Cabin Fever--snow week!

This week, Dallas has been colder than I can ever remember! On Monday night we had a really big thunderstorm which turned into sleet and coated all of the roads with a thick layer of ice. The temperatures dropped below freezing and are expected to stay there until Saturday! We have had wind chills of as low as 10 below zero, and we have had extremely strong winds all week. We live on a pretty steep hill, and the city has not come by to sand our roads, so we have been stranded in our house all week. I am having to get a little creative coming up with things to do and ways to get Frank to take naps, since I no longer have use of the stroller or car seat to lure him to sleep. His 2-month doctor's appointment has been canceled yet again, and is rescheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to make it!

I went outside to get the mail yesterday and I slipped and fell on the driveway. Then I got to the mailbox to find that it was frozen shut. Even the mailmen and delivery guys cannot get up our hill! I cannot wait for the weekend for temperatures to go up and thaw this nightmare. I hate being cooped up inside.

Frank has just started to reach for EVERYTHING, and he loves to touch things and feel different textures. Earlier today he reached out and petted Katy! It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. Here are a few pictures from this week:

Mr. Magoo

Frank is making the Mr. Magoo face in this picture! He is quite simply the cutest baby I have ever seen. We had a great week visiting with Grambo and Granny D, and now it is back to just me and my little buddy. He broke free of his swaddle on Tuesday night and did not sleep as well, but last night he slept from 9:30 until 7:00 a.m. Perfect! I am trying to get him on a schedule from 8:30 until 6:30, because that is when I think I will need to wake him up once I go back to work. I am officially going back to work on February 21. I am looking forward to getting out of the house and seeing my coworkers, but I am absolutely dreading taking Frank to daycare. We are taking him to a place that is right across the street from where I work, so that is comforting, and I know I can drop in any time I want to see him.

This weekend Frank did the cutest thing: he realized that whenever he would laugh, it made us laugh, so he sat there and laughed for about 10 minutes straight! He would laugh, we would laugh, and then he would laugh again, and we repeated. I wish I had captured it on video, because it was so adorable!

A quick update on Mr. Magoo:

things he loves:

• eating his hands
• being swaddled
• his rainforest activity mat
• sleeping on mommy's chest
• being held over the shoulder
• bath time
• smiling at mommy
• making everyone laugh with his laugh
• peeing on us when we change his diaper
• going on walks in his stroller
• being sung to
  

things he hates:

• getting his medicine
• the hiccups
• refluxing
• wearing hats
• wearing socks
• being hungry
  

Here are a couple of pictures from this week:

asleep on a walk with Mommy

tummy time!

jungle baby

Granny D

Jose, Uncle Andy & Frank

Family time

This weekend Frank's Dad, step mom, and Uncle Andy came to Dallas to stay with us for a few days and visit Baby Frank. We were so excited for them to come visit, because they had not been to Dallas since we moved here. My parents came up from Houston and we all went out to dinner together on Saturday night. It has been a wonderful weekend, and I am so happy that Baby Frank is getting to know more of his grandparents and that Frank is getting to spend time with some of his family. We spend so much time with my family because they are so close to us and we are so close to them, so it is nice to get to spend special time with Frank's family too. They cannot get enough of Baby Frank!

Frank has been doing so well since he began taking the new medicine. He is back to his smiley, noisy, happy self. He makes so many noises, I swear he is going to be an early talker. He is always looking around, making noise, and moving and squirming. He always smiles when I am changing his diaper, especially if he is about to pee on me. I swear he thinks it is hilarious when he does that! I think he is going to be quite the troublemaker as he grows up! He has also been **knock on wood** sleeping for 7-8 hour stretches every night for more than a week now. Last night, we got home late from dinner and put him to bed later than usual, around 10:30. We woke up at 7:00, and he was still not awake, not making any noises, and not moving around on the monitor. I was shocked, and I made Frank go upstairs and check to make sure he was breathing! Frank could not hear him, so he touched his leg, which of course woke him up. I am so happy that he is such a good sleeper, and I really hope that this trend continues! He has not rolled over since he did it twice that day a few weeks ago. Now when I put him on his tummy, he just lays there and eats his hands :) He is growing so fast, and I can't wait to take him in for his 2-month checkup to see how big he is!

Here are a few pictures from this weekend:

laying on my new quilt

beautiful handmade quilt from Aunt Alicia

three generations

Grambo, Uncle Andy, Frank and Baby Frank

Grambo and Granny D

sitting up like a big boy!

too many flashes!

cute outfit from Nana

hanging out

2 Months!

Happy 2 Month Birthday to my sweet little boy! I am so glad to see some smiles back on his face after last week. We don't have his official two-month stats yet, but he weighed 12 lbs at the doctor's office last week. He is a big boy!!! He is almost too long for the 0-3 month clothes. He is long and lean, just like his daddy. I cannot believe that it has been two months since he was born--time is literally flying by. Here are a few pictures I took this morning of little Frank:

hanging with my big stuffed monkeys

smiling up at the monkey mobile in my crib

chillin in the bouncy seat

Poor baby

Last week was a rough one here at the Bernardo household. On Monday, Frank started acting very fussy and sleeping terrible at night. He would go down for a 4-hour stretch and then keep waking up every hour after that. He also was screaming in pain and crying, nearly inconsolable, for long periods during the day. I also noticed that he was doing crazy things in his crib after I put him down--he would crane his neck as far as possible to his right side, almost like he was trying to turn it around 180 degrees, and he would simultaneously make very scary noises like he was gasping for air. Sometimes he would also throw up while doing this. I knew that something was wrong, so I researched "neck arching" and found a few You Tube videos for Sandifer's Syndrome, which is a symptom of acid reflux. Once I watched the videos, I knew immediately that was what he had. I asked my mom and Frank to look at the videos and see if they agreed with me, and they both thought I was crazy and overreacting. But, they were not here with me & him, and I just knew that something was seriously wrong. Thankfully, I trusted my instincts! I made a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and the doctor agreed that it sounds like he has Sandifer's Syndrome and acid reflux. He prescribed Prevacid and we started giving it to him that night. For the first couple of days, it almost seemed like he was getting worse. I basically got no sleep from Tuesday-Friday. I was a walking zombie, and it was so sad to watch my baby writhing in pain. I had suspected that he may have acid reflux before, and I was so upset with myself for not taking him in sooner.

Finally, Frank came home on Friday night and he got a little taste of what I had been dealing with all week. But Friday night, Frank went back to his normal sleeping pattern--he slept from 9-2 and then 2:30 to 7:30. So he was definitely getting better! He continued to improve over the weekend and even slept for 7 hours straight on Saturday night and 8 hours straight on Sunday!!! We are so thankful that the medicine is working and that he has started to feel better. It is really hard to give a baby medicine. The Prevacid comes in the form of a solutab that is supposed to dissolve in his mouth, but he does not know how to do that, and we have to make sure he does not choke on it, so it is quite the adventure trying to get the full dose into his mouth...but we are getting better at it!

Frank was so helpful and sweet this weekend. He knew that I had a rough week, so he took over the middle of the night shift and got up with Frank at night. He also gave me the whole day off on Saturday and told me to go get out of the house and do whatever I wanted to. I went and got a new cell phone and got my hair done! It was a much-needed little break. Frank left again this morning, so I am on my own again this week. I am hoping that it will be much more pleasant than last week was!

Baby's first snow

I thought for sure that Frank's first snow would be in Park City, but it snowed today in Dallas, so he got to experience his first snow right at home! Today is the perfect day to lounge around in comfy pants and drink hot chocolate.

baby's first snow

hanging with Uncle Tyler

BIG smile!

Mommy & me

This week I have been home with my little buddy while Frank went back to work in Kansas. This was the first time I had been alone with Baby Frank without my mom or Frank here to help me, and while I was a little nervous, I was also excited to start getting on a schedule and to have some quality bonding time with my precious son. This week has been amazing! I can't believe how much Frank has already grown and changed. We started loosely following the Babywise schedule on Monday, and boy, what a difference that has made! I love that Frank is now taking consistent naps throughout the day so that I can count on having large chunks of time to get things done. And when he is awake, he has been so much fun! He is finally starting to really enjoy playing with some of the wonderful toys we have been given. He especially loves laying on his rainforest playmat and looking at himself in the mirror and batting the toys. He has been smiling more and more lately, and he also makes the cutest little cooing sounds, some of which sound almost like giggles. I absolutely love playing with him and reading to him! I decided to establish a bedtime routine which includes a bath, reading him several books, and putting him to sleep in his crib. I just started putting him in his crib on Monday, and he is doing very well with it. He is sleeping from about 8:45 at night to 6:45 in the morning, only waking up once during the night, around 2:00 a.m. to take a bottle and then go back to sleep. It makes for about 9 hours of sleep for me, which is HEAVEN! I hope he keeps this up and eventually drops the 2:00 am feeding and sleeps through the night. It makes the days so much nicer when I am not exhausted from a hard night. Frank is also getting so much bigger. He eats much more than what the baby books say is "normal" for his age--typically averaging about 35 ounces a day--and he seems to be almost growing out of his 0-3 clothes already. I finally got brave and started cutting his fingernails, so I have let him out of the mittens and he has started to suck on his hands. I bet that he will eventually be a thumb-sucker. Big Frank comes home tomorrow, and I know he is so excited to see our son. We (finally!!) downloaded and talked on Skype this week, and it was really neat for him to get to see the baby. It is amazing that we have been long distance in some form or other for so long and have never done this before. The only bad thing about it is that i have to make myself presentable before our chats.

I have also been getting out and about with Frank a bunch this week. On Monday I took him with me to the dentist, and yesterday I took him with me to my postpartum doctor's appointment. Good news--everything at the doctor looks great! Bad news--I still have 10 pregnancy pounds to lose. We also went over to Amanda's house yesterday for a playdate with her sweet 8-month old daughter Lucy. Frank did so well while we were over there and was not fussy at all! He has been much less fussy this week in general, which has been a great blessing. I am really enjoying getting to spend so much quality time with my son, and I know that I will miss this a lot when I go back to work.

Here are a few pics I took this morning of Frank playing on his rainforest playmat in his cute new monkey outfit from Aunt Allison: