World, meet Ally!

Our darling daughter was born on a Tuesday morning, on the 20th of September.  After 13 hours of labor, I finally met our big 7-pound-and-1-ounce baby girl. World, meet our dear Amara Luna.

Our beautiful baby girl.

God is good!  We are thankful for our healthy little girl!  We are thankful for a safe and uncomplicated delivery.  :) I conquered the pain!

I am thankful too for the delivery room pictures, because the hour I spent in there was a blur.  I don't remember much, except I thought I was going to die because of the pain.  Haha.

I didn't even know it was possible to bring a camera inside the delivery room.  I thought they only did that for special cases. Like if you were the wife of the doctor or something.  So I didn't think to ask.  Imagine my surprise when a nurse called me and asked me to smile at the camera.

Smiling when you're in labor is a challenge. 

Part of me was happy they'd document the event.  But another part of me was worried they'd also document my, uhm... lady parts.  When they gave the cam back to my mom, she didn't want to view the photos for fear of having to see my hoo-hah.  No worries - all the photos were rated General Patronage, and not PG.

I thought it was my mom who requested that they take pictures, but then I learned later on that it was the other way around.  The nurse at the station paged my mom and asked for a camera.  She didn't bring one.  Good thing she thought of rummaging through my bag back in my room. Apparently, making the anesthesiologist take photos during delivery is sort of an unwritten S.O.P. at the hospital.  Lucky us!   We didn't need to book the outrageously expensive Lamaze room to get priceless photos of Ally's first few minutes on earth.

I love you Ally.

I might post about my labor and delivery story, for those of you waiting for your own D-day, or wondering what it's like.  If I remember the details, that is. For now, all I can say is: We made it! If I could do it, you can too!

Surprise!

When I was 7 months pregnant with the beadbaby, the lovely girls of the Philippine Polymer Clay Guild threw me the cutest surprise baby shower ever!

On August 13, 2011, the sneaky girls of P3 gathered at Jennifer Cruz's place where we were supposedly scheduled to hold our clay date (a crafty peer tutorial of sorts).

But instead of an afternoon of crafting, I was in for an afternoon of crying. LOL!

I was so touched by the thoughtful and generous gesture, that when I saw the pink balloons, and more than my expected 6-7 claymates, I cried.  The wa-poise, cringe-worthy kind of cry.

I wouldn't have posted these embarrassing pics had I blogged about the party a few months ago. But now when I look at them, I am reminded of how much the whole party meant to me. :)  Thank you thank you P3!

Our surprise! pose

The party was built around - what else? - a cupcake theme!  Loved it!  It was perfect! Cupcakes everywhere! In the decorations (created by Ms. Bang of Andeverythingnice)...

On everyone's necks (everyone was wearing a cupcake except me, ironically!  Of all days not to wear a cupcake! Teehee)...

Mommy Jhoi and daughter Gian with their matching beaded cupcakes.

 

And the dessert...

 

There was yummy food catered by Jen's sister, special lechon Paksiw from Jhoi's mom, and Nathaniel's buco pandan from Ghie.

And there were fun games prepared by Ms. Bang, Achie Joyce, and Donna.  I sucked at all of them, except the Diaper Game - which I won!  I was an expert in smelling "dirty" diapers, thank you very much!  The fake poop were my favorites, so I was bound to win: Flat Tops, Hershey's syrup, coco jam, etc.  I won a cupcake stamp from Mel Felipe of Purplenook, woohoo!

Guess Who The Baby Is game  (That's me in the 2nd to the last photo, top row)

No wonder I didn't finish this game, I was busy looking at the camera, lol.

 

The Dede Race (they had to finish a bottle of orange juice): Marco lost pa, sus! Haha.

I loved sniffing diapers soiled with the yummiest stuff: Hershey's syrup, coffee, etc.

The baby shower doubled as the guild's second Meet and Greet, so we had fun meeting people we've only met online.  I met Paula and Penny for the first time.  And Penny's adorable baby Charley!

Meeting Charley!

The only guests who were not members of the guild were the baby daddy and my college ex-roomie Mykee.

Marco in pink!

Ex-roomies

Everyone had fun!

The crazy P3 family

Thank you so much my P3 family for a memorable afternoon.  I really can't thank you enough!

Welcome to my mommy blog!

My baby bump at 37 weeks, impatiently waiting for D-day.

Welcome to the new blog!  The beads, the clay, and all the crafty thingamabobs are packed away in bins and boxes.  The oven out of commission.  The craft blog abandoned.  All because I got preggy!

This new blog will chronicle my adventures in the new world of mommyhood. It's called "beadbaby" because that's what my friends from P3 nicknamed my little one.  (I'm Beadlady, just in case you have no idea what the heck I'm talking about.)

Though I'm not saying goodbye to my beads and clay, I don't know when I'll be crafting again.  So while there is nothing artsy fartsy to post in the old blog, I will be posting tidbits about my new job here.  IF I have time that is.  Harhar.