Monthly Archives: December 2006

our anniversary celebration kwento

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Around a year ago, Ramil and I had grand plans of celebrating our 1st year as husband and wife. We wanted to go somewhere and celebrate our anniversary by going on a 2nd honeymoon. Unfortunately, this idea wasn’t put into action because of the third person on the way. I was right smack in the middle of my eight month on December 17 and so any wishful thoughts of traveling automatically get scratched. Even my suggestion of a weekend in Tagaytay got vetoed by my dear hubby :( So I’ve assigned Ramil to come up with something that would pass off as a celebration of sorts.

Having heard a horror story from one of our ninangs about her husband forgetting their 1st year anniversary and being the realistic me, I wasn’t expecting surprises or anything like that. I told Ramil that a dinner at some nice place would be good enough for us for this year. We’ve wanted to try the Vivere Skyline at Vivere Suites for a long time now but we never had the time and chance to go there. So Plan A was set… a nice dinner at this fancy place. Ramil, however, (being the driver) brought up the issue of the distance. We live in Rizal and Vivere is located in Alabang… hmmm. He’s not very comfortable with long travel hours for us because I might actually start having contractions anytime and that the long travel might be very uncomfortable for me.

So moving on to Plan B… dinner at Seven Suites, a hotel observatory in Antipolo. We heard that the place has an awesome view of the lights above (stars) and the lights below (city lights). Somewhere in the planning though, I had this urge to just go somewhere to relax. Being very busy, we haven’t cleaned the house in weeks so I told Ramil it would be really great to just go to a place where we can forget about our mess, hehe! The overnight package at Seven Suites that comes with dinner and breakfast was beyond our budget considering that we’ve read mixed reviews on the hotel.

With the holiday season, I know that hotels usually have promos during these times. So we scouted for any hotel that would let us enjoy a mess-free, fully airconditioned hotel room that comes with all the usual nice things like cable-tv, hot water in the showers, etc. for a cheaper price. We ended up booking a room at the Richmonde hotel. They have this holiday promo which is really affordable compared to other hotels we’ve scouted. Basically, we ended up celebrating our anniversary being lazy in our hotel room, malling at Megamall and Podium, and having dinner at Burgoo. Ramil and I haven’t been able to relax like that in such a long time. I must say that it was a perfect way of celebrating our anniversary. After being together for a year, being on our own, doing chores around the house, we totally appreciated 24 hours of being pampered and not caring about anything at all. We now plan to do this more often (if our finances would let us splurge from time to time) especially if we have Mateo at home with us already. I’m pretty sure times like that will seem more precious to us. The stay was also very reminiscent of our wedding day since we stayed at the Linden Suites, a few meters from Richmonde, for our wedding preparations. The night before our wedding, Ramil and I were also malling in Megamall, walking in Ortigas center, enjoying the christmasy feeling in the air, and anticipating the next day. In other words, we did exactly the same things a year after but without the stress (of wedding preparations) and with me walking with less gracefulness and agility because of our little angel inside me.

renewal

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“Ramil, I still can’t believe we’re here now. Everything that we’ve planned and wished for are already happening. We’ve been through a lot, I never would have thought 15 years ago that you would be the man God wants me to be with. You’ve changed from being my classmate to being my best friend and to being the love of my life. You’re the one person who can make me laugh the hardest and who can really make me happy. The person who really understands me and knows me and yet still accept everything about me – both the best and the worst. I’ve found such a perfect match in you it’s not hard to see God’s hand in this. As we stand here today in front of God and all the important people in our lives, I promise to love you all the days of our lives, I will love you on days when everything is perfect and going well and I will love you even on days when it would be difficult to love you. I promise to share my thoughts and feelings with you, to never shut you out, to keep an open line of communication, to be willing to compromise, to swallow my pride, to meet you halfway. I promise to accept and respect you and our differences, to always keep in mind that our differences should never make us love each other less. I promise to be a loving and caring wife, to give you all my best and not ask of you what you cannot give. I will do everything to protect this marriage and to make it stronger and I will always remain faithful. Time will come when we will be wrinkled and old, when I will not look like the girl you fell in love with but rest assured that I will still hold your hand and I will still be happy and I will still be loving you fully, completely, and unconditionally.”

Andrea to Ramil
17 December 2005
Sta. Maria Della Strada Parish

graduates

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We had our sixth and last childbirth preparation class with Rome last Sunday. Since it would be our last class, the group decided to have a small salo-salo after. Every couple brought food and we all had a hearty time eating everything. Here are some pictures of our group taken several weeks ago. (Me in a blue shirt, Ramil in black shirt and gray pants)

the mommies (with Rome)
the daddies (with Rome)
the couples (again, with Rome)
Ramil and I think we’re among the youngest, if not the youngest couple, in the class. I think most of them are in in their 30′s or just about hitting the 30 mark. It was really nice getting to know expectant couples like us. Everyone is so eager to know how we will be able to apply the things that Rome taught us. I really hope Ramil and I will be able to go through a medication-free, natural delivery.

sweets deprivation

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I haven’t had any decent sweet these past few months. I’ve been limited to small amounts of chocolates, a forkful of cake here and there… it was such torture for me, considering that sweets and desserts are always a part of my diet. Hehe!

The whole ordeal (?) has reached its maximum point for me a few days ago when I couldn’t help but cry because I so wanted to have something sweet. Thoughts of all kinds of chocolates – cakes, ice cream, drink, etc kept filling my mind. I couldn’t help imagining textures of cheesecakes, leche flans, pies, halo-halo, & pastries in my mouth. I was having withdrawal symptoms! All Ramil could do was hug me tightly as I cry and mope about my very superficial sacrifice.

A few days after I almost went crazy with my desire for something sweet, Ramil and I happened by a palengke near the Dapitan Arcade where there were a lot of colorful, circular fruits being sold (in anticipation of Christmas and New Year, I presume). I saw a bundle of longgan, immediately bought 1.5 kilos of it, ate around half of it on our way to my parents’ house, and shared what’s left with my family (still, while eating with them hehe). For the time being, I will satisfy my cravings for sweets with fruits. But the things that I vow to eat once Mateo comes out have been getting longer and longer…

a failed 3d/4d

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So finally, Ramil was convinced to go for a 3d/4d ultrasound. I told him we could send a copy of the ultrasound pic to my papa who wouldn't be able to come home this December after all. I wanted to send him a pic of his first apo just to lessen his Christmas blues.


After I heard him say yes, I immediately picked up the phone and called FortMed. Unfortunately, their next available schedule would be on December 12. So we decided to try Medical City instead because they are on a first-come, first-served basis. Drawback though is Fortmed's price is 2700 while Medical City's is 3900. Since Medical City is so much nearer our place, I told Ramil we would have to spend more on gas anyway if we go to Fortmed, hehe!

We arrived in Medical City at around 3pm. They were currently serving customer #60 and we were customer #71. I asked the girl at the desk if we could just go back after an hour. So we went down and decided to grab a bite at Starbuck's. At around 4pm, we finally went up and discovered they've called out my name several times already so after just a few minutes, it was my turn.

Upon putting the thing (probe?) on my tummy, the ob immediately made a negative remark… 'ay nakaharang ang kamay'. She tried pressing the thing on my lower tummy harder to make Mateo remove his hand from his face. No reaction. She told me to cough. I coughed. No change. He'd move his arm a bit but it was still covering more than half his face. All I could see was his right eye. I shifted my position a bit. Hand still there. I talked to him, asking him to remove his hand. Arm seems to be stuck to his face. So she finally asked…'tuloy ba natin?'. I answered…'di na ba magbabago yan ng position?' She said I could try walking around for 10 minutes and then we could try again. So I went out and Ramil and I walked. We went to the CR to pee and while in there I tried doing some pelvic rocks, an exercise taught in our lamaze class to help relieve back pains and to help the baby get a good position. I also talked to Mateo telling him to show himself to us please. After a few minutes, we went back and I went inside the ultrasound room again. Upon putting the thing again on my tummy, the ob remarked…'ay, nakatalikod na'. Sure enough, when I looked at the screen, all I could see was his spine. Darn! Since it was already 5pm (their closing time), the doctor told me to just come back on monday. I went out that room wondering where Mateo got his stubbornness :)