Gender reveal is one of the most exciting things during a pregnancy. Finally you can stop calling the baby "it","she/he", or just plain "baby" and finally give it a legit name or nickname. Before we found out Cid's gender we called him "fetus" or "feetz" for short. Although medyo na attach na kami sa nickname na "feetz" easybells lang, let it go (like Frozen) and embrace the very first information that gave our little peanut an identity.
Hubby dreaded a girl, he knew the little struggles being around girls from having two challenging sisters, losing his parents at an early age and having to take care of them. Marrying a strong headed woman himself, he knew what he was going to get into if the ultrasound showed no magic stick. I on the other hand felt it was a boy, I had all the common "side effects" of having boys. I had totally abandoned my eyebrows, forgotten my fashion sense and never wore deodorant at home, o di ba diyosang diyosa!
First time in over 5 months that I actually thought
of exfoliating and making use of a face mask.
Finding out that we were having a boy was both exciting and nerve racking. Thankfully I have a bit of experience with handling boys from being tita of my sisters two boys. But even so, I couldn't help but wonder if, aside from the looming fear of being a crap mom, if I would be able to handle or relate to the little boy swimming around in my belly. How about the dream of pink sparkly things and little baby doll shoes and smocking dresses that I had secretly planned to hoard once I found out I was having a girl?
I was around babies a lot when I was a teenager. My sister got married when I was 13 and our cousin who lived right next door to us, got married when I was about 9 or 10. So once they started having kids (three each!) I was one of the designated babysitters of the family. This is what I know from the little I experienced as an aunt to three 2 boys and 4 girls:
Cribs are useful.
At the time formula milk was a big thing, not a lot of mothers were breastfeeding, unlike nowadays where more mothers are exclusively breastfeeding (which is the right way to go). And there were no latched babies every 2 hours and hardly any of them slept on the same bed as their parents. So even after I read that it might be useless to get a crib since we have decided to try to stick to breastfeeding exclusively, I still got one, because something told me to, and cribs are useful.
When I was first deciding on what kind of crib to get, I opted to get something that wasn't too expensive (kasi kuripot ako at sabi ng mga peeps hindi naman talaga kailangan sobrang bongga yung crib ng baby mo basta matibay). I've had relatives and friends who've told me they always splurge on their first born, buy all the branded and top notch gear only to regret it later on. So after looking at the beautiful Chicco crib that had built in songs, night light, vibrator and what not, cost as much as a second hand car-I decided I wanted to go a different route.
I found a place here in Quezon City that handmade rattan furniture and had a lot of experience with making cribs! After pestering my hubby to make sure they can make it adjustable, so we wouldn't have to get Cid a playpen when he gets older and it would be the right color of varnish, we decided it was a go. It arrived a week ago and I can't stop looking at how each material is a different color and some of them bend slightly a different way from one another. Perfect imperfection :)
Every time I'm pregnant it's always a surprise. The first one, which we lost a few weeks in, came during a time when we really weren't ready to have a family. And then this little guy who also came as unexpectedly as the first, popped up on the ultrasound monitor just as I had gotten into a new job and moved into a new home.
The first few months of pregnancy I was commuting to work from Quezon City all the way to Pasay and the only way to do it (slightly) comfortably is using the MRT (course I wouldn't even dream of going on that train nowadays!). It's hard work being in your first trimester (kung kelan sobrang haggard at sobrang intense ang hilo) standing in line just to get yourself a ticket cause you're prepaid one just ran out. Looking up at a sign that says you need to be "obviously pregnant" to get served at that particular side of the station in those particular windows. Obviously pregnant??? Ano ba yan MRT. I carried around my ultrasound film just in case someone came up to me and questioned me about being pregnant, thankfully no one did.
