Bull's eye!

Zoe’s baby sibling is a boy!!! Hubby and I are ecstatic! I had a strong feeling it was gonna be a girl, and hubby doesn’t actually mind if we’d have two girls, even three. So when our OB told us that it’s a boy, and showed us, well, baby sibling’s penis as proof, we were so thrilled.
No wonder he seems to be doing somersaults inside my tummy, and I feel like I’m having a harder time now than during my first pregnancy. : ) So there, the Chinese gender predictor chart was proven wrong, a slow heartbeat isn’t an accurate sign that it’s a girl, craving for sweets doesn’t mean you’ll be having a girl, and it’s not true that you get ugly when you’re having a boy (haha, feeling pretty pa rin ako, pagbigyan nyo na ang buntis)!

Second Wind

I'm finally out of my horrific first trimester. Now I am back to normal and I can go about my daily routine without any nausea or wooziness. My migraines *knock on wood* have also been more seldom and I hope it stays that way. I still have my food aversions though, something I feel I'll have to take with me through the whole nine months. With Zoe, I just hated spaghetti and didn't attempt to eat it while preggy. With "Baby Sibling," it's the rottiserie chicken and anything grilled I abhorr. I also cannot take stepping into Lamesa Grill again, perhaps because of my filling experience there when hubby and I dined and ordered sisig rice and their pritchon that was practically good for 4 persons. The cholesterol overload was just too much for me to take. I actually have a theory, based on my pregnancy food aversions to date. It seems that I hate any food I binge on during my early early stages of pregnancy. We're talking about the time when I didn't even know I was pregnant. With my first child, I had too much of my sister's ex-bf's corned beef spaghetti, so I hated spaghetti. With my second, it was my Lamesa Grill experience. Just the mention of that place makes me wince right now. in fairness to the place and the service, it's really a great resto to hangout and get good, reasonable food. But that's not what I'm craving for right now.
So far my cravings have been sweets...all sweets. Which again brings me back to my guess that baby sibling might, in fact, be a girl. They say the more sweets you're into, the more likely your baby's gender is a girl. Hmmm...we'll know by October.
Now that I've gotten my second wind, I get to go to work again more regularly. I'm even surprised at myself. I have been showing up to work for n consecutive days now! That's a feat, considering that I can't stand being far from home a lot. There's a lot of workload for me and Zoe has been complaining that I've been spending too much time at work. "Always work, always work," she says. I feel guilty to leave my little one at home while I slave myself at work, but I'm being wise, too. I've got to save, save, save for the coming of baby sibling. And the cost of giving birth, as everyone now knows, is definitely no joke. We'll be giving birth at Asian Hospital, where a normal delivery is equivalent to a cesarean delivery in another tertiary hospital, so money has to keep pouring in now. The more moolah, the better, hehe.
Speaking of moolah, I've also been looking into my options lately on how to make myself more, er, profitable. I'm not talking about working longer hours in the office, but I'm thinking of work that I can do in my spare time, if I have such a thing. I can't envision myself being an office worker forever. With a second baby coming and all, it's about time I open new avenues. Will keep you posted on this as days go by.

Bloating

I survived my first trimester! I'm done and over with the nausea, fatigue, and moodiness brought about by hormones wreaking havoc, or so I thought. I've considered myself fortunate that despite my food aversions and that ugly, terrible feeling of nausea, I am not one who would keep on throwing up and emptying my tummy of much-needed food. Thus, it surprised me that as I entered my second trimester of pregnancy, I just had to puke, not so much because of nausea but because of that bloated, busog, feeling I would get everytime I'd eat more than my stomach can handle. I've always been a big eater and I keep my meals as controlled as can be, but it seems my tummy can only accomodate so little, haha. The sensation of fullness from overindulgence was horrifying that I had to literally force myself to throw up my food. I also have a hunch there must be some food I ate that my tummy just didn't like (we came from a luncheon with lots of dishes served). It was a relief to feel a little lighter after throwing up, though my face looked all puffy and red as my capillaries must have burst from all the force I made vomiting.
Now I take it easy on myself. I eat smaller portions and also eat in between meals. It's the best thing I can do to keep myself from being in that terrible situation again. I hope this won't last for the remaining months though. It would make me feel so deprived of food I so love to feast on.

Baby in 4D

We had our 2nd check-up with our OB last Monday and I was pretty excited that we will be hearing the baby's heartbeat. What surprised me was OB told us that we will be going to the ultrasound center instead to check the baby's heartbeat. Apparently, the Doppler machine couldn't pick up the heartbeat up clearly. So we got to see Baby #2 on a TV monitor. The ultrasound was so clear we even saw him move and kick! We were ecstatic! Even Zoe was so excited to see her baby sibling. Heartbeat is at 159 bpm. Although we still do not know the gender this early (12 weeks), I told hubby baby sibling might be a girl because of the fast heartbeat. It is said that if the baby's heartbeat is above 140 bpm, then it's gonna be a girl. I'm not sure if there is some scientific evidence to this theory though.
I'm now into my second trimester. I feel less nausea now, although I did puke once but not so because of nausea but because of indigestion, I think. My tummy looks more bloated now. I can still pass as someone who's not preggy and others might still mistake me for someone who ate way too much, hehe.

Hormone Blues

I know it's part of the pregnancy. I know I'll be bitten by it sooner or later. So now I'm having it and it's utterly unenjoyable. I feel so sluggish I want to stay in bed forever. I feel something weird in my tummy, like an upset stomach, only there's no vomiting. Terrible, terrible feeling. I sometimes get it in the afternoons or evenings. And when I eat something, for a moment I enjoy it, but when the food's all gone and I've had my drink of water to wash out the food, I get this aftertaste that makes me cringe. I also have emotional outbursts here and there, which is not so typical of me. huhuhu...I know this too will pass.

Meeting our OB

After much deliberation, hubby and I decided to try and check another OB. Don't get me wrong, I love my old OB and I would still highly recommend her. In fact, thanks to her, I was able to give birth to Zoe without anesthesia. My old OB holds clinic in Medical Plaza Makati, where she accepts my HMO card for consultations, but because of the continuous rise in gas prices and the parking and toll fees, it's just not worth it to travel all the way to Makati for the consultations. She also holds clinic once a week in Asian Hospital but I'll have to pay Php500 per consultation.
Thanks to a mommy friend, she recommended her OB in Asian. The good news is she accepts my HMO card in Asian and the better news is she's also a Lamaze advocate, which means she won't cut me up for the smallest of reasons. She gave birth to her two kids also through Lamaze so I know I'm in good hands. So now we get to save on gas, travel time, parking, and toll. It's really quite expensive to give birth these days so it's best to save as much as you can on things that you can save on.

Thump, thump!

Hubby and I, with Zoe in tow, went to Paranaque Doctors Hospital in Better Living for my transvaginal ultrasound. I've been waiting for weeks to have it done because we've been so excited and anxious to find out how the baby is doing. Thank God the baby seems to be doing A-okay. It's now 7 weeks and 1 day and the heartbeat is normal. The estimated due date is on the 16th of January, which means it could even be earlier than that! A New Year baby perhaps?
Zoe got to see how the baby looked like inside my tummy and was amazed how tiny it was. We also had to tell her that there's just one baby inside (she wanted one boy and one girl to come out daw one at a time!) and she was cool about it.
Hopefully, we'll get to visit our OB on Wednesday as her Monday clinic did not push through. Will keep you posted.
I've been feeling so woozy today, partly I blame on my hormones and partly because I haven't had a restful sleep. When we got home I took a nap and was surprised that I slept for almost 3 hours! Now it's almost midnight and I'm the only one awake.