(Family) Baby Samantha

On the 22nd of June, 2017, our lives were changed. The Lord had given us the most beautiful blessing, our first child. You may know us through a relationship blog I post at from time to time. I don't use names and I call my wife by her pet name "Love." But now I mostly call her Mommy. This new blog is for the start of a new chapter in our lives, now we're a family.

Conception

The reason why Love and I successfully ended up married in a short period of time is that our goals are aligned. We got together, got engaged and got hitched all in the same year. And we both wanted a kid as soon as possible. But it wasn't that easy for us to get pregnant. We tried the normal way and tried getting help from a couple of fertility experts (which cost a lot). It was frustrating and depressing going from month to month without success, even though we both checked out OK. But we decided to look at the bright side and ultimately just enjoyed our time together (and the lack of birth control) and let God do the rest. We traveled and pursued different activities. We even started a small business. Eventually after a couple of years, we got our answered prayer.

Morning Sickness

The first trimester was rough on Love. She had morning (and night) sickness daily. We mostly dine out in Manila unless Love cooks, which she was not up for during that time. Most restaurant foods were not really healthy for the baby so Love was not really eating right then. One good thing is that she didn't need to travel to work since she works from home. However, she's alone in our condo when I go to work. After a few challenging weeks we decided that it was best to just set up internet for work in her family home at Pampanga where her Mom can look after her. I negotiated a nice work from home schedule where I could be with her for four days including the weekend and travel to Manila for three days to work at the office. It was a nice setup, her morning sickness was reduced and she was able to eat well during the rest of the trimester.

Samantha Avery

After a few weeks, an ultrasound revealed our baby's gender. We were having a girl. Our go signal to pick a name and plan things to buy.

Picking a name was one of the fun parts during the pregnancy. Love and I did it separately then showed each other our lists. One name appeared in both and it was Samantha, Sam for short. For her second name we wanted something starting with the letter "A." It was our baby's Granny who suggested the name Avery and we loved it. 

What to Expect

The second trimester was better for Love, she was stronger and her morning sickness was almost gone. We can also see her baby bump getting bigger by the day. We used an app called "What to Expect" to read about baby and pregnancy articles in conjunction with doctor visits. It's a great app to track what happens in mommy's belly weekly and to check healthy foods, symptoms, taboos, medical procedures and relevant stuff to buy during the pregnancy.

The Third Trimester

• Feeling baby Sam's movements
• Checking if she's already in position
• Shopping for baby stuff
• Baby showers
• More frequent doctor visits
• Getting ready for (or fearing) delivery day

 

The Hospital Bag

We also asked our doctor for a list of items we need to pack in our hospital bag so that we're ready to go anytime. Here're the items we packed and did not pack but hoped we did. This was already prepared by week thirty five.

For Mommy

• Toiletries
• Breastfeeding clothes
• Maternity napkins

For Baby

• Receiving blankets
• 4 sets of clothes
• Bonnet
• Long sleeve top
• Pants
• Mittens
• Socks
• Newborn diapers (40 pcs)
• Alcohol
• Lactacyd blue
• Cotton
• Baby oil
• Distilled water (a couple of 6 gallons)
• Baby bath towels or a couple of birdseye flat cloth diapers as alternative (baby tends to wee or poo at those towels during bath time)

For Daddy

• Camera and gadgets
• FOOD
• Change of clothes
• Toiletries

Delivery Day

Our doctor suggested for Love to undergo a C-section based on baby Sam's size and Love's height and age. It was actually a great decision as the doctor told me that baby Sam was positioned sideways and the umbilical cord was looped at her neck twice. But our doctor worked through it. A nurse asked for a camera which she took inside to document the delivery. 

After some time our doctor told me the good news, and I got to view our baby girl through the nursery viewing area.

After a few hours, Mommy was brought back to our room and baby Sam soon after. Our first time together as a family.

(Travel) Road Trip to Pagudpud

It's been a long time since I've posted on this blog, writing seems to be an on-and-off switch for me. Now that it's on, I'd like to re-visit our last few couple trips before our little one arrives in eight weeks.

First up was our road trip to Pagudpud with a couple of friends.

Left Manila at Midnight
We drove to Pagudpud on a Ford Everest switching drivers every four hours or so. The total trip to Pagudpud (excluding stops) took around twelve to fourteen hours.

Paoay Church

Our first stop was at the Paoay Church in Ilocos Norte.  The church is famous for its distinct architecture highlighted by the enormous buttresses on the sides and back of the building and is declared as a National Cultural Treasure by the Philippine government 

Fort Ilocandia

Next stop was at Fort Ilocandia, the only five-star hotel in northern Philippines. Picture-picture lang.
















Lunch @ Saramsam Cafe (Laoag)

After a couple of more hours of driving, we had lunch at Saramsam Cafe in Laoag. It was highly recommended by guides and trip blogs. The food was great and unique. Dinuguan pizza anyone?







Casa Victoria Pagudpud - Saud Beach 

We then arrived at our hotel in Saud Beach, Pagudpud named Casa Victoria. We relaxed for the rest of the day.

Kabigan Falls
Day two. Our first stop was the Kabigan Falls, a half-hour trek from the national road. We took a dip in the water as well as took pictures.

Cape Bojedor Lighthouse
Next stop was the Cape Bojedor Lighthouse, a cultural heritage structure in Burgos, Ilocos Norte.

Bangui Windmills

Last stop for the day was the Bangui Windmills. The structures were awesome! The wind farm uses twenty units of seventy-metre high Vestas V82 1.65 MW wind turbines, arranged on a single row stretching along a nine-kilometer shoreline off Bangui Bay, facing the West Philippine Sea.

Dinner @ BergBlick Restaurant (Pagudpud)

A recommendation from a friend. The place is just along the highway. They serve German as well as Filipino dishes. The food was excellent.

Lunch @ Hidden Garden (Vigan)

Day three. On our way back to Manila, we decided to stop at Vigan to experience the town. One of the recommended restaurants was the Hidden Garden. A very green approach to dining.







Calle Crisologo (Vigan)

We then explored Calle Crisologo, the reason why Vigan is one of the seven wonder cities in the world. It was like taking a stroll during the Spanish era. It's also a great place to buy "pasalubong"













Dinner @ Halo-Halo de Iloco (La Union)

After hours of driving we decided to make a stop at La Union and have our dinner at Halo-Halo de Iloco (yes, they serve dinner as well). Best halo-halo in the north.

Back in Manila
It was a great trip. It was worth the long drive to see what northern Luzon had to offer. It was fun as we rarely have out of town trips with friends.

(Wedding) The Final Dance

Believe it or not, the idea to perform a choreographed waltz for our wedding dance was from me. I'm not a natural dancer, but I can follow steps if I practice hard enough. So I thought, why not go all out? You only get married once, they always say. Love agreed to it with much enthusiasm, as she was a dancer back in high school. 

So here's our final (yes, not first) dance:

I was thinking of doing something like "Thinking Out Loud," but as we only had three months to practice, limited acrobatic ability and a whole wedding to plan, we opted for a slow love song but a really iconic one.  As for the source of our choreography, I'd like to keep that one close to the chest.

Love and I fought a lot during rehearsals, especially during our first few practices. I kept complaining that she's leading me to where she likes me to go (I'm sure it's the other way around in ballroom), which causes resistance when I try to lead her. But after a few sessions, we completed the dance and Love started trusting my dancing prowess haha...

We scheduled the dance at the end of our reception program (hence, final). It was performed at the Country Garden gazebo, outside the reception hall. Doing it the traditional way would require the guests to leave their seats and go outside, watch the dance, then return to their seats for the rest of the program. This way, after the dance, the guests can opt to mingle outside or go home.

Very nice lighting from The Country Garden

We used the gazebo as our photo booth but it was suggested that we do the dance there also. We needed to trade the live band for an external sound system to do this (we didn't need the live band as we had a lot of performers lined up). It all turned out great, the program ran smoothly, and the lights and styling of the garden and gazebo were magnificent.

We performed the dance as well as we could've hoped. It was really fun. Another first with Love.  

(Weekend Getaway) Batangas—Summer 2015

It was a laid back summer for Love and myself this year. No beach trips to Boracay or other summer destinations, just a couple of good ol’ weekend getaways to Batangas for our company outing held at Chateau Royale and a long overdue get together with my college friends at Cintai Cossito.

Chateau Royale Sports and Country Club

Just a few kilometres away from Tagaytay, Chateau Royale is a great place for corporate team buildings as they offer a wide variety of activities:

• A footballl (soccer) field
• A large pool where some of my colleagues played some kind of water polo
• Badminton courts
• Billiards area
• Multiple activity areas with a videoke machines
• Rooms for overnighters and day trips
• And the reason why I may come back, a really high rock climbing wall

The start of my Ninja Warrior campaign

Here are some nice shots of the resort courtesy my colleague Angelo Calipe:

For some reason, Love and I didn't take any pictures of ourselves during the trip. Very uncharacteristic.

Cintai Cossito’s Garden

Cintai Cossito’s Garden is located just a few minutes away from the Star Tollway-Lipa exit. The resort itself is a really large garden where a lot of couples hold their prenup pictorials. Some of the resort’s offerings include a wide variety of activities for corporate events, a multi-purpose area for wedding receptions, a game area, a restaurant, a bar, two large pools and room service massages. The personnel are competent and accommodating to guests and the rooms/villas are spacey and Bali inspired.

Just when I thought we had already explored all that Batangas could offer, we discovered two destinations for a nice chill weekend just a few hours away from Manila.

(Travel) Road Trip to Bicol

These days, a lot of our weekend invites revolve around weddings, christenings and children's parties. Yes, we're at that age and it's really a welcome change. We get to see our friends with their loved ones and it's a very nice treat to witness these moments. 

Since becoming a couple, Love and I haven't missed a wedding we were invited to, we even crashed a couple. And with all our friends, there's bound to be one or two destination weddings—an excuse to travel. We have two of them this year. The first one was in Misibis Bay, Albay.

Day 1 - The Road Trip

For this trip, we decided to drive going to Bicol. Other options we considered were booking a flight (2,000–5,000 PHP per person one way) or the lower costing bus ride (800–1,500 PHP per person one way). By carpooling with our fellow guests, the cost was even less.

The drive to Legazpi City from Manila took about 12 hours. The route was not difficult as we had Google Maps and Waze to guide us. Our group had two cars, the first group left at 4:30 a.m. and ours left at 6:00 a.m.  

The Mayon volcano can be seen up-close on the way to Legazpi but it was covered then by clouds and steam.   

We arrived at Legazpi around 6:00 p.m., found an inn and had dinner at the Crown Park Restaurant, Pacific Mall.  

Photo Credits: Kats and Ge Sacay

Most of the hotels in Legazpi were fully booked that day because of the long weekend so we ended up staying at the first inn we found with five available rooms. A room there (I won't mention the inn's name) only costs PhP500 per night—not a room quality the girls in our group would like. But since we had no choice, Love and the other girls just endured through the night. Babawi nalang daw sa Misibis.  
  

Day 2 - Legazpi City and Misibis Bay

Mayon Volcano

To see the volcano with clear skies, it seems that the perfect viewing time is really early in the morning. Clouds and steam already covered the volcano by mid-morning.  

Cagsawa Ruins

Our inn was located near the Cagsawa ruins, another tourist spot in Leazpi. It was our first stop of the day.  The ruins are the remnants of an old church destroyed by the eruption of the Mayon Volcano in 1814.

The spot offers a nice view of the Mayon Volcano which tourists use as background for their photos. Local photographers offer their services for creative shots like these:  

Huli Ka!

Photo Credits: Kats and Ge Sacay

It's amazing how they can handle multiple cameras (phones and DSLRs alike) and how fast they shoot fancy shots, jump shots and panoramic shots.

The area also houses a lot of souvenir shops and food stalls. We had breakfast at one of them.

Daraga Church

Photo Credits: Kats and Ge Sacay

Old churches from the Spanish era are always a nice place to visit. The Daraga Church (also known as Nuestra Señora de la Porteria Parish Church) was built in 1772 by a community of people relocating from Cagsawa who feared another eruption of the Mayon Volcano.

Misibis Bay

The drive to Misibis Bay took around one hour from Legazpi. The road going there offered a scenic view of the ocean and Albay's landscape.

The resort-hotel looked great, I can understand why our friend chose to get married there. It took about 30 minutes after we checked-in at the reception until we got our keys.

The rooms were nice and classy but we needed to call reception for our towels and for the iron and ironing board we requested during check-in. Other than that, everything else was just fine.

The wedding ceremony was held at the Stella Maris chapel near the hotel. It's a small and intimate chapel with glass walls that merge the great view from the outside with the simple and elegant architecture inside. The chapel is located on the top of a hill with a great view of the sea and the Mayon Volcano. One of the nicest chapels I've seen so far to hold a wedding.

Photo Credits: Kats and Ge Sacay

We attended the reception in the evening, and the after party bonfire and drinks at the beach later that night—our first beach party for the summer. It was a fun night and a really cool wedding. Love and I retired at 2:00 a.m. (yup, no pics—we know better).

Day 3 - Morning Beach Bumming

The next morning, after our buffet breakfast, we took a stroll, swam a little at the beach and finished the morning with a dip at the private pool in our villas. 

Photo Credits: Kats and Ge Sacay

The resort really keeps track of the declared persons during check-in which gave us trouble checking out—the 2nd person of a twin sharing room should be explicitly declared or else it will be an extra person (double charge). It was later cleared up and refunded (after talks with different hotel personnel).

Since our carpool had to drive back to Manila earlier, we opted to take a bus ride home.  We arrived at the Legazpi Central Terminal just past noon. Our big mistake was not booking a day before. The only open trip available that day was at 7:30 p.m. With no other choice, we bought the tickets and just hanged at the Pacific Mall beside the terminal.

We had lunch, watched a movie and ate merienda at Legazpi's famous DJC Halo-Halo.  

Day 4 - Back in Manila

We arrived in Manila at 6:00 a.m., the bus trip was not bad, we slept through most of it anyway.  

Overall, it was a nice weekend and the first real out of town trip for our team. Now we're just waiting (and gossiping) on our remaining single teammates—a hobby married couples develop.

(Wedding) The Overlooked Details

In wedding planning, it's easy to get caught up with the big details, allotting most of our budget and planning time to them. Details such as the guests, the flower arrangements, the food, the photo shoots, the reception program and the outfits are the things that first come to mind when people think about weddings. Oftentimes, couples only realize the minor details a couple of weeks before, or during the wedding day itself.

Here are some of the minor details that surprised Love and myself before our big day. Some of these details were not considered in our initial budget, resulting in a "bahala na" situation as our nuptials drew near.

Pre-Wedding Pampering

This includes the bride's (and groom's) mani-pedi, nail art, facials, body scrubs and full body massages.  It's a must to relax a couple of days before the big day to relieve stress and tension.  

Crew Meals

These are the people who will make or break your wedding and it's best to keep their stomachs full. A good estimate would be around 20–25 people. Two to three for the HMUA team, at least five for the coordinators, around 10 for the photo and video crew, and about two to three persons for the audio-visual crew. Consider two meals as a wedding is a whole day event.

Good thing we prepared for more than 20 people, as some of our family members, together with the entourage, also ate a meal before the ceremony.

The Projector and Screen

This may be included in the photo and video package (mostly a 6' x 6' screen with a 2500 Lumens projector), but if you really want a hi-def display that has great image quality even in a lighted room, consider renting a 9' x 12' screen or a big-ass 10.5' x 14' screen together with a 5000 Lumens or higher projector. We saw a big projector screen in another wedding a week before ours, we didn't get it, but wished we did.

Grabbed from www.projection.com

Matches

I've heard of stories where the matches to light the nuptial candles were overlooked. We bought these cute matchboxes at The Wedding Library. Bring a lighter just in case.

Missalette Printing

The Missalette should be approved by the officiating priest first before printing. It takes about three to five days to print 30 copies, so don't wait a couple of days before the wedding to have it approved and printed.

Wedding Liturgy Key Persons

Assign the lector, readers (first and second reading, prayers of the faithful), and offertory procession beforehand. We've been to weddings in the past that had no specified offertory procession. The coordinators asked for volunteers from the guests minutes before the offertory.

For a more organized photo-op after the wedding ceremony, consider placing the photo order at the end of the Missalette.

Vows

Love, finished hers weeks before the wedding. As for me, I only composed mine the night before. I had to force my cousins to drink with me until I finished. The next day, I forgot to write it down (it was saved in my laptop) so minutes before the wedding, I asked a groomsman to write it for me (good thing he had fairly decent penmanship).  

Snacks for the Reception

We bought several trail mix bags from SNR for the snacks during the registration. We also advised our caterer to serve the soup and salad before the program starts. We had to hire five more waiters to accommodate this request though.

Nannies / Runners

I can't stress enough how important this one is. The bride should have one (Love's was provided by the coordinator team), and so should the groom (mine was my nephew). Once the shoot and preparations start, the nannies/runners will take over other tasks such as, answering the phone, giving directions, fetching food and water, carrying gear and passing messages.

Time

I'd say that our wedding day was the fastest day (also the best day) of our lives so far. Once the preparation and photo/video shoot starts, time will just fly by. There'll be no room to breath 'cause when the photo shoot ends, the ceremony begins. Then the reception begins, and then the event that we spent four months planning and organizing ended, just like that.

A bit of advice for couples organizing in strict time for their program. The church ceremony takes more time than you think, there will be a photo-op at the end together with a short post-nup pictorial. The ceremony and photo shoot will take about two-and-a-half to three hours total.

Relax
Love and I were really involved in our wedding preparations. It was stressful, caused a lot of arguments and for some of the details I mentioned above, we had to adjust 'cause like other couples, we overlooked them. I thought the stress would last until the wedding day itself, but two days before the event, we just let go of the planning, said our "bahala na" and just relaxed. 

It didn't work out exactly like we planned but it was still great, I'd say about 80% executed perfectly.  

I will post official pictures soon.