…my memory’s all juggled-up now *toink toink*.

On Tuesday, I brought him again to the same pedia since rashes started appearing and I noticed occasional coughing. A CBC was requested which returned normal results. In the afternoon, upon the advice of the elders, we brought him to a ‘manghihilot’, and of course, he was diagnosed as pilay since manghihilot nga ang tumingin e. )

That night he slept soundly. I almost turned into a believer of the manghihilot! LOL! Apparently, his fever went up again the following morning (Wed) so we decided to bring him to his real pedia na at Cardinal Santos who said it was German Measles as evidenced by rashes and on/off fever and that his cough is viral–an expected effect of German Measles. She prescribed paracetamol pa din and mucolytic and salbutamol for the cough. She said the rashes had to appear before the fever subsided and that she expected it to last until Friday.

On Thursday, his cough worsened. The entire day he vomitted everytime he coughed and it seemed all the milk he drank was also expelled. He lost a lot of weight too! I feared he might get dehydrated so I texted his pedia who recommended that he be hooked on an IV for hydration. She asked me to find a doctor in a nearby hospital who would agree to put him on an IV instead of us going to Cardinal Santos just for this purpose. Apparently, the pedia we consulted wanted to have a repeat CBC, a chest xray and a urinalysis as part of her management. This is exactly what Miguel’s pedia didn’t want to happen since he had just been checked and diagnosed for German Measles, there was no point in doing these tests. We left this pedia’s clinic and went to the pedia who first checked him on Monday. The hospital where she was connected agreed to put him on dextrose so he was hooked. Kawawang Miguel, na-IV na naman . It was already around 8pm so the pedia was no longer around to check Miguel, instead he was attended to by the resident doctor on duty.

The following morning I so wanted to be discharged as the hospital was super mega over yucky! You wouldn’t believe it was a legal hospital at all! The pedia went to check on Miguel and she insisted that I submit him for chest xray. I didn’t have a choice since Miguel was under her care. The official reading of the xray result was bilateral medial lung zone pneumonitis (almost but not quite pneumonia yata yun), so the pedia prescribed antibiotics.

All this time I was texting Miguel’s pedia at Cardinal about the happenings and she said there was no role for antibiotics. I believed her because I know my son didn’t have infection. But then again, I had no choice but to follow this pedia’s advice since he’s the one in charge of Miguel that time so I gave him antibiotics as soon as we were home.

After three doses of antibiotics, I didn’t see any improvement in Miguel’s condition and so we decided on Saturday to bring him to a pedia-pulmo (the same one we went to before who cleared him of primary complex) to get a confirmation reading of his chest xray. True enough, it wasn’t pneumonia at all but asthma! Goodness. I already noticed that the sound of his cough changed later that week but did not think he was having asthma attack again! So it was actually the viral cough that prompted his asthma. He prescribed prednisone and we were advised to come back on Tuesday for check up.

I know prednisone was supposed to work since Miguel already took this med after his first admission due to asthma attack few months back, however, the vomitting continued till the following day (Sunday), which prompted us to contact his pedia again who said he better be admitted at Cardinal Santos. And so in the afternoon of January 13, we went to Cardinal Santos and have him hooked for the third time on an IV. Kawawang kawawa .

The worst thing was, after the doctors in the ER put him on IV, we were told the hospital was fully booked and there was no room available! I was thinking we will be spending the night in the ER–great! Fortunately, after Nico made kulit at the admission, they were able to find a room for us–the one reserved daw for maternity patients–e wala pa naman manganganak bakit magrereserve, hmp!

We stayed there until Tuesday and those days witnessed a series of crying everytime some unfamiliar faces–those people in white and those in different colored uniforms–would come in our room either to check on the IV or to check on Miguel. He really was traumatized already.

Tuesday afternoon–four days before his birthday–we were discharged. His cheeks were beginning to look chubby again and his cough had subsided. He had to continue taking his medicine until Friday and he was expected to be back to his old jolly self on his birthday. And sure enough, he did.

Birthday kwento coming up next!

Christmas was spent in Bulacan and true to the family tradition, everyone, including Miguel, woke up on Christmas Eve for the Noche Buena feast. We had a hard time waking him up and he wasn’t in the best of moods when finally he opened his eyes, but later on joined the celebration and even ate tita leah’s homemade mashed potatoes, yum!

After eating, everyone gathered around the tree to open gifts. Miguel was more interested in tearing wrappers than playing with the toys he received.

We went back to bed around 130am and woke up at 7 to go to church. Here’s our very first family Christmas photo–the only one we were able to take:

On Dec 30, we went home to Pampanga to spend the new year with my in-laws. We feasted on Ninong Chef Ian’s rib-eye steak, mashed potatoes and vegetable salad complete with red wine–para na din kaming nag-dine sa Le Souffle hehe

Miguel received some more gifts from lolos, lolas and cousins. It was indeed a happy occasion.

***

Miguel is turning 1 tomorrow! How time flies (and I haven’t blogged about his first Christmas yet!). Anyway, I’m excited. Most of the items have been prepared– caterer has been booked, menu has been finalized, venue dress-up, cake and host have been booked, photographer has confirmed even without downpayment, prizes, lootbags have been prepared! So dear friends and families, I’m sure you have received your invites by now, we’ll see you all at the venue tomorrow.

Help me pray, though, for a rain-free saturday as the party’s gonna be at the poolside! Pangit naman if in the middle of the program it will rain, and I don’t like to use tents, parang sana nag-indoor venue na lang kung may tent lang din–and besides additional expense yun!

Anyway, I’m sure it’s gonna be a very happy birthday for Miguel. Will post about his 12th month milestones soon.

I’ve been struggling with Miguel’s poor appetite since long ago and have done every possible trick I could think of to get him to eat. I even “dreamt” of feeding him only homemade foods at first but soon gave in and offered him commercial food when he wouldn’t have any of the food I lovingly prepared, and he even puked at the first taste of my mashed potato–is my cooking that bad?!

So for months now, I’ve been offering him taho, beef soup or fruits but none seemed to appeal to his picky tastebuds. After he got tired of Gerber Stage 1 I was only able to feed him cereals and table food occasionally, and every feeding time was a battle. I had been exasperated of this ordeal especially this last week when he wouldn’t eat even his cereals. Add to that the fact that he only consumes 16oz of formula at daytime and would breastfeed twice at night.

I was feeling too tired of our routine and the only thing that kept me was the prospect of another pedia visit last saturday. His doctor’s words of encouragement and reassurance always give me hope.

When I was done ranting about my frustrations, she recounted her bilins about vitamins, meds, and feeding. And she said I could try feeding him bottled baby foods again. Right, why have I forgotten about that!

So we went to the supermarket and I realized I stopped feeding him bottled baby foods because there’s only Gerber Chicken Dinner available and he can’t eat chicken! Sigh. Then I remembered there’s Healthy Options and they sell organic foods. To my great delight, Earth’s Best has a wide variety of baby food for lunch and dinner, so I bought about five types and so far Miguel enjoys eating them.

I have confirmed booking this party planner to do the venue dress up and to provide the cake, sound system and host but then, I couldn’t find time to go to the bank to deposit the required downpayment.

But oh, there is one thing I was able to do pala–I was able to book a photographer! Yep, nauna pa ang photo coverage before anything else, hehe.

Anyway, I hope to be able to go to the mall “alone” this week so I can do some serious shopping. I really couldn’t get anything done when I bring Miguel with me.

At one point in October, I had been ready (or so I thought), so I sent an application to Chevron. I was contacted the next day and was asked to report in November. Obviously I couldn’t. Well I didn’t know they would ask me to work that soon! I had no yaya and nanay was scheduled to spend a month-long stay in Singapore. I requested if I could start in December (while bugging friends and family to help me find a yaya, which I soon realized was no easy feat), though I know it was quite impossible as the post needs to be filled urgently. So I missed the opportunity. After a few moments of regret, I was back to present again–no yaya, no work, no worries.

Next week a prospective yaya is scheduled to arrive finally. So then I will have to confront the issue again. I have the entire 2008 ahead of me. Another year full of possibilities. I will have to decide soon.

Anyway, Nico was asking me the other day if we’re going to send out greeting cards to friends and relatives abroad, so I realized it’s less than 3 weeks before Christmas and I haven’t yet done anything Christmassy. If we’re ever bothering ourselves with greeting cards, I might as well send out a family photo, but then the tree has just been up, and we haven’t got a chance to pose for a pic.

Just in case the card doesn’t make it on time, I’m greeting everyone here a Merry Christmas!

***

He already knows how to assert himself, letting me know in his own little way what activities he prefers–usually, to go see Professor McGonagall, the stray cat that hunts food at our backyard!

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Just this morning he picked up my cellphone and placed it near his ear, and then smiled at me. He’s slowly learning to appreciate proper uses of things, although mouthing, banging and dropping are still a favorite.

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He understands me! He goes to pick up ‘sharky’ from among the soft animal toys scattered in his playpen.

Fast facts:

He now has a total of six teeth–four central incisors (upper&lower) and two lateral incisors (upper).

He’s mastered pincer grasp. I would put pieces of biscuit in front of him and he would pick up.

He took his very first shaky step at around 9 months, and now is ever confident in walking unsupported in his playpen. I’m saving the bumps for later, so walking on the floor is yet to be tried.

He mumbles a few monosyllable words which could mean a thousand things! But one word I’m sure I understand is “ka” which means cat.

He points to objects, at least when he’s in the mood. He turns his body to the direction he wants to go.

I realized he’s growing really fast–in a couple of months he may no longer be the baby who seeks comfort in mommy’s hugs. Haaay…