A baby changes everything

I write this as my son is now 9 weeks old and I finally decided to do an update.  I just checked my last blog entry and it was two days before my son was born. In fact I was already having contractions that night. The whole day Friday I didn’t go to work. I had already texted my Aunt who is a doctor as well as my OB and they both said that most likely I was having contractions and to time them.

I then commenced timing my contractions but they were still around 30 mins to an hour or so apart. Friday night the contractions were getting closer to around 15 mins apart and lasting almost 30 to 45 seconds but when we called the hospital, the nurse recommended we only come in once they were 5 mins apart. Early Sat morning I couldn’t take the pain anymore. I couldn’t even time my contractions due to the pain! I woke my hubby up and insisted to be brought to the hospital immediately. We got to the hospital at around 4am and I was admitted with 3cm of dilation.

I had originally wanted to go and have Lamaze or a child birth without any epidural but the pain I was experiencing was so awful I couldn’t even scream. I was so weak with the pain all I could do was moan to please find the doctor who could give me an epidural. The contractions were getting stronger every hour and the dilation of my cervix was proceeding quite quickly. It turns out I was in so much pain because I was already 80% effaced. I even threw up twice due to the pressure the contractions were putting on my stomach. Good thing I remembered the breathing exercises from our childbirth class.

Finally the doctors arrived and I was given an epidural. It took some time to take effect but I was so thankful because my contractions were so incredibly painful. Around 9AM I was almost fully dilated and they were getting ready for me to give birth.  The epidural numbed everything in my body from the waist down. Finally I was given the go ahead to push but I could barely do so due to the numbness in my body. The staff had to help me push with each contraction. After several pushes Joao’s head was almost there ready to come out and it took two final pushes for my baby boy to make an appearance at 11:03AM on Oct 11. When he came out I was stunned at how huge his cheeks were. I expected him to be a bit swollen and he was which made his singkit eyes all the more slit like.

Hubby was with me the entire time despite being extremely sleepy he held my hand during the worst of the contractions. I’m glad he has a high tolerance for pain because I think I was squeezing his hand like anything. He was so proud of Joao because the moment the suctioned the mucus off him he was already crying out loud. Joao also promptly pooped and peed at the nurse handling him. He was so palaban from the first moment he came out.

After they cleaned up Joao we tried to latch and weren’t so successful but I was able to spend some bonding minutes with him before he was shipped off to the nursery and me to the recovery room. After two hours in the recovery room I insisted that I breastfeed my baby and they brought him to me. The nurse also said he was so malikot. I didn’t realize the relevance of what she said till I saw that the other babies were quitely lying in their beds in the nursery while Joao liked to kick his legs and flail his arms around.

My relatives then visited me bringing food and other stuff we forgot to bring. Everyone was super excited to see the little guy but I had to rest. I couldn’t even move from the bed at first since I still felt slightly numb. But I made sure the nurses knew that I wanted to exclusively breastfeed and they called us every 3 hours to feed him. No milk yet but I think he was getting the colostrum. Hubby had to wheelchair me to the nursery and it was a bit of a hassle so I resolved that we would room-in Joao the next day.

Becoming a reality

Welcome to my new blog. I had an old one before I got married and pregnant but I feel that a fresh start is needed especially with my different view of life.

So anyway, I’m 6 months pregnant and we’ve decided to sign-up for Child Birth classes. I’ve already confirmed with Rome Kanapi who came highly recommended by my Tita and friend. Unfortunately, her Saturday Makati class is full already and that leaves Sundays at Ateneo. As if we didn’t already have enough places to go on Sundays. Anyway Lloyd doesn’t mind as much because he misses the place. Truth be told, I too will always have a special place in my heart for Ateneo since I did have 4 memorable years there.

Rome seems like a really nice person to talk to over the phone telling me to prepare a food diary and what to bring to the classes. She said if we didn’t have a yoga mat we can just use a towel and bring 1 throw pillow. However, it’s the food diary that is making me guilty.

During the first months of my pregnany I was practically draconian in my avoidance of anything with alcohol, caffeine, sugar and preservatives. I may have slipped and succumbed every now and then but I was firm in my resolve more or less.

Unfortunately now that I’ve passed my gestational diabetes test and other blood tests I’ve been feeling naughty. I’ve had cravings for C2 green tea and worse Hershey’s milk chocolate. I thought I could get away with a few “kisses” but last night I whimpered to Lloyd to buy me a bar with almonds. Good husband that he is, he did buy it. But I swear I ate only half. The other half is waiting to be consumed tonight.

Turns out that the reason Rome asked me to keep a food diary according to my research on Google is that I will be telling people at the child birthing class what is in it. Waaaah! Poor baby Joao, he’s getting high on all that sugar.   But in all honesty the little guy has been very active lately. I swear, he recognizes Lloyd’s voice.

Anyway, I’m just really excited that I’ll be joining this class and interacting with other expectant mothers. There are so many questions in my mind that books only partially answer. Some real life preggy stories in our culture will be nice to relate to.