Mel and the New Normal

Happy 4th Month Baby! Today, you would have been on your stomach, able to hold your head sturdily. You would have been able to make cooing sounds at us, and your eyes would have followed us around the room. We miss you and think if you everyday. Thank you for watching over and making your presence felt. Forever and Always, Mommy and Daddy. PS Mommy's Kiddie Parties for Charity Group will be having a huge kiddie party in National Children's Hospital, arranged by Wanlu. Mommy cannot go because her cough might pass on to the patients, but please watch over the performers so that they may help the children feel better. And please watch over the little children with cancer so that they celebrate Christmas at home.

Finally done! It's like a huge burden has been lifted from our shoulders. You'd think since we do this for a living, we wouldn't be stressed out over it. And actually we weren't, it was our staff that shouldered all the work, therefore confirming my belief that it is very very difficult to DIY a party like this. But anyways, we were worried about how to have everything fit within a budget, because as mentioned in a previous post, we didn't have any! But God is so good, he gave us so many bookings this month and next month. Grateful for generous friends in the industry who gave me their services as gifts, or super discounted prices. Here are a few pictures my brother took. Still tired from the weekend (17 bookings this weekend, crazy!) but will post more details eventually. It was a bittersweet event. We were so grateful our friends and family came and mingled, but at the same time we knew it would be different and so much more joyful is Kat was with us. Happy Birt...

Today is our baby boy's 7th birthday. He celebrates with a party this coming Sunday. For months Justin and I have been deliberating whether we should have the party. We reserved the host and magician, both our friends, but if ever we didn't push thru, there were other parties we could put them in. Before we found out about the CDH, we have already been thinking about Josh's party. Our kids don't celebrate every year. What we do is, we order pizza at home, or eat in Shakey's for dinner. And they're very happy with that. What we agree on is they'll just have 1 big party - their 7th birthday. And we were more than happy to do that for them. But this year sideswiped us with so many problems, and incredible expenses from the checkups, surgeries, etc. In a different post, I will explain the costs that CDH has on the families, but to give you an idea, we spent about P700k total for the whole ordeal. Normally I wouldn't discuss money, but eventually I have t...

A few weeks ago, I posted here about how sometimes, I feel my baby, Kat, likes to respond to our questions by giving us different signs. Like, right away. Then, a few days back, in this post , I blogged about how sad I felt that I was throwing away 'tainted' milk because of antibiotics, and was contemplating on stopping completely. (On a sidenote, though I now have non-stop coughing, not at all related to our Saturday incident, I have been on my feet since Monday working.) Baby Kat strikes again! Monday, just a day after my post, I woke up to an early message from one of the NICU doctors from UST. She had just come back from out of the country, and was hoping to ask for milk if there was any, for 2 babies I had given to before. Not wanting to answer right away that "no, there's no milk, there will be no milk for a while", I went back to sleep. A few hours later, when I had a cup of coffee with my antiobiotics (don't judge me, I chew my medicine and it...

I'm blogging from bed, not at 100% yet but much better. Since yesterday, I've been experiencing fevers as high as 39.5. J was also bed-ridden from something, but took care of me since he was in slightly better shape.  When my fever would not go down, he begged that we go to Asian Hospital already for a blood test. Ironic  that I would have the high fevers but J would be the one dextrosed. Apparently , he was dehydrated while I had bacterial infection. I actually know where this stemmed from. Thursday and Friday were incredibly busy days, and I did not drink enough water. Maybe just 4 cups or so, and since I was pumping, my body couldn't handle it. It didn't affect my milk, and wouldn't even affect it now. However, I need to take antibiotics for 7 days, and that would pass on to the milk. My milk will only be okay after the 8th day. My mom suggested that I stop donating already. After all, it's been three months. And perhaps I should, because to be honest, th...

Mika attended another workshop by Alessa Lanot (we're huge crafty fans!). This time, I left her to her own doings, because I had parties that day anyway that I needed to personally attend. She loved it! She said she hurt her finger, but she felt better when Alessa told her a story about how she used to get hurt doing crafts as well. I'm so happy she learns from experiences like that. She was really excited to show her wrappers to us the next day. Since I was not there personally, and she was on her own inside, let me just share pictures from Alessa's blog about the workshop. Mika is the youngest participant again, I think. Judging from her use of Alessa's stamps on her finished product, I don't think it was easy for her (and it must have been hard for Alessa to teach her since she's so young). But she really, really enjoyed herself. I'm so glad she has memories of these crafternoons to look back on when she searches for artistic inspiration in her teens. ...

God help me. I watched Breaking Dawn yesterday, and it was.... good. Really good, actually, compared to the previous movies. I have always liked the Twilight book series. I grew up reading Sweet Valley High, so yeah, Twilight was the perfect adult book for me. Over the years, I have read deep books, intelligent books, best-sellers. Thick books, thin books. Nelson Mandela's autobiography. Life of Pi. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I've read them all. But Twilight has a special place in my heart for the tweener in me, no matter how dumb people think it is. (PS, I HATE Fifty Shades of Grey, I can only read 3 pages at a time before mentally vomiting. I really don't know why.) Despite loving the books, I hated the 1st movie with a passion! (Yet watched it several times, haha.) I didn't really enjoy the following movies, just watched it because I wanted to see how it was interpreted. However, I looked forward to seeing this last movie. It was the end of an era, for me a...

 The parents, in particular the mother, have had a relationship with the infant for nine months prior to its birth. Parents project their own desires, needs and  dreams  onto the infant.   Infant loss represents a life not lived, a cut off of potential. In our psyches it goes against what we believe is the natural order of things, which implies that children are supposed to outlive their parents." (http://voices.yahoo.com/how-recover-infant-loss-6497258.html)

Justin and I have been using the Starbucks planners since it first came out (2004?) We have therefore developed this unusual  and irrational belief that this planner, where we marked all our bookings for the year, brings us good luck and growth. I know what you're thinking. There is, of course, no evidence that backs this up. However, it has been our tradition since we started the company, so... it seems like bad luck to stop it now. However, with all that has happened this past year, I have lost interest in coffee. I buy iced coffee from Total Alabang now (P35), and only buy Starbucks coffee during meetings. Not only that, I have developed a love-hate affair with Serenitea's Okinawa and Cha Time's Chocolate Mousse. (I only have 1 a day of anything because I can't have too much caffeine when I donate milk). I can't imagine being in Starbucks so many times in the next few months that I would be able to get another planner (whereas in the last few years, I was the...

It's been a great stream of cartoon movies recently. The kids and I watched Hotel Transylvania few weeks back (it was impromptu, on a school day!) and it was really, really great. It was a touching story about a father's love for his daughter, and how he wants to shelter her from the bad world (humans). The comedy was right on the money, and adults and children alike were laughing out loud in the theatre. No slapstick comedy in that movie! We would love to watch it again. Interesting note, the voices behind this movie were Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez,  Andy Samberg (SNL), and Kevin James (of Zookeeper fame). Today we watched Wreck it Ralph. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, us or the kids. Probably us. If you used to play Nintendo games as a kid (i.e. during the time of Pacman, Sonic, Mario Brothers, Street Fighter), you will love this movie because the characters of these games make cameo appearances all throughout. Our kids couldn't really appreciate the appearanc...

1. Twenty-nine is OLD.  I have always thought that 29 was still a good age to have a baby. I mean, most of my friends don't even have kids yet. But in my first appointment, my first OB called me "old" when I complained that this pregnancy was more difficult than my previous 2. By OLD, she didn't mean old, but she meant older than the usual women. I thought she was kidding, but 2nd and 3rd opinions by OBs agreed - 29 is apparently not "young". Which was odd. When I was 12, I always assumed 28 onwards was the marrying age. The risk of having a baby with chromosomal disorders increase as a woman grows older. The most common of these disorders is Down syndrome, a combination of mental retardation and physical abnormalities caused by the presence of an extra chromosome. At age 25, a woman has about a 1-in-1, 250 chance of having a baby with Down syndrome; at age 30, a 1-in-1,000 chance; at age 35, a 1-in-400 chance; at age 40, a 1-in-100 chance; and at 45, a 1...

If you've stumbled upon my page, you may be in need of milk for your baby. I will be more than happy to help, as long as I can. Please note that I will most likely stop pumping anytime January-February 2013, which is about 6 months after my baby's passing. I am cleared of any possible diseases that may pass on to the milk. I took the necessary tests for these when I was pregnant. I do not smoke, drink (and if I do, this will be pumped and thrown away), or do anything that can pass on to the milk. I refrain from eating sushi and sashimi (which is ironic, because that's our family business) because this can affect the milk. As of now, I do not drink cow's milk and avoid any seafood as well. I am, however, a big fan of milk tea and Starbucks Christmas drinks (haha). As of now, 30+ babies have availed of the milk, and I have yet to receive any feedback that the milk gave the babies adverse reactions. Your doctor might need this information, as milk-sharing is not complete...

After our third CAS, our OBGYN, Dr. Arlene Bravo, explained that we would have to assemble a team of doctors to work together. Though in the end, only our OBGYN, Anesthesiologist, and Neonat were with us in the delivery room, I would like to think that it was a team of doctors that got us there, to full term. As predicted, we had several complications leading to her delivery, and we are so grateful that she made it to her 37th week. We were also so grateful to have more than a day to say goodbye, have her baptized, take pictures. Since their lungs don't function properly, most CDH babies die within the first few seconds or minutes, or hours.  Though Kat didn't make it, I can tell you, I had the best team of doctors possible here in the Philippines. They were the best of the best. And I will be always grateful for their efforts (which is why MMC is my priority in donating milk). Here is my Team of Doctors, and their contact info. I will have a separate entry for each one eventu...