Preggy Me @ 9 Weeks

Nothing much really changed from last week. I guess I just started hating my regular pants hahaha! I think I'm in denial.


I say: I can fit in my pants!
My pants say: NOT!




But according to the book "What to Expect When you're Expecting" my expanding waistline is totally legit even if other people say that I wouldn't be showing until the third month (which is in three weeks!). I'm quoting the book on this "Your expanding waistline may very well be a legitimate by-product of pregnancy, especially if you started out slender (ehem ehem), with little excess flesh for your growing uterus to hide behind. Or it may be a result of bowel distention, very common in early pregnancy...."




The dress I wore (from Ukay Manila) above is a little big for me so it still has some room when I get a litte bigger in the coming weeks. Can't wait to finish reading the book. I'm not sure though how to read it. Should I read it every month when I enter that month of my pregnancy or should I try to finish the book in one go?


And it's really obvious to me now that I'm always tired and sleepy! Before getting pregnant, I don't have problems walking. If we can walk going to our destination then let's walk...but now I just don't have the energy. I tire easily. And I am always asleep when we're here at home. Last Saturdays, I woke up early but after eating around 10am I'm sleepy again. So I slept and woke up around 3pm. Then I'm sleepy again around 9pm! All I do is sleep hahaha! My hubby's such a darling he's taking on most of the household chores - washing the dishes, doing the laundry, cleaning even ironing. Although he didn't have much success in the latter. I think I'll be doing the ironing again just not like before because I'm sure I can't stand for long periods of time. Anyways, we just iron jeans and some shirts because it's just too expensive to have it done by the laundry shop (the jeans I mean), they charge by kilo and one pair of jeans is almost one kilo already, plus the shirts shrink!

The Rest of our 2nd Day in Coron

Our next destination after Twin Lagoon was Kayangan Lake. Before reaching Kayangan lake, we had to hike up a hill and from the top we had to go down to go to Kayangan Lake. Whew! When we got to the top, it was time for some photo op. Look at that amazing view behind us.

Then we started trekking down the hill. The minute we saw the lake what we immediately thought about was Tabing Ilog. We started singing “Sa Ilog ang mundo’y tahimik” hehehe. Remember that youth oriented show where John Lloyd Cruz starred in? I don't know what it is about the lake or basta the minute I saw it I remembered Tabing Ilog. Must be the OBB where they show all the actors and actresses just frolicking in the river.


We didn’t explore the lake as much as we did Twin Lagoon. We didn’t stay long either because a few minutes after we’ve arrived, people started arriving and then the rain came. The rain was pouring a bit hard when we decided to leave. It was a bit dangerous going up and down the hill with the circumstances we're in. It was raining hard already and the slopes are so slippery. One of us actually slipped hard on his bum while going down. Good thing nothing really bad happened. Looking back, imagine if I was the one who slipped I was supposed to be a few weeks pregnant then!

After Kayangan Lake, we went snorkeling at Siete Pecados. This literally means seven mountains. The area where you can snorkel is surrounded by 7 big limestone rocks or you can say small mountains. The fish here are so big! There were some bigger than my head. I was actually scared they might bite us when our tourguide started throwing rice into the water (this is how they attract the fish).

Ready to head back to Majika after snorkeling.

We were tired after all the activities we had. So when we got back to the resort, we just relaxed, had dinner and were all ready to hit the sack.

Some pa-artsy shot...beautiful colors of the sunset!

Waiting for the dinner bell to ring. In Majika Resort, the food is served in the mess hall. All the guests are informed that food is already served when you hear a bell.
Yum! Crabs again for dinner!

And that ends our second day in Coron. Sorry I had to do my Coron post by installment. I can’t post them in one long post as that will take so much time. Watch out for my next Coron entry!

Girls Night In

I'm actually sad that these get-togethers are not done more often. But you have to make the most of what you have. Anyways, enough drama (I think I'm getting old or is it the hormones?)! Met up with my college barkada last Saturday to celebrate my being pregnant!

We had dinner at Reyna's place (it's becoming our favorite go-to place!). She cooked pasta which I got the recipe. It was easy to do, just olive oil, garlic and basil! Yummy and healthy food always a good thing for a pregnant woman like me. Then we ordered pizza and risotto (because I wanted rice!) from Amici. I'm 7 weeks and 2 days in this picture.


The stories exchanged ranged from office disappointments to funny clients to lovelife to Hawaii's best breast surgeon hahaha! Talking to these girls made me grateful I'm employed where I work. They have some very stressful work and some of them don't have enough time for themselves. Two of them ended up just crying at work, not the sobbing kind but the can't-fight-back-the-tears-flowing-from-my-eyes kind. I guess, they were overwhelmed with so much work that needs to be done and seeing that they don't have enough time to finish all of them. I think out of the five girls there are only two of us who can live work on time. The other three are in the IT industry so I guess that explains it? I wish you all the best, girls! You all deserve it!

We Have an OB

In my last post, I've mentioned that we don't have an OB yet and that we were scheduled to visit one. So yesterday morning, Saturday, we woke up early and went to Ortigas Center. When I called the clinic the day before I was told that clinic hours during Saturdays start at 8am. So when we got there a little past 8am I knew there would already some people waiting but I wasn't expecting to be number 15 on the list! When we arrived the clinic was still closed but it didn't take 5 minutes before the receptionists and the doctors arrived. At that time there were only around 4 of us there without babies/kids so I figured we're the ones listed for the OB. The OB we went to shares a clinic with her husband, who is a pediatrician. The clinic is in green and white colors with pictures of babies all around. Very stimulating to the babies and kids and also the preggy mommies. No rustic decors there.



Anyways, I was kind of hoping the other women in the list will not show up and we'll be bumped up the list and we can get out of there early. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Good thing a friend of mine already told me that I should bring a book to keep me entertained and I always reminded myself of what she said that more patients mean more people believe in this doctor. And I was actually kept entertained by all the people coming and going. Around 10am I was already hungry so Joema and I went out for a brunch at the nearby Rufo's. We were back at the clinic before 11am. But again we had to wait...wait....wait...wait! Alas after 5 hours of waiting it was our turn! All that waiting was actually worth it! We super love our OB - Dr. Concepcion Pijuan-Alfiler. Once we were seated at her clinic I already felt at ease with her. She asked a few things because I already have my first ultrasound and the result of my urine and blood test. And then she asked about some family medical history. She was very pleasant and easy to talk to. She explains things in a motherly way, you know that thing where she wants you to understand it properly and not that in-your-face you should know these things noh! She actually gave me a pen and paper to write down the things she was saying because she said after she took my information she will give me a lecture and I need to write these things for me not to forget. But before her lecture, she led us to the ultrasound machine and I had another ultrasound. We saw our bambino again, this time with the little hands and feet! So cute! Will post a picture when I have a scanned copy of the ultrasound. So anyways, here are the things our wonderful OB told us:

• don't use feminine washes, use only baby soap (unscented) or Cetaphil gentle cleanser to wash your privates


• use light colored cotton underwear, no dark colored ones


• use Perla white to wash underwear


• no cats - they transmit toksoplosmosis that can also be transmited to raw contaminated food


• no to deep sea fissh like mackerel, shark because they have high mercuary


• no to processed foods


• no to soft cheese like brie or the other expensive ones


• no extra salty, extra sweet or extra fatty food


• OK drinks - water and ice, fresh juice and milk (non-soya)


• no to heat - hot sauna, massages, efficacent oils


• if I have fever it's okay to drink Biogesic and then lots of liquid


• if I have LBM, I can't take any medicine but it's okay to drink Gatorade


• no hair coloing, rebonding, hot oil (except for the DIY hot oil where you just cover your hair with a towel)


• when breasts get big, buy new brassieres and avoid tight clothing


• check the lipstick for lead. how? put lipstick on your hand and then rub jewelry on it, if the lipstick darkens then it has lead - don't use it!


• no to retinoin - even when you aren't pregnant but still hoping to get pregnant this should be avoided

Dra. Alfiler told me to continue my folic acid and then gave me hormones because I had some spotting, which I didn't know was already happening, she asked me if I feel some dysmenorrhea, I said yes and then asked if I had some brown discharge, I said yes; then she confirmed the bleeding during the ultrasound. But I wasn't alarmed because she didn't look alarmed by it. She prescribed some hormones to stop the bleeding and then gave me some calcium tablets as well because I don't drink milk hehehe. My next visit will be in August.

Here are her clinic details:

Dr. Concepcion P. Alfiler
814 Medical Plaza Ortigas
Tel. No. 6870872 / 6374894
MWF 9am - 3pm, TTh 8am - 12nn, Sat 8am - 3pm

Preggy Me @ 8 Weeks

It’s officially my 8th week.


Easy Preggy
I don’t have morning sickness (Thank God!) although there are times when I feel that my stomach’s getting queasy and a few times (maybe just two or three times) that I’ve made duwal. But this is not on a daily basis, just some sort of once in a week kind of thing. Or just when my stomach feels like it hehe.

I don’t crave for any food. At times I find myself asking what I want to eat. Although I am always hungry. And when I do get hungry during the non-mealtimes (breakfast, lunch or dinner) I munch on fruits or biscuits. I now hate eating sinigang because hindi ako makapagsawsaw sa patis! And I’ve stopped eating desserts (unless it’s fruits for dessert) entirely.

I don’t think I have heightened sense of smell just yet. Well, even before I got pregnant I have a sensitive sense of smell. But there’s this one time my husband and I passed through a food court, blech I wanted to get out of there immediately. I was smelling all sorts of things. But I don’t think I have a more sensitive nose now that I’m pregnant. I don't particularly dislike certain odors like say onions or lipstick or toothpaste (I have friends who hated the smell of these things when they were pregnant).

So there I guess I’m having a fairly easy pregnancy (I don’t want to jinx it!). I think the only manifestation of the pregnancy is that I'm always sleepy and as I've said I'm always hungry. After eating dinner, I only have around 1 hour tops before my eyes feel heavy. I don't even have enought time to surf the net during the night. And I have to research on Language Schools in London for a cousin who will be staying there. But can't really complain because atleast I'm having it easy. My friend who's also pregnant (our due dates are a few days apart) is going on bed rest for two weeks. I hope she and the baby will be fine after that.


Wear It
I can still fit into my regular clothes. Although I’m starting to wear out some clothes that I think I won’t fit into once my belly starts to show. Here I am in my normal work clothes.



This outfit is already super tight - there's no more room for any FAT hahaha! I'm already planning my office clothes for when my belly starts to show.

No OB
I don’t have an OB yet. I’ve went to two OB’s already, both from our office’s medical retainers. The first one was the one who scheduled me for an ultrasound. The second one prescribed me folic acid and scheduled me for a urine and blood test. I actually found her nice and was considering her to be my regular OB. Unfortunately there were some mishaps when I came back for a consultation, she needs to only see my urine test, but I think that was the fault of the receptionist. But I had another turn off when we returned last Sunday for the reading of the result of my blood test, she wasn’t there and the reliever doctor didn’t even finish her timeslot. But again, I know this isn’t the fault of the doctor but the medical retainer. It’s just that I am not a patient person. I don’t like waiting. Hay! Good thing a friend told me and this sort of alerted me, that it’s actually a good thing if the wait is long, that only means that the doctor has lots of patients and many believe in her. My friend also told me not to look for an OB who has no patients waiting for her when I go for a check-up hehehe. We’re going to a different OB this Saturday morning and hopefully she will be the one. If not then I think I’ll go back to the second OB we went to, I just have to be a little more patient.

1-24-7

Yesterday’s race was like a roller coaster ride. Vettel started at the first of the grid and within a few seconds from the start of the race he was way beyond the back of the pack. Webber was first by the first corner and then it was downhill from there for Vettel. I don’t know how it happened but he ended up with a blown rear end tire, had to go to the pits and was 87 seconds behind the race leader, his teammate Webber. There was almost a time during the race that Webber was going to overlap him. But thank God for a good strategy from the team – just one pit stop, that one pit stop during the first lap – and Vettel’s aggressive driving he ended up 7th place by the time the checkered flag was wave.

Yes, it was a disappointing start but after all that has happened, I’m still happy with the 7th place. I won’t even talk about the controversial front wing that Vettel used because you know me, I’m always behind Vettel – just like Red Bull who’s pretty obvious they are backing Vettel more than Webber. Which is why some people called Webber’s win a vindication. Yeah whatever hahahaha! And oh it was fun seeing the four German drivers fighting for position by the end of the race – Vettel, Sutil, Schumacher and Hulkenberg! The commentators were saying that what would be going through Schumi’s mind because these younger German drivers were all inspired to race because he was a great driver during his time, and then now they are driving against each other. Maybe these drivers should get an Acupuncture Murrieta to relieve their stresses after the race and be ready for the next one. Next race will be the German GP, can’t wait!

Twin Lagoon

After Banol Beach, our group went to Twin Lagoon - twin because these are two lagoons side by side each other. Out boat docked in one of the lagoons and then we crossed a limestone formation to get to the other lagoon.



Actually when we docked we didn't know what to do. We thought we were going snorkeling by the side of the boat but our tourguide told us that we were supposed to go to the other side. I asked her "Ate kailangan ba ng life vest? (Do we need to wear our life vest?)" and she answered "Ay, ma'am nasa sa inyo po yun kung gusto nyo mag-life vest. (It's up to you if you want to wear one)" Haller! The water was 20feet deep! Good thing I insisted on wearing a life vest (the rest followed suit) or else I would have drowned there hahahaha! Well, I wouldn't have reached the other side if I didn't wear a life vest.

Photo before getting off the boat



We didn't have photos at the other lagoon because we didn't bring any underwater camera. Everyone was afraid to gamble and bring their cameras so they were left in the boat. Well, the cameras would have been soaked because we went under this.



It was really disappointing we didn't have photos because the other side was so magical. Limestone mountains surrounding us - just us and nature. And it was really just us in that massive body of water surrounded by limestone formation. I was surprised actually that I wasn't freaking out during that time, I found it a really peaceful experience. No worries about the outside world - no thoughts about work. Our guides were the best - they were expert divers. We went from one side of the lagoon to the other side. We just stopped because when we reached a rock (underwater), a fish that was nestled there started biting us hahaha! And some of saw a sea snake although they told us when we already left (Coron, that is) so we didn't panicked or anything hehe.

First Ultrasound

It was Thursday last week when I bought a home pregnancy kit and tested positive. Before I bought the kit, I was thinking of a bunch of things about being pregnant – who will be my OB, when will I buy pregnancy clothes, etc. etc. When I got home, I waited for my hubby to come home before I did the test. We actually had dinner first and then I did the test. I remember looking at the kit and seeing the urine going up the lithmus paper and showing the two lines almost instantly after I dropped the last drop of urine on the kit. And then I felt nothing – nada! Maybe I was overwhelmed with the feeling, maybe I was nervous. When I showed it to my husband, he hugged me and he was smiling from ear to ear. I think it took a few minutes before the news started to settle within me. Then I started smiling and started planning again about the pregnancy. Should I go to the OB immediately, when should we tell our friends?

The morning of Friday I went to our office clinic to ask for a pregnancy test. They’ve asked me to pee in a cup and then told me that the results will be released in the afternoon. I couldn’t bear to not tell anyone so I asked Joema if I can tell my closest friend here at the office. And so I told Rhoda and then asked her a bunch of questions.

In the afternoon I had to call our clinic to ask for the result. The nurse told me she’ll follow up with their laboratory and that she'll call me again. When I received her call, this is how our conversation went:

Nurse: “Ma’am ano pong libre nyo sa min?”
Me: “Huh?”
Nurse: “Blowout nyo po sa min dahil sa result. Negative po.”
Me: “Negative?”
Nurse: “Ano po bang gusto nyong result? Hehehe (maybe she sensed my disappointment) Positive po. First baby po ba?”
Me: “Ah oo. Thank you!”

I was so excited about the result I immediately hung up the phone. I had to call her back again to ask if I can get the result (a paper with the word “Positive”) from the clinic. I didn’t set an appointment with our clinic’s OB coz I wanted to have the lab result as well before I go to an OB. Our OB was only there during the morning. So I told Joema if we can just go to Megaclinic after office and have a check-up with an OB there.

I was at the Megaclinic around 6:30pm and got my number for my checkup with the OB. Joema just arrived in time before the OB called in my name. She just gave me my due date based on my last menstrual period and scheduled me to have an ultrasound.

While waiting for my turn at the ultrasound machine. My hubby and I called our parents to tell them the good news. Funny coz my hubby was so so anxious why it’s taking so long to get me to the ultrasound and he so wanted to tell someone the news. I was telling him we should wait first after the ultrasound before we tell anyone else. But he went on and texted our friends and asked if they were free for the night. He wanted to celebrate immediately after the ultrasound. Unfortunately, most of them were not free so we scheduled the celebration the next day. It was funny coz I’m usually the one who’s eagerly anxious and he’s the one who’s calm and collected – we were the total opposites that night, role reversal talaga!

When I was called in, the doctor first showed me my ovaries and then looked if there were any abnormalities in there. Then she asked Joema to come in when it was time to see the baby. We saw the baby’s heartbeat which was at 118, which the doctor says was normal at this time. So cute coz there it was a small oblong thingy with a heartbeat – it’s he/she is alive!



We didn’t get the ultrasound report immediately after so we had dinner first and had to come back for the result. The next few days were spent celebrating with family and friends and letting everyone know the good news!

Now, I'm stuck here at home because I have a stiff neck since yesterday morning. But I'm feeling much better now, don't worry!

Two Lines

1 July 2010