Mother and Daughter in Norway

I was fighting back tears while reading this news article.

Messages offer mother, daughter hope amid carnage

Here are some of the text messages exchanged that brought tears to my eyes. Julie is the daughter, Marianne is the mother.

Julie: I love you, even though I may yell at you sometimes.


Julie: And I am not panicking, even though I'm s--- scared.

Marianne: I know that, my girl. We love you very much too. Do you still hear shooting?

********

Julie: I am still alive.


Marianne: Thank God for that.

********

Praying for the souls of the people who died in this terrible tragedy and for the country of Norway.

Ensogo

I was a bit curious when I started reading about these sites that are supposedly "selling" vouchers online. I saw deals that are more than 50% off so I thought there msut be a catch. I found a friend who already had experienced buying these vouchers and she vouched (yes, the pun is intended hehehe) that these were legit. So when I saw this, I had to buy those vouchers.

P499 per person per night accommodation in Bora!

It was easy breezy by the way, I only had to click buy, input all the necessary details and I was able to purchase my first vouchers. I paid them via Paypal but you can also pay by credit card, bank deposits or payment directly to Ensogo office. I'm pretty sure the other groupon deal sites are as easy as this one. So I hope I won't break the bank hehehe. I really just want to take opportunity of these great deals for our vacations.

We're still waiting for the airline carriers to have their promos before we use our vouchers. But once there's a seat sale, we're going to Boracay baby!

Thank God for This!

It's official! I'll be transferring to a new division in our department (psst, it's a promotion too!). This is definitely a blessing for us. Aside from the usual "step towards my career goal (blue plate, baby ahahaha - hello to some officemates who are reading this!)", we can definitely use the extra income now that we have Miya in our lives. This is really all about her. I applied for vacancies after I gave birth, actually I only applied for two. The first one was also within our department but different division and I applied to that one while I was still on maternity leave. It was really very fortunate that there were a number of job openings the moment I was back from maternity leave. So, the saying "When God closes a door, He opens a window" rang true for me in this instance. I wasn't picked on the first vacancy I applied for but I was chosen on the second one which I think is a better one for me - career-wise. But now I also have to think about how I'll improve myself and help myself in the process in tackling this new challenge. I plan, again, to take the CFA exams. I've borrowed some exam materials and I'm hoping I'll get to read them this weekend. I'll get a better feel of the exam scope hopefully by doing this. I plan to take the June 2012 exam and hopefully it will push through. I don't really want to take an MBA course or apply for any other graduate studies. I don't want to be put into a classroom set up again. I'm also excited in taking on this new job. It's a whole new adventure for me again and hopefully I'll cope easily. There's a chance for business trips but I'm not too keen on this to be too soon because I'm still breastfeeding. At the moment, I think this is all promising! And I'm keeping all these positive energy and vibes until after I transfer because I will surely be needing them.

Sick Again

Miya has cough and colds again, I had to take the day off from work today. This is the second time she's had cough and colds, the first time was the week after she got sick. The first time she had them she didn't have to take any meds, breastmilk was enough. Her cough was gone after a day or two and so was the colds. I'm hoping it's the same again this time. We've also been using a nebulizer to clear her nasal passages. But, as we are blessed with a very happy baby, she still smiles despite not feeling well.

This was this morning. A totally different baby from last night. It's so hard to make her go to sleep. Last night, she was crying, coughing, sniffing and scratching her head (due to her atopic dermatitis) when I was trying to make her go to sleep. That's why she has all those morning glory in her eyerlashes. I was almost close to tears myself last night. If only I can protect her from all of that. And we barely slept. She was waking up almost every two hours and I had to change her position every now and then looking for the right one that will make her sleep longer. Either she sleeps on my chest or in her carrier (her head's elevated), she doesn't want to be put down on our bed. Hopefully, tonight will be better.

Make Me Smile

How about you? What's making you smile today? Have a wonderful week ahead!

Transformers 3

Have you watched the movie? Before watching the movie, I knew some people who liked it and some people who didn't. Guess what side I'm in? I didn't like it as in I hated it! It's the second movie I've watched since I gave birth, the first one was Thor. I'm not sure if it was because we watched it in a so-so cinema or because I wasn't seated in a good seat inside the cinema or it was just so blah! For one, the movie was soooooooooooo long! I wish the first few scenes of the movie weren't shown. It took them a long time to establish the fact that Sam didn't have a job (he should have applied to be an SEO Consultant) while the robots were doing some saving of the world. By the time the movie started getting funny, I wasn't laughing anymore because I was already ready to go home. Two, there was not enough robot action in the movie. It was supposed to be about the robots, right? Why is it that for most of the movies I've only watched people and no robots? Three, why did they turn it into a love story? Really? Do they really have to inject the love story between Sam and whats-her-name? Ugh! The Transformers series got worst! From being a good movie in the first one, then the second one was so-so, it was down to this. Thank God that was the last one!

Atopic Dermatitis

Miya has atopic dermatitis. At first we brushed it off as rashes because her dad likes kissing her (what with his stubles and all). And that's what people usually say when they see her, they immediately assume it's because we like kissing her on her cheeks. This was I think late April or early May. We always had her wear mittens because she keeps on scratching her face. Then it wasn't just her cheeks, she had it on her left shoulder down to her upper arm. Around the third week of May when we went to Shangri-la, two of our friends noticed it and told me to have it checked. I was instantly alarmed. You see, I try not to be paranoid when it comes to my daughter. Try is the operative word. But really, I try not to jump to worst case scenarios when I see something in/on my daughter. As her pedia said, if she's eating and sleeping well then I don't have to worry about anything. Our pedia told us to use a hypo-allergenic soap for her bath time (we were already using Cetaphil at that time but before it we used Lactacyd Baby Bath) and turn to Perla for washing her clothes (we used to use Cycles). He was weary to prescribe medicines because most of the medicines for rashes have steroids. But it came to a point where Miya wasn't sleeping straight during the nights as she used to, she would wake up almost crying and scratching her face. So we brought her to our dermatologist and the derma concluded that it's atopic dermatitis. To treat the rashes, we need to apply hydrocortisone to the affected area. As per the derma, hydrocortisone is the mildest steroids, so I was a bit hesitant to do this at first. But he convinced me that we only need to apply it for 3-5 days. And then afterwards, we'll change to AI cream. He also prescribed Cetaphil Restoraderm body wash and moisturizer for Miya. The Cetaphil he prescribed is specifically for atopic dermatitis. He also gave antihistamine for the itching.

The hydrocortisone worked like a charm. Unfortunately, Miya's rashes flared up again after a few days after I ate sashimi. I was advised by the derma to go on a hypo-allergenic diet. I can't eat chicken, egg, seafoods, bagoong, dried fish, chocolates, nuts, mangoes, citrus fruits, pineapple, tomatoes, wheat products, strawberry and mongo. The first few days after I was given this list I stumbled and ate some allergenic foods and this will automatically result in Miya's rashes flaring up again. So we had to apply hydrocortisone again. The rashes will be gone for a few days but new ones will come out in a week or two. It was starting to get frustrating. Just this morning, I researched on atopic dermatitis and found this. I was sad for my baby. She didn't have a chance against atopic dermatitis. Apparently it's hereditary and with her dad having asthma and I had eczema as a child until adulthood, she was a likely candidate for this skin disorder. I hope and pray she outgrows this.

When I Think of Home

I think I'm nesting. I'm browsing through Ikea's website now and I'm dreaming of how our future home would look like. We have our home now but I never really got to decorating it. It was always function, function, function for us what with the small space that we have. But looking at Ikea's website made me rethink what we've done with our place. Should have injected some personality in it, made it more pretty. But when I think about beautifying the place, I think of how this home is only a temporary home for us - that we'll be transferring to a bigger place. When - I don't know. Hopefully soon so that Miya will have a big enough space to roam around in, to practice crawling and walking around. Maybe I should change my current mindset and not think of our current home as a temporary one so that I'll have the energy to redecorate it. The other thing is, can I do it? I'm not sure if I'm capable of decoating our own place. Sure, I can appreciate photos of other homes - which are pretty, which aren't my style. But doing it in my own home, can I pull it off? So many things to think about, so many things to do and with a baby always there needing my attention I'm not sure I'll be doing it with our current home. As it is, I'm happy living in it. It's what we call our home. But design-wise, makes me jealous of other people's homes hehehe.

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One More Try

Wee! I finally know how to post a large photo! Many thanks to Deepa for trying to help me. Although adjusting the width of the template did not the solve my problem. I had to update my settings for the new post editor. If you guys are like me and want to upload large photos and can not, click on your Settings tab and under Select Post Editor choose the Updated Editor. Click on the link for the features.

New Template

Do you like the new template of this blog? I was so jealous of the big photos from Patty Laurel's blog, I immediately changed my template. So here's hoping I can post big photos as well. Let's try shall we?

Daddy's Girl

Last night after nursing Miya reached out to her dad (who's at the other side of the bed) for a hug, then she immediately fell asleep. It was the first time she did that. She usually sleeps on my side of the bed, she falls asleep while nursing and sleeps on her back. But last night after nursing, kinalabit pa nya si Joema because Joema had his back turned on us. My daughter's satrting to be a daddy's girl. And I love it!

Shangri-La Weekend

21-22 May 2011

Wow this post is a month late! Anyhoo, let me just start writing about it.

For our summer outing, our department chose EDSA Shangri-La. The past few years, we've been frequenting Sofitel thanks to our company outing. And as usual we invited our friends to join us. Here's a photo blog of our delightful weekend.

Miya watching TV with Daddy

Picture time with Mommy. Mas alam pa ni Miya where to look.


Ninong Mek carrying our little swimmer

Yes, she has diapers! Our little tabachingching!

Baby won't smile coz she's sleepy already. Didn't have enough from her afternoon nap.

So she only stayed in the pool for picture taking hehehe. After I bathed her back in our room, I left her with Joema and I went down again to the pool. I missed the water!

While Mommy was having fun, Daddy took care of our baby. She fell asleep while we were out.

For dinner, more friends came by. We ate at Recipes in Shangri-la Plaza. I love that restaurant. Love the food and the prices are affordable.


Reposting Miya's photo while inside her baby carrier. This is what I was talking about in that post.


Woke up the next day next to my happy baby.

But she went back to sleep during breakfast. Which was okay since we were able to eat properly. We were probably there for almost two hours. Sulit ang buffet haha!

After breakfast, we went back to the pool.

But our little princess still wasn't that happy. She's happier in the bath tub! Sus! Sorry can't post photos of her. She might kill me when she's a bit older hehe.

Wazzup!

Miya was Sick

Yesterday, I wen on half-day leave because Miya had low-grade fever. To tell you the truth, I was so worried that I wanted to go home immediately. She was restless Thursday night and she woke up rather grumpy so I took her temperature by Friday morning before we left for work. It was at 37 degrees. We told our yaya to take her temperature regularly while we were gone. She texted me around 8:45 to tell me that Miya's temp was at 37.2. I wasn't able to read the message until 11:30. I had a meeting at 9 that morning and I was expressing milk before that so I wasn't able to check my phone for messages. I was actually at the expression room when I was texting my yaya what to do. She texted that Miya's temp went up to 37.3. I was so panicky I didn't even finished expressing milk and went back to my work station to ask my boss if I could take a half-day leave. So I left by lunchtime and was here at home around 1pm. Good thing I went home early because Miya didn't want to drink milk from her bottle by mid-day. I nursed her immediately when I got home. She wasn't feeling grumpy anymore, she was even smiling when I got home so that made me feel less worried. But when we took her temp it was at 37.5 already. I had to read The Baby Book and consult what I need to do. Fortunately, Miya's temp is considered a low-grade fever. Per Miya's pedia, we can give her Calpol if her temp reached 38 which fortunately didn't happen. After her afternoon nap, her temp is down at 37.1. Whew! Maybe it's viral because I later on found out the baby in the next-door unit in front had low-grade fever as well.

Here she is last night, all feeling better.


I love you, baby! Please don't scare mommy like that!

SaYa Carrier

I was inspired to babywear Miya from the mommy blogs that I’ve read. Plus we didn’t buy a stroller so I was very much eager to buy one. (Although a set of friends gave us a stroller as a gift, and a Tita lent us one more) I was more determined to buy a sling after reading Dr. Sears' The Baby Book because he encouraged babywearing. I actually had the SaYa carrier in my wishlist in all the baby showers thrown for me. Unfortunately, because of time constraint (what with ordering it online and the delivery time) no one gave me the carrier. But that was okay. I was finally able to buy the sling when Miya was a few weeks old bought my SaYa carrier from fabnaima. I got the Versatekk blend size 0 color brown from Mama.Baby.Love. – they accept payments via Paypal (yey!) I actually got the wrong size when I ordered it. Good thing Jenny was very patient with me . I took photos of the carrier and sent it to her, and she said that I did got a small size so she asked me to send it back and she sent me a new one. The next mornign after I got it, I tried it on Miya and she instantly fell asleep in it. At home, she falls asleep almost every time I put her in her carrier. The carrier was a life saver when she became too heavy for my arms and wanted to be rocked to sleep. We didn’t have a stroller so whenever we go out, I wear Miya. I stopped wearing her when it became to hot for her to be there. Never had the chance to take a decent photo of her and me and the carrier until last May when we went out with friends.








Everyone who saw her was amused. She was so cute – just her little head with chubby cheeks. Even our friends wanted one not for their baby but for themselves hehe. She looked so comfy inside it. Her own little cocoon.

Mother's Day

Sorry I haven’t been blogging for a while (not that anyone missed me haha!). As I’ve mentioned in my previous post I just want to experience every little thing my baby does. So I spend most of my time at home with her. I only get to go online when she’s asleep, and I usually just browse different sites because it takes time to make an entry. I used to edit photos but in keeping with less time in front of the PC, I won’t edit the photos from now on and just post them here. I really just want to document the events/things that has happened in the last month or so. So let me start with Joema’s bday and mother’s day.

8 May 2010

Mother's day this year coincided with the hubby's birthday so it was a double celebration for us. My in-laws came to celebrate with us.

Our spread

We were supposed to buy cake and ice cream but because of the sudden downpour (remember, it rained so hard that day?) we decided to go back and just order food from the nearby Chinese restaurant. Hence, the lumpiang shanghai and crispy fried chicken. The spaghetti was brought by my in-laws who came all the way from Bulacan in that bad weather so thank you. I also asked our yaya to cook soup to keep us warm.

It was also the Turkish GP so we of course watched the race. Here’s Miya watching the race with her Dad.


Happy mother’s day to me!


One really will never know certain emotions until you experience it yourself beforehand. I never knew happiness like this before. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy before, but this kind of happiness that motherhood brings is such a different experience altogether. I salute all the mothers in the world (although this is a month late), belated happy mother’s day to all of us!

Missed the Laughing Baby

Yesterday, we went home to a laughing baby girl. I was just sad because she only laughed for a few more minutes after we got home. I wanted to get a video of her laughing but our camera's battery died down on us. Our yaya said it was the first time Miya laughed! She would always smile or giggle but I've never seen her laugh like that. I wanted her to laugh again and again yesterday but she started to get in a bad mood when we got home. Well, she wanted me to feed her apparently which made me feel good in a selfish kind of way. But I really hate missing on those things, missing seeing her milestones, and I miss her everyday! When I thought about it last night, I only get to be with her (awake) in less than 5 hours a day. She wakes up before we leave for work but that's only 30mins max. When we get home, we usually eat dinner immediately so we can play with her. After eating, we play with her a bit then I give her a bath (if it's too hot) or spongebath. Then she gets sleepy and takes a powernap for about 30mins. We get to play again only for a short time and then she gets sleepy again and I rock her back to sleep. Before going back to work, I can make her sleep by putting her in her rocking chair. But nowadays she really wants to be nursed to sleep or rocked (carried) to sleep. I think that's sweet too. So last night, because I felt so bad I put Miya to sleep on our bed (she sleeps in her crib), I nursed her side-lying (I usually stand up, pick her up from her crib and nurse her cradle-hold) and we cradled all through the night. Last night, I said a little prayer to God that I won't get impatient with Miya when she wants to be carried and I'm already sleepy, that I will carry her every time she wants to even if she's so heavy already, but please please let me see her every milestone. I prayed that God will allow me to see every single (small or big) milestone of Miya. Lord, please hear my prayers!

Working and Breastfeeding

Oh yes I am back to work! Thankfully, there were no drama on the home front. Surprisingly I didn't have separation anxiety from Miya. I guess it helped that I was pumping milk for her while at work (I look at her photos and videos while pumping).

On my first day back to work, I woke up around 5:30am took a bath and expressed milk for Miya. After expressing milk, she woke up! She doesn't really wake up that early when I was on maternity leave. I guess she knows in a way. I fed her and put her back to her crib. We "talked" while I got dressed. And this has been going on for the last four days (my first day was on a Tuesday). Miya and her yaya then go downstairs with us - me and the hubby leaving the house while Yaya and Miya go to the poolside to get some sun.

On my first day back to work, I expressed milk only two times. I was a bit stressed to express milk in the expression room at work because the set-up was only for two mommies and there isn't any cubicle for each one. You just have your back at the other mommy while you do your own thing. Plus they introduce themselves to me! At first, I was like I don't need to know your names (yes I'm an introvert like dut!). Another mommy even kept on talking to me while I was pumping milk. I wanted to tell her "Please I need to concentrate while expressing milk." Later on, I get the introduction bit. It was in a way our very own support group. As for my stress, it didn't help that I didn't bring the plug of my breastpump so I was relying on batteries. I felt I was having a hard time getting enough milk. See, my breastpump can be used with batteries or plugged in (electric) but since I had to use a transformer (US bought) I decided not to bring one. The milk I was getting was not as much compared to when I was still at home expressing milk. I even had to ask a friend for a one-on-one tutorial on how to use my hands when expressing milk. But by yesterday, I guess I got used to the set-up in the expression room, I was comfortable using my breastpump at work (I bought a transformer for work). As it turned out, I was using the breastpump differently. See, the breastpump that I have is borrowed. When Joema bought the transformer for it, he left the manual at ACE Hardware. So I had to make do with the box on how to set-up the thing. (I know I should've donwloaded the manual). Anyways, aside from the breastshield there's a plastic nipple protector that I put inside the breastshield while pumping. Yesterday before I started pumping, the nipple protector fell on the floor and I stepped on it. So I had to pump milk without it. Turned out more milk was pumped simply because the milk wasn't strained by that plastic nipple protector haha. Another thing that made me uncomfortable pumping milk at the office is my clothes. At home, (this is TMI!) I don't put on a bra so I just hike up my top and there are my breasts ready for feeding. I don't care anymore if my yaya sees them. If I can breastfeed not wearing a top, the better. So although I was wearing a button-down top at work, it was a bit difficult for me to have my bra on and hike it up while expressing milk. It didn't help too, that on the first day I didn't bring my nursing cover. Day by day I had to make some adjustments like the next day I already brought my nursing cover. I was really freaking out that I won't be able to have enough milk for Miya while I'm away from her. But as I grew more comfortable expressing milk at work, my milk production grew. At first I was expressing 1-2oz per session. Yesterday, I had 3oz per session and I was expressing milk at 3hour intervals. My schedule is 5:45am (at home), 8:30am, 11:30am, 2:30am (all in the office), then 6pm and between 8-9pm here at home.

I had to ask my yaya to write down Miya's feeding schedule while I'm away. Well for the days she wrote down, Miya feeds four times for 3-4oz per feeding. So the first few days that I was only getting 1-2oz, yaya had to get frozen milk that I was able to store before going back to work. You see, I started pumping a month before. For me it worked out better than starting two weeks before going back to work. Because I was able to store a lot of milk and I was able to get comfortable with my breastpump (albeit the wrong usage haha!). I was even able to donate milk after the first few weeks because we had to defrost the ref and Miya wasn't really drinking the milk I expressed. Because while I was still on leave, we started feeding her 1oz a day by bottle. We had a hard time teaching her how to drink from a bottle. The first time we tried, my mom fed her while I was taking a bath because I read that the mommy shouldn't be there so the baby won't be confused. My mother said, Miya didn't have any problems, she drank like a pro. The next time we tried, my mom fed her again while Joema and I were out doing the groceries. When we came back, my mother said we should try feeding Miya while I was there for me to see the problem because that time Miya had a harder time taking the nipple of the bottle. So the yaya tried feeding her while I was there, or I tried feeding the bottle to Miya (a friend said this worked for her and her baby) but to no avail. Miya would just cry and not finish the bottle (only 1oz!). Anyways, I eventually thought of letting yaya take Miya every morning down to the poolside for some sun (before this I was the one who took Miya every morning) at the same time feed her the bottle. It was the perfect plan! Miya finally learned to drink from the bottle and I had time to pump milk. This went on until I had to go back to work. My schedule for pumping milk while I was on leave was 8am (or whatever time Miya was taken downstairs by the pool which depended mainly on her waking time), 11:30am, 4pm, 8pm. So I was pumping and breastfeeding her at the same time which I still do now that I'm back to work. The first day I was gone, when I came home Miya immediately fed directly from me. Babies really know and prefer their mommies. This was what worried me the most when we started bottlefeeding her. I worried she might not like feeding directly from me anymore. But even if she was just fed by that time I came home, Miya wanted to feed directly from me. So sweet!

Miya's First Overnighter

I'm a little bit apprehensive to have Miya sleep overnight in other houses even if it were my parents'. I was worried she'll get fussy and cry so much and wake up the neighbors in the middle of the night. But fortunately, my worries were uncalled for. Last Friday we slept at my parents' house since Joema was away for a team building activity in Subic. Miya slept on time the night we were there and she woke up for her usual feedings during the night. All in all it wasn't a traumatic experience for me. I'm so proud of her.

Here she is during breakfast the next day.

Miya's 3rd Month Birthday

30 April fell on a Saturday so it was a lazy day for our birthday girl. We played with her when she woke up. I love playing with her right after she wakes up. She's extra "talkative" during that time.




For lunch, we had food delivered from Max's, the cake was bought the day before.


We watched a documentary on Queen Elizabeth after lunch then had a nap before going to Reyna's place for Shawie's despedida.




I can't believe our little tabachingching is now 3 months old! I love the three months we've spent together. Next week I'll be going back to work and I'll surely miss spending the day with her. Miya, please don't grow up too fast while Mommy's away. I love you!

First Date (and the Aftermath)

Last night was a milestone for me as a mom. I was able to leave Miya for 4 hours for a dinner and cinema date with the hubby. We usually go out to buy groceries (just me and him, our first date technically after I gave birth was in a small grocery store haha!) but we leave Miya with my parents and not with yaya all alone. It was a dry run of sorts - for me, Miya and our yaya - since I'll be going back to work in two weeks. We had dinner first at Pepper Lunch in Shangri-La Mall. I've missed that place but I think the rice in their servings is not as much as before. When I was pregnant we used to frequent that place because I love their abundant rice. Yum yum!


While eating I kept telling Joema I want to call our yaya but it wouldn't make sense coz I was out of the house for just less than an hour. He told me to just relax and finish eating so I figured, okay I'll wait before the start of the movie because by then it'll be more than an hour already hehe.

After dinner we watched Thor. Well not before I called our yaya. She reported that she already fed Miya and that she also has eaten already. Half-way down the movie, I missed Miya terribly. I can feel the milk ejection reflux while watching the movie. So although the movie was amazing (my favorite scene is when Thor got his hammer back!), I wanted it to finish early for us to go back home already. After the movie, I texted our yaya. She said she fed Miya again and that she's now ready for bed.

When we got home, I was so happy to get back to my baby. She smiled at me when she saw me hehe. But I had to pump milk first because my breasts were so full with milk. So after talking to her for a while, I went back downstairs to ready the breastpump. Our yaya said she just fed her at 8:45pm (that was now a few minutes after 9pm). But Miya was still hungry because she started crying when Joema was holding her already. So I had to go up again to feed her and pump at the same time. I think Miya missed me too! After feeding her, Joema took her from me and I continued pumping milk. After I was done, I had to go back downstairs to clean the bottles and the pump and sterilize them. It took me a while because when I got back to my mag-ama Joema said, "Ang tagal mo, iniintay ka ni Miya." True enough, my daughter who was so sleepy had her eyes half-opened waiting for me (this was already 10pm and she's usually asleep by this time). So I nursed Miya to sleep and it was the happiest feeling in the world - to be back in my baby's arms (or the other way around).