Kat and I have been fairly busy over the
past month. I made a brief foray back into a work environment, taking part in a
management systems training event in Manila as part of the delivery team. It
was quite a lot of fun and I was even described as “an expert” in one
particular field; whilst I am grateful for such a high level of trust, I am not
entirely sure that I would put myself on the expert shelf….
In the meantime Kat has continued working,
although she has cancelled some clinics so that she can take some rest. We have
also been continuing the on-going battle with her blood sugar levels, having
had a consultation with an endocrinologist who prescribed a different insulin
treatment protocol we have been getting close to the more ideal levels. You
will notice I say close to, as we are both guilty of relaxing control
occasionally, although I have to say that Kat quite stubborn sometimes and has
a larger portion of rice or potatoes than she should. We noticed something
quite odd, some meals which would be thought of as being high in sugar or
starch, don’t always have a bad effect on her blood sugar, one such is Bon Chon
Chicken, which it would seem she can eat a whole serving of and still have a
CBG reading of less than 140mg/dl, meanwhile a bowl of muesli (and only 80g)
can cause it to shoot up to around 160. Of course this does not mean that she
can eat fried chicken all of the time despite the fact that she might like to.
All of this is of course to benefit our soon
to be born baby, B2 who is now (at the time of writing this) 18
weeks, so nearly half way through the pregnancy. We have had another
consultation with the OB at Asian Hospital, she is much happier with Kat’s
blood sugar as mentioned earlier. As we had the consult at just over 16 weeks,
we took a chance and asked for another ultrasound scan; with the hope that we
could see the gender of our baby. Our OB had just returned from a trip to
Europe, where she had attended a conference and also run a marathon, after some
small talk, she commenced the scan, warning me that I was not allowed to video
the procedure, sadly. After only a few moments she was able to see that we were
having a boy, she pointed out the area on the screen and marked the image
capture. Both Kat and I were very happy, not just because we are having a boy,
but knowing the sex is going to allow us to plan the nursery and other
purchases that we are going to make over the next few months. Kat’s parents
were ecstatic, especially her dad as he has wanted a boy for ages having four
daughters, we suspect that his new grandson maybe a little spoiled….
Now that we knew that B2 is a
boy, we had to discuss names a bit more seriously. We had both suggested some
earlier, a couple of mine had been shot down in flames straight away, I mean
what’s wrong with Edwina?? But seriously, we both want to honour our parents or
other names, which have been in the family for some time. I also had a lesson
in how Filipino names are constructed, the “second name” is not necessarily the
one after the first or Christian name, but is in fact the one before the
surname and is, by convention your mother’s maiden name. Not only that, but if
you are female, when you marry, your middle name changes from your mother’s
maiden name to your original surname; thus Kat went from being Katherine Tayag
Reodica to now being Katherine Reodica Byrne and has dropped the Tayag. The
upshot of all this was that we have decided upon Patrick Edward which uses two
names which have been in my family, Edward from my father’s side and Patrick to
commemorate my mother Patricia. It is also possible that B2 could be
born on or around St Patrick’s Day on the 17th March (due date is
the 15th), which would be cool. I am hoping (like most parents have
in the past and probably pointlessly) to avoid the traditional Pinoy nickname
thing, which tends to be a repeated name, such as Noy Noy, Bong Bong or Pret
Pret so I am making sure that Paddy is the name everyone knows him by in
preparation for this.
B2 is now at the stage where Kat
can feel sometimes feel him moving. We are taking the opportunity when in bed
at night to play some soothing music, Enya or classical mostly. He is not yet
big enough from me to feel his movement, but I am hoping it won’t be much longer
before I can.
On Monday Oct 13th we had a scan
just to check the heart rate, as Kat has many friends and colleagues it is easy
to get a quick scan done on demand. Although not using the most modern
equipment at this particular clinic we are able to see several details
including B2’s nose, cheeks and knees (knobbly), all of which are
distinctly Caucasian, which makes Kat very happy as she wants a little me; I am
not so sure since I have memories of what a little scamp I was and I don’t
fancy having to deal with all the associated grief. In fact the closer it gets,
the more worried I am that I shall have to go through the same trouble my
parents had, maybe that is karma or something like that.
I am continuing to develop my culinary
skills, progressing now to omelettes and poached eggs now, which I can
apparently do quite well despite not eating eggs myself. I have also
experimented with meatballs in tomato sauce rather than a straight Bolognaise
type of sauce with meat, it is actually quite interesting and very flavoursome.
I guess I am spending too much time watching cooking programmes on TV. Kat is
loving all this, even if she is not allowed to eat too much of it as she is on
a more controlled diet, even though she sometimes goes off plan….. and I am the
one called naughty!!
A beneficial side effect of all this more
healthy cooking is that I am loosing weight, I am now below 80kg for the first
time in many years and am hoping to hit 75kg by the time Patrick is born, which
is a more ideal weight for my height and build. Kat is worried that I am
becoming too slim, but I still have a bit of a belly so I am not too worried
about that.
Something I am grateful for, at least for
the next two years, is that I can delay the start of the Christmas season in
the Byrne household until sometime around the end of November. Here in the
Philippines the Christmas season starts at the end of August (at the beginning
of the “ ‘ber “ months) and we already have carols being played in the malls
and Christmas decorations are on sale in many of the shops. However, I am
keenly aware that once Paddy becomes more aware that my respite will be over
and I shall have to suffer the interminable never ending “Season of Goodwill”
for 4 months. I am going to enjoy the relative peace and quiet for as long as I
can and yeah, “Bah humbug” ;-)
