my sunshine

look who's smiling now!

hiccups!

a family affair

sunday was our day - grandparents included. ten days after amori was born, i was already calling the church to inquire about when i could have her baptized - coming, of course, from a family tradition that baptisms should be done as soon as possible. the priest told me that amori should at least be 1 month before he baptizes her so i waited, and made a mental note to myself that since my birthday was a sunday, why not have her baptized on that day to make it even more special.



fast-forward to yesterday, the 20th - we dressed amori in a pretty white dress, invited our 2 closest friends to be her godparents, and had her baptized in the church we started going to when i got here. not much frills, no 10 pairs of ninongs and ninangs. she was fed, changed, and generally at peace - until the ceremony started. then she started getting cranky because she was sleepy. enter pacifier. she drifted off to sleep but would wake up every 5 minutes or so - especially when it was time for the holy water! in 30 minutes, she became an official part of the catholic church.. and not long after, she got to sleep in the car.





of course her proud and doting grandparents could not help but have a party for her after. i absolutely had to have a cupcake tree for her with cupcakes from Cupcake - chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting - called Diva; and lemon cupcakes with also pink frosting called Sweet Sixteen. and by chance we found a big cupcake at the store with a ballerina on top - which served as a perfect top cupcake for the tree. we couldn't resist - we bought a birthday cake for ourselves too... a rich chocolate cake with even more sugary icing. i also made favors - pacifier candy in little booties i found in Michael's.







not bad for a week's worth of prep time huh? LOL.

so how'd i spend my birthday? as amori's mommy, and i wouldn't have had it any other way. after all, i had a birthday cake and candles to share with aldo as well.

a big day on sunday

sunday is a big day for this little family - it's amori's baptism and our birthdays (me on the 20th, aldo on the 22nd)!

i can't wait to put these on her.





i still don't know how i can manage her hair though - she's currently sporting the chicken little look, as her hair is growing in different directions!

30 days after

it's been a month since amori's birth day. wow. 4 whole weeks.

it seemed like getting from one day to the next was an uphill struggle - what with all the crying, breastfeeding challenges (which is a different story altogether), fatigue, and a healing body. 4 (more like 5) weeks later, we're all better - the 3 of us are sleeping, coping better, and learning each and every day.

amori has started smiling this week - not just as a reflex or because of gas. i have yet to be rewarded with a smile, but her grandpa and papa have already got their (more than) fair share of her smiles.



it's amazing how much progress she makes in a short period of time. now she responds more, is more aware of her surroundings (especially light sources), and is 3lbs. heavier than her birth weight... hahaha, the little achievements we now boast of.

who would have thought my daughter's weight gain would be my best achievement? this time around, i don't need any Araw Award or Cannes Lion to prove my worth. LOL.

i did manage to get her a birthday cupcake last saturday but unfortunately, we didn't have matches at home so her birthday candle is still sitting on our kitchen counter. argh - both aldo and i were never monthsary persons, and from the looks of it, we'll be bad at trying to celebrate her birthday every month. but we did sing Happy Birthday to her - so maybe that counts?!

wake up, sleepyhead

amori never ceases to amaze me. i love watching her sleep and listen to her breathing. (she sounds like she snores in her sleep sometimes - it's hilarious!). it's pretty entertaining to watch her wake up too - she twists and turns and her hands get in her way (since she has no control over them as of now), and her face is in knots as well... somewhere between looking like she's constipated and pissed. LOL.

our little sleeping beauty is now on youtube.

amori's day out

after 2 sundays of hesitating, we finally heard mass with amori this sunday. since it was our first time to bring her, we stayed at the back of the church, near the exit - in case we needed a fast escape route! fortunately, we didn't have to make a quick getaway because our little princess slept quietly in her stroller the whole time. yaay!

since she was still sleeping and seemed agreeable, we decided to test our luck further by having lunch in a restaurant. we couldn't decide where since we had to consider the possibility of her hollering and needing a diaper change in the middle of lunch... so we opted for the simplest, most family-friendly place we could think of: Denny's. LOL. never mind the greasy burgers and breakfast plate... we were able to sit down and eat together - something that has been a bit of a luxury this past month!

church - check. restaurant - check. next in the list: going to the grocery. we'll keep our fingers crossed!

**********

our adorable little princess now notices the toys in front of her, and is generally more alert and awake (as opposed to awake and crying)... we're starting to see smiles - although they're mostly because of gas or another muscle reflex and not the social response kind hahaha... but it's still a smile nonetheless. LOL.





our latest lifesaver is her Fisher Price Link-a-doos bouncer chair - the motion quiets her down, and I get to rest my arms in the process! Haha - what parents will do/buy to get their kids to calm down. before we know it, she'll be 18 and asking for a blank check or a car at the rate we're going! LOL.

Our Birth Story

July 12 started off rather early - at 4:30am I woke up with contractions that weren't monumental... just strong enough to wake me up and leave me awake for the next few hours. I also leaked a bit of fluid, but was unsure if my membranes had ruptured or I was just willing it to happen. I called the hospital to ask when I should come in, and they said when my contractions are 3 minutes apart. So I tried to go back to sleep and forget about the leaking fluid - it might just have been normal discharge after all.

Come 1:00pm, I had an appointment with Dr. Paul - a routine prenatal one since I hadn't given birth yet. She did an internal exam and found me 1cm dilated, and proceeded to fill out paperwork for a scheduled induction on July 20. Since I was on the exam table already, I asked her to check out the fluid leaking off me - which she did via a speculum exam. She was mildly surprised at what she saw but did not want to alarm me so she calmly told me to wait while she called the hospital so they could check me out.

So I called Aldo (who was in a meeting, right in the middle of a presentation) and told him to meet me at the hospital... and no, it wasn't an emergency, just a routine check to make sure things were still intact. I was ready to take the bus to the hospital since it was quicker than being on hold for a cab, but Aldo phoned me right back to say he was on his way to pick me up.

At St. Paul's, they hooked me up to the fetal monitor and did another speculum exam on me. Two doctors and a microscope later, Dr. Paul arrived. Together with the resident OB-GYN, they tried to put two and two together and concluded that the leaky fluid I was complaining about was my bag of waters - and it had traces of meconium, so they didn't want to take chances and let us stay.

They had decided to pop my bag of waters to make sure it was that, and also to help my labor along since I had been in the early phase from 4:30 that morning. Once I was given a room, Aldo left to get all our hospital gear - which we had ready for weeks.

After settling in, the resident doctors and the OB-GYN appeared with a plastic knitting-hook-like apparatus... this was what they were going to use to pop my bag of waters ACK! But the OB assured me that no, it wasn't going all the way in - she was just going to literally poke the bag with the tip. Which she did... and much to my - and everyone else - surprise, no water gushed out. At this point, they concluded that I had leaking fluid because it was just a tear on the top of the bag, as opposed to having a big-ass gush when the bag pops open.

They also decided to put me on Oxytocin to speed up the contractions. We had to wait for the shift change in the nursing station before they hooked me up to the IV because apparently, when you're given Oxytocin, you need a nurse to monitor you. So at 8:00, I was poked for an IV tube for the Oxytocin. Just a few minutes into it, my contractions started escalating - now I could feel them coming, and had to pause when someone was talking to me. By 10pm, I was only 3cm dilated so the nurses added more to my IV drip, while at the same time monitoring my contractions and the fetal heartbeat. By 12:30am, Dr. Paul popped in and suggested I should probably have an epidural to help me rest, and also as a back-up in case I needed a c-section. I was pretty tired at that point so I didn't need much convincing... the epidural was put in by 1am. Putting in the small tube on my back was painful - especially since the Anaesthetist asked me to be still while having a contraction! I nearly tore Aldo's shirt apart while I held on to him to keep my back curled and still. But the pain was well worth it - 15 or so minutes after it was put in, I didn't feel a thing... I would see the contraction on the fetal monitor, but not really feel it. The nurse had to put in a catheter since I wasn't going to walk around anymore at that point... I hardly felt my legs, let alone be able to stand in them!

By 5am, I was only dilated by 5cm - the other 3 moms in labor the night before had given birth by then and I was only 5cm! By 10am, the doctors all agreed that if we all waited for 10cm it might be July 20 already... so Dr. Paul told me we were going to have a c-section... which was fine by me. I wasn't one to be adamant about a natural birth so cut me up if you have to!

I was wheeled into the OR by 1pm. I was given an extra dose of epidural, and some morphine. In 5 short minutes, I couldn't feel anything from the chest down. At this point, the Anaesthetist was talking to me the most... he told me I'd be shaking uncontrollably, but this would be normal. I think he was cute - but then I only saw his blue eyes and his mask. LOL. Before I knew it, a sheet was drawn in front of me, and Aldo was beside me in a scrub suit. Ten minutes later, I felt pressure on my belly and the baby was out! She was not made to cry because of the meconium so she
was placed in the baby warming thing and given oxygen... then the pediatrician suctioned out all the meconium from her throat and nose, and she was finally able to cry.



Aldo then cut her umbilical cord - and was told by the pediatrician to cut faster because Aldo was taking too long.




After that, she was swaddled and given to Aldo and me.







One picture after, Amori was wheeled out by the nurses, taking Aldo with them. The doctors were still stitching me up. All I could hear was "staple here, sew here". Yikes! I was sent to Recovery 20 minutes after, and stayed there til I could feel my legs and chest, which took 2 hours or so.. after which, I was wheeled back to the room where Aldo and Amori were waiting for me. All that time, they were in the room together - trying to figure each other out. We immediately started breastfeeding because she had been rooting and trying to feed from Aldo since she was born. Hehehe.

6 hours later, I was standing up and walking to the bathroom because I desparately wanted to brush my teeth and wash my face. LOL. And the next day, I was able to take a shower and function as normal as my stitches would allow me. After all, no one was going to take care of Amori except Aldo and me so there was no space to be maarte. LOL.

The hours and days that followed are now a blur, and have been a constant rollercoaster ride. Since my milk had not come in yet by the 2nd day, Amori was getting hungry - but of course we didn't know that so in blind panic and utter frustration and exhaustion, I sent Aldo to a 24-hour pharmacy to buy a pacifier at 3am. The days that followed were pretty much the same... Aldo and I in a zombie-like state while our little girl wailed her lungs out - crying as long as 3 hours straight at times.

We were finally sent home after 5 long days. Little did we know that being home was another adventure altogether! But bringing home our little bundle of amore was the best part, and the beginning of an ongoing saga of sleepless nights and even more crying spells!

Funny... I thought labor pains and stitches were painful... but heck - now all is forgotten as there is a little girl to feed, change, and care for!