Playtime with the baby

When I first started working from home, I only did sideline writing and designing jobs. I was still pregnant then with a full-time day job. It was difficult but, with the help of my husband, I was able to do it. Nights were stretched and I did work even during the weekends.

And then, I had to stop working online when Laika was born. By December 2012, I resigned from my job with the plans of working again on January. I was very eager to work that I eventually forgot my reason for adopting this lifestyle--the work-at-home mommy lifestyle.

One day, I saw Laika smiling more when she is with her Ate Sharon (the nanny). Being a happy baby that she is, of course, she still adores me but when I saw how she looks at her Ate, I had to reassess. This is what I have been avoiding and which led me to resign from my work before. Mommy is jealous and she has to do something about it.  

Right then, I had to stop getting projects from people. Quality over quantity this time. I wanted to still be able to play with my daughter in the morning and be there for the husband when he needs me.

I devised a way for this to be possible. Sharon was reassigned to do household chores in the morning while mommy and Laika play in the room. By afternoon, when it is Laika's nap time, I get to face my jobs and be more productive. I also do work when Laika sleeps at night.

Now, Laika has a playschool time with mommy as the teacher.

What do you do to make working at home possible?

Thankful Tuesdays

I hate being a lazy blogger but there are times when planning for an entry is too time-consuming that just thinking of what to write is becoming a zzz-fest for me. However, I know that I have a lot of story to tell. Enter a new segment on this blog, Thankful Tuesdays :)

I have written before how I am so contented and happy where my life is now. So much so that I find it unbelievable how somebody who used to take things for granted can be receiving much at present. Thankful Tuesdays will feature things that I am grateful for at the moment. It can be something as big as having my daughter (yes, Laika was born on a Tuesday) or as shallow as a cheap find in the mall. 

I am thankful for my wonderful family and in-laws. I may not be one to celebrate Christmas or New Year (yes, I have stopped celebrating New Year this year), but the season gave us a reason to get together with the people who matter the most.
 

My daughter who just turned 16 weeks last week. I am thankful that she is the jolliest baby that I know (although she has been fussy this morning because of colic). As early as 15 weeks, she has been showing progress and I feel like I cannot catch up with her. She can now pull herself to a sitting position when you offer her a hand. She also wants, nay, insists on standing up every chance she gets. Strong bones, baby. All milk coming from momma.

The smile on my daughter's face whenever she gets to sit on her Tiny Tots Baby Dock Seat. Words cannot explain how happy she gets when she is seated. Although there are times when she needs a break and being confined on the seat is too much for her, I am thankful for the few minutes of bliss that I see.

My cheap finds from Dapitan Arcade. Of all the things I bought, I am most in love with this P100-cake stand and the three-pieces-for-a-hundred-peso porcelain plates.

How about you? What are the things you are grateful for?

Eid'l Adha Long Weekend

When Malacanang announced October 26 a national holiday to celebrate Eid'l Adha, our little family planned on having our own weekend rest. My husband is a big traveler while I am all for staying-at-home. When there were just the two of us, we used to always argue on whether we will be traveling when opportunity comes or we will just be watching TV in the house. Now, as Laika is only a little over a month old, there was no arguing, we can't go somewhere too far.

On Thursday night, as soon as Laika's daddy got home from the office, we visited baby Nash, our youngest nephew. What a cute baby! Can't believe she was as small as him when she was born and now, she can hold her head and try to climb on our shoulders while we burp her!

And then, we went straight to my parents' house as they live in front of a mosque. We celebrated Eid'l Adha with them on Friday morning. Unfortunately, I can't pray as I still have postpartum lochia (I know, TMI!). We spent the rest of the weekend with them.

You can see the people if you just squint a little

As for Laika, she chillax-ed the heck out of the vacation. We are so much grateful to my mother and siblings as they took care of our baby while we were there.

It was a pretty laid back weekend. Come Sunday, my husband and I went to our future home. We will be moving in a year from now there. Seeing the showroom, we got excited of the development. This is the reason why we are saving up. We bought it last year. It seemed too faraway then but now, we can't wait for our unit to be done.

Not ours. This is just a model unit.

So that's how we spent our long weekend. Another long weekend is coming up. I wonder how we will be spending it this time.

How to Live Frugally

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Before my husband and I got married, I never had an experience on living independently. Sure, I lived in a boarding house when I was in college, but my parents gave me more than enough allowance then. I was also with my older sister that time so I had no responsibility except myself.

Imagine my shock when I had to, suddenly, live on a budget. Luckily, my husband is not new to this as he is self-sufficient (unlike me, who, up to the last minute, was living in my parents' house). Together, we had to do steps to adjust to our life together.

1. We are a one-car household. Sure, we own a gas guzzler, but we live in front of my husband's workplace and I commute to work, so the car is not used that often.

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2. We "eat in". As tempted as we are to always dine out (our rented apartment is located in the middle of a restaurant strip), we cook our own meals.

3. Until recently, we never had a house help. A two-man household is fairly easy to maintain. Our electric bill never reached P1000 before as we seldom use the air conditioner. But when Laika arrived, that's a whole different story. (Our electric bill shot up!)

4. We took having a household help to our advantage. Whereas before, we buy our groceries in the supermarket, now, we ask her to buy from the local palengke. Much, much cheaper. Plus, given that we are not with her while she is shopping, she sticks to the list. You don't know how much we've saved without ME doing the groceries. The last minute "maybe I need this" items really add up.

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5. We also have our laundry done in the house. 

6. As I have mentioned before, I cut my husband's hair. And my hair, being always up in ponytail, is pretty low maintenance.

7. We anticipated the added costs of having a baby, so we took measures to still spend as little as possible. My number one motivation in breastfeeding is the free milk. We refuse to buy formula because it's not cheap. YES! All the health benefits are just added advantage.

We also use cloth diapers and avoid disposable diapers as much as possible. Cloth diapers (CD's) may cost much but in the long run, you save much. Not to mention, we got CD's as gifts before (Thanks, Myke). Sure, on the first few weeks, we use disposies. But now, we are 100% cloth diapering. It doesn't hurt that they all look so cute, too.Our brands of choice are bumGenius, next9, Baby Leaf, and Alva.

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8. We live within our means. Good thing, my husband and I don't believe in having a credit card. If we can't afford something, we don't buy it. As simple as that. Although we may have to eventually give in and have a credit card for when we are traveling. But for now, we're good without it.

Who is the Mister of Mrs. Talia Basman?

In the spirit of over sharing, let me share our story.

Before I became Mommy Talia, I was Mrs. Talia Basman first. And before I became Mrs. Talia Basman, I was Ms. Talia Basman. Huh? How did that happen? Let me explain.

Many people have asked how come I did not change my last name when I got married. Some even asked if I even got married at all.

I am married to my cousin. Not to a distant cousin. To my first cousin. As in, we-share-the-same-last-name kind of cousin. As in, our-fathers-are-brothers kind of cousins. Incest? Nah. Not to my religion Islam. In Islam, we can marry our cousins. It is legal. And we live happily together.

Some people, upon finding out about this, are quite disturbed. Some are even asking if the marriage was arranged. In a way, it is (although I have nothing against arranged marriages, provided both parties are for it). Did we fall in love with each other? Yes, we did.

Before we were "arranged", we were best friends. And you know what they say about friendship being the best foundation.

We used to talk and laugh about everything under the sun. Even up to now, we never run out of things to talk about. We even tell each other about everything we think of. We believe that trust is vital in any relationship. We value it so much.

We are married for almost two years now. Do we regret it? Of course not! Although I would love it if I will not always be questioned on my last name especially during interviews and filling out of government forms. But I can honestly live with it. I am at my happiest at present. Especially now that we have our cute baby girl. And that is a big thank you to the Mister of the House.

Laika and Yarrah's Aqeeqah

Upon finding out that we were pregnant, my husband's older brother called us and we planned on having our babies' Aqeeqah (name-giving ceremony) on the same date (because his wife is expecting that time, too). As they are living in another country and they had to plan their going home here ahead of time, even if we haven't given birth yet, we had the date penciled in already. It has to be on the 14th of October, the same date of their first child's 2nd birthday. It is going to be a triple celebration.

Because my husband and I are the ones in the Philippines, we were tasked to prepare for the ceremony. With only two weeks to spare (and a budget to work with), we had to look for the perfect location.

Our first choice was Balay Kalinaw. All four of us, the parents, were from the University of the Philippines Diliman, which makes it the perfect location for the celebration. The place is also rented out for a very cheap price. Unfortunately, the date we wanted was not available.

photo source Balay Kalinaw

Our second choice was Betty's located behind Sto. Domingo Church. It looks nice for a decent price. But then, October 14 is the Feast of La Naval. The place will be very crowded that time and so we had to scratch the idea again.

photo source Interior of Betty's

I was beginning to lose hope. That plus a crying baby is a deadly combination. I texted my husband and he asked from his officemates for suggestions. One medical representative suggested Rustica located at Scout Reyes corner Mother Ignacia Avenue (Tel. No. 415-3558). I searched the internet and they had positive reviews. We visited the place, we liked it, and we booked on our preferred date.

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Days before the feast, we witnessed the slaughtering of two goats (one for each daughter) which is the sacrifice to be offered. It was held in Taguig City, my hometown. The goats had to be healthy and has to have complete sets of feet and nails. After which, the meat of the goats are to be distributed to people, preferably to those who are in need.

During the feast, most of the guests were complimenting us on the food. Some of the meat of the goat were also served that day. Unfortunately, that dish wasn't available anymore when it was my turn to eat. On a normal day, I don't eat goat meat. But for my daughter's aqeeqah, I wanted to have a taste of the dish.

These are the things our daughter wore for the occasion. We also had a hard time looking for a dress as Laika is only a month old and most of the dresses sold in malls are for big babies. Good thing we were able to see one in SM North Edsa.

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We ordered cakes from Estrel's. They have the yummiest caramel cakes with just the right amount of sweetness.

One cake for each girl

The ceremony was hosted by a dear friend, Jane. And it was officiated by the same person who led our wedding, Ustadz Hamjatin.

First, the Ustadz explained what happened days before during the slaughtering of the goats and the ceremony that will follow as well. And then, he recited verses from the Qur'an.

Yarrah being older, first went through the ceremony. After her, Laika followed.

Cutting of the celebrants' hair

Feeding of honey

Putting on perfume

All in all, it was a simple and fun celebration. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Tummy Time

My husband and I do not believe in pressuring our little one into achieving any milestones. Every person is different. One baby may get "there" sooner, others may be late bloomers. But if we can do something to help her get "there", we are all for it.

During Laika's first few weeks, she only eats, sleeps, and then poops. Those are her only activities. The result--when she's asleep, I am asleep, too. And that's most of the time.

We thought of introducing tummy time to her. From the Babycenter.com website: "The experience of being on their tummy helps babies learn to push up, roll over, sit up, crawl, and pull to a stand," explains Danette Glassy, a pediatrician in Mercer Island, Washington, and chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on early education and childcare.

We started during Laika's 4th week. On her first try, I was nervous. What if she will have difficulty breathing? Why is she crying? Why is she rubbing her nose on the mat? But then I thought, I would have to let her do her thing for her own development. In the end, I was able to witness her hold and turn her head. By the 3rd day, we discovered that she loves her caterpillar toy so much, she follows it through her eyes wherever it goes.

Here's a link of a video of her during tummy time. According to what I read, it's okay if the baby cries. She's just not used to being on her tummy. You just have to let her feel that you are there for her.

Laika's tummy time @ 4 weeks from Anna Talia Basman on Vimeo.

On breastfeeding and bottlefeeding

Even before we had a baby, heck, even before we got pregnant, my husband talked me into breastfeeding exclusively. He is a strong believer in providing nourishment that has been given naturally to a mother. Being the good wife that I am (hahaha), I knew from the very start that I will be breastfeeding my soon-to-be-born child. But don't get me wrong. I don't judge people who decide to formula feed their babies. I believe in doing whatever works for you and the baby. I do judge, on the other hand, people who judge formula-feeding mothers. Does that even make sense?

Anyway, my baby is now 3 weeks old and I am proud to say that she has only taken in milk that came from me. That is, except for her first 2 days in the world when the nurses in St. Lukes Global City, where she was confined for the first 3 days of her life in the NICU (more on that on other blog posts), took it upon themselves to feed her glucose water. Upon finding out about this, my husband told the nurses to stop this and we started visiting her every 3 hours round the clock since then to stimulate my breasts to produce milk.

I regret not having read much about breastfeeding as much as I did about pregnancy. Husband told me I should stop regretting and instead look at this as an opportunity for me to share what I know now. I've listed some of them below:

• I didn't know I should have started having baby latch to me as early as possible to stimulate milk production. 
• I didn't know it is okay to not have milk the first few days as baby has food reserves from when she was in my belly (milk came in 3 days after baby was born). 
• I should have known having a supportive partner is essential in this (of which I am very lucky to have). 
• I should have known and read about engorgement and how much it hurts like hell!
• I should have purchased a breast pump before I gave birth. This has been a very worthy investment for us.

After reading much about breast pumps when I was pregnant, we decided on getting an Ameda Purely Yours Breast Pump because of the great reviews.  But because it is not readily available in malls here and to have one, I would have to purchase it online, we weren't able to buy this one.

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Because of engorgement and my postpartum condition, my husband had to buy one immediately after we were discharged from the hospital. He went to Market! Market! and I asked him to buy an Avent Isis iQ Uno Breast Pump. It also had great reviews but it is more expensive and it only has one pump. The good thing is it can also be used manually and can be battery-operated. At present, it is my best friend in the world!

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Just yesterday, for the first time ever, we gave in and bottled-fed Laika using my expressed milk. We believe breast milk is still good in whatever form it comes in. We use Philips Avent and Tommee Tippee bottles. Before then, we tried giving expressed milk through medicine dropper. We originally didn't want to introduce bottles yet to avoid nipple confusion but we had to as Laika and I had latching issues. It also hurts too much!

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Of the two, I prefer Tommee Tippee more as it is slow-flow. We also had zero problems on nipple confusion as I still feed her directly from time to time and she has more efficient latch as compared to before. I noticed that she also feeds more now that we introduced bottles to her. My problem now is my milk supply can't keep up. I ordered lactation cookies from Mommy Treats and it will be delivered tomorrow. I will be making a review once it gets here.

Dear Laika,

Hello, anak!

You're now 39 weeks and 3 days in my belly. I know, we are putting too much pressure on you to be born already. Especially because your Tita Tasnim (my sister) will be going to Indonesia tomorrow to study. She wants to see you before she leaves. Don't worry, Mommy learned not to pressure you anymore. Anyway, Tita Tasnim can still see your photos through Facebook. And she promised to visit us this December. I know, we tried every natural thing to induce the labor, but as they say, it is only effective when baby is ready. Daddy and Mommy has been having date nights lately just so we can walk together. Walking is an effective labor-inducer, according to many people. But as you can see, it is not that effective. What's happening is Mommy has been shopping left and right. That's because we walk inside malls. These pregnancy hormones are making me too sweaty so I need Trinoma's airconditioning. That's our mall of choice lately.

Because of our almost-daily malling habit, we bought a new comforter for our bed and a 300-thread count bed sheet. It's the first time for us to try that kind of sheet and we installed it last night. Anak, we had a good night's sleep! So that's how a very expensive sheet feels like! I was kidding Daddy last night, "Is there a crib set sheet that is 300-thread count?" Hahaha...Don't worry, you will still get to sleep in our bed. Anyway, we bought the bed sheet because we got so intimidated by your crib. Our bed looks so-so compared to your crib.

Yesterday, some carpenters went to our house to fix the ceiling in our bedroom. It got damaged because of the leak so Daddy had it fixed. He told me, maybe that's why you refuse to be born. Maybe you hate the ceiling? Of course, he is kidding. But I am so glad you don't have to deal with the damaged ceiling anymore.

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Last weekend, we bought a birthing ball. We have also read that it is a good labor-inducer. I am bouncing on it every time I watch TV. But still, you won't drop. That's okay, anak. If you want to cook for a longer time, that's okay with us. If I get frustrated sometimes, just know that we are all excited to meet you. We will be welcoming you with open arms anytime you feel ready.

Love,
Mommy

PS. We have a doctor's appointment later. Let's see our progress, okay?

How to Design a One-Bedroom Condominium Unit

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Disclaimer: By no means am I an interior designer. But I am a decorating enthusiast. And a designer in our family=free interior decorator. It’s a win-win situation.  

When my older brother got his condominium unit in San Lorenzo Place, he assigned me to design it. It is located right in the middle of a central business district which means great views, high-rise buildings, and super expensive lot prices!

I can just imagine him, sipping his coffee right in front of his floor-to-ceiling window as he stares into the horizon. What. A. Life. Anyway, what do we have?

·      He got a 25.5 sq m one-bedroom unit. As I have mentioned, it is located in the heart of a business district. Space is precious. So we need to make use of the space wisely.

·      It is located at one of the upper floors. I think more than 30-storeys high up. Amazing view! Have I not said that enough?

·      It is fully-finished. We will make use of the same finishes. Got to use what we have.

·      Anyway, here is the floor plan provided by the developer. We will change it by the way.

 To be honest, I have never been to the site as it is still under construction although I have made my schemes. I will show it to you later.

Excited!

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I am a person who is always easily excited. Too excited that I got my college diploma in 2008; my professional license in 2009; my postgraduate diploma, another professional license and my marriage certificate in 2010; got pregnant in 2011.

And speaking of excitement, here I am again, excited for the arrival of our new little bean this 2012! I have been the baby machine, the shopping-for-baby maniac, the nesting momma. My husband, as always, has been too kind to me. But I know he’s going crazy as well.

From a small household of two, we are preparing for the arrival of two other persons in this house. Our little bean and her fairy god angel, Sharon. Sharon is going to be her sitter and she is currently having her “internship” in my mother’s house.

This now here is my attempt to document our day-to-day life. Join us in our journey!