Friday, February 29, 2008

A Quarter of A Century

Mama turned 25 yesterday. Hubby cooked some mean pasta and bought me chocolate cake.

Then I spent the day breastfeeding, changing diapers, washing soiled clothes and trying to catch up on my sleep.

And these are the obligatory family pics of the week.



Awww...look at that face. The only creature in this world that has the license to rouse me from sleep or disturb me from whatever that I'm doing. This is how heartstrings get tugged.

Forgot To Mention...

Brook White reminds of Tori Amos minus the angst---she's Tori Amos lite. I don't think she'll win this competition, but I like her.


Friday, February 22, 2008

You Don't Say...

My husband and I were laughing so hard last night when we watched this. Not because Ramiele Malubay was a horrible singer (she was gre-a-t!) but because of her song choice.

I bet that her Filipino mom or dad had a say when she chose this song.

Just ask any videoke-loving native around here. This one's a definite staple.



Here are my bets for this season:



David Archuleta

Cute. He has that innocent, fun-loving aura and his voice is not bad either. Looks good on the stage.



Michael Johns

Rawwr. Love the body and his stage presence. Voice is not bad too.




Asia'h Epperson

Loved her version of "I'm Going Down" and she pulled off Janis Joplin. Enough said.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

My Favorite Wolf Photos (so far)




This is Wolf's favorite sleeping pose...we call it the "Holdap 'To" Pose



His first bath with lola (I'm still scared to give him one, he's so small and fragile)



Sleeping comfortably at Lola and Lola's bed



A Family Picture



His First Photograph



Wearing the Gap Onesie given by his Uncle Jot and Aunt Let. He looks a bit yellowish in this photo because the past few days have not been sunny. He hasn't gotten his daily dose of Vitamin D.


Look at that evil grin. He's gonna turn up just like his dad, I bet.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Love's Labours (Part 2)

For the first part of this chronicle, please click here

Sunday and Monday (February 3rd and 4th)...

..Went by without dramas. Like a good patient, I was on bed rest most of the time and the bloody discharges have ceased. I was feeling optimistic, as long as my baby wouldn't be born on Valentine's. Imagine sharing your birthday with someone as annoying as Kris Aquino-well that was mostly the father's sentiments. I just wanted to deliver safely as much as possible. Also I was glad that there was a big chance that my dad would get to see his 5th grandson before he leaves on the 16th.

So while on bed rest, we did what do best. And clean your dirty little minds. All we did was took photos of ourselves:

Tuesday, February 5th

Off we went to Dra's clinic for our check up. I was again up for the dreaded internal exam. Dra agreed that I was indeed a centimeter dilated but whatever that was thick in my cervix four days ago was now thin. I could pop my baby out anytime. She did a whole lot of calculating and informed me that February 12 was my safe mark. If I could just be on complete bed rest from then until the 12, then my baby would reach his semi-full term (37th week). But if not...then labor here I come. The doctor gave a whole lot of instructions on what should I do, which became useless because I pretty much forgot half of the things she said. She handed me a pre-admittance form and 4 small pills.

She instructed me to take the pills secretly should I go on labor. The fool that I am nodded and said yes, not realizing the real purpose and potency of those four small pills.

After the check up, mom and dad picked us up to have lunch at Tramway Garden Buffet and to meet up with Ate Let and Jason (my third brother's punk).

There was heavy traffic on the way to Tramway (which was just a block away from Delgado) which we attributed to the lunch time rush hour but when we got there, it turned out that that Union Bank in front of Tramway was robbed not more than 15 minutes before we got there.

Ergo, the large crowd and various news vans and camera man and heavily armed guards.

And the the robbers threw a grenade across the street to facilitate their escape...

...which happened to be right beside Tramway Garden.

But hungry stomach always prevails and I've already started whining about low blood sugar so off we went despite the drama right outside the glass doors. Note: I do get really cranky if I'm really hungry. Ask my husband.


Here's my third brother's Spongebob-loving, boisterous, and mischievous little punk.

We looove watermelons. =).

Dad meets his fourth grandson for the first time. And he'll be meeting the 5th a day after this.

After that sumptuous lunch, Dad had to do stuff at the POEA and we decided to tag along to do some last minute baby shopping at Robinson's Galleria while they were doing their thing at POEA.

This is where everything started unraveling. Remember that bit where my doctor said that I should be on bed rest? Well that's the one thing I didn't do since we were shopping. I didn't know that a couple of hours walking would trigger labor a few hours later.

When we got home, I didn't rest on the bed. I packed our hospital bad to prepare for the inevitable and slept at around 11 pm.

Wednesday, February 6th

At around 12 am, I got up and emptied my bladder. When I returned to bed, my uterus started to cramp...like dysmenorrhea TIMES TEN! I woke my husband to tell him about it, and he wanted to go to the hospital pronto. I tried to grin and bear it for awhile and told him that I would pop an Isoxilan and I should be fine. But when I shifted position, there was a sudden gush of fluid between my legs. I got up again thinking that I needed to pee again when I noticed that my panty liner was really soaked with water...and blood.

And my legs turned to jelly and ran back to my husband and told him that I had a suspicion that my water bag had broken. He got up and informed my fourth brother who was just about to go to sleep. And my brother woke my mother and informed her as well.

Since our bag was already packed, my husband just threw on some clothes and we got into the car and went to the hospital.

En route to the hospital, I started texting messages to friends to keep my mind off the cramping pains that I'm feeling. First time I've seen my mom got tensed up, by the way. Hubby and I tried to engaged in small talk, but I guess he was tense too. And my brother, who was driving, was also feeling a wee bit tensed. I guess I'm the only one not tensed but I'm also the only one in pain. Hehe.

Upon arriving at Delgado, I was immediately whisked off to the Delivery Room.

to be continued....


Friday, February 15, 2008

Not-So-Single-Awareness-Day (for me)

Just interrupting my labor tales to share this...



My sweet husband gave me all the goods/contrabands that I wasn't allowed to eat when I was pregnant for this year's Valentine's. And the roses weren't bad either.

*Sigh*

(kilig..)

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Love's Labours (Part 1)

Mastitis hurts. And I'm still lacking a sum total of 8 hours of sleep, a full meal and a good, long and warm bath.

But let me chronicle first the days and hours before I became this:


Saturday, February 2nd.

I was on shift when the so-called 'nesting phase' kicked in. Only I didn't realize it then. I suddenly had the urge to clean out my office PC and organize my emails and clean my workstation (I think I was even licking clean my keyboards and mouse. =p) before my maternity leave which would've started on the 18th. I was due to give birth on the 24th, remember? Little did I know that my punk had other ideas brewing on his little brain while biding his time inside me.

Anyways, I was so busy doing so many things that I forgot to monitor my baby's movement all throughout the day. By 9 pm, I became really worried because I haven't felt any strong kick at all or if he did, I just didn't notice at all kase busy-busyhan ako sa office. My husband and I were lying on the bed trying to nudge the little guy for any movement at all. I texted my OB, the intimidating and tough (but sweet and caring on the inside) Dra. Olivia Ocampo of Delgado Hospital about my baby's lack of movement. Her lack of reply 30 minutes later intensified my worry, it was threatening to become a full-fledged panic. Now don't berate my OB for not replying. It was all my fault, which I belatedly realize 3 days later-I copied down her phone number wrong.

My chubby-hubby and I immediately dressed up and hailed a cab and went to the nearest hospital, which was Makati Medical Center and went into the ER.

We had an unpleasant experience before at Makati Med so my husband was really reluctant to go there. I just found out then that I was pregnant and was experiencing bleeding and after being subjected to poking and probing and internal exam, when we were paying our bill they wrote 'threatened abortion' as my diagnosis without really explaining it all to us. And for first time (may be even second or third time) expecting parents, those were the last words that you would ever want to hear. But since Delgado was at least an hour's drive away and we were really panicking at that point, Makati Med was only place to go.

As soon as they took my vitals at the Triage, I was whisked off to the delivery room where I was hooked up to a Fetal Non-Stress Test machine. The little heart was beating, and after 15 minutes, I felt lots of movement and relieved, I was just about ready to go home. When the residents noticed, based on the chart, that I was having contractions 10 minutes apart.

With the help of an internal exam, they informed me that I was already 1 cm dilated but something in my cervix was still thick. But still, they emphasized that I could give birth any time soon.

My poor husband had no idea of what's going on since I forgot to sneak in my cell phone inside the DR, and as soon as I got out I told him the what happened but he was still skeptical about my diagnosis (talagang bad trip siya sa Makati Med) so we opted to wait for my scheduled check up which was three days away.

Sunday, wee hour in the morning, February 3

We got home, informed my mother-in-law of what happened and prepared to go to bed. It had been an exhausting night after all. I went to the bathroom to pee when I saw a lot of bloody discharge on my pantyliner. I called my husband and after staring at the gooey mess for a full minute, we both decided to call Dra. Ocampo first thing in the morning.

It dawned on me that I could actually give birth way ahead of schedule so I was thinking more of the work that I would suddenly leave behind unexpectedly. My husband and I had a long talk and we both decided that regardless of Dra's prognosis, I would start my maternity leave, pronto. I texted Rowald and Chris that I would use my sick leaves on Sunday and Monday and that I would confirm if I should use up all my remaining SL or file my ML after my Tuesday check up.

I was sleeping fitfully, I was expecting to give birth any time that night and my husband had been checking my butt every hour on the hour to see if my water bag had broke. I already texted a whole lot of people on my phone book about my situation and I received a lot of good luck messages which really warmed my heart.

My husband decided to file for an emergency leave and we called up Dra. Ocampo at around 10am and told her what happened. She also scoffed at the diagnosis, and told me that she would rather see me first but since I'm dilated already she advised me to have a full bed rest and increased my intake of Isoxilan, a uterine relaxant. She told me that should I follow her advice, I would reach the full term of my pregnancy.

Again, more major decisions were discussed and one of them was to pack up immediately and evacuate to Valenzuela, where I would supposedly stay the week before my estimated due date.
After informing my mom of our plans, we hastily packed all the stuff that we would need for the next few days at least and my husband would just return for the rest of the stuff on his rest days.

to be continued....

Monday, February 11, 2008

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Welcome Lord Wolfgang Roa

I was given an early birthday present, my son, Lord Wolfgang 'Wolf' Roa was born on February 6, 2008 at around 9:55 am at Jesus Delgado Memorial Hospital.

His birth weight was 5.12 lbs and his length was 50 cm.

****will post more about it soon (will include pics) ****

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Then and Now

Oh my...look how we've grown...


Left photo was taken on 2003, Right photo was taken January 26, 2008