All this happened in a fraction of a minute...
Content

     Five ...
Antsy 

     Ten ...   
Agitated 

     Fifteen ...
Unruly 

     Twenty ...
Raging

     "WAAAAAAHHHH!"

     That's my boy! Moody just like Mommy!!!

P.S. I have an excuse --- it's the post-partum hormones.

     The lady who cleans my house doesn't seem to know what's good for her. 

     When I was pregnant, she asked me what we were planning to name the baby.

ME: (mood: EXCITED) "Bruce Cougar." 

HER: "Ay, ang panget!" ("Yikes, how ugly!")

     POW! That was probably what it felt like to be sucker-punched by Batman.  

     
HER: "Kung nagkaanak ako ng lalake, ang gusto kong pangalan ay Jacob Eleazar." ("If I had a boy, I would have named him Jacob Eleazar.")

ME: (mood: BOILING) "My husband and I already agreed we didn't want the name Jacob. And Eleazar is ... (uglier than Cougar, but I thought better than saying it out loud) ... not my type."

     After I gave birth and still didn't know that I was starting to develop edema, my housekeeper struck again!

HER: "Ang legs mo, ang taba-taba! Pero maganda, kasi maputi. Parang si Kris Aquino." ("Your legs are so fat! But it looks nice because it's so white, like Kris Aquino's.")
Kris Aquino (daughter of former President Cory)

     It left me at a loss for words because I wasn't sure if I just received an insult or a compliment. In my mind, I imagined firing her, or strangling her, or skinning her alive.

     Then I felt better.

     Incidentally, the legs and everything else (except for the two girls) are getting thinner ...      
Thanksgiving 2009 

     ... at least compared to Kelly Clarkson (whom I love, by the way, especially after she ripped Kanye). Kelly seems to be wearing the same Sam Edelman shoes. 


     As for the housekeeper, she gets to keep the job. It keeps me honed on how to exercise self-restraint.

mood: annoyed tags: bruce cougar paulson, housekeeper, pregnancy, shoes

     I was telling my Mom that I didn't know that breastfeeding takes so much away from a person. 

     Imagine my routine at night --- I breastfeed the baby (which can take forever when he's sleepy), burp him, swaddle, rock him till he zonks out, pump the leftover milk, transfer the milk into containers, court sleep ... and by the time I doze off, it's about ready for Cougar to wake up again. 

     Even when the nanny is around while I catch up on a few Zzzzs, I wake up every two hours to pump. There are also the physical symptoms like dysmenorrhea when the baby is sucking and hot flushes. Then there's the occasional sore nipples and clogged mik ducts that could lead to abscess and mastitis. 

     My friend Angel said that she picked her battles which was why she enjoyed Chloe's newborn stage. After 3 days of breastfeeding, she decided that it's not for her and she didn't feel any less bonded with her daughter. Her $350 top-of-the-line Medela went to waste. It is sitting on the shelf to this day, a testament to the spirit that was willing but the flesh that was weak.     


     But how do I find the heart not to breastfeed when my little baby goes berserk the moment he sees Mommy's nipple, like as if he were a cat that was given a massive amount of catnip?

mood: happy tags: babies, breastfeeding, dr. angel vitug-tanaka, parenthood