The one with the superstitions

My parents aren't superstitious at all. My entire family isn't, my siblings and I just didn't grow up believing in old wives' tales and folklore. My mom does say "pwera buyag" which is the Bisaya version of "pwera usog" every now and then, but I think it's more of a habit than actually shooing away "usog" (I don't even really know what "usog" is). And there was that time when they didn't let me go out with my friends two nights before my wedding. That's about it.

Pregnancy, however, can bring out the paranoia in you. Something unusual happened one night a few weeks ago when I was over at my parents' house, and let's just say that my mom scared me so much that I seriously considered sleeping with a pair of scissors on my bedside table. Crazy, right? I told Abet all about it, and even he has become paranoid, he now double-checks all our windows before we go to sleep to make sure they're shut tight.

Now, I would have been okay with sleeping with scissors (I don't) and I don't mind the tightly-shut windows. What I do mind is the fact that my mother now refuses to cook her squid in black ink dish, which is one of my favorite dishes in the whole wide world, because my baby might turn dark. No use trying to explain that food intake has nothing to do with melanin production. (I did eat the singkamas that my brother Joe's classmate gave me 'para pumuti ang anak mo, 'te', but that's just because I love singkamas.)When I'm at my parents' house, I get everything--and I mean EVERYTHING--I ask for when it comes to food, EXCEPT the black squid dish. And not being able to eat it makes me crave for it even more. It's so frustrating.

I guess it's the probinsyana in her that's making my mom believe all these things, as probinsyanas are wont to do. You can take the girl out of Bacuag, Surigao del Norte, but you can't take Bacuag, Surigao del Norte out of the girl.

The one with the missing boobies

 I posted this picture on Instagram last night:

there are 3 girls in this picture

I was looking at my feed this morning, and my reaction to this picture was "WHERE ARE MY BOOBS??? Why is my chest flat as a board???"

I'm so OA, I swear. Abet says we're probably going to have an OA kid. I think so, too. My boobies are fine.

If you've seen me in person, you've probably noticed that I'm well endowed. An increase in cup size is supposed to be noticeable in the first trimester of pregnancy, but it took a while before I noticed any changes that I honestly thought at first that my chest would no longer grow because 'quota na talaga.'

At 22 weeks, my breasts are crazy big, the biggest they've ever been--and they'll probably just get even larger in the months to come. I'm trying to fight gravity as best as I can so I've resorted to wearing sports bras that work like binders every day for the least jiggling possible. They're a bit uncomfortable, but ganun talaga, tiis-ganda muna. So there. My boobs look flatter and practically don't show up in photos when I'm lying down.

I love my bosom (and so does my husband, he's a total boob man), but what I really want is for my breasts to do what they're supposed to do: nourish my baby. I'm really praying that all goes well breastfeeding-wise once the baby arrives.

The one with the pregnancy advice from my dad

"Don't scratch your tummy if it itches, you'll get stretchmarks."

So says my father.

He's seen my mother go through five pregnancies (six if you include the fetus floating around in formalin in my parents' cabinet), I guess this makes my dad more than qualified to give me pregnancy advice.

My mom has ZERO stretchmarks, so my dad probably knows what he's talking about.

I hear ya, Papi. I hear ya. No scratching my tummy, it is.

*image from here

The one with the 20th week check-up

I am 20 weeks into my pregnancy today, which means I'm already halfway there! On one hand, I'm feeling a bit sad that I only have another 20 weeks of being pregnant left to go, but on the other, I just wish that the next 20 weeks will fly by so I can finally hold my baby.

I went for one of my monthly check-ups today, and all's good. Audrey's measurements and heart rate are all fine, and at my halfway point, I have gained back all the weight I lost since the beginning of my pregnancy. I am now at my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm aiming for a weight gain of just around 20-25 lbs. (maybe even just 15 lbs. if I can help it), so I just need to be really careful and try to stick to the 1-pound-a-week guideline.

I have a bunch of lab tests to do before my next doctor's appointment in a month, including the Oral Glucose Challenge Test to determine if I have gestational diabetes. I've been dreading this one. I'm overweight, which means that I'm already at risk. Also, I live for sweets, I'm surprised that all my blood tests so far showed a normal blood sugar level. I'm afraid that I might not be so lucky this time. I'm worried because while I've been doing a good job of limiting my soda and chocolate intake (a big feat for me), I can't stop eating fruits. Fruit is the one thing I want to eat during my pregnancy so far. I still have a month to go before I take the test, I just need to make sure that I watch what I put in my mouth until then (and all throughout the rest of my pregnancy for the rest of my life). I'll also keep taking my chia seeds and hope that it helps.

So, there you go. So far, so good. We're fervently praying that everything keeps going well.

*image from here

The one with the father-in-law

Abet, together with my in-laws, visited his dad today. I stayed behind for health reasons.

I've been thinking about my father-in-law a lot in the last few days, with the holidays and all. He died when Abet was 1 year and 3 months old, Abet's brother Obet was still in their mother's tummy. He died at 28 years old--both his sons have outlived him.

I often wonder how different Abet's and his family's lives would have been if his father didn't die so young. Things probably wouldn't have been as difficult for them; his mother would not have struggled to raise two boys all by herself. But then again, they probably won't be as strong as they are right now. Abet, my mother-in-law, and my brother-in-law are some of the most resilient people I know. One thing's for sure: if Abet's dad had lived, Abet probably won't be a musician now, which means that we probably wouldn't have met. Ah, the twists and turns of life.

With our pogi nephew Ycko, who will be the best kuya in the world

Hi Daddy,

You're going to have a granddaughter soon. Please watch over her from heaven, okay?

Love,

Your daughter-in-law

*pictures grabbed from my brother-in-law

The one with the Joker

My brother Joe joined a Halloween costume fun run earlier, and he went as the Joker from Batman. Naturally, he asked me to do his makeup. He didn't give me enough notice so I didn't have the time to get the necessary supplies, I had to make do with what I already have:

I didn't have any white face paint, so I just used my lightest foundation with white eyeshadow to whiten his face. The lips were MAC Russian Red (but of course!), the cheek scars were made of tissue paper and spirit gum, and the eyes were painted with black Maybelline Lasting Drama gel eyeliner.

I used the shade Polyester Bride from the Urban Decay Ammo palette (one of the best eyeshadow palettes in the world!). It was a bit shimmery and wasn't as opaque as I would have liked, but it was the best I could do.

Here's the end result:

Why so serious???

We're both pretty satisfied with the outcome. Joker's makeup is very crude, it doesn't really take major makeup skills to pull it off.

I'm now considering learning prosthetic makeup, there are a lot of tutorials on YouTube on this matter. The skills should come in handy during Halloween.