Originally published on Oct 22, 2017.

Being confined for 3 weeks, then put on bedrest for another 4 weeks you have to find ways to entertain yourself. Here are some of the ways how we did that.

1. Mae had to undergo a lot of ultrasounds, performed by different doctors. And whenever the test would reach the part where they would see the sex of the baby, the doctor would always ask:

“Alam na po ba ang sex ng baby?” (Do you already know the sex of the baby?)

We would respond with a “Yes”.

They in turn would say, “Girl”.

This was the routine conversation over maybe about 7 ultrasounds.

I wondered though, what if we responded in a different way like:

“Alam na po ba ang sex ng baby?”

“Yes.”

“Girl.”

“HA?!?! Sabi sa amin Boy! Nakabili na kami ng mga damit, puro blue!” (What!? We were told it was a boy!)

2a. The hospital has a lot of interesting protocols. One of them is when nurses give medicine. They first have to ask the patients name and birthday to confirm that they are giving the right medicine to the right patient.

From the perspective of the patient though, this was kind of weird because the same nurse, can ask you for your name several times a day. Even when Mae was still groggy from sedation, or when it was time for a 4am dose, they would still ask for the patient’s name and birthday.

Not everyone followed that protocol though 100%. Sometimes, a nurse would hand the medication over to Mae first, then ask for her their name after the fact.

I wonder how the nurse would react if Mae all of a sudden gave a different name after she drank the medicine.

“Juanita Navarro”.

2b. Sometimes Mae would request for me to get things out of the bag, like a comb or toothbrush. But before I hand them over, I would also ask for her name and birthday.

3. After 3 weeks, we were discharged and finally allowed to go home. We decided to stay in Alabang, so that it would just be a 15 minute drive to the hospital (even with traffic).

After all we didn’t want Baby’s birth certificate to read: “Place of Birth: Dona Soledad1”.

4 There was one problem at the Alabang home though. A few weeks before, a neighbor gave Daddy a live chicken. And as all chickens do, it would crow around 430am.

Normally, this would be okay, except that one of Mae’s medicines needed to be strictly taken every 6 hours. Plus before taking it, we had to make sure that her blood pressure was above 90/60.

This meant that every day at 4am, we needed to get up, be awake enough to take a BP measurement, then drink medicine, then hopefully sleep before the chicken starts crowing.

Mae made several requests that Daddy take the chicken back to their province in Bataan since it was really disrupting our sleep.

Both of us celebrated when Daddy was finally able to get the chicken home, and there would be no crowing at 430am.

The next day at 4am, after I had taken her BP, and Mae had taken her medicine and was trying to sleep, I searched for a YouTube video of a rooster crowing, and just played it in full volume.

Mae immediately made grunting noises clearly frustrated and annoyed. So I immediately stopped the crowing sounds.

The next morning, Mae asked me, “Hindi ko alam kung nananaginip lang ba ako, pero parang may manok yung kapit bahay. What are the chances na same day inuwi ni Daddy yung manok, meron agad ulit bago.” (“I’m not sure if I’m dreaming, but I think our neighbor has a new chicken.”)

5. Before sleeping, Mae and I would sometimes tell Baby random stuff. One night, our topic was what Baby would be when she grows up.

After a few playful suggestions, I then went near Mae’s bump and said, “Baby, you will look like Mommy, be cute, healthy and pretty. Then go to school and graduate a Magna Cum Laude, while being an athlete and student leader. After you graduate you’ll work for a multinational company while starting a business on the side.”

Baby must have understood us, because that night, she kept kicking more than usual, not letting Mae sleep.

Meanwhile, I was in bed sleeping soundly.

Read Part 5: “Mika” here.

Footnotes:

1 – Dona Soledad is a street in Paranaque City that is notoriously known for traffic jams. It’s only 3.7km long but can take you 1-2 hours just to go through it during rush hours.