Feeling meaty :(

Carne

I’m 32 weeks pregnant or more or less 8 months! It’s been getting so much harder to sleep since I feel like something is pressing against my chest and making my breathing more difficult. My feet and ankles are swollen like anything and my toes look like awful little sausages.My feet can’t fit into closed toe shoes without feeling super sore at the end of the day. I live in my sandals.

I was supposed to have an OB appointment on Friday but when we got there the clinic was closed. Being dutiful people we waited till the receptionist arrived but she gave us bad news that the doctor wasn’t feeling so well and we had to reschedule our appointment. However she did allow me to check my weight and of course that heavy feeling was justified since I’m now 140 pounds! I know I’m supposed to start gaining a pound a week but I still have around 8 weeks to go! That means I’ll end up close to 150 pounds near term! Wah!

I have so many questions pa naman to ask my OB. I want to get recommendations na on a pediatrician. I need to find someone who is supportive of  breastfeeding. I also wanted a recommendation between Medical City and Cardinal Santos hospital. L and I both have relatives who work in Cardinal so we think that gives us a plus if we stay there. We’ve already seen a sample bill of someone giving (natural) birth there and are prepared.

However we recently toured the birthing suite of Medical City and I must admit I am impressed. Getting to Medical City is difficult but once we got there the place is very nice looking. People used to tell me na sobrang maasikaso ang mga tao sa Medical City and when I got there I really felt it. They are so customer oriented there and so accomodating. It did not take us that long to get permission to tour the birthing suite and someone even accompanied us the whole time from admissions desk to DR area back to the ground floor. There’s also a place called the Strip where a bunch of restaurants and Mercury Drug are. The hospital complex itself has its own Starbucks and people tell me there is free wi-fi. Sigh, guess I’ll have to wait until Monday to get the info I need.

Future Soccer player?

Baby J has also been super active lately. He’s swimming around lazily and gives me a kick every once in a while for good measure. Sometimes I’m having meetings and I wince. The people I’m meeting with end up with a puzzled look on their face because I look like I reacted to what they were saying. I had to clarify and say that Baby J was kicking me in a sensitive spot. They just ended up laughing.

Last Childbirth class

Last but not the least is the fact that we had our last childbirth class today. It was so cute first thing in the morning to see guys trying to change diapers on plastic baby dolls. We also saw how to swaddle babies and Rome played a short film on breastfeeding. The sad thing is that breasts have become so associated with sex when in reality they are there to provide nutrition for our babies. Now I know what some people mean when they said that parang sobrang weird to see the baby’s mouth mimicking a sucking motion whenever he’s hungry. Imagine, you have to breastfeed every 1 1/2 to 3 hours for the first 6 weeks. That’s practically 8 times a day including the night. Sigh, I however swore to myself that I will do what I must to provide the best nutrition I can for my baby.

Karma?

I still walk to work everyday. It’s become my mandatory exercise despite the bulk of my protruding stomach. It’s quite a short walk and is quite easy to manage. Lately though I’ve been harboring some anger at cars that do not stop when I am walking on the pedestrian lane. Some will coming zooming in from nowhere while I’m already in the middle of the pedestrian lane and have the gall to honk their horn at me. I’m friggin’ waddling like a duck with all this weight in a very unmanageable area and you expect me to walk fast in the rain?

Is this karma for all the times that I laughingly referred to M’s joke of getting bonus points on a pregnant woman since two for one? o_O I’ve always felt it was a sadistic joke but I still laughed. Is that laughter now haunting me?

First childbirth class

So the day actually came when I attended my first childbirth class. It was held in the ISO in Ateneo, Katipunan. I was a little worried since we were running a bit late but turns out there were other couples who came much later than us.

It was a very interesting experience especially since we were able to talk about our expectations and fears about pregnancy and childbirth. Lloyd finally came clean on his fear of actually holding a baby. If you’ve seen him with a newborn you’d be scared too at how he seemed so fearful and nervous with the baby. I talked about my fear of not entirely avoiding the “bad” foods that had sugar and preservatives.My OB was quite specific about the foods that I’m supposed to avoid.

Another subject that came up was the weight gain that the ladies in our group had. I’m so happy to say that I had the least weight gain. Rome was quite surprised that with the other ladies in our group they were announcing they had weight gains of 15 to 25 pounds! Lloyd said one of the gained 30 pounds. I only gained 12 pounds so far. Maybe it’s because I offset the weight gain of eating 3 times a day with the avoidance of junk food.

In the later part of the class, Rome was teaching us all some pregnancy exercises. I brought a towel instead of a mat to lie down on the floor but was a bit embarassed when I realized everyone else had a decent mat! Worst of all is that Lloyd mentioned that the towel was obviously taken from a hotel since it was emblazoned with a “Paradise Hotel” in huge letters! This is what I get for grabbing something at random from my parents’ house. I don’t think anyone noticed it though. I told Lloyd we’d have to buy a yoga mat asap. Haha!

Last but not the least is the workbook that Rome gave us to write our expectations in and for me to put my weekly food diary. Siyempre one of the questions is a fill in the blank one where it says “My wife’s pregnant body is……..” Lloyd took a look at it and teased me “Huge!” Of course he wrote something else.

This coming Saturday we’ll start attending the Makati class since it is more convenient for us. Our Sundays are busy enough as it is. So it’ll be a different group and hopefully it will still be as interesting as the first one.

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.