Unexpected Turns

Nothing is ever certain.

I had my pregnancy/ maternity leave/ office stuff all planned out. I was scheduled to go on maternity leave Sept 27th, a week before my real due date, Oct 3rd. As a result of this announcement, a lot of my office events and deadlines got pushed earlier "so I can still do them before I go on leave" - mind you, that was a bit stressful. I secretly wished I could go on early maternity leave! (Be careful what you wish for...) I had back to back meetings and impossible deadlines.

Sorry, job. I had to leave behind a LOT of unfinished business.

I went on leave on September 13th following my checkup which showed signs of baby stress. To make things worse, my mom was also getting sick at that time. Life really has unexpected moments : as I was being sliced up in the operating room, my mom was also being admitted to the same hospital. We were in separate rooms because she had a verry bad cough and a mysterious rash (she's okay now..) . We both checked out after 3 days.

It was the most grueling week of my life. Spent in pain and in emotional stress. I was still in the recovery room when the pedia talked to me about our baby being admitted into NICU. I hated being in pain and helpless and emotional , not being able to visit baby immediately, and not having my mom beside me for emotional support.

I am so thankful for the presence of my husband, who was able to fix his schedule to take care of me , and to be my source of strength throughout the ordeal. If my life were a movie, last week was really Sam's "moment" as an excellent father and husband. I just can't help but look at him and be filled with awe and love.

To our relatives, friends, and loved ones who showered us with support, thank you very much. Happy posts ahead... :-) God is still making sure that Baby Tonyo is "well done" before he is trully released to the real world.

Baby update:

As of today Sept 23, SAMUEL ANTONIO "Tonyo" PACUA (born Sept 15) is recovering nicely from his pneumonia and UTI under the care of the NICU nurses at the Binan Doctor's Hospital (Laguna) . He's out of the incubator, no more tubes and ventilators attached. He is still finishing up his antibiotics and can now feed like a regular baby. We still don't know when we can take him home, but we can visit him whenever we want to! He can now also be "viewed" in the regular nursery :-) He is absolutely beautiful (which means he looks a bit like me..) but a lot of people say he has more Sam in him than Hanna.

NICU nurses swear he's the loudest crier (parang inaaway, ma'am) - but he is always such an angel whenever we visit. Hmmm, kunwari mabait when mommy and papa are visiting?