Our little angel Carl Benjamin was baptized in the name of our Lord last Saturday October 13, 2007 at St. Luke Catholic Church in Foster City. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us, as well as to those who sent well wishes.
Here are some pictures of Carl’s baptism courtesy of Ninong Kyo.
Here are a few pictures from our Trip to Filoli Garden last August 7, 2007.
In just a week, my son will be 2 months old…wow, time really flies by. Here are a few pictures from Carl’s First Month. See how fast my baby has grown!
Finally, we’ve caught up a little bit now…Carl’s been sleeping for at least 4 hours at night now so I got to put in some time to reading the last Harry Potter book and finally finished it this morning. (Still haven’t seen the movie though…but that’s okay, I’ll just wait for the DVD) Please if you have not finished reading the book do not read on…I do not intend to give anything away, but I just have some sentiments that I do not want to share with you if you do intend to read it.
Okay, I’ve really been a huge fan of the Harry Potter series since I read the first book. And I was really excited about this last one coming out coz finally I will get to rest my mind from wondering what happened. But quite honestly, I was hugely disappointed with this last one. And yeah I know, leave the writing to the writers. Sorry! I can’t help but feel like the last book being the first plot written did not do justice to the initial books in the series. I felt like the ending was rushed. After Rowling’s amazing work on building up such interesting characters in the book, it’s such a waste that the book ended without giving them enough lines in the book to at least talk about what happened to them. The way the last book was written, I kinda feel like J.K. is so rich already even if this last book is crap people will buy it anyway. I have no complaints about the plot. I give her props for the ingenuity and creativity as she always have been for the storyline, well — except for how Dumbledore’s life was explained in the end, I always thought he was among the best heroes of the story — I didn’t like how his character turned out to be. I was hoping the details could have been better. Also, it kinda seemed like having the epilogue was a poor retreat to not have people ask stories about what happened to the rest of the characters who suffered an ill-fated end and whom she really put into life in prior books because it’s a happy ending anyway. Kind of feels like a diversion to not have more questions asked.
I’m not saying do not read it, I don’t think there is anything I can say to anyone who’s read the first 6 books to not read the last one — coz I know nobody can stop me from reading it either. But I guess I was just expecting something better. Oh well.
Anyway, I’m just so glad I have Carl to keep me busy now. Otherwise, I would probably be itching now thinking what would I be doing now. Actually, I was so excited to get to the last page coz I could not wait to just focus on baby right now. I’ll be uploading some first month pictures of Carl on my next blog.
Yes, it’s amazing how time flies by so fast. I have meant to send out the links to my son’s pictures, or at least update you guys about what’s been happening but believe it or not — I haven’t got the chance. Yeah, even I couldn’t believe that taking care of a newborn is this much work. In my mind, I thought it was just about feeling happy all the time about how cute and huggable they are…I never realized it is this EXHAUSTING. I am getting a lot of support from Bobby, I wonder how others do this by themselves. Yep, I do not mean to undermine how difficult it is especially when you are doing hands on parenting. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. I am the happiest person in the world right now — tied to Bobby of course. I’m just saying it is not easy, and I never really understood what everybody have been saying until I’ve experienced it myself.
I thought the most difficult part was going to be the pregnancy, labor and delivery — especially since we had quite an eventful nine months to show for it. But aparrently that’s the easy part. My coworker friend told me that there is something in women’s memories that erases the pain they feel on delivery after some time…I guess that explains how people get to have kids again. Personally, I preferred to not know anything until I had to. A close friend of mine even sent me a Lamaze DVD that I intended not to watch, sorry Da — takot ako eh. I thought I’ll just cross the bridge when I get there. It kinda worked for me…I just didn’t want to make myself more nervous than I already was. I had tons of things running through my mind — it was more challenging mentally and emotionally for me. But even so, I would not trade this experience for anything in the world. I don’t even want to think that I only have about a month left before going back to work. I will definitely miss spending time with Carl. 
Here are some pictures of our very cute baby. Carl’s First Day Pics and More. I will upload more pics later.
Here are some details about the delivery.
We tried to have a normal delivery, I was scheduled to be induced Tuesday July 3 at 7am (originally July 2 but when we saw my OB that morning, she said the hospital was fully booked —gosh didn’t know that can happen). My estimated due date is July 5 but she didn’t want to wait till then since my prior week’s ultrasound already estimated baby’s weight to be 8.7 lbs. However, Monday night around 10pm, I felt my contractions were already regularizing to about 5 minutes apart but no pain. So we decided to call the doctor and see if we need to go to the hospital already. They had us come to the hospital and we were admitted at around 11pm. All night, contractions went on but I wasn’t progressing enough but I couldn’t sleep — everything was uncomfortable. I felt itchy around my belly because of the monitors etc. I was just able to sleep around 3am when I asked for pain medications when the contractions started to be painful. They ended up doing the induction around 6:30am to speed up the process. By 10:30am the nurse said I was ready to start pushing. We started pushing at 11am, but within 30 minutes of pushing, baby’s heartrate dropped to 73. So we stopped and they revived his heartrate to normal. The doctor didn’t want us to try pushing again and said she would like to just do a c-section in the afternoon. At 3:15pm, we were taken into the operating room. It was weird, I was conscious the whole time, Bobby and the anesthesiologist were sitting over my head and we were talking the whole time. By 3:33pm Carl Benjamin Tatco was born. I cried when I heard baby cry finally. He scored 9.9 on the APGAR. After letting me have a glimpse of Carl, Bobby and one of the nurses took baby to the nursery and they took me to the recovery room. I was in the recovery room for 4 hours to wait for my blood pressure to stabilize. The most difficult part was the recovery days later when all the strong pain meds were starting to wear off. We went home Saturday July 7, 2007.
A N N O U N C I N G O U R S O N
CARL BENJAMIN S. TATCO
July 3, 2007 3:33pm
8 pounds 6 ounces
20 3/4 inches
Proud Parents,
Bobby and Owan
Hello everybody…I know haven’t blogged about my pregnancy since we got past the 20 week mark and the awesome baby shower that we just had last June 5. Here’s a long blog that hopefully explains why.
Last March 13, I was then 24 weeks along, we went to Oakland Zoo so we can get out of the house, we’ve been stuck at home doing limited activities due to the complications I had in my early stages of my pregnancy. When we got the clearance that everything was fine, we had to take it. Besides, everybody says it’s great to do walking exercises around your second trimester, coz by the time you reach the third trimester, things will start becoming uncomfortable to do anything. It was a fun day — Kamille and Kathleen had lots of fun…believe it or not, it’s only my second time to go to a zoo. The first zoo I got to was San Francisco Zoo on my 27th birthday. Yeah, pathetic, I know.
However, as we were walking around the zoo, I was feeling some sharp pains in my lower back, it goes away pretty much right away so I didn’t mind it. But when we got home, it was getting more frequent and then it would move from my abdomen then to my lower back again. So we called my doctor just to be sure. After 15 minutes, the nurse on-call said we need go to the hospital so the doctor can see us. We didn’t have anything with us, the last time we got to the emergency room they just sent us home.
This time it was a different story, when we got to the hospital, they admitted us into Labor and Delivery, aparrently what I was having was contractions and they were already 3 minutes apart. My doctor was talking to the nurse about having to transfer me to CPMC in San Francisco if I was going to deliver that day. It was the only facility in the bay area that had a good neonatal ICU. I was a nervous wreck, I can’t help but cry, even if my doctor kept reassuring us that at 24 weeks the baby is going to be okay, of course I would prefer my baby to be full-term. The nurse thought I was crying because of the pain and immediately gave me a shot of morphine.
Thank God, the fetal fibronectine test came back negative, which meant I wasn’t gonna deliver for at least 2 weeks. So they gave me medication for the contractions.
I’ve been taking the contraction medication since then until 2 weeks ago. I’m really thankful our baby has reached 38 weeks as of today.
We also got clearance from my nutritionist that I’m cleared for gestational diabetes and we no longer have to worry about having to use insulin, one less thing to worry about.
My blood pressure has been slightly high the past couple of visits to the doctor, so my doctor scheduled us for a nonstress test. We had the first test yesterday and baby did well: heartbeat is great, amniotic fluid is within range and my blood pressure was also normal…whew! Baby was sleeping though and wouldn’t wake even if the nurse kept buzzing him so it took awhile for them to let us go…but he woke up and moved after several minutes so they let us go We’re scheduled for another one next week…if I don’t deliver yet.
Now I’m thinking I might make 40 weeks after all. I’m just worried baby might be too big by then, well I guess the doctor will know. Even if it has been difficult these past few weeks to move, sit or stand, I don’t really mind the wait…I’m just really excited to see and hug our baby when he comes. Please help us pray for a safe delivery and most of all a healthy baby.
I’ve been writing this blog post in my head the past couple of days…I was hoping to write something really nice to give our appreciation to the people who’ve put a lot of effort into giving our coming baby an amazing shower…but the longer I waited to post it, the more I felt sending our huge thanks might be diminished somewhat.
Bobby and I are really grateful to everybody who came to the shower, sent gifts and wishes for our coming baby…it really is unbelievable, our baby has received a lot of gifts…it is so heartwarming…we’re really appreciative of the fact that we have poeple to share our joy and excitement as we count the days before our baby arrives.
We’d like to give special thanks to the amazing hosts of the shower: Ate Anna, Cyn, Cris, Deo and Kiko. We know how much work you’ve put into making it a special celebration. Thanks so much!
Here are some pictures of the shower courtesy of Kyo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksuayan/sets/72157600332332973/
More pics and updates to follow…
1. Go to www.google.com
2. Click on "maps"
3. Click on "get directions"
4. Type "New York" in the first box (the "from" box)
5. Type "London" in the second box (the "to" box)
6. Click "Get directions"
7. Scroll down to step #23
Just thought I’d forward something to laugh about…everything seems to be too serious…and everybody’s been really busy with each of our own stuffs…tatanda tayo agad niyan!
Yes, 20 weeks, we’re halfway there!!! Don’t get me wrong, even with all the challenges of this pregnancy, believe it or not I am enjoying every moment of it. But then again, I am at my second trimester so I am pretty much at the smoothest part so my opinion might be slightly biased.
Even at this point I still can’t believe that I am growing a life in my body. I’m still pretty much amazed at how all this works. Somehow, my lack of understanding of how biology works seems to just make it all the more magical. Bobby’s been doing a lot of reading…on the Internet, books my sister-in-law lent — the best one is: "What to Expect when You’re Expecting". I’m really glad coz it doesn’t compel me to read so much about pregnancy — I just end up being more paranoid than I already am.
Okay, let’s head back to the important details:
1) We just got the AFP screen results last February 9, and the results are negative…woohoo!!! Don’t know much about it but it checks for a variety of neural defects like Down Syndrome and some other defects. Even if the test has a false positive rate of 5% — so they usually say don’t stress so much about it, I’m just so relieved that it is one less thing to worry about.
2) We just had our 2nd Trimester Ultrasound on February 16…they checked all the vital organs, fingers, size and weight — the baby is doing great!!! I am 20 weeks and 1 day, the ultrasound showed the baby’s size is 20 weeks and 2 days. The baby is slightly bigger, on the average, 20 week babies are 10 1/2 oz. our baby is 14 oz. Though ultrasound technician says its nothing to worry about. I wonder what our nutritionist will say once they get a copy of the results. Maybe that is why everybody’s been saying my tummy is so huge…they keep teasing me that my tummy is even bigger than our friend who’s already 27 weeks pregnant.
3) And finally, Bobby is so happy to announce that … we are having a boy!!! Of course we both are…but I’m sure you know what I mean.
