preggy prep #1

Sabog ako ngayon..i feel like blogging pero wala naman akong masulat.  I have spare time in the afternoon kasi since nagstart na ang Ramadan, our official working hours is from 9am-3pm na lang, woopee!   I get to office around 915am, boot up my PC which takes about 30mins (yes ganon katagal, ke luma kasi!), so i start working around 10am na, then go for quick lunch at around 1230 (abt 15mins) and before u know it, uwian na hehehe! di pwedeng magextend kasi maiiwan ako ng bus!  Anyways, dahil wala nga ako ma-blog, i decided to list down the stuff I have already bought for little miggy (that’s what we call our baby boy since we’re planning to name him Isaiah Miguel.  Goodbye na sa Marco Gabriel, sigh!)

Sabi nila I should start buying stuff na pakonti-konti, and I think that’s the logical thing to do naman considering wala akong pambili ng “madami” at any one time hehehe, so that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few months–buying clothes and gears and even toys.  Nag-search pa ko sa internet ng baby checklist para may guide ako when shopping but i really don’t use it.  Reason is because I have yet to familiarize myself with the ‘official names’ of the items like onesies, sleepsuit, etc.  I can only guess kung ano ang mga ‘to!  Like onesies, eto  ba yung one-piece shirt na kino-close sa crotch? And sleepsuit, I firmly believe is the one-piece overall pantulog, from shirt to pyjama hanggang socks! Oh I’m so clueless!  While I really enjoy shopping for baby items, hindi naman ako confident kung tama yung mga binili ko, basta cute at sale e gusto ko bilihin, so even if it’s a sleepsuit na pang 6-9months pa, buy ko na sya!

So last weekend, I did an inventory of the items I’ve bought and here is the list (btw, the names are accdg to what’s written in the package ha!):

•  3pcs bodysuit – newborn (up to 11lbs)
• 7pcs bodysuit – newborn (up to 7.5lbs)
• 2pcs pyjama set – 0-3months
• 1pc sleepsuit – 0-3months
• 1set tie-side vest & pyjama – newborn
• 2pcs sleepsuit – newborn
• 1pc sleepsuit – 3-6months
• 3pcs sleepsuit – 6-9months
• 2pcs mittens
• 2pcs booties
• 1pc bib
• 2pcs receiving blanket
• 1pc bath towel
• baby thermometer
• brush & comb set
• baby toothbrush
• nail clippers
• nursery rhyme CD
• Baby Bach & Baby Mozart CD’s
• play rattle
• butterfly teether
• 2pcs feeding bottle (4oz)
• silicone teat
• corner cushion (bec Nico insisted on buying!)
• cot mobile

I think it’s good to keep track of the things I buy cause I might end up buying too many of some things and none of the essential ones.  When I did my calculation, I realized I have already spent about 11k na din for these items at feeling ko e wala pa yung mga importante tlg! Mukang marami pa kong bibilin sa SM when I get home.

baby name, anyone?

It was a long wait for me.  Since my first trimester scan I had already expected to know whether it’s a she or a he.  Apparently Doc said it was too early at the time.  I had to wait for another 10 weeks! Finally it came.  Last sunday, we went to see Dr. Ulrich at 3pm as scheduled.  I was a bit nervous because Nico came home with a chismis from one of his officemates that there’s a certain practice here in Dubai that you are not allowed to know the gender of your baby. Something to do with Muslim culture, I guess. Dr. Ulrich greeted us with a question if it’s our first baby and I took that opportunity to say that we wanted to know the gender (hindi masyadong excited hehehe)…so the first thing he did was to point the gadget to that ‘thing’.  I couldn’t quite make something out of the image I was seeing but after a few seconds of staring I realized we’re going to have a BOY! Hurray, hurray!  Dr. Ulrich confirmed and even typed the word ‘boy’ for us on the screen before proceeding to perform the rest of the anatomy scan which, thankfully, turned out to be all normal.

Now we are caught unprepared with what to name our little boy.  I have so believed the gender predictor in the internet and the many comments from officemates and friends that I’m going to have a girl that I did not take much effort in finding a boy name.  Had it been a girl, we would have named her Marcia Sabrina J.  The most possible name combination we have for a boy is Marco Gabriel, unfortunately, Nico’s cousin who found out days earlier that they’re having a boy for a second baby already declared that they’re naming him Gabriel. What do we name ours then? Help!

On a side note, Nico’s now scanning amazon.com and all the toy stores around to find Lego Mindstorm, nanalo kasi sya sa bet.  Kung naging Marcia Sabrina sana I could have won an apple i-pod hehehe! 

homecoming

It finally dawned on me as I passed by the mall one afternoon on my way home from the office.  In less than 3 month’s time, I’ll be leaving this place and if things go as planned, I will never again set foot in Dubai.  Perhaps to say that time flies too fast is an understatement in my case.  I fairly remember only a few months ago how I struggled to adjust to a totally new life—without a job, with a husband, in an utterly strange place.  The excitement that filled me as I looked forward to coming here was eventually traded with boredom and anxiety brought about by a mix of things such as difficulty of finding a new job (in the beginning, at least), the presence of irritating, stinky beings (pardon me but when you really can’t flee from their stinky smell everywhere you go, you will be pissed and count it as one of the top things you hate about the place), not to mention homesickness.  This place probably boasts of luxurious hotels and restaurants, state of the art buildings, roads and facilities, but truly nothing compares with the warmth and comfort of my precious home. Oh how easy it was to find good food even in the cheapest restos in the malls of Manila! If you only knew of all my complaining about the not-so-good stuff here in Dubai, you would probably think I would be jumping with joy by now as my time to come home draws near.

And yes I almost jumped for joy until I realized that in the 9months that I have stayed here, somehow, Nico & I have made a routine of our own and when I do come home not long from now, it’s routine no more.  You see, only now do I realize that we have survived the first year of our marriage living away from families—they who offer all the support when you seem not to know how to do things.  In a way it’s good that we started our marriage with only the two of us helping each other.  We share housework—cooking, laundry & press, cleaning and grocery shopping—we take turns at doing tasks.  We may not know the best way to do certain things but we get by somehow.  Weekends are spent attending fellowship, wandering about, lunch and dinner out, malling or simply staying home to sleep especially during summer months. But now that we have finally agreed it would be impossible for us to manage living alone when the baby comes, the decision for me to go back home immediately follows. It saddens me to think that Nico will again be left by himself here in Dubai, struggling to pass each day without my company.  And it surely pains me to think how he will miss the joys of being a soon-to-be-dad.  And I will surely miss coming home from work with a simple dinner prepared by him and spending the rest of the night everyday snuggled up on our red sofa just talking about the highlights of our day.  We intend to continue our routine when we are both in Manila, that’s why we are earnestly praying for God’s provision.

We pray for an opportunity to settle back home.

week 20

Just last Wednesday I started to feel some very smooth, wavelike movements in my tummy…I still wasn’t very much convinced that my baby finally made his/her presence felt! But alas, my OB confirmed yesterday that it is the baby (and not worms) making those fluttering movements…on hindsight, I was feeling anxious already about his/her not making any movements at 18 weeks…and it was even made worse when I learned that Lorenzo (luis’ little bro) started kicking mum before his 15th week. Finally, finally, my little angel’s turn has come, and they say these movements will only get stronger as the weeks pass…did a quick net search today on “week 20” and here’s an excerpt:

“The fetus measures about 5.6 to 6.4 inches from crown to rump and weighs about 9 ounces. Your baby can hear sounds by now — your voice, heart and your stomach growling, as well as sounds outside your body. It will cover its ears with its hands if a loud sound is made near you, and it may even become startled and “jump.” The baby is moving often, too — twisting, turning, wiggling, punching and kicking.”

right at this moment, i feel this little one’s squirming endlessly inside me

Can’t help but smile at the thought of my baby ‘covering his/her ears and jumping’ upon hearing a loud sound hehehe, can you really picture that? Very timely too that we were able to find Baby Mozart and Baby Bach cd’s at the bookstore last weekend so my baby’s now enjoying classical music while mummy’s working…and at home before bedtime, daddy shares with him/her some math lessons, a little bit advanced though as his favorite subject is geometry rather than counting 1-10…sometimes daddy sings to him/her too but he still needs to practice his nursery rhyme lyrics as I once heard him sing a lullaby song that goes like this:

**lullaby baby on the sweet couch…** (sa totoong buhay: rock-a-bye baby on the tree top!) )