My journey to Cali

Baby Banana, you are someone we did not expect..

It was only three months after we lost Lemon when we learned we're having another baby. It was late November when I tested positive. My initial emotion was fear. You know I just lost a baby and now here's another one. Anyway, it's still a happy news.

We decided to keep mum about this, more mum than Lemon. But we already named her Banana then. Still a yellow tutti frutti. As expected, the baby is still young so there's no heartbeat yet. The two week long wait was crucifying! We were in this position before also. 

But this time, God gave in to our prayers. Banana is alive!

From here onwards, our doctor gave us strict orders to follow. She warned us that every thing will be different if we want to keep the baby. Every single move is more intense than the first one. For one, I did my OGTT on my 13th week which is a few months earlier than the usual schedule. And just like what you can read online about OGTT, it was a torture. I drank that disgusting sugar drink! And I'm not allowed to throw up if I don't want to repeat the process again. Imagine doing that on your first trimester. Aww

My plight after that was uneventful but not easy. We chose not to post anything about my pregnancy on social media. We just waited for people to ask if I'm pregnant. Which only happened on the later part of my pregnancy because you know they mistook my figure to just getting fat. Because I am always fat!

This was me on my fourth month. Still small. I carried small all throughout!

I asked to work from home on my last month. Even before going MIA, no one from the office noticed except my boss and some close friends. Amazing eh? Well, I learned later that my tummy was small because I suffered from low amniotic fluid level. I will talk about that in my birthing story ok?

I promise to blog while pregnant on our next (if God will let us have another one). Deal?

Love,

Yosh

First Prenatal Checkup

This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for some time now. I initially wanted to post this after the first trimester of my first pregnancy. But as you all know, I lost that baby. I thought that preggy ladies may wanna know what happens in a first prenatal checkup in the Philippines. So here goes --

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was at Manila East Medical Center at exactly 8:30am! Talk about excitement! Hahaha! Good thing my HMO, Intellicare, covers pregnancy checkups. I was assigned to Dra. Flida Mendoza. Upon seeing me, she asked if I already tested using store-bought pregnancy test. I said yes and showed her the picture. She asked when was the first day of my last period, from there she calculated that I may be 5 weeks and 4 days pregnant. 

She immediately made me undo my shorts and undies and lie down on the bed. She performed IE to check if my cervix is closed. Apparently, woman's cervix will be closed up by a mucus plug once pregnant. This is to protect the baby inside. While on it, my OB also got sample specimen for Papsmear (which I brought to the laboratory for testing).

After that, she ordered for a Transvaginal Ultrasound. I paid for it first before we proceeded. MEMC charged me a little bit under 1500 pesos for that. My OB said that if I can wait, she can do this in her clinic outside the hospital for 700 pesos only but D and I still has to go somewhere else so we chose the hospital. Anyhoo, I was confirmed to be 4 weeks and 4 days pregnant. I was a bit confused because earlier she told me that I'm 5 weeks and then now I'm only 4 weeks? She said the later is the actual size of my gestational sac. Oh there, only my sac is showing now. I still need to go back two weeks after for a repeat ultrasound to check for pregnancy viability. By that time, maybe my little Lemon will have a fetal pole and heartbeat already. Please!

Oh yes, I decided to call my little one Lemon. Dunno. Maybe because it is yellow? Hahaha!

Lemon's first picture

After this, we went back to the OB's office for some 'bilin'. Dra. Mendoza did these --
1. IE - 350 pesos
2. Papsmear - still covered by the card since I haven't declared pregnancy yet
3. Transvaginal Ultrasound - 1500 pesos
4. Flu Vaccine - 2500 pesos
5. Proluton Vaccine - 1800 pesos
6. Vitamins (Duphaston, Calcium and Folic Acid) for two weeks - 3900 pesos

Ouch! That's really pricey. Intellicare only covers the checkups. All the other tests, vaccines and medicines were paid by me. I still have 4 more tests to do - Urinalysis, CBC with PC test, HBsAG (Hepa B Test), and RPR VDRL (Siphilis or STD Test). But hey, this is a blessing! God will provide! :)


With crying pocket,
Yosh