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?

Early Birthday

...waiting for Wednesday, my stomach doesn't hurt enough,pain always is the sign...

.. opening lyrics to one of my favorite songs from Lisa Loeb's Tails album.

Indeed, I am waiting for Wednesday. Because on Wednesday, Sept 15th, Tonyo will say hello world! He'll be coming right in the middle of a crowded house of balikbayans (all my uncles and aunties are home from the USA for a high school reunion). They were NOT supposed to be here because Tonyo's not due 'til Oct 3rd (they'll be back in the US by then), but I guess the kid is itching to get dollar-gifts (hmmm...)

Tonyo treated everyone to a scare-show last Saturday during our 37th week checkup. No heartbeat registered via doppler, no movement whatsoever during the impromptu ultrasound. My OB dragged me to the O.R so she can hook me up to a monitor (she called in TOCO, they strapped stuff to my stomach while it printed out readings) , all the while rambling, "Nakuuu Hanna, kung walang mangyari sa atin, bubuksan talaga kita ngayon na.." She was near tears, I was near tears, as we waited for the heartbeat and fetal movement to register.

Finally, I felt a familiar kick. And my doctor heaved a sigh of relief. After 3 minutes of quiet, Tonyo was kicking as if nothing happened. I was unhooked and made to take what they call a Biophysical Scoring (BPS) ultrasound, where Tonyo scored 8/8 (very good) and everybody happy once again.

Whew. My dad said maybe he was already practicing to be a diver - trying to see how long he can hold his breath.

Now, we were given a choice to wait for labor to begin, while monitoring through BPS every 3 days. OR we can do elective CS. Of course, most of the family, including my husband- vote for CS. This will take away worries about Tonyo's state since we just won't rely on his movements (and my judgement) inside me.

I am quite nervous. I've never been sliced before. I dread the long (probably painful?) recovery period. Good luck to us! I can still probably do last minute shopping tomorrow .. hehe. May mga kulang pa..

Oops Moment...

We were supposed to re-use an old crib for the baby. To our dismay, the old wooden crib in our bodega in Laguna has been damaged by the countless floods and termites :-( nobody thought of cleaning it out after every flood. Now, we have to get 2 cribs. One for Laguna, and one for Boni. After giving birth, I'll be staying in Laguna then we'll just move to Boni when I have to get back to work already. We still need to leave a crib in Laguna because of our "midweek baby arrangement" with my mom before we have to be forced to get a yaya.

We thought of getting a pack 'n play first because it is more expensive. We figured it will be easier to squeeze out a smaller amount for a wooden crib once we have to move on. Hearing of a Baby Company sale at SM last Saturday, off we went! There's this brown Disney Baby crib we've been eyeing and we hoped to see it there. Unfortunately, the only Disney they had was a queer orange one :oP.

BUT, they had a very nice charcoal gray Baby Company pack 'n play with some animal designs. What was even better was that it was ON SALE, and was half the price of our Disney dream! The salespersons (both of them men, one was slightly 'feminine') were really great about discussing the specs and demonstrating the assembly of the pack 'n play. So, after 30 minutes of discussion, we finally decided to get it! It was 50% cheaper than the Disney.

The guys brought out new stock (the only one left!) and assembled the unit for our inspection. As they were packing it, and as we were about to close the sale, we suddenly heard a loud CRRACCK. Everybody froze. Turns out that the central mechanism of the thing was made of cheap non-flexible plastic! I was sooo disappointed , Sam was laughing and the salespersons were just... speechless. Nahiya ako for them! Imagine, making a sales pitch for something that broke right before our eyes! We looked at the Disney materials and it really looked more durable.

And so.... yesterday, we finally got our preferred brown Baby Pooh Disney pack n' play at the Landmark - where it was P300.00 cheaper than at Market! or SM ... and I also got an additional 5% discount :-) I was so happy because I used to visit it everyday, and I finally got to take it home. No glitches during the demo, and the materials were wayyy better than the Baby Company one. If it lasts up to Tonyo's toddler-ship, it can even convert into a mini tent with a zippered door. Yey!

There's even a matching stroller, but we're still crossing our fingers and hoping that someone will give us a stroller as a gift, hehe.

After visiting the store everyday, hehe... we finally have it :-)