BACK FROM THE BED

Getting pregnant is an understatement.




Seriously. If you bumped into someone who is pregnant, the best thing to say after "Congratulations!" is, "How are you doing?" And if you do ask, expect to hear either a short generic reply or an intro to an hour-long's worth of ranting. Don't get impatient if you end up getting the latter because, really, you don't know how big a favor you're doing for her.




I deliberately refrained from writing during the days I was stuck in I-don't-know-what-circle of hell. Because you'll just absorb all the negative energy I unintentionally was spreading.




If you don't believe yet how bad the first trimester is, ask my entire family. For sure, they'll chuckle and shake their heads. And ask even someone from my office. Discomfort is a pregnant woman's evil twin. And raging hormones? Ah--evil hormonified. (No, there's no such word.)




Just an incomplete list of what ails a pregnant woman in her first trime:




1. MAJOR INDIGESTION - Due to having a totally slowed-down digestive system. It's normal.




2. VOMITING - Due to raging hormones and eating too much.




3. EATING TOO LITTLE - Again, due to a slow digestive system. A pregnant woman can only eat 5 to 6 small (like 1/3 of her regular meal) meals a day instead of 3 regular, full meals. If she eats about half a regular meal, that's eating too much and it will lead to vomiting (at least that's only true for me).




4. NAUSEA - I just can't explain it. It's a 24/7 thing for me. Not a morning thing. When I want to move around, I have to be in bed. If I want to be in bed, I have to move around a bit to make the food go down. And what's worse, I can't do anything AT ALL. No TV, no books, no Internet. Because if I do any of those activities, I just get really dizzy and stressed. (Whut? Yeah... I know.)




5. BEING UTTERLY, COMPLETELY USELESS ALL DAY LONG! - For hours I just stare into space waiting to relieve the next hunger pang (which happens every 1 or 2 hours), vomiting urge, or frustrated urge to defecate.




6. EATING TOO MUCH - From rice, to dried mangoes, to Skyflakes, to bananas, to Cheese Burgers, to pancit Malabon, to Milo, to water, to ice, to boiled eggs, to spaghetti, to potatoes, to Twin Popsies to.... There's should be something to chow every hour.




7. FINDING EVERYTHING STINKY - Trust me. The most subtle smells can make a preggy cringe. I could break down the smells of an anti-mosquito oil. I barfed over Safeguard. I get a tummy ache over Adobong Pusit. And I couldn't stand my husband whose smell I really really loved before I got pregnant. 




And finally, naturally...




8. BEING MISUNDERSTOOD BY HUSBAND AND FOLKS WHO NEVER GOT PREGNANT - You can't really blame them. Pregnancy really changes your attitude, especially if it's your very very first time. You can only sincerely explain to everyone that it's the hormones talking when you're being a brat. They'll get tired of the reason, but really, it is the only one.




So, husbands/boyfriends/partners... check out my next entry. It will be about surviving life with a preggy in her first trimester.




The good thing about being stuck at home for weeks is I got to relive the artistic side of me. My older sister who paints sits all day at her table and encouraged me to paint/do art too. And well, that was the only productive thing I could do, so I attempted my first coffee painting. 




Now, look. I. AM. A. COPYWRITER. Pardon my Picasso please.

Here is a frustrated abstract. I just did this to let my untouched 10-year old colored pencils actually feel paper.

And now, an attempt to make the image look like my husband.

Finally, I had to go back to what I did well in high school.

See, I only produced a few doodles compared to the number of days I was actually just staring into space or expelling my meals. And I thought, how could any woman suffer so much during her pregnancy when during the next 20 or so years of her life, she will have to deal with brats or rebels in her home? You know? As if raising kids isn't already hard enough.

But on March 5, 2011, I saw my baby for the first time. Not anymore like a 1 centimeter bean. But a 5 centimeter real human being. The baby even thumb sucked for a brief moment before punching its left arm twice.

Let me introduce to you, my squirmy little 50-percent-sure baby boy.

No, he didn't change the way I thought about pregnancy. But I just knew all the crap I went through was all worth it! :')

AND THE HELL BEGINS

Today was Lousy. Capital L lousy.


At 6am, hub's alarm rang off. I woke up too. But not because of the alarm clock. It was more of the headache I had and the aching tummy. I was starving like crazy but didn't try getting up. Thought maybe sleep will drive the hunger away.


I got up at around 7.30 am just after Patrick did. I went straight to the kitchen, pulled out the mallow-cereal we bought the day before and made a bowl for myself.

Quite yummy this one. But while eating, I couldn't help close my eyes and look away from the sun.

8am, hubby leaves and I go back to bed. I battle with a bad migraine which I got after not wearing shades on the way to the doctor yesterday. Since it was too early today to text the doctor if I could take a pain reliever, I tried to sleep the pain away for a couple of hours. Stress.


At 11.30am, I get up, awakened again by major starvation. That includes nausea (and migraine) and the mean urge to vomit. The ordeal really starts now.


So I prepare lunch that consisted of

with dessert.

But the nausea hasn't worn off. Somehow I just want to throw up what I ate. :(


Then at 2pm, I get more nauseous again so I eat

According to the OB, it helps to drive a way nausea. True. Only it's so bland! But better than nothing right?


Migraine hits again at 3pm and finally I text the doctor if Ponstan 250 was ok. I fall asleep for a few hours, she hasn't replied. Why did I have to get migraine when I'm pregnant?


6pm, I get hungry again. I eat again and even make myself some chicken noodles.

Finally the doctor replies with the go signal for Biogesic which helped me get up from the bed and do something productive today.


Now, while I wait for dinner, I munch on cookies again.


Somehow I'm glad the morning sickness (more like all-day sickness) is happening now and not later when I'm back at work. But it's so hard getting pregnant. You don't just sacrifice your work, you also sacrifice all the things you want to do.


Sure you get to bum in the house but you bum because you're in pain. I hope the morning sickness ends sooner than it should.


Come to think of it though, all the discomforts are a way to make sacrifices for people dear to me. Everyone in my family has something they're praying for and my pain helps for their own sacrifices.


And all this is also for me, Pat and the little person we're eagerly waiting for :)

MATERNITY FASHION POLICE

Pregnancy is never a license to look ugly.




It is a woman's time to flaunt the peak of her femininity, that's why even with all the things that make her uncomfortable, she still has to look her best.




The latest trend in maternity fashion is to show off the baby bump.




And that is exactly what the designers of Project Runway Season 6 were asked to accomplish for supermodel/actress Rebecca Romijn.




Here are some of the outfits produced:

Pretty okay, right?

But then again, there's always the other side of the story--the maternity fashion victims. (In my POV at least.) Feast your eyes! Here's Part 1.

Aww yeah!

Guess who the one above is...

Polkadot love!

Some people just don't get it.

Watch out for Part 2 (sometime... later on...)

ON HOUSE ARREST

Bed rest.

Any overworked creative would love to get this as a doctor's prescription. Especially if it's for two weeks and is just a week after everyone goes back to work after the Christmas holidays.

But for some reason, I JUST DON'T LIKE IT!

It's a junior creative's dream to have her work produced, no matter how non-award winning it is. After two years of doing TVC translations, web banners, web articles, and all those other ignorable, unownable ads, I'm finally getting my campaign produced: an original radio, an original TVC inspired by the radio, a funny print ad--all in one go!

2010 was my year. Even after laying-low from pursuing award-winning work to focus on wedding preps and going on a month-long leave to enjoy a thwarted honeymoon, I was able to bounce back from copywriting non-existence to a fully-blossomed junior copywriter as legitimized by my ATL work, ready for production, all at the end of the decade!

What was to stop me at 2011? I was once again hot for creative ideas. I was again ready to chase after the metal.

But just as I was about to pop the champagne to personally celebrate the last stretch of the campaign production, I missed my period. The entire two weeks of it.

Preggy test #1: Positive.

Knees feel like jelly. Debate with husband that it's negative. I lose the argument out of naiveness. Family all in exclamations. Hubby posts positive pregnancy test on Facebook.

Preggy test #2: Positive again.

Off we go to the OB. But I experience light spotting. So, I get my dreaded sentence. House arrest. House arrest. House arrest.

Sigh. Just when I could finish my campaign.