.  He also paid $14 for a six-pack of beer from a convenience store.  The cheapest item on the room service menu was a $22 ceasar salad. I remember thinking the same thing when we went to Calgary/Banff a couple of years ago, so I don't think this problem is limited to Montreal. 

We stayed at the Fairmont, which was very nice, had great service, and was in a great location.  I had to stay in our hotel room for most of our trip, so I am at least glad that I had a comfortable place to stay. 

Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day!

Trimester #3

Well, I am 28 weeks pregnant tomorrow, and I am officially in my third trimester.  How did that happen!?  I feel like the second trimester just FLEW by.  We still have not done much to prepare for the new baby.  Frankie is still in a toddler bed in his nursery.  We have not moved him to his big boy room, and we have not re-painted the nursery.  We have ordered the furniture, but I have not ordered bedding or any other decorations.  I bought my sweet baby girl one pair of shoes, but I have not bought another baby item yet, much less inventoried what we have and what we still need.  My nesting insticts are kicking into gear, but we have been too preoccupied, busy, sick, and/or tired to make much progress on anything.  After we get back from our vacation, we need to get busy and make some progress!  I have a lot of great ideas for the nursery, we just need to get moving on getting them executed.

As far as the pregnancy goes, I am looking and feeling huge and starting to get uncomfortable.  I have a bad cold, so that coupled with regular pregnancy insomnia has been making for some sleepless and restless nights.  I had really bad heartburn for a week, but this week it has been much better, and I am hoping that this trend continues.  I have been trying to work out some, but it has only been like once or twice a week if I am lucky. 

Frankie has been acting like a maniac all week, and we are not sure if we need to take him back to the doctor or what is going on with him.  He was diagnosed with a double ear infection, bad cold/cough, and eye infection on Friday and has been on antibiotics since then, so you would think those would be working by now, but he has still been waking up at night and acting very emotional and irritable during the day, so we are not sure if the meds are not working or what is going on.  My cold is getting better, although I have pretty much lost my voice and I sound terrible. 

House of sick

We are a pathetic bunch here at the Bernardo house.  Frankie has a terrible cough, double ear infection, and an eye infection, and I also have a terrible cold.  We are spending a quiet weekend at home trying to mend.  I ventured out of the house earlier today to go to a baby shower, and I started to feel very sick while I was out, so I went home and tried to rest.  Frank has been sweet taking care of both of us.  I hope that we all start to feel better soon!  We are having some gorgeous spring weather, and we spent a lot of time outside today, which Frankie loved.  He still manages to look cute, even when he is really sick!

Six Year Anniversary!

Today my hubby and I celebrate six years of marriage.  He is currently on an airplane headed back to Dallas so that we can spend the evening together.  I cannot believe we have been married for six years already.  I love Frank with all of my heart, and I am so blessed and lucky to have such a wonderful husband.  We are headed to Montreal in two weeks to celebrate, and I cannot wait! 

I won the nap battle today!

Today, Frankie was absolutely refusing to go down for a nap.  I put him in his bed, and less than 10 minutes later he got out, opened the door, and went to the gate at the top of the stairs.  I went back upstairs and told him to go lie down and stay in his room.  We repeated different versions of this story for approximately 45 minutes when I called Frank (who is out of town) to ask him for help.  He told me to keep doing it until I got him to stay in his room (even if he was awake) for at least an hour.  It took about 30 more minutes, but I FINALLY broke him and he has not come out of his room for an hour and a half now.  I cannot see him on his monitor, but I assume he is on the floor sleeping because I cannot hear a peep.  At about the 1 hour mark, someone rang our doorbell and knocked on our door.  Miraculously, Frankie did not get up.  Wahoo!  I am so happy that I WON THE NAP BATTLE TODAY! 

To celebrate, here is a belly pic from 26.5 weeks pregnant:

We ordered Lily's furniture last week and I am going to order her bedding tomorrow!  I cannot wait until things start coming in!!

Frankie's menagerie

Frankie is currently sleeping with:  two stuffed dinosaurs (Rex and his "other Rex"), a yellow dog, his purple puppy, the Nemo fish, his pillow, his scooby doo blanket, and his "other blanket."  The stuffed animals rotate, and for awhile he and his "Velveteen" bunny were inseperable.  Every night he has to line all the animals up and make sure that they are all there.  There is hardly room for him in his bed!  It cracks me up.  I have also started to tell Frankie stories at night after we read books instead of singing to him like I used to do.  He always requests stories about animals, most frequently elephants or giraffes, and he often remembers the stories and makes up his own stories about the animals the next day.  It is so cute to see his imagination growing. 

Still a girl (26 week appointment)

We went back to the doctor again this morning for a follow-up ultrasound, glucose test, and OB appointment.  I absolutely hate that glucose drink.  It gave me a huge headache afterward.  The ultrasound looked great--no more fluid in baby's kidneys, and baby is growing right on schedule.  They estimated that she weighs 2.1 pounds already, which sounded big to me, but the ultrasound technician said that measurement is right at the 50th percentile for this point in a pregnancy.  They also confirmed that the baby is still a girl, so that was reassuring!  I gained a LOT of weight this past month, which I think makes sense considering how much tummy has also grown.  But I did not like the number I saw on the scale this morning...hopefully the weight gain will slow down over the next couple of months.  I wish I remembered how much weight I had gained at this point last pregnancy, but I just don't.  I also talked to my doctor about my near-fainting incident, and she said that it is most likely due to low blood sugar or low blood pressure.  She said that it is very common and did not feel too concerned about it, so I am going to try not to let it worry me either.  Overally, everything looks good and we do not have to have any more follow-up ultrasounds.  I go back for another appointment in four weeks.

A little scare & big boy bed

So, my "stress-free" trip to California turned out to be a bit less relaxing than I hoped.  I had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday to get ready and be at the airport in time to catch my 7:30 a.m. flight.  I got to the airport at 6:35, and for some reason related to the fact that my boss was trying to upgrade me and another traveler at the same time, I was not able to check in at the kiosk.  I also was not able to check in at the counter, and I had three different agents and managers working to figure out the issue until 7:15 when they finally issued me a boarding pass and told me to run to the gate.  I finally got to the gate and they let me board the plane.  However, even though there was an empty seat in first class waiting for me, I had to go sit in coach.  Can't people take pity on a pregnant lady???  My boss felt terrible about the whole ordeal, but I was just tired and annoyed by the whole thing. 

We made it to Palo Alto and to our firm's office there and worked until about 5:00 p.m. when we found out that the case settled.  We decided to move our dinner reservations up and go celebrate so we headed to a great restaurant and had a wonderful meal.  However, toward the end of the meal, I started to feel really hot and sweaty and then started to feel like I may pass out.  I excused myself and went to the bathroom and took off my jacket, sat down, and tried to relax.  I felt like I was in the bathroom forever, but it was probably only five minutes or so, and by that time I started to feel better.  But I was scared, and when I came back to the table, everyone could tell something was wrong and we got the check and left immediately.  We got back to our hotel around 8:30 p.m. and I immediately went to sleep.  I think I was probably just dehydrated from flying and exhausted from getting up so early, but I felt slightly off for the next two days.  I had headaches, random stomach pains, and I was also having some braxton hicks contractions.  Because our case settled, I hopped on a Thursday afternoon flight instead to come home early and then I took Friday off to rest and take it easy.  I think working full time and being super busy, along with raising an active toddler and dealing with the stress of Frank losing his job, has taken a toll on me, and I need to remember that this baby in my belly is the most important thing and I need to take care of myself.

While I was gone, Frank converted Frankie's bed into a toddler bed, and he LOVES his "big boy" bed!  I was so nervous about making this transition, but it has been going great!  He still slept until 9:00 a.m. this morning without getting out of bed, and he went down great for his nap this afternoon too.  Fingers crossed that he will take a good nap and that this whole process will continue to go smoothly.  We are going to keep him in the toddler bed until we get baby Lily's furniture and then we will convert his bed into a full size bed and move him into his new room.