After 9 long months of having him in my tummy, we were able to finally meet him at last! On December 8, 2010 at 7:56 a.m., I gave birth via an elective C-section to a healthy baby boy at Baxter Regional Medical Center. The surgery was a tough ordeal for me, Jeff and my family. If I had a choice, I would have wanted a normal vaginal birth. So why elective, you might ask? It was an informative wise option presented to us by our doctor. I didn't jump at it right away since I didn't want surgery in the first place. My younger sister and some friends went through that and I know how hard it can be to take care of a newborn then recuperate from a major abdominal surgery at the same time. But the situation presented at that time was not favorable. I was a few days past my due date. I was not showing any signs of labor. My pelvis is narrow, I was not dilating and still carrying the baby very high. The doctor knew from experience that I was going to have a big baby. Induction of labor of course was also part of the option but my cervix was unripe to break the bag of water and if we opted to go for induction, 85% chance that I would still go through a cesarian section, not to mention the stress of labor I and the baby will have to go through only to find out in the end that I still won't be able to deliver him vaginally. We were given some time to decide. We didn't feel pressured by our physician but we knew what was at stake then. With Jeff and my family's support, we went for a planned surgery. Indeed, the baby was big! He was 8 lbs. 4 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long with a head diameter of 14 1/8 inches. The surgery didn't take long but the recovery will be. My sister and a family friend drove from Illinois to be with me at the hospital. I was so thankful she was there. She's my only family here and it was a great comfort to have her there knowing she too had gone through the same experience as mine though hers was an emergency c-section.

The first time they had me walk to the bathroom with assistance on the second day of my hospital stay, it was hell for me. It felt like all my guts would fall off. The incision was throbbing but they say I had to do it because it will help with my speedy recovery. It has been almost 2 weeks since the surgery. I can say I feel better as far as pain from the incision is concerned. I am trying to breastfeed right now and it has been a challenge because of the operation. But I'm managing it pretty well I guess. I am losing weight which I think is awesome, hehe! I am no longer taking pain meds. I can walk with no assistance now. I haven't healed perfectly yet but with God's help and time, I'll get back to my normal self. After everything that I've been through, I'm just so thankful that the surgery was a success and that I was rewarded with the joy of seeing our little boy.

One of the things that keeps us busy lately is getting the nursery room done. Jeff and I had fun putting up all those Winnie the Pooh and Friends stickers and plush hangings on the wall. We tried to keep it simple but cute. We painted those wooden letters ourselves instead of buying pre-decorated hanging letters online which could be a little bit pricier. I have ordered some coordinating wall border stickers from Amazon but it hasn't arrived yet. Since we bought a new king-size bed in our bedroom a couple of months ago, we thought of moving this old queen-size bed of ours in the baby's room which I think is a great idea. The baby can stay in his crib while we sleep in the same bedroom with him. It will be convenient if we stay close with the baby especially since we have yet to establish some routine in taking care of him. Everything is all set and ready. We're just waiting for the little bundle of joy to arrive.

I remember somebody told me before that wherever you are in the U.S., you can always find a Filipina. This is true! For the past 3 years, we've lived in small towns with a population of 3,000 or less. I was so sure back then that I'd be the only Pinay in our area but I was wrong. Filipinos are everywhere. I'm glad that I have my own circle of friends here in our area and most of them are Bisaya. Cool!

Last month, they gave me a surprise visit at home. They brought lots of food and some baby stuff. Hubby and I thought it was so nice of them to do that for me. We actually don't entertain much because both of us are shy so they are the first group of friends that we've had in the house. I was quite nervous but I really had a great time. We ate, chatted a lot and watched a Tagalog movie. I've met and bonded with them before and I feel like we've grown much closer after the visit. I am happy to have found a group of Pinays that get along well.

Pinobre style na kaon...gutom na kaau ug mga hitsura ay, hehe!

Picture-picture dayon kay busog na man...

Never had this much vehicles in our driveway before, lol!

Below are some photos back when I first met them. Thank you so much guys for the wonderful friendship!!!

I am really getting closer and closer to my due date. Wohoo! Today, I am 37 weeks pregnant. Yep, that's right. In 3 weeks (a week after Thanksgiving), we will be welcoming a precious addition to our household. We are very excited and nervous about it. There's so much to learn but I guess our parental instincts would just kick in once we have him in our lives. I know it's going to be a big change and we're willing to make sacrifices for the little one.

Anyway, the last few weeks will be spent preparing for his arrival. The baby's room is not quite done yet, although I'm pretty sure we're gonna have that covered in 2 weeks. We pretty much have everything ready. We just have to do a little bit more tweaking as far as arranging, getting rid of some stuff in the room and probably making the room a little bit more colorful. My sister recently purchased a very nice Graco baby swing for the baby and some diaper organizer depot and had it delivered site-to-store in our Walmart branch. Thanks a lot, sistah! Then last weekend, we finally bought a much-needed swivel glider for feeding times. We have enough newborn diapers that would last us at least a month. I know we need more but I want to compare first whether Pampers Swaddlers Dry Max is better than Huggies Little Snugglers with U-shaped umbilical cord opening. Both have earned very good reviews but still I wanted to test them on our baby as far as softness, comfort, less leakage are concerned and decide which one to buy more.

In addition to preparing for the baby's immediate needs, I am also trying to condition myself for the upcoming challenge of labor and birth. While I prefer vaginal delivery anytime, I try to be flexible and open-minded on the possibility of having a C-section. Considering the size discrepancy between mine and hubby's, my doctor always forewarns us of a possibility of a big baby. We're not gonna force a vaginal birth if it will put the baby's life and mine at risk. When crunch time comes, we trust that our doctor must use discretion to decide whether a caesarean is necessary. All I could do really is to hope and pray that everything is going to turn out fine. From our last week's appointment, doctor told us that I'm still carrying high and that the baby hasn't dropped yet which he said usually is a sign of a big baby. He has moved into the head down position though. Next Friday, he will conduct an ultrasound to check how much the baby weighs right now and see if everything looks healthy and normal.

I just recently packed our hospital bag. I should have done this a while back but I'm such a procrastinator, lol...so anyway, uncertain how many days will my hospital stay be, I packed a few sets of newborn clothes and receiving blankets. In our birthing class, we were told that the hospital will basically provide everything for the baby...from blankets, hospital gowns, diapers, clothes, disposable undies, sanitary pads and more, but I still wanted to bring my own just in case. I definitely would just use the hospital gowns because I don't want to bleed on my favorite night gowns and undies, but it wouldn't hurt to still bring my own stuff, hehe.

The empty side is for my personal stuff
(gowns, socks, robe, nursing bras and going home maternity clothes)

I'm having second thoughts about bringing these nice, striped comfy socks for fear of getting them dirty and tinged with blood, hehe, so I might just leave them home and bring those cheap white socks instead.

sanitary pads, disposable breast pads and
lanolin breast cream
(the hospital might provide for these but like I've said, it wouldn't hurt to bring my own stuff)

Fluffy pink slippers for walking during early stages of labor and my nursing pillow

All packed and ready to go!

In a way, it frustrates me that until now we haven't come up with a final name for our baby boy. Sometimes I would take it against Jeff that we don't have a name yet, hehe! Like it's his fault that we couldn't agree on one. Blame it on the pregnancy hormones or something, haha! I have a long list of names to consider so Jeff suggested that we should use one name for a few days or weeks and see if it grows on us. So we started using Timmy (Timothy) for weeks, but it hadn't really grown on me, especially when my family in the Philippines wasn't wild about it either. Then I thought it's time to try a different name after that. We've tried Mickie (Michael) for a few days, but I inadvertently kept on reverting back to using Timmy because I couldn't get used to saying it. I know I had to try another one this time. I fell in love with the name Dominic for a while. I thought I'd nicknamed him Nico, but I got discouraged when some people said it can be a girl's name. Whaat! I thought Dominique is the girl version of the name. Then there's the fact that Jeff doesn't like it very much either because he couldn't pronounced it well, haha! For some reason, he pronounced it more like "Domi-neek" instead of Domi-nik". So I told him just call him Nico, but he said he wants to be able to say his full name with authority when he's in trouble or something, and definitely he doesn't like to stutter during these moments, lol! (which I understand) I completely lost interest in it when my sister in the PI pointed out that he could be teased in school by calling him Domino, huhu! So I moved on to another one on my list. My mom suggested Nathan, Noah and Laurence among other names but I'm sorry, no offense meant to people with these names but it just didn't click on me. Then we've tried Liam, Ronan, Evan, Cole and Finley for days. It's funny because we had used so many names that sometimes we forget what's his name for the week so we just call him "boy", lol! Today, on our way home from the furniture store, Jeff got inspired from a song he heard over the radio and he went, "What about Jeremy?" Hmm, I paused for a second, then I thought it's not a bad idea at all. So for this week until further notice, hehe, we'd be using Jeremy. I don't know for how long this name will last, but I sure do hope before he pops out, we'd have a definite name by then. (*sigh) The joy of first time parents!

Our first little angel is gonna be a boy! We were told by the doctor from our previous 2 ultrasound appointments. Initially, I had wished for a girl. Hubby didn't care whether it's a boy or a girl as long as the baby will be healthy and safe. And I agree with him. We'll still love the baby no matter what gender. Now, the fun part is deciding what to name our precious baby. Hubby and I can't agree on a name, hehe. I'd like to name him modern-sounding names but whatever names I suggested, hubby's immediate response was "No, it sounds gay!" Hmmp! We wouldn't have problems if it were a girl since we've agreed on the name Ashley Rae, but deciding a boy's name is quite challenging. Hubby likes old, traditional and some biblical names like Timothy, James, Paul, Joshua... while I, on the other hand, like the sound of Cameron, Caleb, Ethan, Nathan, Cody, Riley. We have not come up with a final name yet, but in the meantime, we both call him "little Timmy". At least, we still have 4 months to agree about the official name but I just couldn't believe how difficult it can be to come up with a baby's name especially if you were to consider the inputs of your immediate family members like your mom and sisters as well. But it's been fun so far. When we're in bed, we'd always brainstorm and think of names but nothing in consensus just yet. Anyway, here's some glimpse of our little boy in my belly.

Today is a pretty busy day for us. I had a doctor's appointment in the morning. I was actually a bit apprehensive with this doctor because I've heard that even if he's a pretty smart one, he seemed to lack good bedside manners. But the visit actually went pretty well. He appears to be approachable, professional and most importantly, he answered all of our questions really good. The doctor confirmed that I was already 9 weeks in the family way. He prescribed me some prenatal vitamins and reassured me that everything that I have been feeling lately is just normal including the mild cramping that I experience sometimes. My blood pressure is normal. They also did some blood work for further analysis. My next visit is on May 28th and I am scheduled to have a pelvic examination done. We might be able to hear the baby's heartbeat on our next visit as well so we're pretty much excited about that. I felt relieved to have been able to talk to a medical professional. Now I won't stress too much about my morning sickness. I'll try to savor the experience, after all, it's a wonderful blessing from above.

After the appointment, we shop around for my first vehicle. It was part of our plan to get a new vehicle once I get pregnant. The baby definitely have no room in our truck. And I need a vehicle to get around especially in my condition. I don't have any particular car in mind actually. What matters to me really is that there must be enough room for the future baby, so a slick 2-door sports car is not an option, haha! A real nice small, girly and compact SUV such as Ford Escape, Nissan Rogue, Honda CRV and maybe the small Ford Explorers would be good options for me. I'm also looking into Nissan, Ford and Chevy cars. I saw a 2010 Ford Taurus in Cherry Red and a Nissan Maxima this morning that I have kinda liked so far. We're not yet done looking so we're hoping for more options in the next few weeks. Of course, we have set a budget range for the price that we're willing to pay so it's not a "sky is the limit" thing here, haha! Having a baby tends to be expensive so more than ever, this is the time that we need to be very wise and practical with our spending. The last thing we want to happen is to be burdened with financial problems. We don't want to be indebted up to our eyeballs so we're taking things easy. I trust hubby in that aspect. He seems to be pretty good with money and saving than me, hehe. So I know he'll make good financial decisions for us.

We have just moved in this area 5 months ago and naturally we have yet to find medical practitioners that may help us with our future health needs. Jeff and I were very frustrated as we've spent almost an hour on the phone trying to get a hold of either a general practice doctor or an OB-GYN. Most of them don't accept new patients. We belong in a small county so there was never really a whole lot of options to begin with. It was really frustrating for both of us especially to Jeff since he was the one that diligently went through every physician's name and clinic in the phone book. I had to excuse myself and lay down in bed because after like an hour of sitting with him, waiting for somebody to finally make an appointment with us, I felt nauseous and light-headed again. When it looked like he's not making any progress, he finally decided to give our insurance company a call and ask for some doctor recommendations. The insurance guy gave us a bunch of numbers to call and thankfully a certain Dr. John Elders will see me on Friday.

Nothing has changed since I last blogged about my condition. If there's anything, the symptoms I've been feeling were getting more pronounced each day over the weekend. I'm grateful I didn't have to go through it alone since it's hubby's day off. I threw up big time this morning. Sorry guys if I gross you out. I didn't make it to the bathroom. I made a mess on the kitchen floor. Hubby had to mop it clean for me since I'm practically useless after that. I pity hubby for doing all the housework this weekend. I just can't do anything without feeling dizzy, light-headed and nauseous. So I spent most of the time in bed, either napping or reading a book. I just get up to eat which is at least every 2-3 hours. I find that eating 6 small meals works on my favor. I don't have the appetite really but I at least try to eat a little bit as I noticed it helps tone down my nausea problem.

If there was any doubt in our minds about my condition, after what I've been through over the weekend, I think we're both now convinced that I am not feeling myself lately and that it's got everything to do with my being pregnant. So besides just wanting to get a confirmation from a doctor, I'm now more interested on knowing from him which pre-natal vitamins is good for me and probably some advise on what's safe to eat and to avoid. I've been reading a lot about pregnancy on the internet but I believe it's still best to get it from a health practitioner. I know the first trimester is critical and I can't help but worry about it. Gosh, I even had nightmares about it. I just hope and pray that everything is going to be okay and we're going to get through this until the end of the line. It will be another struggle for me tomorrow since hubby has to go back to work. But he bought me a lot of healthy foods to snack on and I'll just have to call him anytime at work if I need him to go home or something. I hope tomorrow will go on smoothly though. I'm fine with a little discomfort but what scares me really is when I feel like I'm going to faint which happens to me quite a few times for the past week. I didn't realize being an expectant mom can be this hard. But we want to have a baby. We've prayed for this and now that God is giving me that chance, I don't see the reason to complain.

I couldn't be positively sure because we haven't gone to the doctor yet for a confirmation but I think I am pregnant. I've been feeling hell lately, lol! I don't usually take naps in the afternoon but for the past week, I can't bring myself to stay up all day. I've been feeling nauseous. I get hungry all the time. I have headaches almost every day for past few days. I've missed a period. My breasts feel so sore, tender and swollen but it could also be a sign of impending menstruation, right? So even if I'd like to think I'm pregnant, this might just be a delayed period.

However, the changes in my body that I've been experiencing lately seemed hard to ignore so we bought some home pregnancy test kits. EPT says when you get a (+) sign on the round window, it is positive. (-) horizontal sign on the other hand means negative. I tried it three times on different days and it looked like a faint (+) sign to me, don't you think? So I think it's positive. Hmmm, am I really pregnant? I've read that sometimes these kits tend to give false positive results that's why I'm still having second thoughts about everything. I wish it's that easy to see a doctor for a confirmation. I tried to call an OB Gyne's office today for an appointment but I only get an answering machine. Are they really that busy? I'll try again tomorrow and probably just leave a message and see if they'll get back with me.

Oh boy, am I excited! Haha! Jeff and I were ecstatic and we started thinking about baby names, already, haha! But I don't want to keep my hopes up and be told by the doctor that I'm not actually pregnant. If I'm not pregnant, I may have been just having some serious medical condition to feel this ill as of late. But I'm really hoping that I'm pregnant. Dear God, just let me be pregnant! Gosh, I wish I could get some accurate blood test right away to verify everything.