Mommy Diaries: Baby Shower

This is a super duper belated post, but when I was cleaning my album in my office PC, I saw these pics. I just had to share them.

A friend advised me not to buy stuffs for the baby until after the baby shower. In that way, we would buy only those that we or the baby needs. True enough, we got almost all that we needed and more! After the baby shower came our son's baptism, then Christmas! Imagine the tons of gifts that we opened. 

Happy. Giddy. Parents.

Speaking of gifts, we have yet to buy Joaquim a Christmas gift! Tsk, tsk. 

We held the baby shower at Cafe Sarree located in Escario Central. It's named after the owner/chef, Sarita aka Sarree. I loved everything that she served that night. I will definitely go back. I have yet to taste her lamb adobo-- a best-seller I heard.

Mommy Diaries: Manual vs. Electric

I am talking about breast pumps.

via                                                                                                              via

Any new mommy will have the problem of deciding on what to get, a manual or electric breast pump. I had the luxury of using both. My cousin lent me her manual pump. A few weeks after giving birth, I bought an electric one. So, which one is better? It depends on your needs, comfort and tolerance for pain (physically and financially. Lol.)

MANUAL vs. ELECTRIC

The manual pump is convenient in a sense that you need not look for a socket to plug in the pump. You can do it anywhere, unlike the electric pump where you are constrained to pump in areas where a socket is near. There are some electric pumps that also run in batteries, hence convenience is not much of a problem.

The manual pump is takes a lot of effort compared to an electric pump. Your effort and time is cut down by half or more! My almost one-hour manual pump can be achieved  by the electric pump in less than 15 minutes! For working moms or mommies on-the-go like me, the electric pump scores a higher point on this aspect.

The manual pump is less painful as you can control the frequency of your pumping. It is harder to control the pressure of the pump in an electric one, although there are some brands where you can choose the strength of the pressure. For me, it doesn't matter that much as I have a high tolerance for pain. The higher the strength of the pressure, the faster it can pump my milk.

Depending on the brand, the manual pump is, of course, cheaper than the electric pump. But as I've said, it depends on your needs and comfort. If you can't spare a chunk of your time just pumping or if you need to go back to work, then investing on an electric pump might be a good idea. If, however, you have the luxury of time or you cannot take the pain, going manual is the way to go. Either way, the important thing is, you can express milk for your little one, especially when you are out of the house or when you want to catch some (much needed) sleep.  

P.S. Did you know there is a more manual way of pumping breast milk, like using-your-hands-kind-of-manual? It's free. It's not painful. And it can pump milk. Want to know how? Haha.

Maternity Shoot

After two months of cyber absence, I'm back! No, I am not pregnant again. But I will surely miss being one.

I've been meaning to share these maternity pictures but I was too preoccupied with my new role in life-- motherhood.

Looking back, my pregnancy made me realize a few things. Save for my 'morning' sickness which happens at night, the 9-month journey was rather blissful.

Here are the top 5 things I liked about being pregnant:

1. I sort of have THE excuse to binge and make every day an eat-all-you-can day. Haha. My OB frowned on this. She said I couldn't afford a six- or more-pounder baby.
2. Speaking of excuse, I had a valid excuse/reason to postpone my court hearings. Yay! 
3. People, even strangers, are EXTRA NICE to me. Really. I will surely treasure the random kindness I've experienced from people I barely knew. 
4. I'm always in the PRIORITY LANE-- CR, taxi lane, elevator, cinema ticket booth, and even in CD-R King! Haha. Yes, ka-level mi sa senior citizens and people with disability. 
5. My husband became sweeter and more considerate. Of course, I had to take advantage of that! Haha. So I bossed him around, letting him pick things up for me and demanding a good back massage.

The BEST thing about my pregnancy is giving birth to our little bundle of joy, our sweet angel and the one who will probably have the powers to tame my kamalditahan (joke! haha)-- JOAQUIM FELBERT.

Photography: Joel Lopez

Styling: Psyche Castillon

MUA: Roger Salazar

St. Gerard Majella

Tomorrow, October 16, is the feast day of St. Gerard Majella. He is the patron saint of Expectant Mothers and those who have been praying for a child. 

I suffered a miscarriage in July last year and around October, we learned from our doctor that I was not ovulating. It was then during this time, through a friend, that we learned about St. Gerard. On his feast day last year, we started praying the Novena to St. Gerard. The doctor gave me numerous medications with specific instructions that I could hardly keep up sometimes. It went on for months and nothing happened. Our doctor suggested to take a 'break' from the medications by end of January this year. I welcomed her suggestion, not only because of the expenses, but I was honestly getting tired from hoping and getting disappointed and frustrated all over. My husband and I thought, maybe, we need this 'break'-- to simply just enjoy each other's company.

By end of February, I got pregnant.

Since then, we've continued praying to St. Gerard until now. But this time, we're praying for a healthy baby and a safe delivery. And on his feast day tomorrow, I thought it would be nice to share his novena:

St. Gerard, whose heart went out to the unfortunate,

who relieved so many poor,

healed so many sick,

comforted so many afflicted,

I am worried and troubled as I kneel at your feet.

In vain do I seek this world's help and consolation.

Graciously pray for me, St. Gerard,

that being freed from this trial (mention your petition),

or strengthen to bear it for the love of God,

I may praise and thank God

and serve him with greater love and fervor. 

Amen.

St. Gerard, our friend and helper,

come to our aid and beg the Lord's blessing

on our most urgent need.

St. Gerard, pray for us.

Maternity Shoot BTS

These photos were taken by either my husband or our designer/make-up artist
friend, Roger when we had our maternity shoot last weekend.

Post-editing was done by yours truly using Photoshop CS3 and Photobucket.

Can't wait for the official takes of Joel and Psyche.

Mom Card

My wallet is full of reward cards, loyalty cards, privilege cards and the likes. They have outnumbered my ATM cards and credit cards (as if I have many. LOL). And their latest member is this-- Mom Card!

I used it right away. I availed of the discount voucher right away. Excited much? Whenever I see the words SALE, DISCOUNT, LESS, __% OFF, the pupils of my eyes dilate, my heart beats faster and my hunger fades away. Haha. 

My priorities have changed when I got married. I don't just decide on my own. I (sometimes) seek my husband's opinion. Now that we are expecting our first child, my priorities will have to take another 360-degree turn.

What's In A Name?

"What's in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;"

These are lines from one of Shakespeare's famous plays, Romeo and Juliet.

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A person's name is his identity. He carries that to his grave. It is not easy to change (entirely) someone's first name under our laws. Thus, aside from 'change', a person's name is permanent.

Many have been asking us (my husband and I) if we have a name for our baby already. At this stage of my pregnancy--8 months, we should have at least a shortlist of the names we will give the baby.

Actually, we do have a name already.  

Choosing the baby's name is no easy task, I tell you. I have this old planner where I listed down the names I like. I was still in the elementary then. Yes, you can say I am that fascinated with names. Now that I can actually get to name my baby, that old planner is nowhere to be found. So, back to square one.

As I was mentally thinking of possible names for our baby (ok fine, I jotted them down and started a new list), I had a hard time choosing. It was daunting, really. I mean, among all the names in the world, you have to pick one and that will be attached to your child's identity forever. What if our child won't like it? What if he'll get teased by the name we gave him? What if he finds his name weird or embarrassing? So many what if's!

How then do we choose our child's name?

I remember the homily of the priest during the Feast of St. John the Baptist (yeah, I do listen to the homily sometimes) and he said that the old Jew tradition of picking out names for their offspring were either based on these two:

1. On the circumstances surrounding the child's birth;
2. On virtues that the parents would like their child to live up to;   

They also have the tradition of naming their child after a dead relative. Naming it after one that is still living was believed to bring bad luck.

There are tons of tips and suggestions that you can find in the internet in naming your baby. Just google it.

So, how did we choose our baby's name?

My husband and I are both lawyers. I can say the process of coming up with our baby's name was done in a legal fashion. There were rules to follow.

To save us from severe headache and possible sleepless nights, we decided to limit our search to names starting with particular letters. Each has to come up with a shortlist of three names within a specific period of time (yes, there was a deadline!) Then came the hardest part--- choosing one name-- THE name.

There was a deadlock (I couldn't think of a more appropriate term).

I like a particular name that he doesn't like. And he likes a name that I don't like. You can imagine the scenario.

What we did?

Compromise.

See, I told you it was so lawyer-ly. We had to let go of the rules we initially set and made a new rule. We picked out the name that we liked the most, combined the two and settled with it.

We're one happy couple.

Our baby's name will have be composed of the following letters:

P.S. We just hope that the ultrasound is 100% accurate as to our child's gender because we have no plan B.

It's a Boy!

Yes, we're having a baby boy (according to the ultrasound)!

Secretly, I have been wishing to have a boy as my eldest child.

I am the eldest child. There were times when I wondered how

it feels like to have a kuya (big brother).

Words can't contain the happiness we felt upon learning that the

baby's condition is normal, that so far, there are no apparent

complications in my pregnancy. Recently, I've felt more distinct

movements from the baby most especially during afternoon going

towards the evening. I guess he is not a morning person, like

his father. Haha. Joke. (peace clove!)

I miss blogging...

Yes, I do. I haven't posted a single blog post for months!

I've been through a lot-- both the good and the bad.

Mostly good though.

The best among all the good is this.

My first 'successful' pregnancy. Successful, yes because

last year, I had a miscarriage. Hopefully, this time around

we'll be blessed to have a normal (& safe) pregnancy.

So far, so good. Thank God!

This pic was taken last May.

I am now on my 19th week.

The adjustment period was something I was not prepared for.

My first trimester was a roller-coaster ride. 

My morning sickness happened at night. Talk about misnomer.

The second trimester is a whole lot better.

No more throwing up. No more panuhot. Haha.

We're looking forward to next month.

We'll know the gender by then.

I will take this opportunity to thank my husband

for the night massages, for buying me my happy food,
and for being the supportive husband that he is.