Missing In Action

The week has been busy. With Christmas and our trip to Baliwag, Bulacan. We just got home. We'll update the blog with stories and pics. Perhaps tomorrow.

What day is it?

We fell into a routine, Obiwan and I. This is what our day usually looks like.

12pm - Obiwan wakes up to eat.

1230pm - He finishes eating and goes to sleep while I eat lunch while watching Eat Bulaga.

330pm - Obiwan wakes up to eat then goes to sleep after. I blog.

630pm - Obiwan wakes up to eat, but doesn't go back to sleep right away.

8pm - Obiwan finally falls asleep. I watch TV.

930pm - Obiwan wakes up to eat then goes to sleep after. I sleep as well.

1230am - Obiwan wakes up to poop then eat then goes to sleep after. I stay awake and blog or browse the internet.

330am - Obiwan wakes up to eat then goes to sleep after. I stay awake.

630am - Obiwan wakes up to eat then if the sun is out, we go outside. We sleep after.

930am - Obiwan wakes up to eat then he bathes then he sleeps.

It's all we do the whole day. I don't even know what day it is because of the monotony of everything. If he's asleep, I sometimes take pictures but I already have too many pics of him sleeping. When he's awake on the other hand, I'm too busy to take pictures.

Other Obiwan updates:

He hasn't smiled (not consciously) . 

He can't see yet. 

His cries are louder and more frequent. 

He has the hiccups 63 times a day. 

He goes through around 48 diapers a day. 

He drinks 3 ounces of milk per feeding. 

He burps like an adult. 

Half of the time, he's a light sleeper ("sleeping like a baby" doesn't always apply to him).

Obiwan Goes to Doc

Obiwan just came from his first doctor's appointment today. We went to see Dr. A Nuguid in his clinic in Libis. This is Ben's first trip outside of the house since he arrived from the hospital. He slept the whole way in the car.

At the clinic, he was given a shot. He cried for about a minute then he was quiet. He's very calm the whole time.

Sleepy Sleeperson III

Some left over pictures of Obiwan sleeping.

Mr. Cranky Pants

Obiwan is starting to become cranky. Last week, he'd just fall asleep by himself after feeding time. Recently however, it takes about an hour for him to fall asleep. We'd have to carry him, dance with him, sing to him, let him lie on his back, turn him over on his stomach, carry him again, massage him, etc. All this before he gets tired of crying and falls asleep.

Tomorrow, I'm going to get him a pacifier to try to see if it makes a difference. We were trying to do away with a pacifier but if it would make him sleep faster then I guess a pacifier every now and then is ok.

Last week, it was all pretty easy. All I needed to do was to make sure I'm awake when he asked for his bottle. This week, having a baby is a little bit harder.

Obiwan Gained Weight!

Obiwan was born 5.25 lbs. After 12 days, he's now 6 lbs!

Hep, hep...

Obiwan and his Lola

Here's a picture of my mom holding Obiwan. My mom said she doesn't want to be called Lola or Grandma. I think it hasn't sunk in yet. But they look cute together. (Yes, my Photoshop skills need improvement.)

Sleepy Sleeperson II

I can't resist taking Obiwan's picture when he's sleeping. He's so peaceful. He looks like he's so tired and that all he wants to do is sleep.

Obiwan's First Bath

What's left of Obiwan's umbilical cord fell off two days ago which meant that he's now able to take a bath. He hasn't bathed since he was born and we were just restricted to cleaning him with a wet face towel.

Yesterday, we were able to give Obiwan his first bath. He was very cooperative throughout the whole bathing process. It looked like he enjoyed it. The video below shows part 1 of his first bath. YouTube didn't allow part 2 because it was too long. Please excuse the cinematography. The cameraperson (Obiwan's Auntie Sasha) moves a lot while shooting the video.

Obiwan Peed on Me

I was changing Obiwan's diaper earlier. I took the wet diaper off and was in the process of getting the new diaper ready when Obiwan started peeing. The rubber mat he was on was getting pee all over it and I had to lift him for him not to get wet with his own pee. He stopped and I was ready to continue changing him. 

Then he started to pee again, still without the new diaper on. This time he peed high enough to get my shorts wet. I swear, I've never been this happy to be peed on. Well I wasn't so much happy than not angry. I guess it comes with the role.

Major Setback

This is very frustrating. My phone to laptop cable doesn't work! I have tons of pictures on my phone which I can't post here.

Baby Talk

I remember hearing about this before but as I wasn't a father then, I didn't have a use for it. Now that I have Obiwan, I thought it would be useful. I searched the internet for these baby sounds and found them in DunstanBaby.com. OMG! I've become a mother!

Anyway, the article said that there's a way to identify what 0-3 month old babies need/want when they cry. They utter a sound before they start crying hysterically.

Here's the list:

1. EH - "I need to burp."
2. NEH - "I'm hungry."
3. OWH - "I'm sleepy."
4. HEH - "Please change my diaper." or "I feel uncomfortable."
5. EAIRH - "I need to fart."

Now I haven't tried to see if Ben says these but I'll be keeping my ears open and find out. Hopefully it makes motherhood fatherhood easier.

Obiwan has a Fansite

Ninang Mady posted these pictures on her Multiply website which I grabbed and reposted here.

He's as big as my head!

And he's as big as my hand!

He just woke up.

Yawning.

Yoohoo...

It's like his eyelids open and close independently from each other. Hehe.

Baby Shower Flashback

Here are the pics from Mady's camera of the baby shower held Oct 31, 2008. It was held at Dinky's in Pasig City. 

Group pic (from left to right): Pagli, Ivy Mogs, Mic, Me, Chonx and Dairy

(L to R) Pagli, Mogs, Chonx and me.

(L to R) Mogs, Mic, Chonx and me.

Chonx, Me and Pau

Me and Mady

Not seen in pictures are Alvs, Marco and Paul Cheng via phone patch. (If I missed anyone, please tell me.)

Sleepy Sleeperson I

Obiwan probably sleeps more than I do! It's all he ever does. He doesn't want to play yet. The bulk of his pictures are of him sleeping. 

The Sagittarius Baby

I got this from Horoscope.com. I'm not into Astrology but I guess it comes with being a father. I just copied the article, my comments are in Blue italics.

SAGITTARIUS BABY:

The Sagittarius baby will surprise you with just how speedily he or she seems to learn to crawl out of their play pen and start clambering on everything and anything they can find. I can't wait for him to start crawling. I hope he starts crawling before I have to go back to work.

Sagittarius children are the most physically adventurous of the zodiac, and often will be walking with confidence long before their peers. They are also hungry little people and you wonder where they put all that food until you see the sheer energy it takes to keep up with them! That's true. He isn't satisfied with just one bottle. But he wouldn't need that much energy because he's asleep when he's not eating. One of Sagittarius’ most endearing characteristics is their absolute honesty. I hope this is true. No one likes a liar. Especially the father.

They are inquisitive and playful so you can expect to find all sorts of interesting doodles on your best furniture as well new uses for your most expensive cosmetics. However, as soon as they have redecorated your bedroom they will be so cute in how they tell you exactly what they have done that you will find it impossible not to smile. Aaaawwwww. C'mon Obiwan, grow up now!

Mr. Chicken Legs

Maybe after a couple of weeks, he'd have fatty baby legs.

Obiwan had a visitor today

Ninang Mady Beldia and Tito Marco Racelis visited Obiwan earlier here at Novaliches. Ben was asleep most of the time they were here but he woke up because he was hungry. He was very hungry and he downed an ounce and a half of milk. I forgot to take their picture. Maybe next time.

He's as strong as a Jedi

Yesterday, Obiwan was lying on his stomach and his head was turned to the left. Lo and behold, he lifted his head and turned to his right! He shouldn't have been able to do that until he was a month old. Then when I was holding him trying to make him burp and his head was resting on my shoulder, he lifted it for a few seconds.

I didn't have enough time to take a picture but he's pretty strong. I hope he becomes a Jedi when he grows up.

Obiwan goes home to Novaliches

Obiwan spent 2 days in the hospital after being born. Those 2 days were mostly filled with going back and forth from the room to the billing dept, admissions, cashier, bank, my mother, office, nursery, etc. I felt like I walked the length of a marathon during those 2 days trying to follow up on things. But everything stopped when the nursery was open for viewing. Then I'd stand in front of the window until I was asked to leave.

Then the day finally came when we were all set to go home. Obiwan will be going home to my parent's house in Novaliches. We didn't even have a place to put him in so my mom bought a crib and some baby stuff the night before he was scheduled to leave the hospital.

During the ride home, Obiwan was in my arms. I've never thought about how many potholes the city had until that day. With every pothole we'd go over, I'd cringe and hope that they don't shake the baby too much. I was paranoid but I guess it came with the new role. Good thing was that he was asleep during the whole trip.

Finally, we arrived at home. The crib was ready and everyone was excited to see the new addition to the family.

Happy 0th Birthday Obiwan

Obiwan "Ben" H. Del Rosario was born on December 5, 2008 at 7:25am in Makati Medical Center, Amorsolo St., Makati City. Incidentally, it's the same hospital where I was born.

Here are some of his first pictures I took of Obiwan. Some of the clearer pictures are still with Dairy. I'll post them as soon as they're available. I'll give a more detailed account of everything that happened soon.

A Children's Party

I just came from a children's birthday party at KFC yesterday. There were a little more than 10 children and around 20 adults there. There were several games and a lot of food.

While I was there, a thought came to me. I'm going to throw this kind of party soon. But I want to do it differently...

My son's birthday party will definitely have a magician. The magician has to be in a suit and be very suave or he can look like Gandalf the Grey. There will be balloon animals and balloon hats for the children made by a clown. I want a clown that looks like Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker. I'd rather not serve spaghetti and chicken. Instead we'll have sisig and garlic rice. Instead of a cake, he'll have several kinds of pies. Finally, when it turns dark, there will be fireworks.

I would want my son to actually remember all of this, so we'll probably have this kind of party on his 7th birthday.

Ang Tanging Ama Blog

I started this blog with the intention of documenting everything that happens with the baby. Since I'll be updating this constantly, I'm planning of having it hosted instead of this free blogger site that I'm using. Hopefully the earnings from ads will pay for the hosting and domain.

The new blog should be up before the baby is born. Now I need to think of 2 names, both for the baby and the new blog.

Hey baby, what's your name?

It's kind of sad to always be referring to my son as "my baby". I need to decide on a name before he arrives. I have a list of options but I'm still considering other possibilities. His name will probably come from the list below and I've posted this list on a poll on this blog.

(The list is alphabetical and not in order of my preference)
(The number at the end of the list item is the number of Google search results for that name, at the time of this writing)

Alexander Del Rosario - I love how Alexandre Dumas writes. I've only read 1 of his books but I've read it around 15 times. I did change the spelling of the name because Alexandre Del Rosario looks pretentious or at least looks like a typographical error. 453,000
Ben Del Rosario - It's simple and no one will mispronounce his name. It sounds strong. It's supposed to be a nickname for my other option but I included it as a separate possibility. My only qualms about it is that "Ross' son Ben" sounds too Friendsy; and when searched, a Benjamin Del Rosario was found guilty of raping his own daughter-in-law. That news may have already been forgotten in 20 years but it's the first search result right now. 553,000.
Edmond Del Rosario - Edmund Dantes is the main protagonist in The Count of Monte Cristo. With everything he went through, he still came out on top. 83,700
Nathan Del Rosario - The name sound cool but it's subject to mispronunciation because of the "th". 104,000
Obiwan Del Rosario - Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ben Kenobi) is one of the few Star Wars characters to appear in all 6 of the Star Wars movies. It's unique and one wouldn't easily forget meeting someone named Obiwan. It also follows a sort of coincidental series as my father's name is Oscar and my given name is Oliver. 2,580

Baby's College Fund

A few people have told me that I need to start an educational plan for the baby. Some people even start an educational plan even before they have a baby or even before a baby is conceived, so I'm guessing I'm a tad late in starting one. But then again, I never had one and I'm just fine.

Still, this is my preliminary plan for a college fund. I earn a little bit with ads on my blogs. Half of it can go to the college fund. I also placed a Donate button on this blog and hopefully by the time he goes to college there's some donation in it. Wikipedia only had their Donate button less than 2 weeks and they're already up by more than $2 million in donations.

When my baby finds this blog when he's old enough to read, he'll see that as of this writing I have no idea on how to raise him. Son, it may just look like parents know what they are doing but we actually don't most of the time. We just guess pretty accurately.

My first daddy moment

While on my 4th hour of overtime work earlier this morning I received a text from the mother's roommate asking for a call. I called and I was told that 2 OB-Gynes advised for the mother to be confined because she may go into labor.

This caused a major internal panic and a lot of things came rushing in my head. The major thoughts going through my mind was the fact that I haven't told my parents and the impending premature cost of the whole ordeal. My baby was also 2 months shy of the complete 9 months and coming out early may not be the best for him. However, I have literally no clue about medical conditions of newborns and it's futile to think about something I really don't have control over. I was concerned but worrying about it won't help at all. Lastly, I don't have a name for him yet. He may end up as Baby Boy Del Rosario.

There was a ton of things to do at work which I haven't even started yet but with everything going on at that time, I left everything and I was immediately out the door.

I didn't want to be alone at the time so I tried to call a few friends. Dairy and Ivy were available and they agreed to accompany me to the hospital. I also called my older sister while I was waiting for them for moral support. My sister stayed with me while I decided to go ahead and tell my mom. This is how the phone conversation went as far as how I remember it, (translated to English).

Ross: Hi Ma, are you busy?
Mama: Not so much, why?
Ross: I have something to tell you...
Mama: What is it?
Ross: Ummm...
Mama: What?
Ross: It's kinda hard to say...
Mama: Just say it.
Ross: You're going to have a grandchild.
Mama: (laughter)

She asked me some of the normal questions anyone asks me when I break the news to them but she didn't sound angry, disappointed, or sane. I was actually surprised of her reaction. It was the last thing I expected. I was thinking maybe it hasn't sinked in. But in retrospect, I may have just been putting too much thought into it. When I first knew I was going to be a father, I think I just thought to myself, "Ah, I'm going to be a father. Ok."

My mom's primary concern was if my son was going to stay with us, we should make it legal so the mother can't take him away from us if she changes her mind. But aside from that, I really think she was excited to be a grandmother. That's one concern down.

Next, I was concerned about the cost of the whole thing. I was expecting to get my quarterly bonus by Nov15 and the 13th month pay by Nov30. Premature delivery would actually change all that. It was however solved by my mother because she already knows I don't have the money yet and she said it won't be a problem. Problem solved.

She did remind me that we don't have any baby stuff. The only thing I had was a set of baby clothes from my co-worker Wendy. When Ivy arrived, we went directly to Landmark to buy some baby stuff. We bought a lot of stuff. I would not have known what to buy if not for input from friends and the salesladies. We bought newborn diapers, feeding bottles, nipples, baby oil, baby powder, alcohol, a rubber mat, cloth diapers, a blanket, receiving blankets, bonnets, mittens, booties, a piece of cloth to put over the belly button, bibs, burping cloth-like thing, clothes without sleeves, clothes with short sleeves, clothes with long sleeves and cute little pants with no holes for the feet. And that's just what I remember.

So we finally arrived at Makati Medical Center. The mother was there as were her 2 housemates and I was with Ivy and Dairy. It was a looooong day of waaaaiiiittttiiiing for all of us. We waited for her turn to be seen by the doctor. She was advised that she can get an injection of some sort so the baby would stay in the womb. Then we waited to see if it would take effect. Symptoms were good and it didn't look like we were going to have the baby then. Then we waited for the doctor again. We were given the go ahead to go home. Then we waited for the elevator. Then we waited to get her prescription filled out. Then we waited for a taxi. And we're home.

All the while we were waiting, my mom told my dad, and our extended relatives. Surprisingly for me, they were all excited. They were probably as excited as I am. This baby is very lucky to be part of a very understanding and loving family.

It was a false alarm but it jumpstarted everything for me. It forced me to tell my parents everything. It made me buy baby stuff. And it showed me that I really wasn't going to be a single dad. My whole family and all my friends will be there. Actually, they won't only be there for me. They will be there for my son. And that's what's more important.

Pre-Baby Shower

All right. First things first. I'm going to throw a baby shower on Friday Oct 31, 2008.

Only after I planned it did I know that it was Halloween and that baby showers weren't supposed to be thrown by the parents. That's my first boo-boo at fatherhood. Still, my situation isn't normal and you can expect that this isn't the only mistake I'll make at being a father.

I'll be posting pictures here after.

Introduction

I'm about to be a father. Not everyone knows about it yet. Even my parents are clueless that they're going to have a grandson by the end of this year.

My baby's mother may give me custody. I'm excited and very scared. I can barely take care of myself, let alone a newborn. I need to have a plan...