Swollen Feet

Its been a week now since I give birth. I am very blessed with a cute baby girl. I have this one problem though. My feet is more swollen now compare to when I was still pregnant. My OB told me before we left the hospital to always elevate my feet specially when I am sleeping. Some advised me to eat taho, monggo, beans etc. Haayss!! I am worried that this might be something else. I have a scheduled check up with my OB this Monday so I will ask her if this is normal. It is quite painful when you press it and its very annoying. I cant even wear some of my sandals. If you have any suggestion please leave a comment. Thanks!

Seven... Eight... Nine...

(10th day of my ML) 07/08/09 - This should be the birthday of my second baby. We choose this date so that its easy to remember. Due to Rhogam unavailability we need to move the operation. I visited my OB this morning and we scheduled my operation on Friday at 8am. We have no choice but to buy a different brand of medicine which is Winrho, which is more than double the price of Rhogam.

We will go to the hospital tomorrow evening. I was advised to take a rest to avoid having early labor. I pray that everything will be all right and there will be no need for blood since it is more difficult to look for my blood type. Please pray for my safe delivery.

Postpone

(9th day of my ML) Tonight I should be lying down in the hospital waiting for my operation early in the morning. Since the medicine that I need for my blood type RH negative is not available we need to postpone the operation.

My OB give me a supplier who also sells a medicine for RH negative patients but then their selling different brand. What they have in Winrho, which is more than twice the price of Rhogam. Rhogam is about 6k+ while Winrho is 15K+. They said its price is around 6k before as well but there was a sudden increase. I wonder maybe Rhogam is unavailable bec. of the change of price. Maybe when it comes out that price would be somewhere the same price of Winrho. Anyway I will visit my OB again tomorrow for another check up and probably resched the operation on Friday. Its really hard to have a royal blood! @_@

It's Getting Near

(7th day of my ML) 3 more days and baby Danielle will be born. I wonder what she looks like. Tomorrow I am planning to clean and sterilized her feeding bottles. I will also visit my OB for the last time before my scheduled operation on Wednesday morning. Please pray for my safe delivery.

Since we are living with our relative our space is not that big. It makes the temperature hotter and we don't have any airconditioner. My husband wants us to rent a small house or buy an airconditioner for the kids. I was thinking if we could afford it since I don't have any salary for 2 months and I still have to pay monthly bills. We don't have any decision yet. I told my husband next year the house that we bought will be ready and we need to save money to improve it since it will be given to us bare.

It is really hard to manage a family specially if it is growing. But as long us both of us, husband and wife, are there for each other and God in the middle I know we will be able to get through anything. To God be the glory!

Maternity Leave

Maternity leave is one of the benefits of all women who are working. You will be given 60 days if you give birth normal and 78 days for CS. Yesterday was my last day of work. Technically my ML will start on Monday (June 29) but since Saturday and Sunday is our days off, I consider today as the start of my rest.

My first kid was born through CS operation and my OB said that it will be the same thing for my 2nd baby. I am already on my 37th weeks and I may give birth anytime from now. I already selected a date when to give birth and I hope I will not labor before that.

I wonder what I will do for 78 days aside of course from taking care of my kids. I would like to look for some sideline online since I don't have any salary for more than 2 months. I only earn very little from blogging. I did sign up for oDesk and I hope I will be able to find good job there.

Swelling During Pregnancy (Manas)

I am on my 8 months of pregnancy and I noticed that my feet are starting to swell. It is commonly known here in the Philippines as "manas" or "pamamanas." They said its normal for pregnant woman so I decided to do some research about it. It is not painful but I makes my feet look ugly.

This is not myfeet, just got it off the internet :-)

It can occur anytime throughout your pregnancy but it is most common during the trimester. It is known as "edema." This happens during pregnancy because the amount of fluid in our body doubles to support the proper development of the baby and makes the body more flexible expand to baby's growth. If swelling includes headache, blurred vision, abdominal pain, dizziness better consult a doctor.

Some reliefs for edema:

• drink plenty of water
• sleep on your left side to improve blood circulation
  
• keep your feet elevated when sitting down or lying down
• do not cross your legs
• take regular breaks from sitting and standing
• avoid consuming excess salt
• stretch your legs frequently while sitting

Good news, this swelling will subside usually two week after giving birth.

Pregnant Women with RH Negative Blood Type

I just visited my OB yesterday and I was asked again to verify my blood type if indeed it is RH negative. This is my second pregnancy and I remember with my first baby, she injected me a medicine for this reason. The medicine, just like the blood type, is very rare to find. We were able to bought it before from Makati Medical Center, its quite expensive though. I did not really pay attention to it before but since I need to undergo the same process I did a little research on how it would affect me and my baby.

We are all familiar with the blood type ABO but our blood also have RH Factor. Most common is RH positive. 15% of the world's entire population are RH negative which is mostly Europeans. Only 3 in every 1000 Asians have this blood type, probably from a remote European ancestors. (And wow! I am one of them.)

Below explain how can it affect pregnant woman.

If a woman has Rh negative blood and the man has Rh positive blood, then it is possible for problems to arise.

Note: Rh Disease can only occur in women that have Rh Negative blood.

Note: If both the mother and baby are Rh negative, then there is no risk.

Note: If both the mother and natural father are Rh negative, then there is no risk because the child must also be Rh negative. However, most doctors prefer to presume that all Rh negative women are at risk and will treat her accordingly.

If an Rh negative woman has a baby that is Rh positive, then it is possible for some of the baby's blood to enter into her system. This can happen under several circumstances:

• during the birth,

• naturally (between 28 weeks and delivery),

• during an amniocentesis,

• at an abortion,

• when a miscarriage occurs.

If the baby's Rh positive blood enters a mother who is Rh Negative, then her immune system

sees the cells as 'incompatible' or 'foreign' and will subsequently produce anti-rhesus antibodies to try to destroy them for her own self-protection.

This may not seem like a big problem, however, if she has another pregnancy where the baby is Rh positive, then these antibodies that have formed will pass into the baby's bloodstream via the placenta and attack the red blood cells of the baby.

Once these naturally created anti-rhesus antibodies are present in the mother's bloodstream, they will remain for life in the same way as antibodies for other chicken pox for example.

SSS Maternity Computation

3 more months and I am about to give birth. I was trying to search online on how to compute for the SSS benefit and I found this site. Hope this helps to all of you pregnants out there. I am not sure if this is up to Date because it was posted in the forum in 2oo7.

(http://www.femalenetwork.com/girltalk/index.php?topic=157907.30;wap2)

1.Exclude the semester of contingency (Delivery, Miscarriage, or Abortion) (Semester refers to two (2) succeeding quarters ending in the quarter contingency)

Expected Delivery:      November 16, 2004
Semester of Contingency:   July 2004 to December 2004

2.Count 12 months backward starting from the month immediately preceding the semester of contingency.

12 months:   2004   Jun   May   Apr   Mar   Feb   Jan   
Dec   Nov   Oct   Sep   Aug   Jul   2003

12-month period prior to the semester of contingency:   JULY 2003 – JUNE 2004

3.Identify and add the six (6) Highest Monthly Salary Credits (MSC’s) within the 12-month period preceding the semester of contingency.

Monthly Salary (JAN – JUN 2004)
January    – P 10,000      April       – P 10,000
February    – P 10,000      May       – P 10,500
March    – P 10,000         June       – P 10,500
Total Monthly Salary Credits:   P 61,000

4.Divide the Total Monthly Salary Credits by 180 days to arrive at the Daily Maternity Allowance.

Daily Maternity Allowance:   P 61,000 / 180   =   P 338.89

5.   Multiply the Daily Maternity Allowance by 60 for normal delivery or miscarriage or 78 days for cesarean delivery to get the total maternity benefit.
However, in case a member dies before the lapse of 60 or 78 days from the date of contingency, the number of days to be considered in the computation should be from the start of the employees maternity leave up to the day prior to the date of death.

NORMAL DELIVERY:
Total Maternity Benefit:   P 338.89 x 60   =   P 20,333.40

CESAREAN DELIVERY:
Total Maternity Benefit:   P 338.89 x 78   =   P 26,433.42

You can also get MAT1 and MAT2 form here. 

Baby Name for a Girl

One of the exciting part of having a baby is thinking for the baby's name. It is quite crucial because that will be the name of your child for life. There are a lot of reasons why a parent choose a certain name. Some prefer to have a junior, some uses the name of their favorite artist or popular person, some wants something unique etc.

For me, I want my child to use the first initial of my name and my husbands name. My name starts with letter 'D' and my husband is letter 'R'. Our first son's name is Ron David. Aside from our initials, his grandmother requested for a bible character name.

I already have a name that starts with the letter 'D' for our baby girl. I've chosen Danielle. Before we find out the gender of our baby I already have Daniel in my mind. I said whether my baby is a girl or a boy I would use that. I even said that I would not change the spelling. But my mom and bestfriend told me that if its a girl then the spelling should be Danielle, so be it. I still have 3 months to think for her name that would start with letter 'R'. My husband is thinking of Raine but we are not yet decided. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Its a Baby Girl

Since David is already 3 yrs old my husband and I decided last year to stop my quarterly injection to have a second child.  God listen to our plea and we find out that I am pregnant last November.  

I am on my 6th months of pregnancy now.  Earlier we went to Las Pinas Medical Center for my ultra sound to find out the gender of our baby.  I really want to thank God for hearing our prayer not just to have a 2nd baby but to have a girl this time.  Truly God listens to His children.  

The doctor who did the ultra sound is also a christian and is attending the same church where we go to, CCF Alabang.  He said to his assistant that we should not think of the things that we don't have but rather think of the things that we have and be thankful.  He mention that we should be thankful for every little things that we have like the free air that we breathe, waking up every morning, for our senses etc.  He actually invited us to look for a D-group in the church so that we can grow spiritually. D-group is a small group in the church who gathers together to study the word of God and pray for each other.  

I send a text message to my mom and best friend Jannette about the result and both of them gave me a congrats.  My mother said she will have two little girls to put pony tail on since my sister in law give birth to a girl last February. Our family is growing and I thank God for his marvelous works in our lives. 

Acne Problem

3 more months to go and I'm about to give birth. I was praying that it would be a girl. Next will I have a scheduled ultrasound to find out the gender. There are a lot things that frightens me after giving birth. Some of these are how to lose wait, a lot of stretch marks :-( and hormonal change which could cause me again to get acne.

After giving birth to my first son. I go to my OB every three months for a contraceptive injection. I prefer that instead of taking pills because I am a forgetful person. I just put it on my reminder on my cellphone every 3 months. When my kid got 3 yrs old my husband and I decided to have another child.

The dilemma was when I stopped the injection all of the sudden acne started to appear. Mostly on my forehead and cheeks. I got irritated and decided to go with my mom and visit a derma. I don't really go to a dermatologist because I don't really have a problem with my skin. It was a painful experience. They pricked all my acne which at first makes my face swollen a little bit and was advise to avoid sunshine. I was given a soap and liquid medicine that I need to use everyday. I was also scheduled for two more check ups after that. It did help my acne was healed. I don't want to experience that again after giving birth. But in case if it happens again I might try products from Dr. SkinSpa that I saw from the internet.

Butt Pain during Pregnancy

I am 5 months pregnant and I'm experiencing a pain on the right cheek of my butt. Most of the time I feel it when I try get up from bed or roll over and also when I tried to stand up after long sitting. It really hurts that I would stop moving. It feels like a muscle pain or a joint that is misaligned. I tried to search online and find out that there are a lot of pregnant woman who are experiencing this.

Here are some of the tips that I got online to relieve the pain, but I would still suggest to consult your OB:

• Try to keep your feet elevated and don't sit for too long - bending at the hip aggravates it.
• Not to cross your legs while sitting and massage it at night if needed.
• Have a pre-natal massage.
• Try the pelvic floor exercise for pregnant woman.
• Do some stretching.
• Go for a little walk.

This might be what they call PGP (Pelvic Girdle Pain). The pain is really irritable and I hope I can be relieve by trying some of the suggestions above and I will consult my OB as well.

First Glimpse

I found out that I was pregnant last November. This is not a surprise because my husband and I actually planned this. Since my little boy is already 3 yrs old we now wanted to have a little girl. My OB asked me to have a transvaginal ultrasound to find out how old the baby was. I got the result after a week and find out on Dec 22, 2008 that my baby is more than 3 months old. I saw my baby on the screen and its really amazing to have a living human inside my body. God is really marvelous. Later I will update this post and upload the copy of the ultrasound. I will have another ultrasound on my 6th month. My OB told me we will be able to determine if the baby is a girl or a boy. I really pray that its a baby girl. I'll update you guys soon. ^_^

Here is the ultrasound result.