busy busy busy

and all nothing to do with the pregnancy. the telecoms tv commercial series is happening. there is also the British Council supported Creative Cebu festival. there is a brewing avp for Cebu's most celebrated furniture designer. and there might be another one for something related to the food industry. oh, and let's not forget the monthly magazine. yes, as i always say, when it rains, it pours. and guess what. it seems i have no time to be pregnant. fortunately, body and baby are cooperating. 

the weight begins

this month's check up happened today, and guess what, i have gained 3 pounds. all that eating must be going somewhere then, but i still don't feel significantly different. was told nothing too special, just carry on with the supplements. 


starting weight: 113 lbs. (i miss my 108 lbs self)
current weight: 116 lbs
aog (age of gestation, or estimated week into the pregnancy):15-16 weeks


gosh. 15-16 weeks means into the 4th month of pregnancy, past the first trimester. that was a breeze.  

green purse tip #5

one-pot meals can save you

ok, maybe they can't save you all the time, but they will help save your time, because by cooking one pot meals, you have fewer items to wash afterwards. 

you save time 

you save effort 

you also use less dishwashing liquid and water

my default one pot meal is beef sukiyaki. there are a number of sukiyaki recipes available online, almost all of them use a single pot from cooking the beef, the veg, the noodles, down to serving it at the table!

another default one pot meal is pasta with jarred sauce (ok, the jarred stuff is practically instant sauce, but that is another issue). cook & drain pasta, and dump the sauce all in one pot.

i'm on the lookout for other one pot meals to test and share. maybe i'll wind up with a separate section on recipes and cooking. hmmmm.  

baby on board

not ours, just yet. 


having a little family over (friends who migrated, now with a 10-month old girl, Lulu) for the last two weeks is now more interesting to me as i get to observe their baby longer than i have ever watched babies lately. (i did help look after a bunch of cousins when i was a kid, but that is a different story.)


have i said? i am not a natural when it comes to children and babies. between BBB and me, he will always end up playing with whichever kid is around. i am just. not. naturally. attracted. to them. 


i am not even a good godmother. sure it doesn't help that i don't practice any religion, but filipino tradition dictates the existence of godmothers and godfathers, and since i wasn't struck down by lightning the first time i agreed to be one (my best friend's niece), i agreed a second time (a good college friend's daughter). both are probably cursing me now for forgotten birthdays and christmasses.  i just don't have a relationship with them. not being avoidant, it just doesn't cross my mind to do anything about it, and the occasional twang of guilt and remembrance happens around christmas season. and oh, i can't remember their birthdays. baaaaaad. 


anyhoo, Lulu is my visual reminder that i will have one by mid-august, if not earlier. right now this pregnancy is still quite surreal. sure i am on supplements, i get unstoppably sleepy by mid-afternoon, and i am eating more frequently, but i am not experiencing any "classic" symptoms such as having cravings and morning sickness. i did finish a whole green mango (or was it two?!) last december (with bagoong! bought off a roaming vendor!) which made me wonder if i was pregnant. 


yes i am. there is something alien growing inside me. help. 

green purse tip #4

buy your supplements in bulk, according to the amounts in your prescription. 

like i said, there is no difference here on whether you buy them per piece or in a bottle of multiples (at least in my checks with mercury drug and rose pharmacy) so this is more to save you time trying to remember when to get them again, or suddenly having to make a special trip to the drugstore just to get them.

i do these under the assumption that

1. i know i'm committed to taking them...!

2. i can store them in a cool dry place or whatever the storage instruction says

3. the state of my purse allows me to make a bulk purchase. for some things, if you're gonna have to buy it, waiting a couple of days may or may not hurt. situations vary. 

pill popping

the main thing that has changed so far is that i am on a pill popping regimen. just vitamins/supplements. nothing fancy. however, that is still out of my "ordinary" because i don't actually take any vitamins for myself, believing that i eat a fairly healthy diet and therefore get all the nutrients i need from what i eat. ok, except maybe calcium. i have been supposed to take 500mg of calcium per day anyway (to prevent osteoporosis) but i have been quite a slacker on that one. 

anyways, here is the regimen:

morning--Obimin (multivitamins formulated for pregnant women)

             Calciumade 600mg (calcium supplement)

evening--folic acid supplement 5mg

             Calciumade 600mg

so horribly scared i might deprive the baby of essential vitamins and minerals that i am consciously complying to the prescription. more so because almost 10 years ago, i wrote an advertorial series for Gerber Baby Food about pregnancy and raising a toddler and there are some stray facts that have stuck to me. 

folic acid is important in developing fetuses, especially at the first trimester. in fact, women who intend to get pregnant are advised to ramp up their folic acid intake because it helps in the baby's spinal development and helps prevent birth defects like spina bifida (where the spine or bones covering the spinal cord are not fully developed and therefore do not encase that which they are supposed to protect). 

calcium and i have no love affair. i am just not fond of drinking milk. before prescribing the calcium supplement, my OB and i did have a discussion over what my options were. my lactose tolerance only allows about a glassful of milk a day, and i don't even drink that much. i only put some in my coffee, and some in my cereal (except i usually eat bread for breakfast) and the occasional yogurt or creamy dessert. so not consistent and not enough. she asked if i would consider soy milk. yech. i tried it once before and threw the bottle after a couple of gulps. and my question is still--why replace something over the real thing? (i.e. why drink soy milk when there is real milk?) anyway, i'm going around in circles. the conclusion was, to ensure that i was getting enough calcium, i had to take 1200mg a day. that's 2 large pills. each about the size of the last segment of my pinky. 

multivitamins--again, more as an insurance barrier in case i am not diligent about what i eat. eating healthy (and consuming the recommended daily amount of nutrients is not as simple as you think), so taking supplements was an easy way out. 

of course, they have some cost implications

calciumade Php 5.50.tablet x 2 per day

obimin       Php 179.26 tablet bottle of 30 

folic acid    Php 5.20 per tablet

that's about Php 17 worth of supplements per day. and there is no big difference whether you purchase them individually or in a bottle/jar. i have also inquired about alternative brands for the calcium but none appeal to me, and the others i have seen are even slightly bigger and that makes me gulp in a bad way. 

i'm stuck with these for now. 

green purse tip #3

use metal cutlery and breakable plates


i find that plastic dinnerware (or usually melamine) take longer to wash because it is harder to remove grease from them. so that means washing plastic also uses more soap & water to get the grease out. whereas china or stoneware are easier to clean because the grease doesn't cling to them as much. 


i'm too lazy to do any research now, but would the love affair between plastic and grease have something to do with their similar origins?  


oh, and is it not obvious that we don't have a dishwasher? even if we could find a small one, we can't justify using it unless we wanted to wait forever until it was actually full to do a load. 

green purse tip #2

you don't need tin foil & cling film


i just realized. we have one rollbox each of tin foil and cling wrap. they are at least 5 years old. BBB moved out of belgium 5 years ago and those 2 rolls were shipped over together with his stuff. mind you they were in storage for about 2 years, but we don't actually know when they were bought so they could even be pre-2004.


anyways, my point is, you don't need tin foil and cling film to cover your left-overs. use reusable plastic containers, or your normal plates or saucers to cover leftovers stored in a bowl. if you are good, you will actually eat those leftovers so they don't end up in the compost (or worst, the bin). and you get bonus points if the food doesn't actually touch your cover plate/saucer so you can get away with not washing them. 


i rarely ever use tin foil. only when whatever i'm cooking requires it. say steaming fish in foil parcels. 

green purse tip #1

get a thumb drive/flash drive already


part of the work i do involves previewing drafts of video edits and general transfer of data from one person/source to another. we are talking about anything from photos to scripts to logos to music tracks to video edit drafts.


in my 2 year stint at an ad agency, i remember using cassette and vhs tapes to present drafts internally and to clients. in the last couple of years, we have been using cd's and dvds to do the same. what happens to the draft discs? they gather dust and occasionally get used as coasters. i'm not an installation artist and don't have much use for obsolete drafts in discs. that's throwing about 10 to 25 pesos per disc.


in 2004 (2005?) my brother's birthday gift to me was a 62MB flash drive. whoa. not much by these days' standards, but all i really wanted to do then was stop carrying 3.5 floppy discs around. when i moved to cebu in late 2005, my office issued 2gig flash drives so we could pass edit contents & drafts amongst us. goodbye single use discs.

introducing green purse tips

i started this blog with the intent of sharing my font of useful, useless and semi-useful information to friends and random readers. coincidentally, i am at an interesting point in my life as i am pregnant (and one close friend is due this month, another in may and me mid-august). however, i have not been known to keep a consistent (i.e. daily or even weekly) log of my goings on. not when i kept a handwritten journal, and not when i tried my hand at multiply. also, i don't like blogs that are the equivalent of navel-gazing ("i brushed my teeth this morning and decided to wear my polka-dot dress") because i don't find them that interesting and i have other things to do with my time. good lord i am digressing!


i just want to keep things short and simple. so i'll be making blog entries under tips, and i'll start with what i call green purse tips: eco-conscious tips for anything to do with reducing our impact on this earth combined with budget-conscious tips as we all do need to make smart buys and stretch the contents of our purses, if not hold on to such contents for longer periods


and maybe i'll write about other tips that make themselves known as i go along. 


so wish me luck. 

project coming in

got a fairly big telecoms project coming in. 13 tv commercials to be aired over a period of 13 weeks (one new ad per week). as a matter of habit i don't reveal too much project information (especially before it has even started!) but suffice it to say that i am glad for such projects, and more glad at this time with a baby on the way. 

its time to call the troops. 

we're going to morocco!

yes we are. yes we are. 


BBB's parents came over last year in February to see us, and they would've liked to come back except the philippines is really a damn long way from europe, imagine if you are pushing 80 (although BBB's parents are more fit than a lot of other people i know who are half their age). anyways, we did think about going on a trip somewhere instead of us going there or them coming here. so when BBB asked if i had any brilliant ideas, i immediately said Morocco!


not that i have read extensively on morocco. its just one of those places i know i want to go. i am really weird about travel like that. i love to travel but i don't obsess over a place and i don't even have a real list of where i want to go. especially if its someplace i've never been to, i'm just happy enough to get there and see what the place dishes out for me. 


so morocco. BBB's parents are taking care of the itinerary and all that and i am happy enough to be on the trip. marrakesch is a given, and i don't know anything much right now other than that the trip is going through essaouira and someplace else and someplace else and back to marrakesch. they are using a company called Naturally Morocco Limited (alternative holidays and tours) and should be worth taking a peek at what's in store. 


i've mentioned the trip to my OB and so far she has said there is no reason why i shouldn't go. but just to be safe, i shall remind her again when i go for a check towards the end of this month.  


so here we go morocco. 

reading assignments

because i am a geek. and because the books were on sale. thank you National Bookstore.

Yoga for Pregnancy--not that i have been doing any real practice lately as any fitness regimen i had prior to 2008 got blind-sided by all these projects. nonetheless, its good to try. or at least to read about it. 

The Active Woman's Guide to Pregnancy--hmmmm, what do my book selections say about me? not regularly active either, but this book is supposed to guide me on what activities i can still do at what segment of the pregnancy. 

The Expectant Father by armin brott--i thought it would be nice for BBB to have a read as it seems most pregnancy books are aimed at mothers, when in fact, it does take two to tango. I did think to get me a copy of The Expectant Mother as that seems to be the pregnancy bible, but let me see how this father one goes first. 

looks like i have a lot of catching up to do, seeing that we have gone past the first trimester...! already! how did that happen? 

cost: Php 150 + 199 + 150 = Php 499

i checked on amazon. the last book alone is about 12 USD. 

MNG sale

uhm, MANGO had its end of season sale last month. i don't want to fail to mention that i bought a few things. because i try to time most clothing purchases during sales (hopefully at least 50% off) and because this pregnancy thing guarantees that i will need clothes that will fit me later. and i've taught myself to buy before the need arises. ahem. 


anyways, 


~ Php 1750 crochet top black cotton dress with sash. knee length. sash gathers fabric plenty enough to accommodate a full term belly (or so i think)
~ Php 595baby pink chinos-style shorts a size bigger
~ Php 1350 black sequined tank dress in size large (i usually wear xs or small) in case this preggy wants to party


happy with MNG although their new season prices i still consider steep. but good quality stuff. i still use MNG stuff from around 2002 and i'm not complaining. 

the cost of being pregnant

the economical cost of being pregnant is not something that has ever actually occurred to me because it had never really occurred to me to become pregnant. not a planner and not a worrier, i just tend to drift and carry on to wherever my birth-marked left foot* takes me. 

so do i worry? a little? do i plan? a little. everything in little steps.

being self-employed (freelance) as a writer and video producer with no serious ties to clients meant projects will come as they please, not when i please. although i am thankful that of all the times i've been self-employed, i've never had to market/promote/advertise myself, having a totally dependent human being in your arms (ok, 4 arms, as its BBB and i having a baby, not just me, duh) is going to be a fact of life from a certain point on. 

and oh, i'm only at the pregnancy stage at the moment.  

so far, what i can figure out--

• Php 300 per OB check up, once a month, becoming more frequent as D-day approaches
• scans and tests and whatever else needed to ensure a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby (sonograms/ultrasound at Php700 and will need 1 or 2 more eventually)
• supplements = have been prescribed the following: calcium, folic acid & a multivitamin especially for pregnant & lactating women
• clothing to accommodate my changing body shape
• getting to and from the hospital for check ups cost money too!
• and there's probably a bazillion little additional items that will pile up as the pregnancy progresses. 

let's see how i get on. 


*in Filipino lore, having a mole or birth mark on the sole of your foot is supposed to mean you will be "layas" -- a traveler, wanderer. i have two on my left foot, and i have been traveling quite a lot in the last 8 - 9 years.