Restos of 2022 & start to 2023.

2022 finished off in what seemed like a crazy tornado in so many ways. After arriving back from our USA trip, Luke had a few more weeks of daycare where he still was getting quite sick. In August, I didn’t have any classes and we opted not to put Luke in the summer program, and it was during this time he became “potty trained”. I cannot find the asterick on my new computer, however I say this because to this day, he still refuses to poop in the potty, most days he wakes up and immediately poops in his diaper. Oh yes, he still uses a diaper for nap and for night time. This is so ironic because when we were in the US he had the joy of pooping all over my parents garden, on the big stepping stones, on the rocks, but suddenly when the time came to remove diapers he will only go in them! If there is a day where he doesn’t poop in the morning, he will generally ask us to put on a diaper or do it after his nap. I didn’t even think twice in including this in my blog but am just thinking back to 2011 when I started documenting travels and experiences and never really thought I would write a paragraph about poo. :P Joys and new adventures of mom life!

Anyways August was potty training and lots of meet ups with our mommy group friends, eating strawberries in the park, festivals, beach, and paddle boarding. . September was back to school and work, and surprisingly Luke had I think 5 weeks of creche without getting sick! What a miracle in comparison to the previous year where it seems impossible but nearly every week he had something! It was also in August where I became pregnant again. I had a gut feeling almost since the very beginning that I was but it took a while for the tests to become positive. I also had a funny gut feeling it was another boy from a few weeks into the pregnancy.

In October we had a trip planned to visit the Portuguese island of Madeira, which I was very excited about! Unfortunately just a few days before our trip we had the traumatic scare of our lives when Mel had a frightening episode at home which turned out to be a stroke. I took her on a walk, she was energetic and well behaved as normal, when we arrived back home maybe 20 minutes or so later, it seemed like she had hurt her leg and got off the couch and was complaining. Then she started sitting on her tail and limping when she walked but was also quite scared of moving. Finally, her whole body was kind of shaking and she was breathing so hard we could hear her heart beat so loudly and see completely down her throat. Joel immediately grabbed her and took her to the emergency vet. When he arrived there she was doing the strange walking thing and as soon as he was called, she had another one of the crazy breathing episodes. Joel grabbed her (all 45kgs) and brought her inside and the vets all started calling for the stretcher and all the staff suddenly appeared and she was whisked away into the back, Joel just watching from the window until he could no longer see her. After about 20 minutes they told him to go home and they would call us with an update. Gosh details feel so fuzzy now, maybe the pregnancy brain or just trying to forget the scary moments. Anyways they tried to get her stable and comfortable throughout the night. She continued to have these scary episodes and the episodes were causing a lot of extra stress on her already stressed body, so they called us around 11pm and asked if we agreed for them to sedate her into a coma. Having her in a coma would reduce her bodys intense reactions to the episodes and hopefully they would stop. The vets also didn’t know how she would react, if she would be able to come out of the coma, etc. It was a very rough night emotionally thinking about the worst that could happen. In the morning, they called and said she did have a pretty good night under the coma and only had one or two more of the episodes. The next plan of action was to slowly take her out of the coma and see how she woke up. As the coma wore off, everything seemed to be going well. We were allowed to visit her at 8pm. Joel and I went one at a time and the vets and staff said it was the first time they saw her wag or tail or have much reaction to anything. She was laying in a cage, hooked up to lots of IVs and machines but when she saw me she lifted her head and wagged her tail so hard. I hugged her and cried and cried. Writing this now, my eyes are even watering. Over the next 4 days she continually improved and was able to come home the day before my birthday. We were allowed to visit her each day and the last two visits they let us walk her around the garden outside. During one of the days during her stay she was taken to Porto to have an MRI. Which came back with the best prognosis possible which was that she had a stroke with an unknown cause. She came home after 5 days in hospital and slowly recovered. She had epilepsy medication for a few days which continued to affect her walking, however after she finished her medication she made a complete recovery walking and running normally and even her stamina as well… or as much stamina as she had before her stroke. :P We have had a few follow up scans and bloodwork done to rule out any other problems that may have been a cause, and so far everything has come back normal. All of this to say, pets really really enter into our hearts and souls and the thought of them sick and unwell causes so much suffering to the family! We did have to cancel our trip to Madeira but we will have to reschedule for another time!~

In November we did a little gender reveal at home in my birthday cake! It had some blue frosting inside and we are all very excited for another boy! Otherwise it was another month of sickness for Luke and I so we didn't do a whole lot from our normal routines. In December we decided to take Luke out of school again to try and get everyone healthy again, I knew I couldn't handle another sickness or another rib problem. We had fun together at home, preparing for Christmas, visiting the library, and so on. It was also a very very rainy fall, from October- mid January we didn't see much sun or dry days. Christmas in Soito was so much fun. It is so cool to see Lara and Luke interacting now that their age difference seems so much smaller. Lara calls Luke "Lukey". Lara was really good at sharing toys and being completely understanding when Luke claimed something as his and didn't want to share something with her. And she gave Luke a great example of sharing her toys with him! Sharing is still a work in progress but one day we will be there! Santa rushed around the days before Christmas trying to find Luke's red tractor, which was ordered very early Santa only realized a few days before Christmas that it was missing from the deliveries! So he ordered another one, and then searched in the local toy stores and found one eventually, so we ended up with two but Luke got his red tractor which he had been asking for for many many months prior to Christmas. It has a trailer and pedals so Santa hoped Luke would love to use it in place of his formula one race car which seems so small now, but he hasn't quite fallen in love with his tractor yet! Maybe one day, and in the mean time he likes to walk it around or put things in the trailer.

I was also invited to be a judge for the annual figure skating competition again in December. This year, they had three qualified Spanish judges, so I was there mostly just to learn from them. I wasn't sure I would even go because I was so sick and Luke was with his avos and we had taken him to the Emergency room because after what started as an ear infection kept developing other things and antiobiotics weren't changing anything and his fever continued. It turned out to be adenovirus but we were lucky his case wasn't as severe as many others we heard about. Anyways the skating competition much more organized with the help of the Spanish Judges, and we had a lovely dinner together in a neat restaurant in Covilha.

During the Christmas break I made the decision to quit my Business English teaching job. The work I was needing to put in and the same hourly rate being paid without a raise after some time, and a very unorganized boss all helped make the decision somewhat easy for me! Since January Luke and I have enjoyed spending 2-3 days a week at home together . I'm not sure if that is what helped or he is just getting a stronger immune system, but he was only sick one time in January and just for a few days and then later in March he infected us all with covid.

In Febuary we enjoyed a trip to the zoo in Porto with some friends and their toddlers. Luke celebrated Carnaval at school. The theme of the march was " Artists take on the street" and Luke's class was dressed up as little painters. I saw him in the beginning of the parade and then at the end, he ran to me and wouldn't stop crying so I had to join in the parade until they got back to school.

Bosch was a sponsor for the event Tedx Porto, and Joel was able to get us some tickets. We were really excited because a Portuguese-American journalist, Mariana Van Zeller who we love from the show Traffiked would be the final speaker of the day! I had no idea that a Tedx event would be different from sitting in an auditorium listening to speeches all day, but the event was very different from that! We had free tickets but ticket prices were around 70 euros which included lunch including beer/wine, other drinks, plus all the coffee break snacks, which I believe there were 3. It was in a huge convention center and there were lots of innovative ideas and booths to walk around and see. There were also free samples of different coffee, vegan popsicles, etc. The Bosch Booth hosted Mariana for another Q and A session and we got to go up and chat to her before the session as she was just hanging outside the Bosch Booth. She was so lovely and when she asked where I was from she told us she was just in Phoenix filming an interview with a guy in prison for trafficking bones. :O haha We were also really surprised to enjoy what the other speakers had to say. They also had a comedian "recap" all the speeches and that was quite funny. most of the times, I used the live translation. I didn't even realize there would be translation available, however sometimes it was quite challenging because I would hear the audience around me laughing or seeing pictures on the screen but I would only hear that part many minutes later. Towards the end I decided I would just see the accent and speed of the person speaking and decide if I was better off to listen live or with translations. I would love to attend another Ted talk one day, it was a great experience. After we found my favorite Mexican restaurant in Portugal so far. Joel accidentally ordered 8 tacos instead of 4 but managed to eat them all!

The next day, Joel started feeling very sick, and not just his normal man flu. I convinced him to do a Covid test because another friend described feeling the same, and sure enough those lines went pink right away. Finally we had confirmation that our home tests worked and wooo we finally caught covid 3 years later! Everyone was telling us we are soo late to the trend and now we are supposed to catch disease XYZ. I tried to isolate from the boys as much as I could and also wear a N95 mask, but a week after Joels test, I had a sore throat and my test also came back positive! Luckily I was no where near as bad as Joel, just runny nose, and sore throat, however that sore throat still makes its appearence every night 3 weeks later. :(

In March, we enjoyed some lovely sunny days and more play dates in the park with friends. There were also plenty of rainy days as well. We did a last minute picnic birthday party for Luke on what turned out to be a perfect day! The only surprise was the park I picked, which is completely desserted during the week, was completely full in the picnic area! So there wasn't a single table for us, but luckily a few of our friends who were running late grabbed their camping picnic table and I told everyone to bring their picnic blankets etc. We had lots of snacks and told friends if they wanted to bring something to share they could. Joel and I attempted to make another Lightning Mcqueen Cake as requested by Luke but it didn't turn out quite as nicely as last year! :P We will have to keep watching more cake boss. The picnic was a great time, Luke had fun helping himself to cupcakes, chourico, and all the other delicious snacks which were right at eye height for him to easily grab. Although the friends we invited were from several different groups everyone seemed to have a good time together. I'm looking forward to more picnics with friends as the summer approaches!

At school, we were also invited to join in Luke's class birhtday celebration! I made a super huge peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Luke loved having his classmates sing to him and he blew out the candle in an instant!! The morning of his birthday we also decorated the living room, had a pastel de nata for his breakfast and he opened some presents. His biggest was a basketball hoop from Grammy & Grandpa! Then during the weekend, his avos came to visit and we had a little celebration with them as well.

Easter was the following weekend and we had a lovely Easter egg hunt at Annie's in laws house in Agueda. Grammy and Grandpa joined in and we had lots of fun. On Sunday, grammy treated us to delicious Easter dinner of ribs and Jorge came over too! The Easter bunny also stopped by our house to bring some eggs with treats and a big Easter basket filled with clothes, puzzles, new animals, and more!

Ok pregnancy round two notes…

I had picked out a new Ob-gyn prior to pregnancy. We asked the front desk ladies in the clinic for a young, energetic, English speaking female doctor and they delivered the perfect one! For Luke’s pregnancy we went to doctor most renown in the city, a male, probably similar in age to my parents who started the very successful private clinic and is also the director of the maternity in the hospital. So, when I had my first appointment and mentioned already having some morning sickness, the doctor immediately said there was medication I could be taking to improve that!! What?! I suffered like 10 weeks or so in the first pregnancy but there were pills for that? With Luke I was advised to take these huge pre natal vitamins that often made me completely ill and were impossible to swallow. This doctor just asked about my pre pregnancy diet, and how I was eating and said I only needed to get my folic acid in. A small pill I could easily take every day. The nausea really improved a lot with the pills, I still had some rough moments, but in general I could be active and do stuff. I didn’t feel like my life needed to be glued on the couch to survive. Unfortunately when the weather got a bit colder and Luke brought home some viruses, I had a terrible cough and sometimes this lovely cough first thing in the morning made me quite still have lots of throwing up. While that was annoying, at least it was done with quickly! Unfortunately the weeks and weeks of coughing led to huge pain in my ribs. The first time it hurt so badly I thought I must have pneumonia or something because when I coughed I felt like someone was stabbing me in the ribs. I went to the private hospital ER and was very frustrated was that the only thing they could offer was tylenol and there was nothing else to check or do because of pregnancy. Unfortunately even tylenol wasn't doing anything for the pain i felt with this cough, i tried to brace myself in any position prior to a cough but it felt like nothing changed. I finally started coughin less and the rib pain went away only to be struck by another virus 10 ish days later, where that rib pain directly back. Unfortunately this time it came on faster and seemed to spread to my back and made me feel like i was unable to breathe. After my doctor advised me not to use the private hospital ER anymore because they don't have any specialists in Ob-gyn or internal medicine doctors I tried going to the public hospital for some help. I arrived around 2am with a yellow bracelet (your bracelet color determines your severity and how fast you will be seen, the colors are like a stoplight), After spending 4 hours in the room and hallways full of people sleeping on hospital beds, and most of the waiting area chairs (desingated only for yellowe bracelets), I saw only one or two peoeple get helped, I wasn't even sure if these people were being seen by Doctors or nurses. I walked out and when business hours arrived, I contacted the chiropractor thinking that the pain in my ribs which spread to my back was probably the culprit, and not any internal problem. Unfortunately I couldn't get an appointment with the chiropractor I like but found that we had another one practicing in the area with an opening that day! Thank goodness!! Chriopractors are still mostly unheard of here, both of them in Aveiro completed their schooling in the US but are Portuguese. After suffering for so many days with pain in my back, ribs, collar bone, and part of my neck I finally had some relief and that was huge. After finally healing from about 8 weeks of being sick, almost constantly I finally was feeling better and happy to get exercising again to reduce those little aches and pains that I think come when you aren't exercising in pregnancy. Anyways everything was smooth until my 26 week appointment when they saw that unfortuantely my cervix length was slighly shorter than it should be, which probably wasn't a huge deal but coupled with the fact the babys head was sooo low in my pelvis already the doctor became concerned. At this point, I had to stop exercising, walking, lifting, etec and basically try to do as little as possible. The reduction continued at a similar length at my 30 week appointment so I had to continue with reduced activity. This week, (33 weeks) I got some good news that the shortening of the cervix had slowed and as I am so close to safe delivery day, I could start slowly easing back into movement. This time around everything has felt sooo fast in comparison to the first time, until this final countdown! haha it feels like it is lasting forever, but not many weeks left now! We are so lax about the preparation this time around but i think that's normal, we already have all the essentials and really just need diapers, we will get a stroller extension for Luke, and we need another carseat base. Everything is ready, just waiting for a friend to loan us their bassinet and we are good to go! I feel like i've learned so much more about giving bith and such since Luke was born, but also because his birth was a positive experience I am also slacking a bit on studying and preparing like I did for him. I'll be on top of that in the next few weeks.

The most beautiful family/maternity photos from our friend Pedro.

Other belly bumps. :)

My parents arrived on April 6th and moved their flights a few weeks earlier to be here to help us in case the baby decided to come early as doctors expected. Well, we still havent' reached the due date yet but I do have dilation already and it could literally be any moment! We are really excited that the time is almost here! I hope we can make it to the hospital I want to go to as their facilities are far better than the ones at our nearest hopsital but only the little one will have power over that! :P