It's a Boy!

It is 1:52AM...I am officially 25 weeks pregnant. My math was off in the previous post, because apparently 40 weeks does not equal 9 months.  It's more like 9.5-10 months!

So even though I am 6 months pregnant, I still have 4.5 months to go...give or take.

At 20 weeks we found out we're having a Boy!  We had an awesome Gender Reveal party to share with our friends and family.  Those who could not attend we ended up Google Chatting with while they opened an envelope saying that it was a boy.  Those who attended the party popped balloons with little messages saying "It's a Boy!"... it was all very exciting! :-)

The ultrasound was weird, I had a delayed reaction because there was so much noise in the room...I was the last to react because I had NO idea what was going on!  (I really thought I was looking at a finger on the ultrasound! lol)  Oops on me!

Being pregnant with Baby Bernal (nicknamed BB)  has been such a trip.   At about 18 weeks I was able to feel him inside of me, poking at my belly... shifting around.  I can already sense when he's uncomfortable in the position I'm in and readjust to his favorite resting position.    It's such an awesome feeling.

What's not an awesome feeling are the constant trips to the bathroom, itchy skin, not being able to fit in clothes, INVOLUNTARY lack of sleep...

Also not having my St. Frances Cabrini students take part in the joy of this journey has really been difficult for me. :-(  They were there when Richie proposed, when we got married, and when we announced we were pregnant!  I thought I would have seen them now, but God had a different plan for me.  He's definitely telling me to stay put and transition to the new role of "mommy" and "house wifey" and "nesting."  It's like a new job with a constant learning curve.  Learning to go about it healthily is tough!  But I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

I do praise in Thanksgiving for no longer driving that AWFUL commute!  Our poor cars... they have suffered enough!

I just miss my SFC kids... and I hope they're enjoying their school year.

As for me, my life has been filled with church, private teaching, getting the house ready for BB, doctor's appointments, and trying to stay healthy for BB (which as of late, I've been really slacking on). I've also been trying to stay mentally stimulated because I know I won't have ANY time to read once BB arrives, so I joined a Christian book club with a few of my favorite Advocare Ladies.

Alright...it's 2:11AM...probably time for BB and me to go to bed.  When we wake up I'm going to be picking up my girl, Vien for brunch, get to an appointment to organize shelving for the nursery, window shop for BB, Visual Fields appointment for my prolactinoma.  Tomorrow is my glucose test which I'm SO NOT looking forward to (I've been so bad with sweets, especially this past week...of course RIGHT BEFORE my glucose test)....I'm praying everything is ok.

Goodnight.

2013 Update

2012 was a very blessed year. It was filled with LOTS of travel: France, Italy, New York, California, Canada...to name a few.

New friends: AdvoCare has played a big role in our lives. It has helped me and Richie immensely, both physically and financially. It gave us a new outlet to meet new, truly inspirational people. I am blessed to call them my friends.

2012 completed our first year of marriage, and here we are about a month away from our 2nd year. A couple months ago I finished my 3rd year of teaching music at St. Frances Cabrini School. It was very difficult to let go of this job because I loved it so much, but for the sake of my family it was time to let go. The commute is absurd and I was paid little to nothing, but I did it for three years because I knew it was God's plan for me...a true vocation. I learned so much from my students and staff, I just pray I did the same for them.

Because there is so much love in that community, I haven't let go completely. I will be doing an after school children's choir once a week and I will still continue on with private voice and piano lessons. I am still directing for St. Frances Cabrini Church, and I will also be leading a prayer group every other week.

It's extremely taxing to live so far from my community (two hours with the absurd average traffic...ONE WAY), but God has shown me it is clearly time to slowly wean off, which is what I am doing.

The biggest reason being that I am currently 17 weeks and 3 days pregnant with our first child. :-) In 2ish weeks we will find out the gender of the baby!

It's been such a trip. This has been our plan all along, but it's still so surreal. I don't feel anything yet, I don't look different in any way, which is probably why it's so difficult to believe, even after 4 months of knowing. But every time I see an ultrasound (3 so far) and hear the baby's heartbeat (2 so far) it brings me back to reality.

I think the most bizarre experience so far has been the ultrasounds. I don't know what I was thinking, but for some reason I thought the baby would be very still. Maybe because I haven't seen a live sonogram since I was little in my mom's office. But the baby was waving, kicking, squirming...so cool! I thought I would cry, or at least Richie would, but we were moreso in awe.

September 16th will be a completely different story, I'm sure! I have this feeling in my gut that once I know whether it's a boy or a girl, my reservations of shopping for baby are going to go out the window and I'm going to go nuts! Ohhh, my poor wallet. :'(

Please pray for our family's health. For Baby Bernal, for mine, for Richie's. Less than 5 months to go, pray that all will go well. :-) I'm praying that this new transition of no longer being SFC's music teacher will pan out well. I know they have a fabulous new teacher. They're going to love her, she's amazing. I'm just praying I can cope with the new change.

First plus I've realized: Time freedom is fabulous. :-)