Pretty In Pink

Bettina's officially outgrown her newborn outfits so I'm passing them along to a friend who's expecting a baby girl next month.
Most of my baby's outfits are pink, here's one of them... She's getting to be so big already. Heavy too.

My Little Palaka

My baby's cute "frog princess" outfits today... She had a poop explosion so we had to change her outfit. I call her my little palaka whenever she wears them coz they both have little frog prints.

Cute Bunny Overload

I don't remember if we got these seatbelt covers from Babies R Us or Buy Buy Baby but they are so darn cute! Our carseat did come with covers but plain black, these bunnies are much softer too. Sometimes she even chews on them. Oh well, good thing they're washable.
Oops, I forgot to do an outfit of the day shot. But it's a panda version of the onesie in the previous post :)

Baby OOTD

Bettina's outgrowing her newborn-sized clothes so I'm gonna be sharing some baby outfits of the day posts. I really like this pink one on her. Don't you just love the cute bunnies on her feet? Had to change into this in the middle of the night coz she had a poop explosion and all of her nightgowns are in the hamper :( Thank goodness my husband's off tomorrow so we can do the laundry.

Shopping For Essentials

Sometimes if I really like/need something, I buy them in bulk. Stocked up on my favorite mascara, face wash, eye makeup removers and of course everyone uses cotton buds.

 I walked/jogged for 2.4 miles this morning and on my way back home I passed by the drugstore to just "browse". Ended up buying some lipbalm and eyeshadow. These were really inexpensive...

What did you buy for yourself today?

SIL Baby Shower

My husband's sister is expecting a baby boy in 2 months time so we are going to send her some things for her baby. Here in the US baby showers are tradition but in the Philippines it's still slowly gaining popularity, meaning it's very expensive to have a baby there. So to save my SIL the trouble of spending money we gave her a baby shower thru Skype :) Gifts to be shipped this week. 

Got her the essentials - wash, lotion, shampoo, wipes, diapers, diaper bag, grooming essentials, toys, etc...

And tons of clothes - onesies, pants, socks, mittens, etc... We're also giving her Bettina's white onesies and some Aiden + Anais swaddling blankets and a boppy pillow that are part of my new mommy essentials. It was great seeing my SIL's face so happy. I had fun shopping too and went a little overboard because I never got to shop for our baby, we were so blessed to have everything just given to us :)

MAC Mini Haul

Had a few hours to myself today, went to get a facial/massage and then stopped by the MAC counter on my way back home to pick up some makeup. I got two lipsticks in Twig and Creme Cup, a lipgloss in Imperial Light and a black Liquidlast eyeliner that was an impulse buy. I might go back and get their Veluxe brow pencil, I don't really know why I hesitated to get it.

What's In My Diaper Bag

I rarely carry my own bag these days, things change when you're a mom, so I thought I'd just do a what's in my diaper bag post :) 

An aunt gave us this tote from Land's End with our baby's name embroidered on the front - really cute and so roomy! It's made of canvas and seems to be really durable. I also like that it zips up so when we're on the go nothing falls out. 

So I have diapers, baby wipes, a changing pad, nursing cover, pair of socks, mittens, burp cloths, blanket, change of clothes, onesies, lotion, hand sanitizer and one of those individual Similac bottles with disposable nipple (just in case I can't nurse her when we're out).

That's pretty much it - my very basic diaper bag. What's in yours?

My Mommy Must-Haves

Since having our baby, life has been... well, different and more interesting :) I've been discovering a lot more things lately and wanted to share them with other moms or moms-to-be just in case someone finds this helpful...

I love these footed baby pajamas with the built-in mitten cuffs. Because I had such a small baby, these were a lifesaver for me those first few weeks. Bettina didn't even fit into preemie mittens or socks so these were perfect, I didn't have to constantly lose a sock or a mitten (she had long nails too so I always needed to cover her hands.) The ones that open in the front with snap buttons or zippers are awesome...

I am loving the Moby wrap right now, I wear it pretty much everyday. If you have a baby that always wants to be carried (which I do) this is great so I could still use my two hands :) I bought another carrier prior to this, similar to a Baby Bjorn, it just didn't fit right, I felt like my baby was too far away from me. The Moby wrap is just more snug and I feel like she's more comfortable in it.

Whoever invented the boppy pillow is a genius. Aside from using it for breastfeeding you can also prop baby on it - sitting and tummy time. It's awesome, every mom should have one.

A good friend bought me this glider for my shower and I am so thankful for it. Rocks like a dream and so comfortable. I love that it has an ottoman to put my feet up :)

Aden + Anais makes the best swaddling blankets ever! They are a little bit pricey though but they are really big, soft and lightweight. They're just wonderful. I think I only have 8 of these, given by our ninang.

Burp cloths. We go through a ton of these, I personally just like the plain white lampin ones. I don't use them as diapers though, although you can. I feel like the more these get used, the softer they get.

Those are my favorite mommy items at the moment. What are yours?

iPhone 5 Convert

After years of convincing from my husband,  I finally gave in and got an iPhone. I've been using Blackberrys for 6+ years and it's really hard to part with a keyboard that's for sure. Other than that, it's really the only thing that was holding me back, been an Apple fan for about 10 years now so I guess this switch is not too bad. I got the white one, I think it looks better for a girl :)

They had a bunch of cases at the Apple store but they were either too expensive or too plain. I finally settled on this teal polka dot case (around $35) even though there was this leather one I really like but for $50! that was a little too steep for me.

Currently...

1. listening - WQXR.com classical music station while rocking my baby to sleep

2. eating - just had a banana, waiting for my husband to cook dinner

3. drinking - water during the day, hot coco in the mornings

4. wearing - blue shirt, orange sweater, gray pants

5. feeling - hungry, can't wait for dinner

6. weather - really nice, in the high 40s today

7. wanting - I really want to get my pre-pregnancy body back! But I know that's gonna take a while...

8. needing - to organize my paperwork and take down the Christmas tree

9. thinking - about all the things I have to get done by tomorrow

10. enjoying - spending time with my family and taking care of our baby.

Help! My Newborn Doesn't Sleep!

I'm having a really hard time putting Bettina to sleep by herself. She zonks out easily while on the boob and when I'm holding her, but the minute I put her down she cries and wants to be picked up. I don't think noise bothers her because she doesn't even mind when we're at parties or places with lots of people, as long as she's held she sleeps through it and her eyes stay shut.

But at night is another story, sometimes she is wide awake and will not be put down. I make sure she's really full and burped and her diaper is dry but she just doesn't want to sleep without a warm body or without her mouth on a nipple. Weird! I thought babies are supposed to sleep a lot. And the phrase "sleep like a baby" wow, so not true! Babies, I found out are really loud sleepers, at least mine is.
Anyway, we are still co-sleeping which is easier for the early morning feedings and nappy changes. Hopefully it'll get better soon. I'm basically attached to her almost all the time. I don't really want to force her to sleep by herself or cry it out. I just feel like Ferberizing your baby is so traumatic for them and a brutal thing to do. I feel much better knowing my baby feels secure and comforted.

Shooting The Baby

My husband got a 35 mm prime lens for Christmas, of course his first subject was our one month old baby...

 Bettina's growing bigger each day, getting a fuller face and even a double chin!

 The cute pink beret hat was a gift from one of our friends.

 She's also more awake now with the biggest adorable brown eyes when she looks at you. Also showing off now by lifting her head more... Her hair stood up once we took off the hat :)

Tired and sleepy from daddy taking a lot of pictures. He must really love the new lens :) We are still using our old Nikon D90 but I lost the flash a while back. Actually my husband bought a Vivitar flash a few days ago but he had to return it the next day coz it stopped working after 10 shots. You get what you pay for, I guess...

Cute Nursery Stuff

Just wanted to share what I'm loving right now...

Isn't this the perfect fancy baby gift? So cute with the pink leather and silver accents. Just got this as a Christmas present for baby and we're excited coz we just got her birth certificate! It's a good thing too coz I saved her cord but didn't know what to do with it... now it has a home :)

We got the personalized bag and stuffed toys as gifts, aren't these cute? We haven't used the bag yet because we have another diaper bag that's holds more stuff when we're going out.

This group hangs on the wall above her crib. I think I made this a week before Bettina was born. I got the white frames from IKEA. I was going to leave them blank and put her pictures up when she came home but it kinda looked ugly that way. So I got the cards that we got from the baby shower and cut them, put them in scrapbook paper, added some stickers and voila!

My Push Present

Behold my "push present"...

A lot of husbands get their wives expensive bags or nice jewelry for push presents, that seems to be the norm. I got a Kawai K2 :) I love it! Originally my husband was going to get the K15 which is a less expensive console model also from Kawai, but he thought why not just get a professional upright? That way we don't have to trade it in down the road for a better one. Plus I like that it has a soft fall system so when I start teaching Bettina to play when she gets older, her hands won't get hurt from the piano banging shut. My husband thinks of things like that :)

I've never heard of a push present before I got pregnant, I guess it's a fairly new thing. Technically, I didn't "push" coz I had a C-section but I think moms deserve to have a little something nice for bringing a baby to this world and for carrying him/her for 9 months. It makes sense to be rewarded for your efforts, hehe.

My Birthing Story

I wanted to log this entry so I wouldn't forget the day I became a mom. It was two weeks before my due date on a Wednesday and I was at work when my OB called me to see him right away. He said he was suspecting preeclampsia because the protein in my urine was dangerously high. In a 24-hour urine collection, proteinuria of greater than 300 mg is something to be concerned about. Mine was 3700.

The doctor told me that I had no choice but to go to the hospital right away because the only cure for preeclampsia really is to deliver the baby. I was devastated because I wasn't expecting this to happen two weeks early! I mean, granted, the baby was already full term at almost 38 weeks but I wasn't ready! The nursery wasn't done, I haven't packed my hospital bags yet, I wasn't in the mindset that I was going to give birth because I wasn't even in labor, I was still feeling good and working. But Dr. Cha told me he didn't want anything to happen to me and that I must give birth as soon as possible even by C-section. 

I started crying coz I didn't want to have a C-section. I was expecting to have a natural birth and of course I didn't want to be cut open! Anyway I called my husband (who was also at work) and my parents right away and we got ready to go to the hospital.

 I had to bring my unfinished paperwork to the hospital coz I wasn't finished. The nurses there were scolding me that I shouldn't be doing work coz by then my blood pressure was slowly climbing. They started me oxytocin to induce labor and a few hours later I started swelling up like a balloon.

Our last day as a couple. Tomorrow we will be a family!
I was induced for 10 hours during which labor wasn't really that bad, I just wasn't dilating. The nurses were seeing contractions on the monitor but I wasn't really feeling any pain. They had to give me a drug called cytotec vaginally(which a friend of mine told me they used for abortions in the Philippines) and that really hurt - but still no baby. I also got an epidural coz I had a feeling I was gonna have surgery. And I was right.

 Just after noon the next day we welcomed Bettina Camille into this world. She was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Too bad I was groggy from the anesthesia that I was seeing double. I didn't feel a thing during the surgery which was awesome.

This was our first family picture - dad, baby and mom. I'm a mom!

 My precious baby already so alert in the hospital. I was in so much pain during my recovery, I was confined to the bed for 24 hours after surgery because they had to put me on a magnesium drip for the preeclampsia. It was terrible the first time getting out of bed. My legs were like concrete and the pain was horrible. But when I look at this 5 lbs 9 oz and 19-inch little angel everything's all worth it!

I would do it all over again. But not right away :)

The Dark Knight Rises

Finally saw the latest Batman movie yesterday with my husband and youngest brother. Even if it's been showing for a while we still didn't get seats at our original time slot, had to go to the next theater and wait for the next one to begin. But it was alright, we got the best seats :)

I've always been a fan of Batman, more than any other superhero. And since Gotham City is set in New York City, it's just more relatable. Love the twists and cliffhangers of the movie and love how it ends. Truly very entertaining to watch, and since it's quite long you're sure to get your moneys worth :)

Changing Cars

We recently had to let go of our BMW 328xi coupe and exchange it for a bigger car. I was having a hard time with it coz it's too low and small and you can't really fit a baby in the back of a sports car so... My husband's not really happy letting go of this car but practicality wins.

So now we have a 2012 Honda CR-V. Looks exactly like the one in the picture below. It doesn't drive like a BMW but it's a great car so far. Definitely much more comfortable for us now that we're a growing family. We got it in the color "urban titanium metallic" which really is sorta brownish. My only requirement was safety and reliability, leather seats and bigger cargo space, so this was good enough. My husband wanted an AWD with better gas mileage. I talked him out of buying a luxury car because they're so high maintenance.
We're gonna do a long drive this weekend for camping (around 500 miles back and forth, maybe more). So relieved that we have much more space now for the things we need to bring.

Locksmith Experience

Last night our friends decided to hang out at our place after having a really long dinner at a pho place near our house. Unfortunately, a friend of mine accidentally locked her keys and her 1-year old baby boy in the car. What an agonizing 15 minutes that was waiting for a locksmith while the baby was crying strapped in his car seat! So traumatic! Finally the guy came and asked my friend where she thought her keys were. She was in panic mode at that time and didn't remember so she said, "I don't care about the keys! Just get my baby out!!!"

After a really long 10 minutes of trying to open the car through the trunk (apparently the later edition Hondas have advanced security systems that disable a car completely if someone tries to break in and steal it) the guy finally fished out the keys from my friend's bag in the front seat. Thank goodness it was a tote with no zippers! So we finally realized that was why the locksmith's first question was "Where are the car keys?" In less than a minute baby was reunited with mommy and everyone exhaled sighs of relief and tears of joy. And the locksmith charged us $180 for his services.

Lesson learned: Accidents happen so I'm gonna give my parents a set of house keys and car keys just in case since they only live a few blocks away. It's less expensive that way :)

O Canada!

We had a blast visiting our friends in Canada a few weeks ago. I have to say, it was a really relaxing vacation. We enjoyed ourselves immensely! Covered a big part of Canada - stop over for a few hours in Toronto then road trip from Saskatchewan to Alberta to British Columbia and back again! Whew! But with views like these, it was worth it :)

Snow capped mountains - lovely!
We saw a lot of wildlife, mostly deer and elk but also a couple of brown bears!
View from one of our rental cottages.
Breathtaking! I think this was in Radium.
Still in Radium.
The nicest Canadians you will ever meet :)
On our way to go somewhere.
Lake Louise was still frozen :(
On the Banff gondola. It still snowed there despite it being springtime already. I only brought one coat so most of my pictures look like I'm wearing the same outfit... Anyways, if you've noticed that I got a little rounder it's coz we are expecting a little one! We are so excited :) So my posts will probably be a bit more baby-centric when I do update my blog.