Why You Shouldn't Leave the Baby Alone with the Daddy

Baby Charley and her Dad have a very special bond, and it's quite obvious with the random things I discover about them. Random tricks Baby Charley does with her Daddy. 

In this video, watch Baby Charley's Puss In Boots (a Team Hernandez Terminology mentioned in this post) dances as her Dad claps his hands. 

Believe me, Mommy, do not leave your babies alone with the dad because they instantly become a toy.ü

One and Done. (We think)

We can't say that this is our final answer, but as of the moment, my room mate (my hubby, btw) and I are 99.9% certain that we're happy with just having Baby Charley.

Yup. that means having a sibling or siblings for her (as of the moment or any time soon) is totally out of the question.

We just want her. Just her.

Period.

Many (including my OB) have been surprised when we tell them that we just want to have an only child. One and done ika nga. This is a decision I am thankful that my room mate and I share.

Why give the river when she
can have the entire ocean? 

We wish to give Baby Charley the world.

Okay, so does this mean spoiling her and giving her her heart's desire? Absolutely not!

There is such a thing as responsible spoiling. It means you provide your child with almost everything, but not all the time. Only when she deserves it.

Okay, I kinda made this one up, but that's what I have in mind.

Give me good grades, and I will let you watch those hormonal boyband "sing" and "dance". Something to this effect.

Responsible spoiling. 

My roommate and I want Charley to experience the things we enjoy and also the things we weren't able to experience - traveling the world; not waiting for our birthdays to eat in a fancy restaurant that serves good food, really good food; being able to study in a really good school; going on a Disney Cruise (okay, maybe it's me who want it); watching Disney On Ice at Smart Araneta; and having her own car by her 18th birthday.

With just her, we'll be more financially stable. I hope.

Pregnancy is not a walk at the park. So is giving birth.

Since my roommate and I are both in our 30's already, we are really considering my health and our next baby's health since studies show that it is quite risky to give birth by the late 30s. This could be a case to case scenario though, but as much as possible, we don't want to take the risk.

Besides, we will have been 60 by the time Charley is 30! Gosh, I would have been so wrinklish by the time I will have gotten my first apo. Totally not cool.

Since we're seriously considering this "One and Done" option as of the moment, we have to make sure that we prepare Baby Charley to face the world with just her.

Bbbbbuuuuutttt, that's another topic for a different post. Right now, we're simply enjoying having just Charley and keeping up with her alien-ish antics.ü

Charley's Mommy Hack: Avoiding Becoming Mombies and Zomdads

For first time moms, actually for all mommies, sleep is very essential; especially if you have work the following day. Unfortunately though, "sleep" is a foreign word to most babies especially during the early months.

I remember how Baby Charley transformed my room mate (my hubby, btw) and me into Mombies and Zomdads (mommy and daddy zombies). We literally survive on caffeine since we barely got enough sleep. Heck, a straight 30 minutes is already a gift.

However, that was 3 months ago. Thankfully, Baby Charley's sleeping pattern has improved (a little) so we could actually (finally!) enjoy 6 hour straight of uninterrupted sleep. Sometimes.

There is a Mommy Hack though that we use to make sure I get enough sleep.

Charley's Mommy Hack # 1: Make the Baby and the Daddy fall in-love with each other 

Since Day 1, my roommate and our daughter already shared an inseparable special bond. Baby Charley would melt into her father's arms, and the sight is just lovely.

Don't get jealous, Mommies, when this happens because that means that Baby Charley prefers her Dad to rock her to sleep. When she cries at night, my roommate is the first one to get up to pick her up; Baby Charley wants it that way, anyway, so I'm not actually complaining here.

Yes, so that means I could sleep a little longer.

Okay, a LOT longer.

Okay, so maybe this is a selfish hack, but it did get me MY sleep which prevented me from killing people the following day. I teach, so imagine the number of possible casualties If I am sleep-deprived.

Yikes!

However, on a serious note....

Charley's Mommy Hack # 2: Delegation 

Sad to say, my roommate needs to sleep, too, so I could not be the only one enjoying some Zzz's. What works for my roommate and me is task delegation. We follow a certain routine of putting Baby Charley to sleep that usually starts at around 6pm.

My roommate gives Charley her evening bath while I dry and dress her. Anyway, I'm the one who is a little picky on what she wears. That also means I put on her diaper while he cleans the mess - dirty diapers and laundry, too.

I would then prepare her evening vitamins that my husband would give her. Afterwards,  I would breastfeed her until hopefully, she sleeps. However, on occasions that she does not sleep right away, my roommate would rock her to sleep. When she finally goes to sleep, we will then have our dinner. I'll set the table while he cleans up afterwards, unless BAby Charley suddenly wakes up.

When Baby Charley wakes up in the wee hours of the night, my roommate would get her and give her to me to be fed. He would then continue his sleep until I wake him up to put Charley to sleep.




I am very fortunate because I have a very supportive husband who is also very hands-on with raising Baby Charley; with him, life is a bliss.ü

Baby Gastos - Shots! Shots! Shots!

Shots! Shots! Shots!

Sorry, daddies, but I'm not talking about your favourite shots; I'm talking about babies' not-so-favourite shots -  Immunisation shots.

Yesterday, on my birthday (16 Mar 2015), we brought Baby Charley to Dra. Pamela Caedo in Makati Med for her monthly check-up and to catch up on her immunizations. You can check Dra. Caedo's Makati Med profile here.

Dra. Pam Caedo is love!

Baby Charley - facepalm! 

She's very accommodating and is no-nonsense in giving advices. She noticed that although very malikot and bibo (alien in Team Hernandez' terminology), Baby Charley is a little light for her age. She also needed to catch up on her immunizations since she wasn't given anything on her 2nd month by her old pedia. (rawr!)

Therefore, she recommended that Baby Charley take additional Ferlin drops with her Tiki Tiki and Ceelin drops @ 0.5ml. Ferlin contains Ferrous Sulfate (iron), Vit B1, B6, B12, and Folic acid; and this is prescribed for prevention and treatment of iron deficiency in infants and toddlers. She also recommended taking Heraclene which helps form and repair body tissues and stimulate appetite. We just mix the content of the capsule to a 5ml milk before giving it to Charley. We tried mixing it with water, but she hates it. :D

Charley needed to catch up on her Immunizations, and this is the sad part. She was supposed to have received her first shots when she was 2 months, and I don't know why her old pedia didn't require us to have it.

Rawr! Super rawr!

Anyway, Baby Charley received Rotarix orals first. This is a 2-dose immunization that protects babies against rotavirus that could cause feve

r, vomiting, and diarrhea. (NOTE: this does not protect babies from other viruses causing diarrhea; example, amoebiasis)

Afterwards, Baby Charley got her first dose of her 3 5-in-1 vaccine (Pentaxim). It is an active immunization against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, and infections caused by influenza. The shot was given on her right thigh.

We were also given PAracetamol as a preventive measure. We used Baby Kool Fever on her, too, because we felt she was a little feverish when we got home.

Next month, she will receive PCV13 # 1. Yes, that means more gastos for us. *sigh*

Of course, these shots ay ang lakas maka-maharlika, but are completely necessary to protect Baby Charley from various diseases. *yay!*

Baby Charley is only 3 months old, and we still have a looooonnnggggg way to go. Yes, that means, we will be frequenting Makati Med on a different reason this time, and will be seeing more of our pretty pedia, Dra. Caedo more.


Dra. Pamela C. Caedo
Rm 226 Makati Medical Center
Mon - Sat; 9am - 3pm
#888.8999 loc 226
0917.5396.785

Rm 1224 MAB St. Luke's Global
MWFS 3:30 - 6pm
#664.4890 and 789.7700 loc 5224

Follow charley_and_her_teddy in IG

Mommy Wars

One thing I find rather amusing to parents, especially first time mommies, is the way they compare their own babies with other babies especially if the babies share the same gender and of almost the same age.

There was this (really “what-the-heck-kind-of) time when we visited Baby Charley’s paediatrician, Dr. Benny Cruz, in Batangas (before we came back to Makati). One mommy approached us, asking seemingly innocent questions about Baby Charley (her age, name of my doctor, if she’s my first baby).  Soon it became a bragging moment for her.

So we had to listen to almost an hour of, “oh my baby can do this already” and “my baby likes it when…”

We also had to suffer the likes of “Why can’t your baby do this and that already?”

Soon, other mommies would join us saying how bait, how active, how amazing, and blessed, how mestiza, and how (insert adjective here) their babies are.

This is also true with mommies in parenting chatrooms which we frequent because 1) the topics are related to what I’m currently looking for, and 2) we find it funny reading the threads, posts, and comments of Mom Warriors.

Honestly, woman, thank you very much, but I don’t need to know how often you change your baby’s diaper. And seriously, I don’t care how much money your husband brings home everyday.

Don’t get me wrong though, I DO love talking about Baby Charley and her little milestones to close family and friends only as much as possible. I wanna show her off that at 1 month old, you could talk to her and at 2 months, she could roll over, and all those shenanigans our little watermelon does everyday.

However, the whole world does not need to know everything about her. We’re just happy that she’s acting her age (sometimes waaayyy beyond her age pa) and she’s healthy. That’s it. Seriously, you don’t need to know that she wears Drypers when we feel burgis and EQ when we’re pobre.ü

*Follow charley_and_her_teddy @ IG

Team Hernandez Terminology

I have read somewhere that a key to a successful marriage is a pair of happy (crazy!) people. Well, roommate (my hubby) and I wish Baby Charley the best of luck because she belongs to a family of insane people.

My roommate and I have coined some terms that have totally different meanings. These are the things present in our family and mostly Charley-related. Sometimes, we use these as codes when we talk in public.  For example,

1) Chachii - This is our Macbook Pro. We like naming our things so we can safely talk about them in public. For example, it is safer to ask him, "Did you bring Chachii?" while we're riding a public transpo rather than saying, "Did you bring our laptop?"

Orasyon

Chachii is only one of the several things we have named. There's Sammy for my Samsung Galaxy, Junior for his old iPhone 4, and John Lloyd for his new iPhone and his wifi name. Please don't ask why it was named as John Lloyd. Too embarrassing to share.

2) Igorot Dance - There is no way this is related to the dance of our brothers in Ifugao. This just refers to the way we carry Baby Charley especially when she's throwing her one of the millions tantrums. So, we carry Baby Charley facing us with one arm on her pwet and the other arm on her back. We have to bounce her repeatedly - mimicking the Igorot War Dance...I think.

3) Orasyon - This simply means the things Baby Charley does before she sleeps. One of which includes placing her left hand on her head or her forehead.

The other is the Mathematician where she clasps her hands together as if pondering on a tough mathematical equation. We know that when she does her Orasyons, she is going to be asleep soon.

4) 6 pm. You have probably read all about this in my previous posts. This simply means Baby Charley crying non-stop in late afternoon...does not necessarily mean that it falls at 6 pm. Basta she cries for no reason, we call it 6 pm.

5) Vilma Santos - This one of her Orasyons before she sleeps. She needs to hold a small hanky, sometimes her Carter's Bunny Hat, to prepare her to go to sleep. We don't know what is it with holding onto something prior to sleeping, basta if you don't give her her Vilma Santos, she would strip herself naked instead

Puss In Boots

6) Naputok - This is Baby Charley farting, sometimes pooping. When she farts and poops, we could hear a crackling sound; hence, naputok. When this happens, we halt changing her diaper and giving her a bath...just in case she does poop.

7) Exorcist - If you have watched the 70's Exorcist Film, then you know that the most iconic "moves" in the movie is the Scorpion Walk down the stairs. Our child, does that sometimes. When she leans backward, back super bent, stomach protruding, and legs hard straight. We don't know why and how she could do it, but when she does, we make sure we're Tag Team on supporting her back.

8) Watermelon and Bilog - Drawing Baby Charley's face is easy because she's simply a big circle. Like a watermelon. Or the moon.

9) Puss in Boots - Baby Charley's eyes are nakakadaya. Sometimes, they're really small like my Mom's, and often they're really BIG and ROUND...like Puss in Boots'.


For sure, there are still so many things we would be creating as Baby Charley grows up. Right now, these are all we got.

Follow her at charley_and_her_teddy in IG. 

Moving In With Baby Charley

Yay! We've finally moved from our small condo unit in GA Tower to a more spacious unit in Makati. Since my maternity leave was finished, I needed to go back to work soon. That also means we have brought Baby Charley from the comfortable Batangas-living to Makati.

This is a HUGE adjustment for the three of us since 1)we needed to transfer our stuff from Boni to our new unit, 2)we had to adjust our work schedules since someone has to stay with Baby Charley, and 3)Baby Charley will be living in the big city already! With no yaya! *gasp*

suite life of baby Charley

Transferring our new and old stuff from Point A to Point B with Baby Charley could be a challenge. We needed to stop once in a while and double-check if the windows were really tinted (!) so that I could breastfeed and calm her from time to time. Talking to each other is struggle especially when it was already 6pm and we're still on the road.

Remember her 6 pm habit? Yup, even on the road.

Since we couldn't move in right away because the unit still smelled like fresh paint, my room mate (my hubby) and I decided to check-in at Great Eastern for a couple of days just to make sure that all would be ready for Baby Charley. Good thing we were given two (2) big beds so Baby Charley could sleep peacefully on her own.

Enjoying her sleep at our spacious new unit

Having a bare unit is really challenging because room mate and I literally eat AND sleep on the floor. Cable connection right now is not a priority as well. We don't have any essential furniture and appliances yet, so life on the first days was a complete struggle. It still is...a little.


But you know what, we're not complaining at all!

We love the new unit and our new neighborhood. Babies and cats are everywhere!

It's also amazing that we're close to three churches, one being Don Bosco. Not to mention, Assumption is just one jeepney ride away, so are Landmark, Greenbelt, Waltermart, SM Hypermarket, Cash and Carry, and Makati Med.

Right now, we're still learning the ropes of living just the three of us. Baby Charley, roommate, and I have to be extra patient and loving with each other since this is a completely new beginning for all of us.ü