Spirit and Seed

I saw a blog (spiritandseed) of a soon-to-be mom living in Atlanta who just conceived their first child. I never imagined there would be a blog about conception. Truly, you can write anything and everything in the blog world.

I try to read her blog everyday. It keeps me inspired to conceiving our first baby. I'm turning 31 (gasp! biological clock ticking...) and the Cook works 9 months overseas, so we have to make the most out of the 3 months he's here to make a baby.

Hopefully and God willing, we're able to conceive this month. Let's see in two weeks. (*fingers crossed)

First Pre-natal Class

The Cook and I attended our first pre-natal class. I know, I'm not even pregnant yet, but I believe in being prepared. Come to think of it, we plan and spend hours and effort in preparing a special event in our lives. Whether it's a party for a birthday, anniversary, monthsary, graduation, etc., we prepare. For every milestone in our lives, we plan for it. Heck, we even plan our vacations. More so when we are bringing another life to this world.

The class which we attended was a Breastfeeding Class. For Free. That's right, it was free. The speakers, Ms. Zeny Feliciano and Mrs. Cher Anonas advocate breastfeeding so they do the class every month without cost. It's like a vocation for them.

There were about 10 couples in class. Every wife is pregnant, except for me, of course. At first, I was kinda embarassed that we are attending the class even if we are not expecting yet. All of the women have bulging tummies, most of them are due to give birth on September. But, as Ms. Zeny said, it's good that we are advanced in planning. :)

In the class, Ms. Zeny and Cher discussed about:

• the benefits of breastfeeding
• rooming in (keeping your baby with you and not in the nursery)
• the different positions while breastfeeding
• how to correctly latch your baby
• how to continue breastfeeding while working
• how the dads can help the mommies

We were told to bring a doll to practise on. I don't have a doll at home so I bought a teddy bear, which I was shy to bring out at first since the other mommies have actual dolls. :)

The lecture ends with how the daddies can give massages to their wives. They showed us which pressure points to press to produce more milk, to induce contractions (only to be done when the mommy is due) and to relax the mommy. A fun and relaxing way to end the four-hour lecture.

This free breastfeeding class is done monthly. You can check out Ms. Zeny's website:

Zeny Feliciano
http://zenconsulting.multiply.com/
http://lactation.weebly.com/

For glam nursery wears, check out Cher's website:

Cher Anonas
Plume Shop
83 Katipunan Avenue, White Plains, Quezon City 1100

The Wall

The Cook and I plan to settle and have a family in the province. We bought a small lot in the barangay where I live in. The lot is part of a privately-owned land. The owner is now selling these lots so most of our soon-to-be neighbors are from our community and nearby barangays. We started to build a concrete wall around the lot to mark it.

After about three weeks of removing unwanted plants and building the wall, it now looks like this. It's just three layers or so of hollow blocks, enough to mark our lot.

We will plant Mahogany trees on the left side to shade our future home from the harsh afternoon sun. Fruit trees will be on the right side.


We imagine having our master bedroom to have a veranda, facing Mt. Makiling (you can see a bit of the mountain in the upper right corner). It's nice to have a small cozy space to relax and unwind while sipping a cold drink after a busy day.

Home Sweet Home

The Cook is home!

Finally, 18 days after the maritime accident in the container ship where he works at, he is now home.



I waited for his flight to arrive at the NAIA 1 (Ninoy Aquino International Airport). It was my first time to pick him up at this airport, the previous ones were always in the new Centennial Terminal. I was surprised that NAIA 1's waiting area had little room for families. Around 6 or 7 seats per area was already occupied when I came. The sun was hot (his flight is supposed to arrive at 3:35PM), the air is humid, the people are patiently waiting and monitoring the TV screen if the flight of their loved one has arrived. I sat on a dirty cart beside a stairs which smelled like urine (ugh!) for a few minutes to rest my feet and tried to read a book. When I couldn't take it anymore, I just waited behind the grilled fence and waited for The Cook.



Since he wasn't able to retreive his cellphone from the blast, I planned on not losing sight of him when he arrives so we would not have trouble locating each other.



And then I saw him. He lost weight and his pinkish white complexion. :)



And then I lost sight of him!



After a few minutes I received a call from my cellphone and I knew it was him.

Finally, we met!