Noah Turns 1

Our little boy turned a month old today.

With his bday cake

 With his Kuya (who adores him...)

 

 Snoozing...

 

Sleeping and awake times are getting longer these days.

Kuya still kisses him like there's no tomorrow.

He still cries the loudest when he's hungry.

He makes this cute sound when he yawns.

He's getting bigger eveyday.

 

 

Happy First Month birthday dear Noah. I pray everyday for your continued good health. We love you much much bunso.

~ * ~

What's in a Name?

I just want to share how we decided on Asher Noah for our second baby boy. As most parents know, choosing your child's name is probably one of the most difficult decisions that one has to make. Would my child like his name or would he always think "What were Dad and Mom thinking???".

Lucas's name was pretty easy. We both loved LUCAS and just had trouble coming up with a second name. Good thing Dadi G came up with ETHAN one morning at breakfast. From what I know, he slept at 2 AM that name-searching night (err, morning?). So, LUCAS ETHAN it is.

I've loved the name Noah since I was pregnant with Kuya. But at that time, there was this Piolo Pascual teleserye playing on ABS CBN and his character was named Noah. I thought that a lot of kids might be named Noah due to the show's popularity then. So, Noah was shelved that time.

When we found out that baby no. 2 is a he, JJ immediately sent me an SMS saying "ASHER LEE". I remember thinking, "Nyikes. Saan ba niya nakuha ito?". I told him,  "I like biblical names and mukhang hindi papasa si ASHER LEE." So imagine my surprise (shock is more like it) when I googled "Asher" and this came up:

Nyak. So much for insisting that we can't have Asher because I want a biblical name. I guess you cannot get more biblical than the name being given to the tribes of Israel.

But I really wanted Noah and JJ was gracious (pretending to be gracious???) enough to say we'd go for Noah instead. We spent months coming up with second names. Aiden and Jase were pretty strong candidates. But JJ was not too keen on Jase. Lucas daw might ask why Noah has daddy's name and he doesn't. Okay. So Noah Aiden... but still, it doesn't sound right to me. I wanted JJ to have a say in this too.

I started bringing up Asher Noah. JJ said, "But he'd be Asher in school...". And I am like, "Well, look at Lucas. He is Ethan in school right?". Still, no final decision yet. We decided to make a poll and asked our friends to vote. Asher Noah won hands down but still we were undecided.

Then came June 16. I gave birth na and it was time to write our baby's name in the hospital's forms. No turning back now. I told JJ, "Asher Noah it is..." and looking at our little boy, the name just felt right. And at least Daddy's also happy :-)

Here he is now at more than 3 weeks...

~ * ~

And We're Four

Lucas is officially a new Kuya :-) Our second baby boy, Asher Noah, was born last June 16, 2013 (Father's Day).

 Crying lustily... Noah has thick hair, like his Kuya

 

He weighed in at 3.586 kilos (7lbs and 14oz). JJ said Noah is bigger than Kuya because of my penchant for cola during my second pregnancy.

 

 

June 14, 2013 (Friday)

I went to the office and around 930AM, I started feeling a little pain in my lower abdomen. I timed it and noticed that it was coming every 30 mins. Come 11:00 AM, I was still feeling it. I decided to leave the office and call JJ. I picked him up from his office (yeah, I was able to drive pa) then we decided to go to the hospital. You see, with Lucas, I didn't know that I was in labor already and I was  6cm dilated when I got to the hospital. From what I have been reading, labor after the first pregnancy usually is faster. I was afraid of giving birth in the car or at home that's why the hospital was our immediate option. When we got there, I was strapped to a fetal monitoring system and another machine that tracks my contractions. After a while, a doctor came to examine me. Surprise! I am just 1 cm dilated :-( I was sent home and was asked to walk around and come back again in 6 hours if I continue feeling the pain and if said pain intensifies.

 

We had lunch and decided to watch a movie, so we'll be near the hospital in case the pain progresses. Unfortunately, I didn't feel anything during the movie. Pain just stopped. False labor.

 

June 16, 2013 (Sunday)

Saturday afternoon, around 5PM, I started feeling a little pain on my lower abdomen. But given what happened the day before, I just wrote down the time and duration of the contractions. They weren't that painful really because I was able to prepare dinner pa. But the pain continued and I noticed around 12MN, it started to intensify. Again, given the Friday experience, I still waited before I woke JJ up. Around 230 AM, it has gotten really painful. JJ's first question was, "Kaya mo pa mag-drive?". Me: (What???) "Hindi na no!". JJ: "Ah yan na nga yon... lika na...".

 

We dropped Lucas at my in-laws first and I tell you, the short drive from my in-laws to the hospital was a painful one. When we got to the ER, the nurse on duty was poised to ask me questions. But the manner by which I replied to his first query ("how many weeks na po kayo?"), a terse-are-you-really-gonna-interview-me-pa-I-am-in-pain "38 weeks" reply made him call the lady nurse and ask her to bring me to Genesis asap.

 

The OB-Gyne-on-duty checked me and said that I was 6cm dilated already. Wow. Same with Lucas but I honestly didn't feel the same pain then. This one was more intense. I was already crying when the anesthesiologist came in to help me. Numbness was such a welcome relief. (I think I broke several of my husband's fingers during the wait for the epidural). But, it was really painful. After the epidural, everything was easy breezy.

 

I was fully dilated in an hour or two and we were transferred to the birthing room already. We just had to wait for baby's head to come down. After a while, my OB decided to have me practice pushing. While I was "practice-pushing", the baby's head came down with every push, to the delight of my doctor. After three (or was it four pushes), Asher Noah, our darling little bunso was out. He had a loose cord coil which made it more challenging for him to descend. He was immediately brought to me for him to latch and it was such a great feeling when he did. After a few minutes, the pedia took him for the clean-up. I stayed in the birthing room for another two hours. Hubby decided to fetch Kuya from my in-laws while I was recovering. A little after  two hours, I was brought up to my room already. Little Noah had to stay in the huggery until after lunch so we had to wait for him. By early afternoon, little guy was brought to our room already, with his paternal grandparents, aunts and uncles waiting for him.

 

The second one was more painful, yes, but thank heavens it was as textbook and as uneventful as his Kuya's delivery. Thank you Lord. We are truly blessed.

 

~ * ~

 





Kuya and his new "playroom"

Our main reason for moving to our new home is the need for more space. With our second baby boy coming in a few months, the stroller, car seat , play pen, my rocking chair and tons of other baby-related stuff would have to be unpacked. Also, we wouldn't want to displace Kuya just 'cause we have a new baby. We prefer to stay as a unit in one room. So, we moved...

Kuya loves our new place and he'd be the first one to say "Let's go home to the building..." whenever we are out of the house. I think the main reason he adores the new place is his new "play room".

The "play room" is actually our second bedroom. Since Ate prefers to sleep in the living room at night, the second room became a storage place for all his toys and our other stuff.

 

See here? He used all the available space in the room for his train tracks.

 



With his latest creation

 



He told me it was a building :-)

 

We're glad Lucas adjusted quite well with the move. JJ was worried that he'd have a difficult time adjusting to the new place. Thank heavens for Thomas and Friends, they made his transition seamless.

 

Oh! He sleeps on his own bed now :-) Still in our room but at least that's a little move towards his "independence".

SBCA: Sto. Nino Day Celebration

Lucas with SBCA's Nursery Class dancing to the tune of Bahay Kubo and portions of E-heads' Toyang. Yes, hindi sila sabay sabay but that didn't make them less adorable :-)

 

This is Take 2 already. Take 1 is for the parents to watch the presentation and Take 2 is for documentation. 

 Lucas Ethan with Lucas Felipe

Lucas with Germaine



 We're so happy because Lucas danced during both takes :-) Family Day last year, he only participated during the first take and sat and played with his classmates during the second take.

 

 Our cutie pie

With Daddy

With Mommy

 

KUYA Lucas

This little space has been dormant for quite a few months now. A lot has happened since my last post but the most important news of all is that our little Lucas will be a KUYA soon. Yes, we're pregnant with baby no. 2 :-)

I am 26 weeks on the way today. Much as I'd wanted to announce the pregnancy the very moment we found out, I was afraid I'd jinx it so I kept quiet (an effort really!). Unlike my first pregnancy, this one's more complicated because I was put on bed rest for almost two weeks total during my first trimester. The incident made me keep the pregnancy a secret for a little while longer. Thankfully, we got past the dangerous first tri and I can't believe that in a few weeks time I'd be on my third trimester (final stretch!) already.

With the second baby coming and all, we also decided to move houses. It's been two weeks since we moved out of Daddy G and Mommy E's home and all the challenges and continued learnings of living on our own will have its own post one of these days.

Lucas's first year of school flew by so fast. We were planning to enroll him to an Arts and Crafts class at Cradle to Crayons but it looks like we have to reconsider given the updates on Beda's minimum age requirement per preschool level. We found out that Lucas can skip Junior Kinder and move on to Senior Kinder next school year. However, he'd have to take a bridging program this summer to help/arm him for Senior Kinder. Jj and I are still mulling this over. Bottomline is, if skipping a level will stress out our four-year old, we'd rather say No Thanks to the opportunity. But nothing is final yet as we're to attend the school's orientation on the program next week. So, we'll still see.

That's it for now. Hopefully, I can post updates more often in the coming days.
Have a blessed Holy week.

Another Milestone

... and NOT the good milestone kind.

Monday: Lucas had a small mosquito bite-like thing near his upper lip. I decided not to put anything on it because it is quite near his lips and whatever I put on the bite might accidentally find its way inside his mouth. My big mistake here was not warning him NEVER EVER to touch it.

Tuesday: I came home from the office and Lolo G reported two things: (1) Lucas has a swollen left cheek and (2) Lucas Felipe, one of his friends from school, punched him on the cheek. I was honestly a bit hesitant to believe him because Lucas Felipe seems like a sweet boy when I met him and well, he's a lot smaller than my Lucas. I already suspected that the swelling might be from the bite.

Wednesday: Just to confirm, we brought Lucas to school to talk to his teacher. For one, I am thinking that if someone punches Lucas, my son probably provoked him. If not, then the teacher should talk to the other boy's parents to inform them of their son's behavior. When we talked to his teacher, we were assured that no punching happened. They probably were just playing. My son, in a separate conversation, confirmed this. (Oh, how I felt was worthy of another post). If no punching happened, the swelling must be because of the bite. To cut the long story short, Lucas, JJ and I ended up waiting at the school clinic for the pedia. After the check-up, we were asked if we can see his pedia that day. Cannot do because his pedia does not have clinic hours on Wednesdays. She told us to go to the ER and that the doctors there will call our pedia anyway. NO EXPLANATION WHATSOEVER. We brought Lucas back to class and Lolo G just brought Lucas to our cousin pedia after lunch that day. Ate Mai prescribed antibiotics but Kuya Larry said that if the swelling increases, we must bring him to the ER asap.

Thursday:  By 1:30 AM, we woke Lucas up for his medicines. We weren't sure if the swelling increased so we just packed up and decided to bring him to the ER. When the doctor-on-duty saw him, confinement was her immediate recommendation saying that the swelling was within the dangerous triangle zone sorrounding the nose area and that infections there might affect the brain :-( Quite scary stuff. So, Lucas was admitted in the hospital for the first time. Preparing him for IV treatment was really challenging (there were 3 nurses plus me and JJ) but everything was a breeze from there. What's positive here was that apart from the swelling, Lucas was his old self. Chatty, malikot and he still eats.

Friday:   Still under observation. Not much change in the swelling on his face. I guess medicines were yet to take effect by this time.

Saturday: An ENT was sent by his pedia. He recommended that the abscess be removed via incision (minor surgery). Due to our son's age (resistance, possibility of trauma), the procedure will be done while Lucas is under general anesthesia. We weighed the pros and cons of having the abscess removed surgically and if we just let it run its course naturally. The doctors we consulted said that the best option really is to have it removed surgically. This will mean faster healing for my son.

Sunday:  By 9 AM, we were already at the surgery area. JJ accompanied him inside and he was only sent out after Lucas fell asleep, before the surgery began. The procedure lasted for less than an hour. When Lucas was inside the recovery room already, JJ called and asked me to go to the recovery area as Lucas was looking for me. I was happy to see my baby and I guess he was glad Mommy's there because he stopped being fuzzy and fell asleep after a few minutes.
8:58 PM Sunday: My son ate his dinner already and is happily watching Thomas videos on his daddy's Ipad. I am really glad the minor surgery was over and that we'll probably be discharged tomorrow :-)

~*~
Funny Lucas Moments

We had to measure his wiwi and we were a given a cup to use. The first time he made wiwi in the cup he said, "Mommy, I will not drink that....".  :-)

When my dad asked him if he wanted  to go home already he said, "Uhmm, no Lolo...". (Lagot. Mukhang hindi na namin puedeng ipantakot ang hospital stay whenever he doesn't want to take his medicines...)