Blog Archive

March 31, 2014

Midterm Update





4th month

We squeezed in somehow our last travel hurrah when we continued our east coast tour at the start of my 4th month. The walkathon gave me some exercise and the lamon gave some "nutrition" but was bad for my gums. The cold weather also didn't help my congested symptoms. Thank God we were back a week after in Arizona where the weather is warm!


This month also marks our first church wedding anniversary which we celebrated with the closing of our new home. This meant moving out activities: packing up our things and cleaning up the apartment (which counts as exercise, right?). Of course, I left the heavy lifting and cleaning products to my tigas husband.
Goodbye, apartment 11206!

5th month

This was spent moving in: organizing, acquiring stuff and starting services... more "exercise" for me!:p

Most of my symptoms have also subsided by this time so that's one thing off my mind. However, a couple of new side effects made it harder for me to work: absentmindedness and sleepiness. I made a booboo at work while doing one of the moving in activities. I can't believe how careless I've been! Hopefully, it's all in the past now.
The highlight for the month is our baby's first major ultrasound. I'm so happy and relieved that it's all good news. Thank God my fears from food to moving out activities did not come true. It was amazing and unbelievable that there is a human being in my not-yet-that-big tummy. Akalain mo yun, nanay na nga ako! 
The technician complimented how cooperative our little one was during the ultrasound...nagmana sa tatay, mahilig magpakitang gilas.:)) She was also impressed how clear the four chambers of the heart can be seen... I'd like to think that my trying to eat healthy was not in vain *pat on the back* (though admittedly, this may not always be the case :p). We also saw the profile, hands, feet...the wonders of God's creation! Since I didn't want to know the gender yet, I covered my eyes when Pop was shown that area and we asked the technician to put aside the pictures for those in a sealed envelope. 

I was also able to catch up on my learning somehow:
  • What to Expect When You're Expecting: This seems to be the go-to book for pregnancy. The chapters are divided by month so I don't have read it on one go.
  • You: Having a Baby:  One of the books I borrowed from our friend Shy's pregnancy library. The others I haven't gotten to reading yet. This one was obviously written by men because I found it scientific and technical.
  • Raising Arizona Kids magazines: Borrowed these from the library. They're very thin issues so not much I can remember from the content.
  • Childbirth, from inside out Part 1: This is a video cd I borrowed from the library. Simula pa lang pinapakita na agad na nanganganak...waah! and I thought it would help me ease into the idea, if there is such a thing but apparently not! On the lighter side, the material is old so the people in the video had those old school hairdos and clothes.:))  Also, they have those quizzes which gave me assurance that I'm not in the high-risk pregnancy category.
  • Gabrielle Reece videorecording: Also borrowed this from the library. The workouts were divided according to month plus some warm up and cool down routines per trimester. Compared to the What to Expect workout I tried before, I got more sweat out of this though this needed more props.
  • Others: They also gave me a couple of magazines from the doctor's office. One had articles for each pregnancy month. Another had some articles on preparing and childbirth.

6th month 
There seems to be a lot of birthday celebrants (3 to be exact: some pictures here and here) and free lunch for this month so I got a lot of cheat days to eat cake and other not so healthy food. Tsk, tsk! On the brighter side, I finally had my teeth cleaned by a dental hygienist and had an appointment with a dietician referred by a doctor. It felt good not to see blood anymore after brushing my teeth and to finally gain the recommended weight (though I'm not sure I acquired all of them in a healthy way).

Pop has been bugging me for a date for the gender reveal as he can't keep the secret any longer so we're having it before the month ends.>:) I didn't want to know because I'm afraid I'll be judge-y and look at our baby differently. I guess now I'm forced to know by the end of the month so we can prepare effectively as our baby registry is a mess. I can't help but be overwhelmed with all the baby products in the market. I already have a hard time buying items for myself, what more that I'm making a decision for someone else! Oh dear! Initially, I just put in all the cutesy stuff I found: blues and penguin themed for a boy, oranges and tiger themed for a girl... I obviously don't know what I'm doing!:)) Thank God for my mommy friends! Aside from advice, supplies and borrowed hand-me-downs are overflowing. Frida gave me her supply of baby formula/prenatal vitamins. Shy let me borrow her maternity clothes, their crib, cradle, infant car seat and stroller. I can't thank them enough. Now, it's just a matter of learning how to use them and optimizing the registry (or not... di naman siguro choosy si baby :p)
Feeding stuff from Frida

L-R: Soon-to-be-assembled crib, infant travel system, cradle (originally from Sam our realtor) borrowed from the Dandals

As for the gender reveal, our baby is a..... (*drum roll,please!*)

More pictures here.


Awesome Cake by Alpha (as always) and Auto awesome video c/o Bert

Yep, my feeling was right and there's no denying it. Better luck next time, Pop! Almost all our guests have the same speculation too. Afterwards, they reviewed our baby names and criteria for baby names. I've always liked the name "Lily" for a girl. Why?
  1. tiger lily: the tiger is my favorite animal. Fierce lang! :p
  2. starts with L: most if not all of my immediate family members (parents and siblings) has a name that starts with an L.
  3. it means purity which hopefully she'll keep until she gets married for her parent's peace of mind. Lol!
  4. Lily from HIMYM (and Gossip Girl. hehehe!)
Pop provided some variations of it but I'm not liking it as much: Lilian (sounds old daw), Lilia (para daw ako si "Big"-ia :p). As for Pop's criteria:
  1. must be a biblical name 
  2. based from his experience, not a long name and possibly no second name 
  3. also based from his experience, a name that's not hard to explain/spell. 
Well, Lily does not pass criteria #1 so we might use it as a second name and the first name shall be biblical. So far, we've only found one that suits well with it but it's categorically a boy's name and it sounds like a name of an OPM band...so we'll see.:p Another option for Pop's criteria #2 is something that starts with letter V so she won't have to decide which middle initial to use on forms. I got a lot of input on this, though some jokingly (and I'm not sure if we will ever use any of them as it is more of a workaround rather than a criteria):
  • Vivlia by Mike...para pasok sa criteria #1 and #2. =))
  • Vivian with Vivi as nickname by Alpha...para Vivi V. Francisco = triple V
  • Both Shy and Grace liked Victoria (classy sounding) and hated Vanessa (bitchy sounding). I disagree though because Victoria makes me think of Victoria Court while I have a cousin named Vanessa and she is far from being a bitch.
  • I also had others listed but still uncertain: Vaniah (biblical name meaning worthy of love though reminds me of a certain TV character and how it sounds may not be as appealing), Venice (Italian city but a certain Filipino celebrity child has that name), Vea (means "the way" but Olivia sounds better)
Anyway, we have three more months to decide so bahala na si Lord.:D And this concludes the supposedly best trimester of my pregnancy. I can't believe it's time for me to say goodbye to it. As much as I wanted to spend the energy that comes with it going out, it was spent most of the time with house and baby related tasks. I want my babymoon! :p Hopefully, it won't be too late for that in the coming months.

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