What's with us lately?

3 months has passed since my last post and now it's time to update it. I'm doing this not because it's a part of my task but I'd also like to share the happenings that have occurred over the past 3 months because there sure have been quite a lot.

We've all heard of the death of the Philippines' first woman president, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. The moment I've heard the news on TV, it was early Saturday morning, shocked as I am, but I cried. It felt like I've lost the reason why I am living freely today. Cory's repose is a huge loss to the Filipino people. Many were saddened, among them most is her family. I hope that somewhere out there, Cory is happy in the arms of her husband, Ninoy Aquino. May they both rest in peace.

Then came the typhoons such as Ondoy which have recently caused a massive destruction to many houses, businesses and hundreds of lives. Luckily our island never had to suffer from such a catastrophic event. Thank God, there are those people who have extended their help and support in order to provide the needs of the victims. This way, Filipinos have once again shown to the world how helpful and supportive we are to our fellowmen. Filipinos surely are survivors and kind by nature.

As for me and my family, there's nothing much happened really, of course except for the fast development and growth of my daughter, Lauriana Akeesha. She's 10-months old and does many tricks that have us adore and love her even more. Growing up a child is challenging but the rewards that come along with it, is definitely priceless. It's one of the things in this world, money can never buy.

Time flies by so quickly that we never notice how much we've grown, how many things we've missed and more. As the cliche goes, "Life is short." - thus we should make the most out of it, instead of wasting it into other useless and meaningless deeds. Give each and every opportunity your best shot as it may be your last. Let's treasure the things we have as nothing lasts forever.

Until next time... Make every moment count.

♥ Confessions of a Newbie Mommy ♥

When I was still pregnant, I always thought that I am ready to be a mom; I was wrong. From the moment that I was on labor up to now, I still can't believe how I've made it through. The whole experience was never easy at all.

The nine months of carrying a big ball in my tummy, unexplainable mood swings, weird food cravings, stabbing headache and the forever-taking and oh-so-tiring labor. All these sufferings I endured prior to Akeesha's birth. But it doesn't end there.

On Akeesha's first 2 months, GJ and I are lucky if we can get a 4-hour sleep. Apart from that are the backaches and wristaches we get from carrying her because she resents to be put to bed. The endless and loud cries we hear whenever she's hungry, pooped, peed, have tummy-aches and even while BATHING. Yes, you read that right. There's never a day that passed that she never cried over bathing.

It never ever dawned me that these things can happen. Sure, I had an experience babysitting my nephews but never did I expect this. It's worst than I thought.

Inspite of the tiresome days we had from babysitting my baby, at the end of each day, then we learned are things that can only be taken from first-hand experience of being a mom, a parent. That no matter how messy, demanding, noisy and annoying baby she can be, she'll always be my baby, my angel, my inspiration, my life, my love, my VERY OWN.

Nothing in this world can ever change that.

♥ Akeesha's Recent Pictures ♥

♥ Akeesha's 1st Month ♥

♥ Lauriana Akeesha's 30th week ♥

The light is visible at the end of the tunnel! Your oversized self and amazing growing baby have finally reached the single digits (in terms of weeks till birth)! The fine lanugo hair that has been growing all over their little monkey-like body is going to start falling off this week in preparation for the big day. But don’t be shocked if they’re hairier than you’d anticipated, some babies keep their lanugo until after birth. Still, it’s not any cause to be concerned as it will fall off eventually. No surprises here: your little porker is getting even cuter with increasingly pudgy arms and legs this week thanks to the ever-growing layers of subcutaneous fat. In terms of numbers, your baby should be weighing in at around 3 pounds 12 ounces (or more!) and be nearly 16 inches long.

♥ Lauriana Akeesha on her 29th week, info taken from baby-gaga.com ♥

If you’ve been feeling butterflies moving around in your belly, it’s not just your run-of-the-mill pre-birth performance anxiety. No, it’s your amazing baby with a case of the hiccups: a fairly common occurrence at this point resulting from practicing breathing for their big birthday. In addition, to getting a round of butterfly-like hiccups, your little swimmer has arduously managed to accumulate enough baby fat to account for nearly 3.5% of their overall body weight. Yeah, compared to we adults, it’s not a lot, but when they’re little like that—it’s certainly a healthy (and warming) accomplishment in its way. Another fantastic accomplishment: your baby's spleen is now in charge of hematopoiesis—the 10 dollar name for the process involved in building up certain important blood components. Another fantastic-accomplishment: your little monkey has been peeing into their amniotic sac for a little while now (this is why potty training takes a while) and if you didn’t know, actually swallows it along with the rest of the amniotic fluid. Although the concept is nasty, their urine is sterile and as part of the amniotic fluid base, is replaced several times throughout the day. So if you didn’t know before, now you can tell people, that yes, you drank your own urine—you were still in the womb, but nonetheless, you’ve been there.

♥ Keesha on her 27th week ♥

Lauriana Akisha's update on her fetal development on her 27th week and still counting. 12 weeks more to go...

So here's an update taken from baby-gaga.com:

Your not-so-tiny-anymore brilliant baby(about 2 pounds and 14.5 inches long!) is slowly rotating in preparation to “head out.” Obviously, this doesn’t happen overnight, but when you start to feel an unfamiliar pressure on your cervix, you’ll know you’ve got a fully flipped baby locked and loaded for the countdown to their birthday! Even now, at the beginning of the third trimester, their little lungs are already capable of breathing air while the pulmonary vascular system can provide sufficient gas exchange and the central nervous system can generally regulate rhythmic breathing as well as their basal body temperature. For what it’s worth, at this point in a healthy pregnancy a premature child (with intensive care) could easily win on the show: “Survivor: The Early Years.”

Kisha on her 26th week

Ever wonder, how my baby's doing by this week. She's on her 26th week now. So that's 13 WEEKS more to go before her arrival, isn't that exciting?! I'm so excited. Yepee!

So here's an update taken from baby-gaga.com:

At long last, your little swimmer can see the womb! Your miracle’s little eyelids have finally separated (they were fused closed previously) and they’re probably having their first moments of sight as you read this (or maybe it already happened while you were brushing your teeth or watching Oprah or something). In addition to seeing their little studio in your belly, they’ve recently acquired the ability to say “yes” and “no” in rudimentary sign language as they can now move their head back and forth.

This is also the time where your little super star’s head hair is starting to grow! A cute little cowlick or two may be springing into position right now, getting ready for years of cute-but-stubborn bed-head. Also, their toenails have grown in and you little raisin continues to slowly pile up fat beneath their still-loose skin.

Most importantly, brain tissue and neurons are all developing at a rapid pace, increasing their (genius-level?) brain activity and will continue to function at accelerated levels for the first seven to eight years of childhood!

Lucky Baby - all eight (8)

You wouldn't believe this mates, neither do I when I first read this on Yahoo! Odd news.

Name: Hailey Jo Hauer
Birthdate: August 8, 2008
Birth time: 8:08 am
Weight: 8 pounds and 8 ounces

Amazing huh?! That sure made me jealous. But nah, thanks anyway, I don't want my baby Lauriana Akisha to come out premature, nah-uh! No way!

Another thing they didn't notice though was the first letter of the baby's First Name and Last Name, "H".
Well, if you'll count it, "H" is the eigth() letter in the alphabet. Also, if you'll add up the number of letters of her first name, "H-A-I-L-E-Y-J-O", the total is 8 letters. Not sure if that's still a coincidence or merely a fact that her mother gave her. Either way, that kid sure is lucky and I hope she'll be lucky and have a good life.

The Late Update

Sorry guys, for the late news. Been busy, finding a hard time getting my fingers type about this post. Last July 14, 2008, was GJ's birthday and so as my Ultrasound day, the day which we'll be finding out whether this lil angel in me is a boy or a girl. We were so excited to find it out, especially seeing that expression of excitement on GJ's face. Oh, you guys should've seen. Anyway, I know that GJ wanted a boy and that it would be the most beautiful gift he'd receive ever in his life. But of course I told him, whether a boy or a girl as long as it's normal, healthy and complete, that would be more than a gift to me. So as to stop the pressure for the baby.

We went to Ricardo Limso Medical Center for the process, bad thing, the room is closed. Good thing on the other hand, my OB suggested this clinic that offers ultrasound. As I was waiting for my turn, I can feel baby moving inside me, feeling excited too for us to find out its gender. And so, the doctor's apprentice walked me inside the room and instructed me to lie down and feel comfortable and all that. Then the doctor came to me, placed a gel on my tummy, (that was a cold one) and started rubbing this device on my tummy and the monitor in front of me starts to show white images, the xray sort of thing. After a few tries of locating my baby's position inside, there it appeared so clearly to me, the head, legs, feet, hands. It's curled, the way baby's do inside so as its heartbeating, oh so nice. It's like a rhythm, a beautiful melody. If only I could record that. The doctor then asked us if we wanted to know our baby's gender, if you only knew, I could have almost shout at her, "Hell yeah! That's what we're here for, duh?!" Good thing, I'm so happy, I have no time for the bad aura coming out of me. So we simply said, "Yes" with all glee. So the doctor, further delved the device on my tummy I was like, "Hey, you might hurt my baby" because she was like delving it like poking it hard with that device. But knock2, that's a doctor you're cursing, that's what I said to myself and made my mind stop talking nonsense.

All caps, A-N-Y-W-A-Y, back to the real thing. The doctor, poked my tummy even harder to find the right position in order to find out whether it's a cheese burger or a hotdog sandwich, LOL. THEN, she said, that it's a GIRL. Honestly, a pang of disappointment hit me, I sure saw that too on GJ's face, but I know too well that there's no more room for that now, since baby girl, Lauriana Akisha is in me. She's too glad for us to know that shes' a SHE and most especially, she's so far normal and complete. And for that thought, I know we are blessed. It's a gift. I won't let anyone disappoint my baby neither do I let GJ nor myself.

Thank God, my baby is alright and great. The best advance gift both for my birthday and christmas.

Little Kickboxer in me

I've always been excited to feel that feeling to have those "butterflies in your tummy". Always makes me wonder, how it really feels like. Is it going to be painful, ticklish or something? Until my 4th month, there I started to feel something weird moving in me. It's ticklish and then suddenly that WHAPAAK! OMG! was it my baby? Did my baby just kick? T'was so exciting like I'm watching an action-packed movie and there's guns here and bombs there. A bit exaggerating, huh. Been weeks now and I'm still not used to having a kickboxer inside of me. At times, it makes me imagine having a mini-Spiderman in here crawling in my womb. Also like a swimmer, who swims back and forth but without a race. Since then, been my habit to keep the stethoscope on my headboard just to check what it's doing inside. So nice listening to it move, like bubbles popping, splish-splashing, imagine under water, that's exactly how it sounds. Everytime my baby moves/kicks, gives me question as to what exactly is he/she doing in there. Could it be playing, feeling uncomfortable so it's trying to find a better position, hungry, or what? Leaves me wondering all the time. Daddy even tries to make it a point before we sleep to talk to it so it'd behave and rest with us. I know, it's having a rough day too just like me. So, I make it a point to soothe it by talking to it, reading stories to it at times and even sing (knowing it's such an agony to hear me singing...hahaha)

Oh baby, I love you so much. Your Dad loves you very much too. We're so excited to see but we can wait until your full term has come. While waiting just sit back, hold on, be strong and healthy. I'm always praying to God for our safety, your good health, being normal, strong and complete, full of love and of wisdom. I love you baby, my little Spiderman, my tiny swimmer, my child.

From Bebeh to Daddy

Today, my hubby and I are celebrating our 42nd "monthsary" (that's 3 years and 6 months).

I love you bebeh. Or should I say, Daddy?

Been almost 4 years now since we've known each other. It's really a long and complicated of which I apologize because I can't blurt out the whole story. It's just too long. Anyway, now I'm having a hard time on practicing calling my hubby, "Daddy" or "Dad", since I've been used to calling him "Bebeh" or "Beh" for roughly 4 years now. It's just not that easy. But I need to, so that our baby will know how to call his father as "Daddy" once he arrives into this world.

Sometimes, I know I get our baby confused everytime I mention baby, since there are 3 babies in the house. My niece, Bridgette, of which I call "baby", my hubby, of which I call "bebeh" and this little swimmer inside me, which of course I also call "baby". Can't call it by its real name yet as to we haven't found out yet whether it's boy or girl. That's what we're going to find out on my hubby's birthday, which is also Check up/Ultrasound Day. So mates, watch out for that!

I gotta start calling my hubby from now on, "Daddy". I love you Daddy.

Thanks for always being there, so patient, so loving, so caring, so responsible, so loyal. If not for your being so kind, we wouldn't have ended this way, a happily ever after.

I love you so much and I know that you know and you can feel that. Been keeping my promise and I will forever stick to that, no matter what happens.

I love you and I appreciate every effort that you do and most of all admire your determination in achieving your dreams. I'm sorry if I may make you feel tied down sometimes, but I've always wanted you to achieve them. I'm happy if you're happy because I love you.

Congratulations, you're becoming a father now and I, a mother. I know we'll be well, God is with us, nobody can ever stand against us.

I love you Daddy and I love you baby.

Hi to Pregnancy!

So just after reading the title, what were you thinking? I bet a lot of you knows about it already, that's why for the knowledge of the others, I'm posting this! Been carrying this blessing for 18 weeks and 4 days now. Shocked to hear that "I" called this a blessing? I can't blame you, as for many of the people who knew me don't label as that optimistic, fond of babies and wanna-have-a-family-at-young-age type of person. People know me as a person who'd want to achieve more and always being on top of my game, but as the old saying goes, "People change." So, why can't I?

God, you wouldn't believe me if I'd say that since last year, I've already decided on what to name to my future baby in case, it's a boy or a girl. Addicted as I am to number 8, it's been my dream to be married on August 8, 2008 or 8-8-8. The luckiest day for Chinese people (it's been lucky for me before knowing about that though). I'm such an 8 freak that everything that has 8, I go gaga over it and sometimes, take it as a good sign for a good happening. Because of this, I often
get myself to arguing with my teammates who luckily got that number on their shirt, pestering them to swap with me. Sad to say, they don't want to trade with me and it sure pisses me but anyway, still pisses me when I remember it. *sniff* *sniff*

Before the year 2008 struck, I was already hoping I'd have a good luck on that mystifying year. Superstitious I can be sometimes, I searched the internet (Yahoo! horoscope, as always) about 2008 horoscope under my sign. Kapoosh! There it was, the prediction just hit the right spot, "Be
married.....and have a baby."

Since the time I yahooed the net, can't stop thinking about it already. A pang of enlightenment and fulfillment of the prediction filled my whole system. Like I've been SO CERTAIN, backed up by my gut feeling that the prediction and my dream will connive on 2008.

When March 2008 came, the period I so wished not to come, didn't come! I've never been delayed in my entire womanhood, only advanced. As any normal woman would do, I waited for days and weeks before concluding, 3 weeks after my expected first day of period to be exact. After many days of hoping for the period not to come, then and there, my hubby and I bought two PT. After the result, just as I thought, I never felt any regret nor fear, just pure happiness and excitement that it's positive.

From that day on, I rarely feel fear but never guilt nor regret. I always counted myself as one of the lucky woman who completely welcomes this arrival. Pitying those who ignore and feel ashame about it. Shame on you, you don't deserve that blessing. Should have been given to unfortunate barren women who've always wanted to carry, bear and have a child.

I detest listening to news about babies being abandoned and preggies who undergo abortion. F.U.!

Anyway, enough of the swearing. I'm just so happy. It's real and exciting. Now, you know mates that I've changed. Change of opinion and maternal instinct, both of these may have conquered me but I can never revoke from these. I've welcomed it with open arms and legs, everything that I can open just to welcome it.

And so mates, now, this is me, I'm happy for me so be happy for me.