Lily's First Plane Ride

Because we are crazy parents, Lily's first plane travel is about 24 hours long (Tucson to Manila). :)) And because we are also lucky parents, it went better than expected. Thank God! Lily hardly cried and even our fellow passengers commented on it. Someone even requested to swap seats with us not realizing that we had a baby in tow nursing under the covers. (Kinda annoyed by them but we obliged nonetheless). She nursed through most of the take-offs and landing. She was even playful and giggly during the flight. The only challenge was getting her to sleep. I had to walk her around the aisles to keep her occupied.

I think I've prepared as much as I can in terms of Lily's provisions during the flight. As advised by a certain website, we brought blueberries, cubed baked sweet potato, cubed baked tofu, hardboiled eggs, some puffs, veggie sticks (the snack kind, not the raw kind) and pear juice in tetra packs. I also drank more water more often than usual for the sake of my milk supply. Rookie mistake: blueberries should be fresh not frozen as it thawed during the travel but luckily it was ziplocked well. Another thing that I should have done is offered the food more often since the cubed food and eggs were hardly touched. I thought that she should eat when we eat but I didn't realize that the meal intervals were too irregular and too far apart. By the time that I did, I was already afraid to give it to her since it has been several hours since the food was not refrigerated nor heated. We also offered her some bread from the in-flight meals which amused some passengers seeing how much gusto she shows when she eats. We also brought some toys but were hardly used since we put them in a separate wheeled carry-on bag and it was not that accessible. We ended up playing with the magazines and paper cups from the lavatory. I allotted the diaper bag for the should-be accessible stuff like diapers, wipes, nursing blanket, snacks and was avoiding it from getting too heavy (but it still did due to Tatay's gadgeteria and abubots! Hmp!)

The challenge was after the fact wherein we had to deal with jet lag for several days.This meant dawn trips to 7-Eleven for us.:))

Our pilot girl

On our fly back, Lily was a little bit more active as she is more aware of her environment at that stage. She kept playing peekaboo with those passengers in her view. Thankfully, most didn't mind the papansin, I think.:)) Learning from the first experience, I kept the packed food and toys somehow simpler: ponkan, bread, couple of hard boiled eggs, kamote, boxed cereals. The in flight meals (scrambled egg, rice, steamed veggies, diced fruits) were also easier to offer to her now that she is more than a year old so we seldom had to bring out the packed food. I guess this was fine...better too many that too few, right?:p

San Diego 2015

Taking advantage of the long weekend due to Memorial Day, Tatay, Nanay, Kallai and the Tans went to San Diego.

The first day (Sat 05/23) was spent travelling from Tucson via swagger wagon. We left around 6am-ish and arrived in Carlsbad around lunchtime. We ate at a nearby Carl's Jr then spent the rest of the day at the Legoland waterpark areas.

Legoland map

We availed of the lockers which are accessible with waterproof wristbands. First stop was the wading pool (Duplo Splash Safari?) because it was the one nearest the lockers and the most baby-friendly, i guess, as the pools were cold and it was not covered.  Then, we tried the river (Build a Raft River) where they have single and double "salbabidas" (ano nga ba english ng salbabida? :p). The three of us tried to fit into the double since Lily was too small but the park did not allow us. Aside from the heat from the sun, Lily was probably sleepy and hungry already so she didn't like it that much. Once she got fed and slept for a bit, she was able to enjoy building some giant lego blocks with Tatay (Imagination Station). We just took pictures in front of the other attractions since we cannot take baby to them yet, giving us a reason to visit the park again.:)

Da who?! Tatay being silly

Architect Lily

Our accommodation for this trip is in Marriot La Jolla. Since we booked so closed to our trip date, we weren't able to get the AirBNB place that we were initially eyeing. The hotel was not that cheap and that near to the park but it was comfortable enough. They provided a crib/playpen for Lily upon request (though she wasnt able to use it as she co-sleeps with us). The ref/freezer was so small so I wasn't able to fit much of my pumped milk. There was only one microwave in the lobby so it was quite challenging to meal plan for Lily. I had packed/bought some oatmeal/bread but it was hardly touched because the long trip to have it heated up was a hassle. Needless to say, this noob mom learned her lesson on booking accommodation with baby. We also had difficulty looking for cheap dining nearby so the men ended up getting take-out from PF Changs for dinner.

We headed back to Lego Land on our second day (Sun 05/24) to check out the non-water attractions. We arrived around lunchtime so we ate at Wok and Ramen.

Accepting Duplo donations

Dinner was in Jollibee. It was already late but we still had to wait for a seat as there were still a lot of customers.

On Day 3(Mon 05/25), we went to Birch Aquarium. It was smaller than I expected but it was just right for this mama who was getting tired from carrying and nursing the baby.

Shark! @ Birch Aquarium

For lunch, we had to try the seafood and ended up at the The Fish Market, Solana Beach. It was not that satisfying for me. It might be because I chose the rockfish which I was sharing with Lily or I was expecting a "dampa" style of meal. The serving was not as many as I expected for the price. In tagalog: hindi masyadong sulit.

In the afternoon, we tried one of the cruises which is Lily's first boat ride. Afterwards, we walked around the area and accidentally found the kissing sailor statue.

Lily's first boat ride

Tsk, PDA!

For dinner, we tried the Kansas City Barbeque because according to an ad in our hotel's coupon book it was were Top Gun was filmed. Admittedly, it was not my best parenting decision as it was dirty literally and figuratively. The restroom stinks and has no changing table and there were some paraphernalia in their that would need some explaining (but good thing Lily is not old enough to be aware of such things). The food was the usual big greasy fare.

Our last day in SD was spent grocery shopping in Seafood City and having a feast (because lunch is an understatement) at Goldilocks. It was the most satisfying Filipino meal we had in a while: sweet and spicy seafood, lechon kawali, crispy pata, puto't dinuguan, sarciadong isda and lumpiang sariwa....and I ordered the last two for Lily but she ended up nursing and sleeping while her parents were binging. :))

Grand Canyon 2014

Christmas Eve, checked in hotel. We realized too late that most restaurants are closed during that time so we just grabbed take-out somewhere open. No grand noche buena for us.:( We celebrated by exchanging gifts and picture taking instead.:)

Gift from my supportive (of my grocery shopping) Popy

Watches from Santa Topeng

Christmas Day, Grand Canyon. Realized too late again to look for church service to attend mass. True reason for the season fail! (at di ko pa napagdasal yung lola ko na iniwan na kme) Sorry, Jesus (and Lola)! :( Hung out at the canyon to celebrate instead. It was foggy, cold and snowing so Lily's first time here was spent mostly inside the car.:p

Christmas dinner at El Tovar
Last day, I had food poisoning.:(( Ang mahal ng dinner namin tapos ganito pa. Boo! Eto lang ata ang pasko na di ako tumaba, pumayat pa ko. >.<
Papa, Mama and Mat explored while Topeng, Lily and I stayed at the hotel while I recover. (Hmm... sick during holiday vacation...hope this doesn't become a regular thing.)
We weren't able to go to the usual stopovers on our way back to Tucson because we were having Lily's dedication. Hoping to take them to more places next time.

Our little Lily has finally sprouted

Warning: Possibly explicit content. Proceed at your own risk.:p

Ted of HIMYM voice: Kid, this is your birth story. 

 

Monday: Nanay Nina called in to her doctor's  office as she was still experiencing some spotting four days after her last pelvic exam when it usually should be just 24 hours. The office then ordered her to go to the hospital to get it checked. Tests concluded that there water has not yet broken but AFI (Amniotic Fluid Index) is on the borderline range (4.7. Normal is 5) according to the BPP. On-call doctor then recommended for induction to be done on same day or at least have the AFI be checked again the following day on the clinic office with more advanced machines. Nanay and Tatay chose the latter since we were already scheduled for induction that Friday (when I will be past the 42 weeks) anyway.

Tuesday: AFI is now 10 so we were sent home. That night bright red bleeding with mucous occurred but you were moving a lot so Nanay decided to wait it out.

Wednesday: At about 2:30AM, Nanay woke up to pee and became anxious because of bright red blood after wiping and hoped for some immediate movement from you to assure Nanay not to worry but can't wait so she had to wake up Tatay Topeng and call the hospital. The hospital recommended to wait when I soak a pad or experience contractions. 

That morning, before Nanay's 10:40 am doctor's appointment, she got a call from the healthy pregnancy program assuming that you were already out. After knowing otherwise, she transferred me to my OB's triage line and was told to head to the hospital instead of the OB. At the hospital, it was confirmed (about lunchtime) that water has broken. You are coming in less than 24 hours! BUUUT still no contraction and only 1 cm dilation so induction was still necessary. 

In my birth plan, the first option for induction was Prostaglandin Gel because I was dreading the IV but the triage nurses did not allow me to do that since the water has broken and there was a bigger risk for infection. (Later on, I found out that my OB was fine with that option. Arrgh!) Anyhoo, I ended up getting the Pitocin that afternoon. (It took 3 attempts to put in the IV for that. This is why I don't get sick! Arrgh #2!) I was also fully monitored as opposed to being intermittently monitored I indicated in the plan. I forgot the reason they gave me for doing that but since I was already hooked on the IV and can't move around as much anyway then there was no point fighting it. 

My consolation is that I can move around the bed to walk or use the birthing ball and the monitor can be unhooked temporarily during bathroom trips. I guess no one can fully plan a birth as I didn't expect that I will be included in those 8 percent of women whose water break before contractions occur. This caused me not to plan my meals accordingly. I only had a light breakfast and was not able to sneak in lunch before the induction.

While waiting for the Pitocin to kick-in, Tatay went to the Nurse station to ask for some free popsicles and prepared some movies to distract Nanay. They ended up just watching two and took advantage of the time to rest. Once the contractions came, I already lost track of time and I just remembered it being night time already being 3cm dilated. Thankfully, I had the chance to poop in the toilet before I was fully dilated so that's one less thing to push out.:))

Thursday: Probably after midnight, I was 3-4 cm dilated. I couldn't sit nor lie down anymore with the pain so I just remained standing up and walking a little. Lola mommy tried to assist me and handed me drinks as the labor progressed. I was beginning to doubt whether I could do this without pain medications knowing the dilation was not even halfway there. Thankfully, I couldn't remember nor Google at what point of the labor should pain medications be administered and it didn't take long for me to transition. The transition consisted of two major contractions (which made me scream and woke up the then sleeping Tatay) before the IE that confirmed it was time to push. Our labor and delivery nurse Lolita (Lola) reminded me to do the pant-pant-blow breathing from the childbirth class and tatay handed me a cold towel as requested before the pushing started. For each contraction, she coached me to breathe in, hold, puuuuuush, exhale while she, tatay and I held my legs up. She also configured the bed to position me into two sitting positions: legs raised up and legs down. During that time, it was discovered that the bag of waters was not fully broken and was probably broken at the high part so the OB had to break it. I thought it was only a few pushes needed from there but it was like ten more! The last push was quite dramatic as it took 5 minutes for it to come instead of the consistent 1 minute. As I had my eyes closed the entire time I was pushing, tatay told me that the medical staff was looking at each other puzzled as to why the contraction interval developed some gap. 

After 1.75 hrs of pushing, you were finally out at 7.6 lbs, 19 in and put into my chest crying. Thank you Lord for a healthy baby and thank you Lily for your cooperation.:D You are perfect! The placenta easily came out afterwards but was barely noticeable with my eagerness to see you.I did not plan to give you that easily to the medical staff but you pooped after you were given to me. Tatay cut the cord. While Lola Mommy and tatay doted over you being cleaned and weighed, nanay's doctor stitched her up and I couldn't stop shaking which they said was normal. Tatay did your first diaper change and brought you to me for our first breastfeeding.

Tatay and lola mommy had to go home as we were told that only 1 companion is allowed in the recovery room and so they can also put the placenta in the freezer (which they forgot!). During that time, the room, Nanay and you were cleaned up. 

That afternoon, Tatay and Nanay's friends came to visit and see you.

Definitely this is one of the most wonderful day in you Tatay and Nanay's life.  ^__^