Pregnancy Journal 7.1 (Between a rock and a hard place)

Now I'm just uncomfortable. I've gotten used to waking up in the middle of the night to go to the restroom, but now I wake up just by turning from one side to the other. I know it's ridiculous but it's also not much of a wonder. As you can see, I'm carrying what looks like a basketball from the outside and is the size of a small cabbage ++ from within.

In addition to my 20-lb weight gain, the lack of exercise is making me feel achy breaky all over. Even the short walk from my seat at the office to the ladies' room is painful for me. I'm tired all the time and I'm not feeling so well in the joints. To cap it all off, I discovered my first stretch mark the other night.  I was in denial at first, but Pao, knowing that it is best to be honest with me, unsympathetically confirmed the unsightly scar. Little baby in my womb, have you no mercy? None?

Oblivious to my suffering, baby also treats my womb like its The Embassy during a rave party. At 7 months, his skills have progressed from poking to upper-cutting and jabbing mommy, and doing all sorts of acrobatic somersaults in there.

Anyway, baby's things are starting to arrive. Some I ordered online, some are gifts. Since I can still count them with my fingers, I figure we're still far from being prepared at the home front. I haven't even packed my baby bag yet. Plus, owing to the lack of a baby cabinet, baby's things are stored in between clothes and towels in the nooks and crannies of our common cabinets. We'd have to gather them...eventually.

All these discomforts considered, I'd just like to say, okay, I'm done with being pregnant. I can't be like this forever. Please. On the other hand, not being pregnant anymore means I would have to give birth. The process requires a screaming human being coming out of me, for which I am certainly unprepared. Ah, the classic dilemma - what to do, what to do when you're both eager and scared.

Pregnancy Journal 6.3 (Progress)

I finally got around to buying diaper covers for the baby. The plan is to use cloth diapers in the morning and disposables at night. The latter being the time when we all would want peace and quite, which we are [more] unlikely to achieve with mildly absorbent cloth diapers.
Since I will be mixing cloth and disaposables, I did not hoard as I am disposed to do. Instead, I just got three, from this site (way cheaper than local site Pinoy Baby), in blue, red and yellow...

...for when baby campaigns for Noynoy from the comforts of his play pen. Yey.



I also got around to signing up for childbirth classes with Rome Kanapi. I Googled and her name is what came up in the PACE* website, so here we are. I just told Pao this morning that we'd have to spend 3 hours of 5 of our Sundays attending the class. Ang sagot, "Ba't ganun? Ang tagal!" I guess he doesn't feel the need to go to these things. After all, a 6-8 lb. human being with hair and fingernails will not be passing through his non-existent birth canal. He will be there just to take pictures. Ladida for him.


Frankly, I would not want to mingle with similarly pregnant people as myself. I'm not a sociable kind of person so that's not really one of my objectives for attending the childbirth class. I just want to be informed. Of course childbirth will still be painful. I'm also sure nothing I've ever known has helped with any kind of pain that I was experiencing. But as the great Ernie Baron once told us (God rest his soul), knowledge is power! 


Sure it is. Ouch.


*PACE stands for Philippine Association for Childbirth Education. If you're also expecting, their contact details are here.

Van Gogh is Bipolar

Going back to our friend Jetro’s cafe/residence/studio/kitchen, take a look at the homey lighting and mismatched furniture…

I love it ! Jetro's kitchen is aptly called Van Gogh is Bipolar. Keeping true to the theme of managing bipolar disorder, the place specializes in food that tempers a person's moods. For example, they have tea to calm you down when you’re feeling all-strung up, or tea to perk you up when you’re feeling way down. What's more, tea is served in dainty tea pots like these. Ooh, seeing them makes me happy already.

Jetro’s partial to managing his condition through eating healthy rather than taking in medication, which he says makes him catatonic. So the place only serves organically grown food that release happy hormones in your brain.

Dishes are named after personalities known to have bipolar disorder. Jetro’s creativity is evident even in the way his dishes are named - like Janice Dickinson’s Luxurious Mouth, which is salmon and lamb wrapped in fried eggplant with melted mozzarella cheese.

We had one of the house specialties, lamb! Love lamb! Especially this one, which was cooked just right and paired with brown rice (doused in olive oil and Ilocano fish paste, the malabnawkind). Instead of the usual mint sauce, this came with a special secret sauce that served the same purpose. The lamb wasn’t malansa at all and it costs just Php215. Ayos.

The lamb may also be taken as a sandwich, with wheat bread, lettuce, basil and again, a special secret sauce that Pao and I both loved. For dessert, we had frozen carabao’s milk flavoured with pureed mango and apple (with mango and apple bits, respectively).

Okay, this part I didn’t know. Jetro apparently also dabbles in fashion. He takes vintage pieces and reworks them to come up with funky one-of-a-kind pieces. There’s an old hardwood cabinet at a corner of Van Gogh is Bipolar filled with Jetro’s reworked vintage clothes. Spot the cabinet.

Sold! Here I am with Jetro, his niece Jamie, and my new Van Gogh is Bipolar knitted top. Oops. Let's not forget to mention the baby (here still inside my tummy at approximately 25 weeks).

If you’re ever around the U.P. Village area, do pay Van Gogh is Bipolar a visit. It’s at 154 Maginhawa St. near Bayantel. The place has no signs outside and doesn’t look commercial at all, so you may have to drive by slowly to spot the number “154.”

Jetro actually lives in his kitchen, so he’s always there to serve you your meals. This means, by the way, that your meal will be slow and leisurely. But that's okay because Jamie, the resident wonderkid, will be around to play with you and entertain you while you wait. Hi, Jamie!

Pala, please forgive the blurry pictures. They were, as you predicted, taken only with a camera phone.  Anyway, we can learn more about Van Gogh is Bipolar and see way more decent photos of the place through their Facebook account by clicking here. Best of luck, Jetro! Hugs.

Heckle Fest '09

I haven't been to any of these work sportsfests before, much less to one held on a workday. (Do I hear applause? ) It was fun. We had pompoms and such.

Too bad the pregnant lady from Legal couldn't join the fun. It's okay. As opposed to the company outing six months ago, at least I got to go this time. I just stayed in the sidelines. Ladida.

Or, seen another way, I was spared from the agony of having to hop around in a sack during the mini relay.

Pao may out-name drop me when it comes to company events. He's hobnobbed with famous and/or controversial personalities here and there. BUT, has he ever met the Maxicare Bear?!

Of course not. We're special that way.

Pregnancy Journal 6.2 (Kicker)

The baby's growing up so fast this month, I can't keep up with the fruit references anymore. Four days ago, he was the size of a rutabaga.

What is that, you ask? Apparently, a root crop that looks more or less like this.

Now, he's the size of an eggplant.


From all the kicking that I've been getting, I'm thinking he's a very active eggplant. Really, baby's movements are getting stronger by the day. Sometimes, he even wakes me up in the middle of the night by doing somersaults inside my uterus. But that's fine. I like the feeling and I actually take pride in the fact that these are sensations only mommies can feel.


What's new this month is that the pregnancy tracking application that I've been using on iTouch appears to have teamed up with the people at whattoexpect.com. So my updates are lengthier now, and what do you know, the grammar isn't so bad anymore.

I've been pregnant for a while already, which may explain why I seem to have taken what I'm eating for granted. This week, I had a bag of potato chips (eaten over a couple of days) for the first time in months. I also "treat" myself to a cookie after each meal, instead of the usual pineapples and grapes. Hala. I'm hoping I'll get back on the right nutritional track for the few remaining months. Maybe Pao should be my eating coach. Or...maybe not. Baka pakainin pa ako ng Bart Burger nyan.

Some issues that would have to be resolved this month are: (1) whether or not to take childbirth classes; (2) when to have our pregnancy portraits taken; (3) how to get and train a new helper for the baby; (4) decide on a first name already; (5) when and where to get our 4D ultrasound (BTW, what is the 4th dimension?); and (6) whether or not to use disposables or cloth diapers, so I can have my mom bring home diaper covers when she gets back. Gad. I feel so grown up. 

Seven Hours Later

This is, hands down, the priciest t-shirt I ever bought. I'm not even a t-shirt person. But what the heck.

1. I love Cecile's blog, chuvaness. It's the only blog I visit everyday. I love it so much, I visit it more than CNN.

2. If my wallet permits, I try to support Filipino fashion. This shirt is made in the Philippines by Filipino designers. Therefore, we must buy it.


3. The sales staff at Bleach Catastrophe are so friendly. You'd think for an independent brand, they'd be snooty like the people in Mac (di ba China?). But they were nice. We like them.

4. I don't know if this is just sales talk, but the sales people said that Bleach Catastrophe and CVS made only 6-8 pieces of each size. It's a temporary collaboration that may never happen again. Most styles are even sold out already. So I think what I actually bought is a piece of history. Historeeee my friends!

5. I love the shirt. It's really very comfortable, although I don't know if I should have gotten one a few sizes larger like her and her (more photos here ) -

I'm just afraid that when I'm down to my regular size, pre-pregnancy hopefully, I won't be able to pull off the oversized t-shirt devil may care look anymore. So I got one that fit my arms just right. See my belly? Getting bigger!

In fact, I loved the t-shirt so much, I went ahead and bought two other oversized shirts just like it this afternoon. Of course, these latter two cost 1/4 the price of the Heather Miss Grey shirt. But what the heck. This could work. Baby boy Zamora will be so happy in these roomy outfits.