1 Week Old Malaya

Breastfeeding isn't as painful anymore. My angle was all wrong. It still hurts, specially when he clamps onto the nipple faster than I can get all of it in. Props to Ninong Jerome for linking me to the La Leche League Website. xD

No serene nursing photos for juu. At least not yet.

Chris and I ran out of clothes yesterday. Chris just packed light, while I didn't have too many shitproof/breastfeeding friendly clothes. Lola Diana suggested we leave the baby in her airconditioned office while we go Ukay-ukay crazy.

Spell separation anxiety. >.<

Tinuohang Buktot

Today's Easter, celebration of rebirth and fertility for all sorts of denominations and my favorite goddess figure (Astarte). No matter what you believe in, everyone seems to want to get a piece of this celebration pie. The flavor is presumably egg.

Another reason to celebrate is that the boring days are over - baby's aunts and uncles are here for the holidays and are keeping me on the move. Island hopping is out of the question though, despite getting multiple invitations over the week to go T_T. Maternal lola's afraid that if I waterbirth in the middle of the sea, baby might escape and become Aquaman.

Sorry Aquaman, even my mom thinks you suck.

So far, we've trekked to the farm to get coconuts; failed at getting coconuts by getting distracted by guavas; tried not to get trampled on by horses; failed to acquire XP points by running away from every sound encountered on the hike back to the house after sundown (sorry bunch of adventurers are we); and marathoned season 2 of Game of Thrones in preparation for tomorrow's season 3 premiere. We'll probably get it on torrent a day after tomorrow, and thankfully the show runners don't mind. Yarr!

Since maternal lola's protests about the religiously offensive tone of my previous post, I decided to dedicate this post to being deliberately offensive of out dated belief, especially those regarding babies.

Week 35: Holy (Shit) Week

I apologize for the later-than-usual-post, daddy creature crossed the sea and stayed for a couple of days to check out baby's balls (via his latest ultrasound photo).

The sore throat WAS gone for a couple of days, but now I have this cold. I suspect it's maternal lola's room with all its hidden nooks and crannies that forgo a regular dusting. I also suspect the insomnia is due to inactivity for most of the day. While the partner was here, we spent the nights at the family bed and breakfast below maternal lola's hill and had to climb every mealtime to get to the nomz. Results? I've been sleeping like a person without an internal kicking baby for most of the night. I still wake up to pee tho, but it's progress. There is also much pelvic pressure and I've started waddling like a duck.

Doctor advised I do 30 minutes of waddling walking everyday to make sure baby doesn't delay. She also said I'm good as due within 2 weeks, so I should have the pool ready soon

HOLY SHIT.

Of Gods and Amigurumi Monsters

I AM EARTH GODDESS!

(Repeat x number of times until completely deluded)

I'm on break from crochetry because my fingers are numb. I feel like my finger muscles got a little bit brawnier from my efforts, but doing it at night isn't doing much for my eyesight.

The insomnia is getting worse. Apart from baby's kicking, it's the water breaks and the bathroom runs that keep me up til the wee (whoops) hours of the morning. I'm just sooo thirsty at night.

The good news is that I've graduated from doilies and have moved on to beanies!

*Confetti*

I followed this tutorial. Coincidentally, the maternal lola got me material in around the same color.

For those of you too lazy to click the tutorial, this is the hat it's supposed to make:

This is my hat:

Anyone want a BJD-sized head-sock?

I learned too late about different sized yarns and hooks, and sadly, the kinds most online patterns require aren't widely available in this side of the country. T_T

Maternal lola was keeping me in the doily dark. T_T

So while I'm waiting on daddy-creature to get me the appropriate yarn for baby's stuff, I ended up looking for projects that I could use all this thread for, and I found Amigurumi.

Although most of the amigurumi patterns still ask for thicker yarns than the ones I have (worsted weighted as opposed to my flimsy size 8 crochet thread), you don't have to wear amigurumi, so it's fine to make miniature versions of the proposed projects.

Imo, the tinier versions are ADORABLE AS F*CK. Like Dobermans(men?) and mini pinschers; Pajeros and baby pajeros; Humans and babies.

One flower-filled night pre-baby, I thought maybe the nature of the divine is "Cute". Cuteness is universal. Have you ever seen a baby anything and not die from cuteness? Even animals cave in to cute:

I'd like to think that our Creation Gods are not the mighty Olympians who saw us as mites, but the tiny cells working away to grow us, the same way we build cities and become blind to the overall impact of our creations. As the father unit used to sing "The big bang never ended". As Ninong Ben put it, "In a way, that's what science is on to already- our cells all contain "programming". It would take a very tiny entity to program it! All the Whos down in Whoville?"

He's not even out yet, and everything I'm doing is already for this small would-be tyrant growing inside me. <3

As a tribute to the small Gods, I got to work on this:

The pregnancy so far

Baby likes to kick the right side of the belly. He stops when people are around and expect him to. One of my friends think it's performance anxiety. Hah. Filmmakers make shy baby. The irony.

I remember the first time we noticed him moving, we found the kicks cute, but a little hard to identify - kinda like shooting stars on a clear unpolluted-by-artificial-lights sky. Now they're like meteors on Armageddon - painful, frequent, and a sign of the end of days.

The doctor told me "Buntis na jud ka" ("You're definitely pregnant now") as if I wasn't to begin with. But I know what she means. I've had it relatively easy til now. Suddenly, my feet are ballooning, my bump is a basketball, and I feel like yoga can wait for a few more hours days. Cats gestate for less than 3 months. Maybe I am a cat, and I really HAVE only begun to be pregnant. As much as the first trimester felt like a bitch because of mood swings, why do I have a feeling these remaining months are going to be the longest in my life?