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So today is my official due day...and nothing's happening. Dang it!

Actually, I do feel like something's going on down there, but the baby's still too high, meaning she's still too far from her exit. She kind of pokes around the area and hits my hipbones and whatnot, but she's still too shy to go all the way down, down, down.

We're not worried about her coming out just yet, although we're still as prepared as ever because you'll never know...she could just drop down and bang! Labor! So we'll see. I'm so beyond afraid already, I'm just excited to see her. No pain, no gain. So bring on the pain!

Meanwhile, J and I have been staying at his aunt's house in Quezon City since Monday (because I'm giving birth in St. Luke's which is only 10 minutes away). His cousins have been very hospitable and I love being with their little one-year old Gilly. She looks like a little porcelain doll because her cheeks burn red when she feels hot. She's also learning how to walk outside her crib, so that's pretty exciting. Wheee, baby!

...I want my baby na!

Where's the kaboom?

J and I are moving to his aunt's house in Quezon City tomorrow. It'll be more convenient for us to stay there because it's only a few minutes away from St. Luke's where I'm giving birth.

I'm pretty huge now...166lbs! Yikes! My weight gain is adequate, though, and I was relieved to know that aside from my more or less 7-pound baby (yes, she could already be that heavy), there are other things making me huge:

Breasts = 0.9 lbs

Maternal Blood = 4.0 lbs

Placenta = 1.4 lbs

Amniotic Fluid = 1.8 lbs

Uterus = 2.0 lbs

Interstitial Fluid = 2.7 lbs

Maternal Tissue Stores = 5.5 lbs

I don't know about the breast part, though. I bought some maternity bras last weekend and I'm only one size bigger. Hmmm...oh well, better than still being flat. Hehe.

All this waiting is killing me! I'm nesting like crazy (meaning I've been preparing the baby's thing and cleaning the room and whatnot) and I can't wait to see her.

Bawal birthday goodies!

My family used to have huge parties when I was smaller, but all my party days ended when I turned 9. I remember having a party in the Children's Pavilion of the Alabang Country Club and my tita made me a cake with a gymnast doing a split in the middle. When I turned 15, I had a brunch at the pool deck of the same club with the Alabang Gators. And the last time we had buffet and a cake was for my 18th birthday, my mom's attempt to have at least one daughter celebrate her "debut". None of us were really into formal debuts with fluffy dresses in a ballroom. My sisters and I tried to imagine ourselves with tiaras..."never gonna happen."

Now that I'm about to give birth to the first apo of the house, the usual inuman at pulutan party was not what my family had in mind. For my baby shower/birthday party last October 1, they got a caterer. With waiters! (which I think was a good idea so that no one would have to worry about the food and the dishes.) And there was one old waiter that I think has been to every party in the house because we've only had one caterer ever since: Gemmarc Foods owned by my Tita Ads.

I was so excited when I entered the house. I also got very hungry, but I couldn't eat and drink as much as I normally would at a party. I was already about 36 weeks pregnant and I had to watch my food intake because a baby in the third trimester will gain about half a pound every week, even when you don't eat!









I also had to control myself from taking away my pictures on the tables. My sister Carla who arranged the party placed my picture on every table and it was embarrassing, but in a cute way. She worked hard to put this party together, so I didn't do anything.

My other sister Bianca was in charge of the cake and our cousin Malu did an excellent job by making the cutest cake we had ever seen. While waiting for guests to arrive, we kept on opening the box just to take a peek. During the party, J's son Tristan and his niece Riannon had to leave early, so I gave them cupcakes to go and snipped one butterfly from the side.









There's a funny story behind the cupcakes. I'm not allowed to eat chocolate, so Bianca asked Malu to bake a buttercake for me. But Malu said, "Just because she can't have chocolate doesn't mean her guests can't either!" So she made some chocolate cupcakes as well and I wanted to eat them so bad.

I also wanted beer. Sometimes I caught myself grabbing Nikki's beer instead of my glass of Four Seasons and she'd snap, "Ali?!" It was an unconscious thing, believe me!

It's a miracle I've lasted this long without my Pale Pilsen...and my Coke! But I had fun just table hopping and catching up with friends I hadn't seen in months. What was really hard was controlling my appetite. Sometimes when your're pregnant, everything just looks so good! It's crazy! The next day, we finally attacked the cake and it was fantastic. The challenge was trying to eat a maximum of two slices a day. I swear, I could've eaten the entire thing in one sitting.

Baby laundry.

I had a baby shower recently (more on that next time) and we got lots of clothes for Layla. She's going to be one kikay baby. Oh no. Haha! Anyway, there's so much that I had to ask Mommy's laundry lady to help wash almost all of it. (I'll be doing most of the washing in the months to follow. So wish me luck! :) The pictures of the laundry were taken in Mommy's house, c/o Bianca and her camera...for blogging purposes. Hehe. I also made a special request that they use only Perla laundry bar soap because it has the best reviews when it comes to washing baby's clothes.

We have so many things now and it's overwhelming. That's because after the baby shower, J and I set off for more baby shopping to buy what was missing. We got a bottle sterilizer, tie-shrits and a whole bunch of cloth diapers or lampin. The Chino Pino cloth diapers are really handy and affordable, but we both loved the Gerber printed cloth diapers. They had plain pinks and some with butterfly prints...really cute stuff. So we bought only 6 of those, and tons of the cheaper ones.

I personally love the staff of Babyland Alabang because they're so helpful and they don't force us to buy the expensive brands. One salesman even helped us out with picking a bottle sterilizer by opening the boxes and checking if our baby bottles would fit (we received Avent and Playtex bottles as gifts). Other stores didn't ask us what bottles we had, so they would've probably just let us buy whatever sterilizer they had.

Just Born is also very nice but still a little pricey. Good thing we discovered Enfant nearby. We didn't have a registry there but they had wonderful tie-shirts with matching mittens and booties with really good material and superb prices. Very affordable.

Our last stop was Rustan's where we bought sheets and pillows for the crib...only to find out later on that a baby can't have too many pillows because she might turn into a bad position and suffocate. Grabe, no? So i guess our 5 pillows will be for display, but at least we're all set! Thanks so much to everyone who came to the baby shower with wonderful gifts, and special thanks to the ninangs who prepared the baby shower. :)

Layla's first friend.

A few months ago, J's aunt gave us a teddy bear for Layla. He's made of really nice fluffy material and dons a really preppy bow around his neck. I was thinking, "What if we name him Eric? You know, Layla? Eric Clapton?"

And J's brilliant mind lit up. "No...let's name him Clapton! As in you pronounce it 'KLAP-TON'!"



So that's Clapton, the little teddy on the right, with his new girlfriend in a kimono. We don't know what to name her yet. I thought of Yoko Ono but I never really liked Yoko Ono in the first place, so we're trying to remember the name of Eric Clapton's wife...the one he stole from George Harrison. Hehe. If you remember her name, please lemme know. :)