Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Bernardo family, including our little pirate and our precious Lilybug!  Mommy had a very stressful day that ended with a 2-hour commute home from work and left us all scrambling to get the kids dressed and ready to go trick-or-treating.  I had hoped to take Lily out for a little while, but we got too late of a start and she was ready for bed pretty much immediately after these pictures were taken.  Instead, Grambo and I took Frankie around the neighborhood, and he had such a great time.  Grambo dressed up as a pirate too, so he and Frankie were pirate mates.  Very few houses in our neighborhood participated this year, and that was really disappointing.  But, we made the most of it and Frankie still ended up with quite the haul of candy!  I hope everyone had a wonderful and Happy Halloween!

It really is magical!

Last week, I started to feel desperate after a couple of days of work, with me being sick, Frankie being sick and waking up at least one time a night, and Lily continuing to wake up multiple times a night.  My friend Astyn had mentioned a few baby sleep products, one of which was Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit.  The product looked crazy (see the picture above) and I was skeptical that it would help, but the reviews on Amazon were terrific, and I was desperate for a sleep solution, so I ordered one.  It arrived last Thursday, and I used it for the first time last Thursday night.  It was nothing short of magical.  That first night, Lily slept all night long--from 6:45 p.m. to 7:15 a.m. without waking up or making a peep.  We have been using it for a week now, and about half the nights she has slept all the way through the night.  If she does wake up, it is between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m., and she wakes up for a quick four ounce bottle and then goes right back down.  She gets drowsy and usually falls asleep immediately after I put her in the suit.  It almost looks like a puffy snowsuit, but the material is designed to make babies feel cozy and to muffle their startle reflex so they do not wake themselves up as often.  It also helps prevent babies from rolling over as easily in their sleep.  I am so so happy we found this product, as we are ALL sleeping so much better now!

Priceless

Tonight, Frank and I put Frankie to bed together.  This is something that we have never done before (which is hard to believe!), and the time we spent was so precious to me.  Frankie was so excited to have both Mommy and Daddy give him a bath and put him to bed.  I had a super long day today, waking up at 5:00 a.m. to go to the gym and having to stay at work late to deal with a last-minute client issue.  Frank had to pick up the kids, and I did not get home until 6:45.  I had to pretty much immediately get Lily ready for bed, and I had immense Mommy guilt over not making it to school to pick the kids up.  Frankie seemed to be mad at me (Frank always thinks I am imagining these things, and who knows, maybe I am), so I wanted to spend some extra time with him before he went to bed.  Even though he can drive me crazy sometimes, I sure do love my little boy so much.  I miss all the one-on-one time we used to share, and I am glad that we took the time to make him feel special tonight.  Seeing his smiles and hearing his sweet prayers for our family are priceless.

Back to work

Last week I returned to work after four glorious months of maternity leave.  I had a lot of work-related stress during my leave, which unfortunately lasted pretty much right up until the week I went back.  I can't really talk about what happened, but let's just say that it completely stressed me out.  Going back to work and leaving your little baby at day care for the first time is stressful enough, so I was extremely frustrated to be dealing with work stress on top of the ordinary apprehension about going back to work.    I was very sad to leave Lily that first day, but at the same time, it was a lot easier than it was to leave Frankie.  This time there were no tears!  I think everything is just a little bit easier the second time around, because you have already been there and done that and you know that everyone is going to be okay.  I knew that I was ready to go back to work, and I knew that Lily would be fine at school with her brother.   Sure enough, when I picked her up, she was smiley and kicking her legs and very excited to see me.  She has been the same every day since.  She is always happy when I come to pick her up, which makes me feel good about her being there.  She is having a hard time taking naps (which I expected), and now she begins her nighttime fussiness earlier than normal so we are having to readjust our nightly routine a bit.  We used to all eat dinner together around 6:30 p.m., but now I am having to start Lily's bedtime routine at 6:00, so I am starting to feed Frankie earlier, around 5:45, so that I can put Lily to bed by around 6:45.  It seems soooo early to put her down, but she has been doing well with the earlier bedtime, so we are going to stick with it as long as she needs it.

I was sick last week, which made going back to work even more fun.   The week started off rough, but it seemed to get better every day, and by the end of the week, I feel like we had a pretty good routine down.  It is crazy that we don't even get to change clothes until after 8:00 p.m., but we are surviving.  I took a hiatus on my half marathon training last week since I was sick, but I ran my 8-mile long run this weekend and will resume my weekday runs at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.

It has been nice to go to work and get dressed up and use my brain in a more challenging way, but of course I miss my time at home with sweet Miss Lily.  It definitely makes me cherish our time together on the weekends that much more!  And I miss getting to watch TV.  And having time to work out.  And naps.  

Baby doll

I just wanted to do a quick post with these pictures I took tonight in our backyard of our sweet baby girl.  She has a bit of a cold and has been a little fussier than normal this weekend, but taking her outside always makes her happy.  We have had some awesome weather lately, and it was nice to sit outside and enjoy the gorgeous evening.  Here are some sweet pictures of Princess Lily Mae:

Liliana's baptism

Last weekend, our sweet girl Liliana was baptized.  We had a wonderful time celebrating her special day with family and friends.  She looked absolutely beautiful in her special christening outfit (it was ridiculously expensive, but made in the USA so Frank approved!), and she was so good during the church service.  We had a lunch reception at the Four Seasons after the ceremony, which was very nice.  Lily was good for the first half hour of lunch, and then she decided she had enough and became super fussy.  We had to cut the lunch short and bring the cake back to our house so that she could go down for a nap.  We are so thankful to Nana, Papa, GG, and Great Grandpa for making the trip up from Houston, Grandma Helena coming in from California, and for Auntie Allison, Daniel, and Kristi for joining us in this special day.  My brother was not able to make it, but we were able to face time with him during the lunch, so it was nice that he got to experience part of the special day.  We hope that Lily is able to enjoy a close relationship with God, and we are blessed to have chosen wonderful people as her god parents. Here are some more pictures of Lily's special day: