Almost halfway through the pregnancy, finding out whether B2 is a boy or girl......

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 17^th March (due date is the 15^th), 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 13^th 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” ;-)