Grandma Tes

Auntie Les

Don’t get me wrong, I adore my children and my husband.  I love cooking for them, and I don’t even mind cleaning, but it’s a never-ending cycle that you can’t even take a break from because either they’ll starve or you live in filth.  You can’t call in sick, and you don’t get paid.  During the 6 weeks of my matenity leave, I broke down into tears twice from pure fatigue and feelings of utter helplessness.   But a co-worker of mine told me that anyone who says they didn’t cry during maternity leave is either lying or had lots of help.   I feel relieved to know that someone else has felt as I did.

I’m so grateful that I have a husband that helps as much as he can (but even that wasn’t enough to keep the house clean), and I don’t know how single parents even SURVIVE.  I think I would cry every single day.   There are two superwomen in my church who raised three children on their own, whose kids are GOOD, responsible, kind people.  That’s amazing, superhuman strength that only the good Lord can provide.

But now I’m back to work so I can feel useful again.  Thank GOD for my huge family, who go the extra mile to help us with our babies.  Thank you thank you thank you!

There’s one thing that Jasmine got that Katelyn didn’t – healthy breast milk.  Katelyn was a premie and I wasn’t very patient with her.   And I hated pumping.  It was painful and took forever.   I could probably count on my fingers how many times Katelyn was breast fed.  And boy – I can really tell the difference.  Jasmine is HUGE.  Yes, Katelyn got nice and chubby on formula, but nothing like Jasmine.  I joke that my baby has no neck.  She’s just cheeks and chins.  Lots of chins.

As Jasmine was feeding, I suddenly heard Bryan shout, “He’s coming!“  By the way, Bryan’s grandfather is very hard of hearing.  Tatang (what we call him) turned on the light in the foyer, which is adjacent to the living room, and I thought, “Okay, he’ll see me and give me my privacy.”

But to my horror, he came into the room!  I shouted, “What is he DOING??“  I heard Bryan laughing in the bathroom, “I told you he was coming!”

But then it got worse.  Tatang then turned on the light in the living room, exposing me to the brightness.  Again I shouted, “What is he DOING??”

But was that the end of it?  Oh noooo…  He came in and sat RIGHT next to me on the couch and watched me breast feed my baby.  A third time I shouted, “What is he DOING??”  And as if on cue, Jasmine took a break, and released, exposing me completely.  I’m trying to hide my embarrassment, and he keeps making loud sounds to amuse the baby.

I guess… this is considered okay in the Philippines?

So much so that Katelyn gets in the way while I’m trying to feed the baby.  And Jasmine starts thrashing her face this way and that because Katelyn’s hair is tickling her face.

During her first few days at home, Katelyn would be the first to respond to the scene when Jasmine would start crying.  Katelyn would say, “It’s okay, Jasmine Elena, it’s okay.”

Katelyn has now learned to give Jasmine her pacifier when she starts to get fussy and rocks the baby on the bouncer.

She’s a very helpful big sister!

She’s got the trademark Rosete round face and the Ocampo fair complexion.  Her eyebrows will be the envy of her future female peers.  We were hoping for another set of Bryan’s dimples that Katelyn had luckily inherited, but no luck.  At first people would say they saw one on her right check, but I would laugh and say maybe it’s a fat dimple. In fact, Bryan says that he’s waiting to see ANY sort of contribution from his set of genes.  But all mine seem to have won… at least, for now.

She’s got arm rolls and leg rolls and you just want to bite them!  Her appetite is good and I can see her grow right before my eyes, it’s pretty amazing.  In 2 weeks she gained over a pound.

Breast milk really does rock.  And it’s free!  Woo Hoo!  But if for some reason you miss a meal and the baby gets formula instead (like at church), you are in total discomfort and misery until the next feeding.  And what they say about losing weight while breast feeding is so true!  I’ve lost a miraculous (and much needed) 17 pounds in just over 3 weeks!

So ladies, if you want to lose weight… have a baby.  He he he.

The nurses told me that my doctor is always late, but she can do a cesarean in 5 minutes.  I really didn’t mind.  It’s not like I was planning on catching a movie after my delivery or anything, so why get upset?  Too bad the mom on the other side of the room didn’t feel the same way.  She had been waiting for the doctor for over 2 hours and she was broadcasting her frustration for everyone to hear.

As predicted, the actual cesarean was super quick!  I heard my doctor exclaiming something about “cheeks, cheeks!”  And when she held baby Jasmine up in the air for us to see, we were sure greeted with a plump baby with the roundest little face ever.  The doc told us in good humor that it was hard for her to get a grip on the baby because her cheeks were in the way.  Something to remember our baby by!

Then came the dilemma of what middle name rings well with Jasmine.  Bryan insisted on Jasmine Rose.  I said, no way!  We can’t have our two daughters share the same middle name!  Each has to be special.  There was Jasmine Grace, Jasmine Anne, Jasmine Marie… but none really made both of us equally content.

One day the name Elena popped in my head from nowhere… just like the name Rose popped in my head for Katelyn in the middle of the night.  And finally, Bryan and I fell in love … Jasmine Elena.  Then we thought about what we’re actually going to call her.  Jasmine?  Elena?  Combo it to Jaselle?  It was Katelyn who actually made the decision for us.  She began calling her sister “Jazz.”  And so it is.