Rants on my Pregnancy

Entering my 8month of pregnancy, it finally sinked into me that I am really really pregnant and about to give birth soon! My belly's growth has been slow (and small) but consistent. Baby M is still incredibly active, especially when I'm talking to his Dad, and as I lay down to sleep at night. The movements are so big that sometimes I will gasp in surprise. The way I describe it, I felt like I have an octopus inside me. I can feel baby M's strong legs kicking up on my ribs and small tickles and flutters of his hands around my pubic bone.

Unlike the past few months, now I have many physical symptoms of pregnancy. Shortness of breath, acid reflux, calf cramping, hormonal flux and fluctuations in energy levels. Emotional ups and downs are frequent, I just let those tears come and the emotions surge, I am trying my best not to hold on them since it will affect my baby boy.

As I approach my full-term, I've been experiencing Braxton Hicks (uterine contractions) a lot more frequent. It's just practice labour. I read that sometimes, when the head is already down and there is pressure in the cervix, it may become stimulated enough to start contractions. I still don't want that now right?? Too early!

Room Renovation

Mang Rene started the bathroom already. Replaced old mocha tiles to sara pink mariwasa tiles we bought at the Pacific Home Depot. I think it will take around 3-4 days of work. The bathroom needs to be overhauled. We still have to purchase some tiles and wood for a shelf tomorrow

The room's (bathroom and bedroom area) ceilings are all done. Wall paint will start on Tuesday. At the same time, I already got my crib! It needs some repainting job though.

I can't wait to move to my new room. Hopefully I can post the finished product once everything is done. My room is much bigger now, with a private bathroom just for me, and a king sized bed to accommodate baby M when he's a little bit older. As of the moment, our house' is a mess, so visitors are not yet allowed.

30 Weeks

For my entire pregnancy, this month has been the most stressful one. I guess I find it really really hard to adjust being back in the province, staying with my parents and away from all my friends back in Manila. After years of living in Manila, I believe I have changed a lot and there are some practices that I cannot just apply it here in the province, so I need to adjust.

Now for pregnancy talk, my baby continues to grow and put on fats, that means he is demanding more and more space in my uterus. So much space that in fact, my other organs are getting squashed and mashed somewhere inside.

Last week, I woke up at 4AM feeling so much pain in my tummy. I thought I was having contractions, but I have this gut feeling that it's not. It's too early for me to have those signs. So I got out of bed and just sat at the sofa and waited till the pain is gone. The next day, I woke up again throwing up a bunch of acids. We immediately went to my OB. She told me I experienced flatulence which is very common during the late stage of pregnancy. I told her that the night before I ate 6 slices of pizza and had milk before bed. She advised me that I should take my meals 3-4hrs before bedtime to avoid heartburn and flatulence. Since myuterus expands into the space previously occupied by the digestive system, squeezing gastric acid back into the esophagus (which explains my "throwing up of acids").

So as of the moment, I can only manage a few bites of food at a time, after which I feel fullness in my stomach. Unlike some of my friends who says that they had a big appetite during their last trimester, it's unfortunate that I am not one of them. My appetite and food consumption has been so drastically reduced that I must now exercise extra caution to ensure the every morsel of food I put in my mouth is nutritious. I drank my milk twice a day already and make sure I eat enough fruits and vegetables.

Since my uterus is being pushed, my lungs just don't have the ability to expand like they did in the good 'ol days. I've been experience shortness of breath a lot and I can’t help but wonder what the effects of oxygen deprivation must be having on my already vulnerable pregnancy brain.

It Finally Rained!

It's been really nice around here lately. The cold breeze has been a real treat and I hope we get more of it here on this rainy season. As the temperature goes down, I expect that I'll be able to sleep more better especially when take a short nap in the afternoons.

I've been doing interviews and discussing on episiotomy with my SIL. I think as far as I am concerned, this procedure is inevitable during delivery. Though there were only two steps that was mentioned to reduce possibility of having one, but it's not 100% guaranteed to work. I just pray to God that I can bear the pain and recover from it immediately.

More updates:
Our househelp has finally arrived! Thank goodness! I've been so worried since my upcoming D-day is fast approaching and we still don't have a househelp to do all the house work here at home. She's such a blessing! She definitely knows how to work around the house, she has past experiences already, works clean, she's a good cook and a good masseuse. Hopefully, she can bear with the boredom here at home while baby M is not yet around and stays with us forever.

The carpenter haven't arrived last weekend to work on my room, I was very disappointed. But he promised to pass by within the week to do my room's flooring.

Time flies, in just a few weeks, I will be in 8th month pregnancy. Everything (preparations) has to be done before the end of July. I have already created a number for checklists, but it keeps on changing from time to time. Urrrggg, I just wish I could bear with all the maternity pains that I've been feeling for the past weeks so I can still work and do some errand.

29 Weeks

Here are the updates for this week's pregnant Momma. I've been reading a lot of stuff lately, basically about breastfeeding, and breastfeeding supplies that I need to prepare, researching about techniques on how to avoid episiotomy, and of course checking out my checklist for baby. I went to the mall today to check out some stuff, good thing they're available.

Don't worry I will individual post a topic for each of these para naman alam ng mga preggy mommies on what to prepare before the D-day comes.

So here's the latest picture of my basketball sized tummy. Yes, it's growing and growing each day. The baby gets to be very active na, and those dance and kicks aren't so little anymore. They tend to be painful at times. But I'm getting used to it already, and something that I just don't understand is that no matter how bothering the baby's movements are, I feel a lot more better when I can feel him swirling and punchng rather than him not doing anything at all.

Aside from my gigantic belly, I'm also getting heavier and heavier. Currently, I'm 128lbs at 7months!!! Whew!! I can't believe that I'm this BIG and HEAVY!! My OB said that it's okay, I'm still on my ideal weight gain. Good thing, I didn't experience pre-eclampsia and leg cramps at all (might be because I didn't have a drastic change in weight). Based on my last checkup, everything's in good condition. Baby's heartbeat is healthy, he's got strong and defined movements and importantly, he's head first (proper position). I hope that baby and I will maintain this healthy thing, I hope he cooperates with Momma so that when the D-day comes, everything will be just fine and normal.

I'll try my best to post a series of informative stuff in the next coming weeks.

Maternity Portraits

I've always wanted to have maternity portraits. With all those celebrity maternity photos, I just can't resist of having one. I was lucky to have a photographer-friend who was more than willing to have my photos taken.

There were two locations of photo session, one was taken in my house and the other was located in UP Diliman of course: my husband's alma mater, where I had my first job, the place where my husband and I met, dated and fell in love. I miss the place so much so I requested my photographer to have the photo shoot there, I wanted to have a last glimpse of UP Diliman before I leave Manila.

To top it all, before posting anything on the web, I still have to ask my dear MTRCB Chairman and husband to select the photos to be shared. Unfortunately, these are the only ones that made the cut.

Preggy should be sexy :-)


I love this shot. But I don't look so pregnant here at all. Good thing I a bright-colorful bedsheet for this photo shoot. The conventional dark and moody photos is not my photographer's thing.


My linea nigra (black line during pregnancy) is starting to show.


After the session at home, I brought with me three lovely colorful dresses for outdoor photos.


At first we were blessed with super bright and beautiful sky.


And then, it started to rain. Good thing, my photographer have a pink umbrella that went perfectly my outfit.




This one is a favorite.


I told my photographer that if we still have time, maybe I could try change another wardrobe. I love these next photos as I wear my favorite silk dress.




I love the emotion here.


I'm trying to exaggerate my posture to make sure my bulging tummy is obvious.


Sorry if I can't post everything. There were tons of them, all good, but some are intended for private use and views only :-)

You can view some of the photos at Ging Lorezo's site, a million thanks from me and Alvin.

Massive Nesting

I'm having our home prepared for baby M, my little room that's been empty for the past five years and was a college dormitory for the past four years will be turned into a sweet little nursery. And my poor mom, who has basically invaded my room, or so I say turned my room into a walk-in closet has to do all the packing and hauling. This is what it takes for two packrat women to make room for one tiny baby:

1. Repaint and repair. While my room is an all closet, all bookshelves, I decided to give my room a space by removing my built-in cabinets and drawers. I will need to have rotten corners renewed, give the room new color, and have all my trophies, posters and books removed.
2. My brother's huge room will be a temporary extension to store all my things that I've been keeping. I have already bought some boxes and lots of tape, to pack up all our slightly nicer crap. I have my borrowed space cleaned borrowed space and then neatly filled up with stuff I don't even really want to begin with.
3. Everything Must Go. I should have had a garage sale but I have no time to do so. Instead, I gave all the stuff to my cousins and long distance relatives for free. Never mind the making money part, it's the getting rid of accumulated crap over 20 insane years that was priority. Away with my cassette tape collections, of dangling earrings (seriously, I can't believe I spent all that money on the tackiest accessories), magazines, CDs, DVDs, books and notebooks (I can't believe my Mother still have those stuff in my room) and mountains of bad trendy clothes, blue jeans, high heels, and cheap purses half-eaten by ants. I'm just too obsessed right now of getting rid of everything! I gave away pretty much all my clothes and shoes, and am now left with nothing but my maternity dresses and just three flat sandals. For some reason, I have no desire to wear any of my old clothes or shoes again.
4. Clean and Sanitation. Poor 17yr old dogie of ours, we have to get rid of him too. He's not safe anymore, I mean he is to old to be staying with us, with a little baby inside the house. All the diseases and bacteria that he can spread, he just have to go. Then I also get rid of our fish pond. Stagnant water is home to mosquitos and I cannot just accept that. I'm no animal lover, so I think I'm being cruel to them right now. But what can I do?? A tiny vulnerable little baby will make this his home for the next 8 months and everything has to be clean and safe for him.
   

The stress is enormous!! I'm not even half-way through with all the preparations. Urrrggghhh... I'm still waiting for a helper to come. We've got lots of things to do! I hope she really arrives this week, so we can finish the rest of the stuff.

Next week, beginning of room improvement. Wish me luck!

Just Another Routinary Checkup

There are a couple of new items for this month's checkup since I'm on my third and last trimester : Blood test for anemia, urinalysis and glucose screening test. Gestational diabetes is a high blood sugar condition that some women get during pregnancy. This is a routinary check that almost all practitioners required for pregnant women between 24 and 28 weeks.

Like any screening test, this one won't give you a diagnosis — it's designed to identify as many women as possible who may have a problem and need more testing to find out. Between 2 and 5 percent of expectant mothers develop gestational diabetes, making it one of the most common health problems during pregnancy. And because the condition rarely causes any symptoms, testing is the only way to find out if you have it.

I got at the laboratory and had my urinalysis immediately. Then I was asked to drink a very sweet glucose solution drink which tasted like a cola (a sugar solution that contains 50 grams of glucose). I have to to get all of it down in five minutes. I chugalugged the stuff with no problems as I was warned that I might feel a little nauseous afterwards. Then the attendant instructed that I they will need to have my blood drawn after an hour, no food or water intake within 1hr of course. So I waited at the lobby and read magazines while waiting.

Now here comes the one hour later. The technician took a blood sample from my arm to check your blood sugar level and anemia. He had two vials for each of these test. For blood sugar, the idea here is to see how efficiently my body processes sugar.

RESULTS: My blood sugar level is NORMAL! Yahooo! Which suggests that my body is producing enough insulin to process the extra glucose in my system. On the otherhand, my hemoglobin count lowered, which means I need to get as much rest and sleep and consistent with my vitamins to prevent anemia because my OB says I needed to have normal hemoglobin level since I will be loosing blood during delivery.

Note, to prepare for glucose screening test, it helps to eat something a few hours before. If you vomit soon after you've gotten the drink down, you'll have to come back another day and repeat the test.

Busy Momma To Be

Due to some important matters, I've been ignoring my little one. I deprived him of my precious time, such reading him books and exposing him to music. You see, I've been busy this past few days, doing some projects (technical ones) and I can't seem to find the time to meet his needs, well except for feeding him. The little one seems to know how to get his Momma's attention: he's been giving me lots and lots of swish, flutters and kicks everyday and though it really felt painful at times, I'm really loving it. He's just letting me know that I have him already and he should be my priority.

So I hope that after this week, I will be able to pull this little project off, and that by the end of the week, I will make sure that baby M and I will have a quality time together with Tata.

After this project, I will definitely focus on my room improvement project for baby M. There's lots of this to do for the nursery. Have to remove unnecessary stuff, wall repaint, some electrical installations, floorings, and make room for the crib and baby cabinet. My target is to have these all done before mid July. I need to have all the energy I can get after that for delivery. That means more time to exercise and rest, complete my nursery checklist and of course I should have a peace of mind by then.

I don't know if I'm just naive or what, but you see I still have a lot of things to do before baby M makes his presence into the world so I really don't feel the excitement yet. I can't still feel that I'm really really pregnant and I'm going to be a mother soon.