Baby Shower

This is my latest Facebook status:

"Just got home from my BABY SHOWER! Jai and I are so happy (and very very surprised!) Thank you so much to everyone who made this possible! Sorry po hindi ko kau maiisa-isa, ang dami! :)) Basta, kulang pa po ang sabihin kong MARAMING SALAMAT sa family ko & sa in-laws ko (who set this up!). I love you all! Our baby loves you too!!!"

Jai and I were quietly eating pizza at the dinner table while watching the news earlier this evening. I had no idea why there were so many containers of maja blanca on the table but I didn't bother to ask. My mom-in-law works for the local government so I thought she was involved in some kind of feeding program or there was some kind of potluck party she was going to attend.

Little did I know the hunch was almost accurate.

She was looking through a pile of hand towels not too far from where I was standing when she asked me to get her two bibs.

"Bib po?"

I turned to my husband.

"Parang wala ata tayong nabiling bib..."

My mom-in-law (or Mama as I like to call her) said, "Meron akong nilabhan."

My husband then asked, "San kukuha?" I knew he was as puzzled as I was.

Then I remembered one of our cabinet drawers full of hand-me-down baby clothes. "Dun po sa cabinet namin?"

Mama nodded.

I hurried upstairs to retrieve the bibs and handed them to mama. Then, back to pizza.

A few minutes later I decided to ask her what the bibs were for. I couldn't help it, I was too confused. She replied with a simple "May gagawin lang ako."

I had no idea why she needed those bibs. But then I thought maybe she was going to a feeding program, and she was gonna give away some hand-me-down stuff for the less unfortunate babies.

When my sis-in-law Yayie appeared I asked where they were going because she was dressed up. She replied, "Ewan ko sa Mama."

A few minutes later the househelp emerged from the kitchen with bowls and bowls of food. Jai even helped them load all of it into the car, but just like me he didn't bother to ask what all the food was for.

About after an hour I got a call from Mama. She told me Nonoy (bro-in-law) was going to pick us up. Uh ok. "San po pupunta?" She gave me an honest answer and said, "Dito sa mga inay," pertaining to Mendoza compound.

I don't know why but I had this weird feeling that she was smiling while she said that.

When Nonoy came to pick us up I asked him, "Anong meron?" He just said, "Ay awan!"

By this time, the question marks in my head were on top of each other.

As we parked in front of the Mendoza compound gate, I noticed someone in the car in front of us got out. A familiar face. Ninang Mayet! What was she doing here, I wondered, but again, I didn't ask. I stepped out of the vehicle and warmly greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. In the car was her family, and they got out too. Again, my head was spinning. Why on earth are they here in Batangas all the way from Paranaque at this hour??

As Jai and I entered the compound, I saw a lot of details all at once.

The whole Mendoza clan. Gang's all here.

Pabitin. Who's the party for?

Food. Is it someone's birthday?

Videoke machine. So it must be someone's birthday.

My cousins. Then my sisters. Then my MOM.

What are they doing here?!

At that point everybody applauded and yelled and whooed. That was when it hit me.

IT'S A SURPRISE BABY SHOWER!!!! FOR OUR BABYYYY!!!!

I was in shock. Speechless. I didn't know what to do or who to thank first. I snapped out of it and pulled myself together. I greeted my family, and then kissed my mom-in-law on the cheek at told her my heartfelt thanks. They were all asking me if I knew what was up, but the answer was always NO. Jai and I were so clueless!

Then, dinnertime. The games started right after. And before everyone went on his way home we took a few family pictures and then the party was over. My baby was showered with beautiful gifts by the end of the night. :)

This has been a very wonderful experience because it's the first time I've been given a surprise party. And what makes it extra special is that it's not only for me, but for my daughter as well. I didn't even think there would be a baby shower at all because I never had the chance to talk it over with Mama, and because the Batangas City fiesta and my little sister's singing recital will take place this coming weekend so I was certain that the timing was just screwed. Well apparently I was wrong all along. I am so touched that people actually made time and effort to make this baby shower possible, and no words can explain how grateful I am for this incredible gesture. Surely this is proof that my husband and I are loved and so is our baby Girl. She's a very lucky child to have so many people love her.

I wanna get this baby out NOW!!!! I've never been so excited in my life!!!!

January 12, 2010

*more photos in my Facebook account

The Pregnancy Diaries 6

Welcome to my first blog entry for 2010!

As of now I am 33-34 weeks far along in my pregnancy. There's only four to seven weeks to go, but somehow it feels like the big day is taking too long to come. My body can only take too much of the pregnancy pains. I wanna give birth like... now.

If it's up to me I'd choose a cesarian section straight off the bat. Nowadays it's practically a painless procedure and there's always morphine to kill the post-op pain. And the best thing about it is I get to choose my baby's birth date. Downside? A c-section never comes cheap. So it's gonna be the natural way for me. The "ohmygodi'mleaking" or "itfuckinhurtstakemetothehospitalnowgoddammit" way.

I know someone who gave birth as early as 36 weeks. Thirty freakin six weeks. That's only 3 weeks away from now. In three weeks I could be a mother! But actually every pregnancy is different. In some cases the baby doesn't even descend into the birth canal until after the 40th week (which happened to my mom that's why she was sectioned to give birth to me). So it's either early or late, or just at the right time. There's no telling. And that's what's so freaking annoying.

Moving around has never been harder. Waddling is supposed to help maintain balance and make it easier to walk, but surprise surprise! It's still as exhausting as normal walking. The heartburns come frequently and the rib kicks are just... great. I'm sure my liver is as happy as I am, being punched and kicked and stuff.

It's frustrating whenever I learn that a friend on Facebook has already given birth. I feel jealous every time. I wanna get this pregnancy over with as soon as possible so I can finally be free from the pain, but most importantly so I can finally hold my wonderful little tigress. I know she still has a few weeks to get herself ready for survival outside my womb, but I hope she does it quick. Momma is itching to be with you, sweetie!

And by itching I mean literally itching all over. I don't know what the problem is but I hope it's not cholestasis. I've also thrown up a couple of times this week and my latest blood pressure reading turned out to be higher than my baseline, so it's a bit scary. Preeclampsia can be very very harmful to me and the baby. I've consulted this to my mom and she said I should run to my OB-GYN for advice because you never really know how serious things are until you get checked. My next appointment is on the 21st and actually I have no idea why my doc hasn't asked me to come before that--on the 21st I'll be exactly nine months pregnant. Wouldn't that be odd? But, I just decided to trust my doc and no matter how impatient I'm growing each day, I'm hoping I won't go into labor before my next appointment. Or else things would seem messed up in so many levels.

According to the ticker there's only 44 days to go before I'm due. Fourty-four looooong days left.

I Hate It Whenever

... I gain more weight than intended.

... somebody tries to imitate me for the Nth time.

... a father forgets his daughter and prefers a night out with friends and goes home drunk.

... there's an idiot in front of our car causing a traffic jam.

... people come late.

... an event starts late.

... someone who lied but proven guilty still insists he's innocent.

... people make up excuses.

... people promise me something, A VERY SIMPLE THING, but then forgets all about it like it's no big deal.

Early Christmas

Do you know what never goes out of style?

SHOPPING!!!

After attending the Holy Mass at 11am, my mom took me, my sisters, and my husband to lunch and shopping today (I never thought she had all that dinero, LOL) and we had a BLAST! And the best part about it is that Jai got these really awesome Chuck Taylors.

It took him a while before he made up his mind about which ones to get. Who could blame him? We were swimming in an ocean of shoes! Jai has never been really a shopping spree person, but this time I could sense that he was as excited as I was. There were just sooo many to choose from. But after a gruesome deliberation he narrowed it down to 3 pairs and then finally landed on these. I believe he made the perfect choice! The model also came with free black laces so we asked the salesman to do a trick combining the blacks & whites. Now Jai's new kicks look so much more extra cool.

Of course I never left the mall empty handed myself. I got a blue dress and shiny black sandals to wear on Christmas day, and a pair of sneakers for casual everyday use. But I have to say, the favorite thing I bought was a pink Precious Moments baby bag. Now I can really prepare for stuff to take to the hospital!

So thanks for the shopping date, Mommy & Daddy! It's like nothing has changed through the years. When I was younger, my younger sisters and I always had brand new clothes to wear on Christmas day and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling that my parents still think of me as one of their babies even though I'm married and pregnant now. And what's more touching is that they treat my husband as a son they never had and wish they had.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas--inside and out!

The Pregnancy Diaries 5

Thirty weeks pregnant and growing impatient. You've probably heard that time flies when you're having fun, right? Well maybe that's why it feels like I've been pregnant forever. The third trimester isn't so fun anymore.

But is it normal to feel this way? All sources say YES and I'm relieved to know that I'm not crazy. Staying home still leaves me exhausted at the end of the day and what's worse is that even bedtime won't give me a break. It's hard finding a comfortable sleeping position when your entire body is in pain. My daughter also likes to kick my bladder hard in the middle of the night which is just great because I'd have to get up to pee and try to fall back to sleep again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still as excited as ever but now the mixed emotions about the upcoming birth of my baby girl are stirring at a faster pace. I'm STILL dreading labor pains which I'm sure wouldn't even compare to the pains I'm having right now. Reading about it and talking about my fears with my support group just can't seem to help. There's always an option of getting a painless vaginal delivery with the help of an epidural anesthesia (I'm hoping for a normal spontaneous delivery) but even that poses risks for me and the baby. I might not know when to push because knowing when the contractions are happening may be difficult to tell. I won't be feeling any pain and according to a friend in some cases it all comes down to a cesarian section.. which is even worse than getting a destroyed stitched up vajayjay.

On a lighter note, last month we went shopping for some of the baby's first needs. My husband and I were very excited and we had fun choosing designs of all sorts of baby stuff. We decided on sticking to a single brand just so everything is theme coordinated. On the same day we also bought a bigger bed and a couple of new pillows to accommodate our soon to be expanding family.

Which reminds me.. this is gonna be the first Christmas that I won't be spending with my parents and sisters. It's my first Christmas as a married woman and an expectant mother at that. I'll be spending the Holidays with my husband and in-laws because (1) my mom and sisters will be flying to Vietnam to spend Christmas with my dad and (2) it's one of those things you do when you're already married. Having two families means sharing occasions fairly. I'll surely miss my family on Christmas, but I'm looking forward to spending New Year's eve with them. My dad's coming home with my mom and sisters after Christmas so on New Year's eve all of us are gonna be together and we're gonna be a complete family again. It's just too bad my dad will be leaving the country before my baby arrives though.

Going back to my pregnancy issues, most of the time my mind is elsewhere. Maybe I'm just too stressed out, I don't know. I've never had this much difficulty in grasping ideas and putting them into writing. The hormones are driving me out of my mind and shoving the worries down my throat. Right now I can't even make a decent exit. So now.. err.. here's my exit.

True Love Doesn't Age

I really admire my grandparents' marriage. They've been married for 50+ years and they're still going strong. Lolo was admitted (again) in the hospital and today my husband and I paid a visit to see him.

I was so touched to see how my grandparents were with each other; my lola covering him with a blanket whenever it hung loose, caressing his back, feeding him food and giving him water, and even the simplest reassuring touch of hand was enough proof that LOVE is real and true love lasts FOREVER. <3

I am optimistic that the unbreakable bond that I have with my husband will just be as good as that.

Seeing Red

Hi. Well as of now I feel like shit and I'm in a very foul mood. I have 0% appetite and I don't like to lie down, sit down, or stand up. The heat of the afternoon sun is getting on my nerves but I hate it even more when it rains because apparently, from last night's experience, rainfall ruins a perfectly good pedicure. My uterus is contracting every once in a while not to mention the baby tossing and turning inside while it happens. Which is just great. Really great.

I hope you understand that whenever I look like shit, I feel like shit, and my whole world turns into crappy shitty shit.

Cozy Coffee

What a relief! According to Babycenter preggos can still enjoy a cup of caffeinated bliss as long as they, I mean we don't overdo it. I've always loved coffee. I used to be employed in a call center and during graveyard shifts (which happens almost all the time) I always brought a sachet of instant coffee and my Starbucks tumbler with me. The water dispenser and the Imeem bossa nova tracks helped make my work hours feel like leisure time.

At work, sometime in early 2009. Nung call girl pa ko. Lol.

Trivia: The tumbler was a present from Jai.

The best thing about it was the personalized cover he designed

using different photos of me. :)

My husband isn't a fan of drinking coffee and his body doesn't seem to like it either. A trip to Starbucks means a trip to the bathroom right after. I don't think I can recall one time that his bowels didn't react so violently to a Starbucks drink. But I'm proud of him. He's not ashamed to admit it. Hehe.

We Batangueños are known as the Kapeng Barako province, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that we like to pour coffee on our rice especially during breakfast. Before I got married my mom always prepared a mug of sweet coffee at the breakfast table. There's always one mug especially made for pouring on rice. I especially loved rice and coffee with fried food: fish, chicken, hotdog, meat loaf, longganisa, etc. It was a thing that my family has imprinted on my DNA--something I grew up with and I don't think I can ever grow out of.

For breakfast this morning I had fried rice, omelette du fromage, a tablet of ObiMin, and a glass of water (using my beloved pink Coca-Cola glass, lol) and a cup of instant 3 in 1 coffee at the side. There's just something about coffee that makes your morning extra nice.

But please, no kopi luwak for me!