Real Men surprise their dates

Dove has a romantic online campaign for this special day. A few real men were asked if they can sing to their special loved ones on a group date set up in a restaurant. The campaign is already featured in TV Patrol today. Dove poses the question, "How do real men care?" and conducted series of interviews on how men take care of their spouses or girl friends.

Learning starts inside the mother's womb

While scanning some TED talks over the weekend, I am captivated by  Annie Murphy Paul's presentation on "Learning before we're born". Annie is a science reporter who interviewed dozens of experts and scientists about the learning curve of fetus while growing inside mother's womb. She said the fetus listens to his/her mom's voice. 

This TED presentation is very meaningful for me as my wife is about to give birth to our first born child. With the case studies presented by Annie, we would love to communicate our concerns crystal clear as a couple and hopefully our language will inspire and motivate the soon-to-be-child inside my wife's womb. 

What captured me with her research is the story of pregnant women who gathered during the 9-11 incident. When the babies were born, they experienced post traumatic syndrome due to the bad effects of 9-11.

A Valentine chocolate from Sapporo

My Valentine gift for my wife is a chocolate. We are not talking about Hershey's or your sweet M&Ms. When my ship pulled in to Sapporo, I bought Chocolate Royce, the only chocolate that's being produced in Sapporo, Japan. 

There's a chocolate factory of Royce in Sapporo but we don't have the chance to visit it as we only dropped by at the Sapporo Beer Museum and the Odori Park where the ice carvings are lined up for the international ice festival. Though I stayed for a day in Sapporo, I made sure to hunt for that chocolate. We went to three department stores the whole day to find that chocolate, till we reached a certain store that only sells the delicacy in the area. 

Chocolate Royce is one of a kind. A quick search on Google reveals that it was founded in Sapporo in 1983. "By gradually acquiring better techniques and enriching our experiences, we are dedicated to making real good chocolate of world quality in Hokkaido where the climate and the clean air are suitable for making confectioneries," according to its official website. 

Talk about the price, this one is very expensive. I bought a whole box for 3,300 yen or 44 dollars.  That 44 dollars already costs a big plastic bag of Twix, Hersheys, Toblerone, and any other famous chocolate. 

My wife is pregnant now and I think she is craving for Chocolate Royce.

Anniversary

My wife and I are celebrating our second anniversary as a couple. A year ago, I proposed to her in Forth Bonifacio. Love you my wife! Happy anniversary.

Thank God!

Blogs and social media about pregnancy journey

In the weeks to come, will be posting life experiences about handling pregnancy and giving birth to a child. Of course, I'm talking about the baby inside my wife's tummy. I will be blogging and uploading photos and videos on how Good News is being conceived and about to get out of the world come September 2012. 

If the Mayans and those who believe count on the world's end on December 2012, my wife and I count for a new beginning on September 2012. This is an exciting journey.

 

Away from momm'y tummy

We have to accept the fact: I will be away from my Bicolana wife a month until she gives birth to our first-born baby. Until we have decided on baby's name, we will call him/her Good News. 

My ship is forward deployed that means it is always underway or out of see to visit foreign places. (I cannot discuss when and where will we be for operation security purposes). But there are still some weeks and months in which I can spend time with my wife and baby inside her tummy. Though I thank God, because on her due date, I will be home.

While I'm wondering the deep waters of the Pacific and visiting strange places, I know my Bicolana can handle the situation. Though she will be alone most of the time, I believe that the brave woman in her will be unleashed.

What we can reveal now? The due date is September 29, 2012.

My wife is pregnant

Less than a month in Japan, my Bicolana wife grabbed a 4-inch rectangular piece of stick and dipped it in a cup of her sample urine. That stick will reveal whether life formation will occur on her womb in the coming months. Few minutes later, my wife found out two parallel lines appeared on the cardboard paper. 

Just a simple stick popularly known as a pregnancy test kit indicated that my wife is positive for pregnancy as the parallel lines confirmed. There were a bunch of pregnancy test kits given to me by a hospital corpsman aboard our ship. That kit actually measures the amount of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCb) on her urine. According to American pregnancy.org, this hormone is produced by a placenta shortly after the embryo attaches to the uterine lining and builds up rapidly in the body in the first few days of pregnancy. (This reminds me of my Biology class back in high school). 

My wife is expected to have her first period last January 24. She took a test again that day and still found the two lines. She never had a period this month. According to research the pregnancy tests are around 97 percent accurate when done correctly. 

Signs of pregnancy have been showing up in our new house. My wife has been vomiting and experiencing back pain, as well as craving for food like manggo and alamang. 

To validate the home pregnancy test, we went to the laboratory department of the naval base for my wife to take blood test, which is a more accurate test compared to the urine test. A blood sample was drawn out of her left arm. If hCb contents were found on the blood sample, she is positive for pregnancy. An hour later, lab tests confirmed that she is! 

As of this writing, my wife is three weeks pregnant. After the confirmation, we already filled up bunch of paper works so she can have appointment with a nurse and doctor in weeks to come. 

Thank and praise God! 

God has already answered our prayer this 2012. No matter what the gender of the baby is, we don't have a preference. In the next coming months, my wife and I will be facing series of tests till the baby comes out to the world after nine months.