autumn in sydney: four months and counting

another four weeks have passed by...

pregnancy and baby updates:

we finally met with the hematologist. i tested negative for lupus but it was confirmed that i have an autoimmune disease called ITP (idiopathic thryombocytopenic purpura or immune thryombocytopenic purpura ) which makes my platelets fluctuate. then and there she had blood tests done again and the results were actually positive since my platets went up to 76,000. the downside is i have to get blood tests done every three weeks and once it reaches 20,000 i have to take steroids or have to undergo platelet transfusion. as early as now, she already told me to prepare myself for the delivery given that i can't have any epidural (epidural can only be administered when one's platelet count is at least 90,000). so it doesn't really leave me much choice except to have either a normal natural delivery or a cesarean under general anesthesia. you see, my mama delivered all of her six babies normally so i'm thinking i should be able to delivery normally as well. not that i'm planning to have an epidural but not having that option just in case scares me.
we had our monthly check-up and everything is fine. saw our baby again and it was moving so much (although i haven't really felt anything consistent yet)! oddly enough, even if my tummy popped out already i didn't gain any weight last month, not that i'm complaining... :-) we also informed our ob of our planned trip to manila on december. she gave us the go signal to travel but to see her and the hematologist before we leave and after we arrive.
since we were in the hospital already we booked our 18-20 week morphology scan on the 30th of november. we'll know our baby's gender by then!
speaking of gender, last halloween my officemate did this wedding ring pendulum on me to determine our baby's gender. according to this, it's pretty accurate. i won't disclose muna what it predicted but let's just say it pretty much is what everybody is hoping for and guessing. but i got a different result on the chinese calendar. we'll see...
my parents just came back from the us and apparently my mama went crazy shopping for baby clothes! second day pa lang ata nila dun she texted me na that she got some stuff i asked her to buy and lots of clothes! sana lang tama hula nya on our baby's gender para magamit the clothes she bought. when i told her we were pregnant sure na sya on the gender of our baby!
eric and i have started thinking about our baby's baptism. initially we were deadset in having it in manila after three months after the birth since our family and friends are there and we want them present during the event. but then we thought that if we plan to be in manila around july next year and then come back again december the same year (nangangarap lang naman...) it might not be practical not to mention very expensive. so we're starting to look for possible places we can have the baptism here in sydney instead. i even already commissioned veluz to do the baptismal gown when i got to talk to her a couple of months ago when she was here! sana lang she won't be too busy by that time...
the husband has started to call day care centres and visiting them. i know that he actually listed our baby already in some of the centres waiting list (one day care centre has an 18-month waiting list!). so far around our area, average charge is $70/day while centres around where i work charges $90/day.
been going crazy shopping for baby einstein cds. so far i've got baby mozart, baby bach, baby vivaldi, baby neptune, baby galileo and the playtime music box. i plan to get the boxed set dvds from manila on december (greenhills lang okay na as long as it's clear) to add to my baby's collection. i also got the mozart effect for myself as well.

we're hoping to buy the car seat and cot soon so we're waiting for sales in babies galore and toys 'r us. unfortunately, graco pack n' play playards are very limited here so we only have about two or three models to choose from (unlike in the us). i actually looked into buying one from the us and have it shipped here but it's coming out really expensive so might as well get one from here instead (i really wanted one with a pivoting changing table sana). we're choosing between these two models (baby einstein pa din):

i recently bought curtains and valance for the nursery and have decided on kidsline barn yard theme. i'm really hoping i could get some wall border. now i'm obsessed with everything barn yard...

other updates:

we got tickets for the 14th of june phantom of the opera production in sydney next year! at least i’m guaranteed a date out already after our baby arrives. :-P we already made arrangements with aris and jen to look after our baby (we’ll look after enzo when they watch it the week before) or we can just get a baby sitter. i’m really excited since the last time i watched this was ten years ago!
i came home one day with surprises waiting for me from eric. first there was this 30gb 1mp hard drive handycam (we wanted to buy one so we can take videos when the baby arrives),

then when i went to our bedroom there was this 26" u series bravia lcd for our bedroom (eric wanted to have a tv in our bedroom for the longest time but i was against it since oprah said the bedroom should only be used for sleeping and sex...hahahahaha :-P but since i always fall asleep in the couch watching tv in our family room might as well get a tv in our bedroom!)

and to top it all off, when i went to the guest room, there was this 40" xbr series full hd bravia lcd for our family room!

my husband went panic buying in sony (thanks to my cousin pete who works for sony and was able to get us discounted staff discount price on the items)! i have to admit i was a bit shocked with all his secret purchases but i know he wanted to get these before and was just waiting for them to go on sale. natakot siguro that he can't buy these kind of stuff anymore when the baby comes! he kept on telling me that the digicam is for the baby anyway and the tv for the bedroom is for me so i can watch tv when the baby and i are in the room...yeah right. anyway, that weekend we went to buy a new tv cabinet for his brand spanking new lcd. as for the one in our bedroom, we're still waiting for the electrician to come since we plan to either mount it on the wall or ceiling.
after almost two years, we finally got the cornice fitted in our kitchen. our kitchen is finally complete! eric has to paint the cornice though and retouch the ceiling and bulkhead.