A love letter to Mama

I was able to watch in Korina's shows at channel 2 the story of a man who continously send a love letter to her deceased wife through blogging. I got inspired and was so touched on his gesture. How I wish that I could write my own letter to my mom and grandma soon :)

Week 18 of my pregnancy

Thumb-sucking at 18 weeks....

By week 18 of your pregnancy, your baby's crown-to-rump length is 5 to 5.5 inches long. Your baby continues to develop fat layers and weighs about 5.25 ounces. Your baby will continue to grow and develop, but the rapid growth will slow down for a little while. You will be able to feel your uterus just below your bellybutton. If you put your fingers sideways to measure, you can feel your uterus about two finger-widths below your bellybutton. At this point of your pregnancy, your uterus is approximately the size of a cantaloupe. Although weight gain varies from woman to woman, your total weight gain at this point should be 10 to 13 pounds.

At this time if you had an ultrasound, heart abnormalities can be detected. If the ultrasound technician detects abnormalities, further ultrasound exams may be ordered to follow the baby's development. There is still space available in your uterus and your baby will be active for periods at a time. Your baby may sit cross legged or turn somersaults.

Around this time, your baby becomes more sensitive to the outside world and shows her presence through powerful kicks and prods. The bones through which sound is passed to the inner ear have hardened and the parts of the brain that receives and processes nerve signals from the ears are developing. This means that your baby can hear now. Your baby will get used to familiar sounds, such as your heart beating, familiar voices, blood rushing through the umbilical cord and other daily routine sounds. Your baby will become startled if he hears a loud sound.

If you have a stethoscope at home, you can now hear the baby's heartbeat yourself.

Week 17 of my pregnancy

Your baby's weight has doubled in two weeks and now weighs about 3.5 ounces! The crown-to-rump length of your growing baby is 4.4 to 4.8 inches. If you spread your hand out opened wide, you can see about how big your baby is.

Your uterus is moving up and is now approximately 1.5 to 2 inches below your navel. You are showing more now and there is a noticeable swelling in your abdomen. At this point in your pregnancy, a 5 to 10 pound weight gain is normal. Other people can probably feel the difference in your lower abdomen if they were to rub your tummy. To be the most comfortable, you should be wearing maternity clothes or clothing that is too large for you. You may have felt your baby move already. However, you might not feel it move every day at this point. As your pregnancy progresses, movements become stronger and more frequent. Feeling your baby move can help reassure you that your baby is doing well. You might also notice that your gums or nose bleed occasionally. This is from the increased blood volume that puts pressure on small blood vessels and capillaries.

Huge changes continue to take place within your developing baby. This week fat begins to form and will continue to do so until he is born. Fat is important to the body's heat production and metabolism. Right now, at 17 weeks, water makes up about 3 ounces and fat 0.018 ounces of your baby's body. In a baby at term, fat makes up about 5.25 pounds of the total average weight of 7.7 pounds. The placenta is continuing to grow at an amazing rate. The placenta will continue to develop in tandem with the fetus and it will weigh more than a pound at birth! By this week, the placenta is large and well established with a network of blood vessels that exchange nutrients and waste.

The eyes are facing more forward. The ears are now close to their final position.

Your baby is more flexible with ability to move head, mouth, lips, arms, wrists, hands, legs, feet, and toes.

Fingerprints are forming now.

Week 16 of my pregnancy

Dates and numbers:
There are 163 days until your due date on February 16, 2009.
You are 117 days pregnant.
You are 3.8 months pregnant.
You are in your 4th month of pregnancy.
Your 1st trimester: May 12, 2008 to August 10, 2008. (0 - 12 weeks)
Your 2nd trimester: August 11, 2008 to November 23, 2008. (13 - 27 weeks)
Your 3rd trimester: November 24, 2008 to February 16, 2009. (28 - 40 weeks)


At this point of your pregnancy, your baby is approximately 4.3 to 4.6 inches long and weighs 2.8 ounces. Not only is your baby growing, your uterus and placenta continue to grow to accommodate the growing baby inside of you! Just six weeks ago, your uterus weighed about 5 ounces. This week it now weighs 8.75 ounces! The amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby is increasing and there is about 7.5 ounces of fluid. You will easily be able to feel your uterus approximately three inches below your navel.



This is an important week for testing and you will most likely have an AFP test done. This is a harmless blood test that is done to detect abnormalities such as Down`s syndrome or spina bifida. This is a non-invasive test and it carries no risk to your developing baby. Most doctors will offer the test, but in most cases it is completely optional.

Your milk glands start production at this time and this causes some tenderness and swelling in early pregnancy. Your veins will become more visible because there is an increased amount of blood flowing to the breasts.

At this time, your baby is holding her head erect. Because her muscles are developing, she can make some faces now. Your baby is able to squint, frown and open its mouth. There is enough calcium in the bones that they will show up on an x-ray. Your baby`s fingernails are well formed now and the legs are longer than the arms. Because your baby is moving well now, you may begin to feel his movements! Some women say that the early movements feel like gas bubbles or a slight flutter. If you have not yet felt the baby move, don`t worry. Fetal movements are usually felt between the 16th and 20th week of pregnancy.

You may feel your heart beating "louder" and harder. This is because there is a lot more blood in your body than normal. (about 20-25% more)

Week 15 of my pregnancy

Dates and numbers:
There are 168 days until your due date on February 16, 2009.
You are 112 days pregnant.
You are 3.7 months pregnant.
You are in your 4th month of pregnancy.
Your 1st trimester: May 12, 2008 to August 10, 2008. (0 - 12 weeks)
Your 2nd trimester: August 11, 2008 to November 23, 2008. (13 - 27 weeks)
Your 3rd trimester: November 24, 2008 to February 16, 2009. (28 - 40 weeks)


Your baby's crown-to-rump length is approximately 4 inches and she now weighs approximately 1.75 ounces. Your baby is close to the size of a softball and you can easily tell that you are pregnant now! If you wear maternity clothes or a swimming suit, other people will be able to tell that you are pregnant also. You can probably feel your uterus about three to four inches below your bellybutton.


Your baby, 25 weeks to go.....


If you do not yet have a due date, your doctor can easily determine an accurate due date based on the measurement of your baby's head. This is done by an ultrasound examination. Your doctor will be discussing upcoming tests and procedures with you around this time that are able to diagnose or confirm birth defects and other abnormalities.

Your baby is growing at an amazing rate and looking more like a human every day. Because your baby's skin is so thin, you are able to see blood vessels through the skin. Lanugo hair covers your baby's body, but it will be gone when your baby is born. The hair on the eyebrows and head continues to grow. Some babies are born with little or no hair and others have a head full of hair! If you have an ultrasound at this point, you might be able to see your baby sucking its thumb. Even though the eyes continue to move to the front of the face, they are still widely separated. Your baby's ears look like normal ears and continue to develop externally. The bones that have already formed continue to get harder and retain calcium. The baby is very mobile and flexible at this point. She can bend her arms at the elbows and wrists and she can also make a fist with her hands.

Tyhoon Frank

This typhoon sure knows how to ruin all my plans this weekend. Though yesterday hindi pa masyadong malakas ang ulan at hangin but early this morning you can really tell that there's a typhoon by the sound and impact of strong winds and heavy rain. I was not able to sleep well sa sobrang takot sa bagyo. May phobia na kasi ako sa bagyo, way back 1995 with bagyong rosing natanggal ang bubong namin, buti na umaga kaya hindi kami nasaktan (our 2nd floor partially collapsed and on the side on my room).

GOD is with us. Buti na lang!

Good News!

The pregnancy test shows 2 lines though the second one is medyo malabo, but it's only because I'm still on my early weeks of my pregnancy.

It's confirmed by my OB (Dra. Mae Villareal) that I'm 5 weeks pregnant and I can't explain my happiness. Now a days I can't help but smile, even though I have a lot of reports in the office I still can smile.

I just have 1 problem at the moment, I'm suffering from toothache and my dentist can't do anything about it because of my condition. The tooth under my denture bridge has a problem and we can only know the cure if we have it x-ray which is a big no-no for pregrant like me :(. Now I just need to sacrifice and endure all pain for the sake of my baby or for me to go to a dentist specializing on pregnant woman, or a chinese doctor who can cure tootache, or an albularyo with such kind of talent. Now where can I find one?

Answered Prayer

When I was young I always tell my mom that when I got married I want to conceive a year after I got married as I want to have one year for me and my husband a time for ourselves and to adjust to our new life. But since I got married on my late 20's my plan changed, I wanted to have a baby right away. But GOD has a better plan, I did not conceive the year I got married. As of today, I'm married for a year and 4 months na.

Since the time I got married last year (January 20 to be exact), I never failed to pray na sana bigyan na ako ni LORD ng little angel. At the moment, I'm 5 days delayed and has some symptoms of having a baby so I had a pregnancy test this morning and it shows 1 strong line and 1 line na medyo malabo pa. I'm going to visit my OB this morning para makasigurado as I also feel some pain on my lower belly.

I will post here the result of my check-up.

I hope GOD really answer my prayer na....