We’re through with my CBC and Glucose Tolerance Test. Now we’re off to Tagaytay for our car’s break in. And now I can finally eat and drink after fasting for the glucose test. This is going to be a great weekend 🙂

As I write this post, I feel dizzy after drinking 75 grams of glucose (think: syrupy Royal Tru Orange) for my Glucose Tolerance Test. It is the required test on the 24th week of pregnancy. My OB has also included our routine CBC so I wouldn’t have to endure a lot of extractions. I’d have to wait for an hour before I could pee again and collect another sample for examination.

Please pray that I get to have normal results for both tests. Thanks! Happy weekend 🙂

These are the things that I do while waiting for websites to load completely. I feel productive because I do something to fill in my idle time hehe…..

We try to chronicle our pregnancy each week by taking photos with an illustrated milestone. This is what we have for week 22.

FYI: We’re now 24 weeks and 4 days. We hope to post a collage of all the milestones after I give birth to our firstborn 🙂

Babies have an uncanny ability to comfort stressed adults. I have experienced these a couple of times in the past with my first nephew and niece. Without saying a word and without shedding a tear, they were able to sense that something’s bothering me. Each time, they would put their head close to mine and put their little arms around my neck. It was a sweet and loving gesture indeed!

Now that I’m pregnant with my first child, I am looking forward to have such moments with him. As young as he is, my baby can already feel when something is wrong with Mommy. He would squirm and squirm until I am calm. I would tell him that everything will be all right and I would stroke my belly so he would feel the comfort of my touch. That’s what I’ve read about intra-utero bonding. And it does work.

Babies are indeed blessings. They are the greatest gift to every woman and they mean the world to every mom.

My site was hacked over the weekend. I could not believed that it happened to me so I was surprised and was (half) laughing when I discovered last Saturday. My site was not at all that popular and yet somebody got interested in wrecking it.

It’s a good thing that we were able to come up with a fix. The site was restored and the stolen access was recovered. This whole hacking incident has taught me the following:

• You don’t have to be famous in order to be vulnerable to hacking.
• Do away with the defaults to increase security.
• Update your WordPress (blogging platform) version and plugins as soon as you receive a notification.
• Change your password regularly.

I woke up very early this morning. I was up by 4AM so I decided to take a bath, cook our breakfast and baon, read my Bible. I’ve been reading the book of Jeremiah for a couple of weeks already. Today, I savor the chapter 17 and felt that God was talking to me because what was written in that passage perfectly soothe the worries that I’ve been having previously.

Reading the following verses, I felt comforted and confident:

I went back to bed after cooking and felt a sense of serenity knowing that God is taking care of me. His words have banished my anxieties away.

You don’t need to be called religious to read the Bible. Go pick yours and check the Reader’s Help at the back and see how you can be comforted with the Word.

Who doesn’t get irked when what you’re looking for leads to a white and boring 404 error page? Some webmasters get creative by using illustration and witty Page Not Found statements to entertain their visitors and possibly, to encourage them to explore the other parts of their website. A non-profit organization decided to go beyond creativity by using 404 error pages for a good cause.

NotFound.Org works in collaboration with Child Focus, FAMOUS and Missing Children Europe in retrieving missing children all over Europe. They invite website owners to use a poster of one of the missing children listed in their database in leiu of plain old 404 error pages.

I live far from Europe and knew not one of the missing children but I believe in the advocacy of NotFound.Org in reclaiming the future of these children.

To know more about this project, take the time to visit the websites of NotFound.Org and Missing Children Europe.

I am so excited to have my DIY-inspired party this week! I pray that every craft that I will do will look nice and pleasing to everyone. I will post photos to document the success of my first DIY party 🙂

Our Monday started earlier than usual. We were so excited for this day because we expect to claim God’s promises. And God is faithful. He showed us how much He loved us.

After lunch, we took half the day off from work to have my congenital anomaly scan. For the past few days, we’ve been talking to our baby about our second date when we would know our little angel’s gender and condition inside my womb. I had a quick lunch on the way and finished eating (yes, mabagal ako kumain!) while settling the bill and schedule at the hospital. When our OB came, the nurse led us inside the room to begin with the ultrasound. My husband and I were so happy to see our baby again, all grown up and now looked like a human being already. Our first meeting was when our baby was only six weeks. Back then, baby was as tiny as a pea but the heartbeat was so strong and active. Yesterday, every aspect of our baby’s body was inspected and measured. Praise God that the brain, and every body part and organ is perfectly healthy and normal. Our OB actually had a hard time seeing our baby’s face and identifying the sex because our child is in breech position. I had to lie on each side (twisted was more like it), so Dra can get a better view and give an accurate observation. Finally, baby glanced at us. Dra made a quick note of the facial features. Baby also turned into the right position and revealed the gender. We have a baby boy! I wish I had my phone with me at that time so I could have snapped an image of hubby’s wide smile! He was so happy to have a son. But he assured me later on that he would be as excited had we had a daughter. Before leaving the OB-Gyne room, we talked to Dra about our next appointment and the next tests that I have to take. As soon as we got out, I asked hubby to take pictures of the film so we could share the good news to our relatives and friends online. We also took turns sending SMS to our family and some of our close friends. We then dropped by the mall to deliver the news personally to my parents-in-law. They were so happy because our baby boy is their first apo.

After a quick visit to hubby’s parents, we went straight to claim our next blessing. We commuted all the way to Alabang and talked to another sales agent about the specs of the car that we’ve been eyeing for some time and the inclusions that come with the package. We then asked for the account officers assigned to us to check the actual unit and settle everything that needs to be done. After about an hour and a few reminders from the account officers, we headed to my parents’ home in our own, brand new car. The rain started to pour in and we were a bit tensed. Driving a new car feels different. It was night time and the rain turned into a thunderstorm. God was truly with us because we reached my parents’ house safe and sound. We told the whole family about the day’s blessings, enjoyed adobo for dinner and played with the kids for a while before heading to our own home.

Before going to sleep, we thanked God for granting the desires of our hearts. He has fulfilled two things that we’ve prayed for in our faith goals at the start of the year. Sure we were not able to have a child and a car in an instant because God wanted us to get His best for us. He made sure that everything will be ready by the time we receive His blessings. Truly, with God, nothing is impossible.