PLDT myDSL & Nuffnang bring you The Avengers!

Every payday we either save our hard earned money or burn them at a great sale! Especially if it's a great find! I, personally love to shop and would really like to reward myself every once in a while. When I became pregnant, I can't go out to shop anymore when there is a sale. You could only imagine the hoards of people and the long lines at the cashier. It's a desaster for a pregnant woman to brave those shops! haha! So I was very thankful for my fast internet connection at home! In just one click I could buy pieces that are on sale on the web and just have it delivered on my home. I on the other hand is safe, no traffic, no hoards of people pushing and no loooong lines for check out and trying stuffs!

So my friends, get a fast internet connection now! Try PLDT myDSL internet connection! On April 27-29, 2012, the PLDT myDSL's Great Payday Sale will be happening at the malls nationwide! You just have to register with 1 valid ID. They can either upgrade your internet or you can get freebies like a WiFi+Modem with free installation and 1 month DSL! That's as much as P5,000 savings! Or you can also apply online at www.pldtmydsl.com 

Stewed Lamb for dinner!

I first tasted Lamb Stew at Penang Hill and my MIL wanted to make it at home. When my sister tasted it, she insisted me to asked for the ingredients and procedures for the recipe.

So here's a flavorful spiced lamb stew hope the whole family will enjoy. Serve this lamb stew with hot cooked rice or potatoes.

Ingredients:

2 pounds lamb shoulder or boneless lamb
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
3 slices of ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
a dash of black pepper
1 medium carrot, diced
1 cup water
1/2 lemon, juiced
rice wine
korean curry cubes
Coconut cream
1 oz fresh milk
1 Red Bell pepper


Preparation:

Trim fat from lamb; cut into bite size pieces. Wash it with rice wine then sprinkle with salt and pepper then toss with the flour. Set aside for 1-hour.

In a large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the curry cube and mash it, add the floured lamb pieces and the chopped onion; cook until lamb is browned on all sides, stirring frequently. Add remaining ingredients and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 1 hour, until lamb is temder. Serve over hot cooked rice or mashed potatoes.

This is the large sauce pan we used.

The curry and the coconut cream

Garlic, Onions and Red Bell pepper

Tada! The finished product!

Sinigang and Vegetarian Kiam Pung

I spent last saturday with my husband and son going to the mall. Bought some shirt for my son and meds for myself then went home.

My hubby requested me to cook Sinigang and Kiam Pung. These goes well together because Sinigang is sour and Kiam Pung is salty. When these two mixes, it was pure yumminess! Haha!

Sinigang is a filipino favorite, my version of sinigang consist pork, string beans, tomatoes and onions with a whole pack of Sinigang mix.











Kiam Pung on the other hand is the Chinese version of Paella. Kiam means salty and Pung means rice. The secret to yummy Kiam Pung is the quality of rice and Soy Sauce you use. I made a vegetarian Kiam Pung, following is the ingredients.

Coconut brand soy sauce
1 Vegetarian knorr cube
1 big portabello mushroom, cubed
5 Shitake mushroom, cubed ( must be soaked in 1 cup hot water until soft )
Water used in shitake mushroom will be used later
1 small carrot, cubed
5 slices ginger
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
5 cups rice, uncooked
6 cups water
Mustasa or cabbage

1. Pour enough oil in a wok and put the ginger slices saute until browned. Add the onions and garlic until cooked.

2. Add the softened mushrooms and carrots. Add rice and splash some soy sauce. Mix and blend the flavors to the rice.
Tip: Smell your cooking if it smell good then the soy suace is enough.

3. Add the 6 cups of water and the water used for soaking the mushroom. Mix in the knorr cube and cover. Lower the heat when it comes to boil.

4. When the rice is nearly cooked, toss everything a little bit, then add the mustasa or the cabbage. Mix everything, cover and cook until done.

5. Serve hot

I used Chinese rice that was bought in Mandarin supermarket in Ongpin. These is very fragrant and much rounder rather than our normal rice. you can either use Brown Rice, Jasmin rice or Malagkit rice mix with long grain rice. But the quantity of water will be different.








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The loot for our baby!

It was a happy day when my MIL said that the package she ordered in the US arrived already! I could just imagine how many things she bought for her first apo! When I saw the huge balikbayan box, I gasped!

Haha! exage ba? Super dami kasi! Imagine getting 5 packs of 6 pcs. gauze diaper, 3 packs of prefolded cotton diapers, 3 sippy cups, 1 box of 6 pcs Avent bottles, 1 pack of spoons, 1 Nubby bottle, 1 pack of cleaning materials, toothbrush, toothpaste, injections, medicine dropper (3 sizes), 4 Desitins that won't even use haha! And 2 pairs of pacifiers that I won't be needing because I planned to breastfeed and act as a human pacifier. I also received toys, frogsuits, onesies, towels, bibs, face towels and a peewee like dress (the one that popeye's baby wear hehe!) And I mean lots of them!

I already forgot some because it was almost 2 yrs ago that the package arrived. But, nevertheless, I was greatful and thankful for her generosity.

On the 17th week! Confirmed!

On my 17th week of pregnancy, I was due for ultrasound and check-up. We were giddy and excited because soon we would know my baby's gender.

And.. Tada! It's a BOY!

It's a very happy day for us, I could start shopping online! I have so many things to shop. I'll post on my next blog the things I got for my boy abroad and the things I have to buy here in the philippines.

So excited!

The 2nd Trimester and Mom's Bday!

After the first trimester, we could finally breathe and relax a little bit. My OB told us, visits will be reduced to every 2 weeks for monitoring. I, on the other hand, can already go down to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner! yey! No more bed rest for this gal!

I began to organize my mom's birthday party. I had to keep busy, my mind was going blank the past few months because of self inflicted house arrest. Haha!

I called Verleo and Meyhan for their menu. I called my sis, bro and dad to ask how much they could shell out. I also asked my uncle if we could do the surprise birthday party at his house. His house is way bigger than ours, plus it's accessible to everyone. When he said it was ok, we all got to work!

My sis suggest to put tarp that would say "Happy Birthday Mommy!"by the entrance plus her picture! hahaha! It's very baduy but what the heck!

I called my mom's friends and her relatives that are here in manila. I organized my relatives abroad to have skype conversation on that day too. It was fun organizing parties and seeing everyone's happy faces.

It all went well, my mom didn't expect a thing. My dad went along and he even told us not to do that to him! hahaha!

Well, at least I had something to do while I'm at home.

SURPRISE!!!!

That's me with the pink dress. That's the only photo I had when I was pregnant because according to Chinese sayings, pregnant women can't be photographed.

First trimester

During the first trimester, i was obliged to visit my OB once a week for check up. She closely monitored me and my baby thru ultrasound. Up until on the 14th week, she notice that i had a subchorionic hemorrhage. It was small but it would cause miscarriage if not treated at once.

We were so scared, I came a long way now and I'm not going to lose my little one. My husband suggest again IVig treatment, we thought this could at least help us save the little one and help heal the scar. So off we went to St. Luke's QC to get treated. The treatment lasted for 4 hrs. my husband bought some snacks in the treatment room and we ate and watched Tv.

After only 3 days from the treatment, ultrasound results shows that there was no sign of the hemorrhage. We were really thankful and felt blessed.

The first trimester was about to end, and also my bed rest for the term! I was so happy it went so fast. I had nothing to do at home. Just watching Dvds and TV series. I already finished a lot of Korean telenovelas and Chinese telenovelas! Lol!

The prescriptions

Getting pregnant is one journey down my list, sustaining my baby for the 1st trimester was another story.

I had no morning sickness or lihi lihi whatsoever. That was a good thing for many people but bad news to my OB. She said that the more symptoms I felt the more it is good for the baby. So she ordered for my visits every week to monitor my progress.

Every week when we visited my OB, her prescriptions consist of 3x a day utrogestan (progesterone), crenone (progesterone supository) once a day, once a day aspirin, 2x a day injection of heparin (subcutaneus), proluton injection (progesterone) every 3 days, 3x a day omega 3, folic acid, vit c and calcium. Add the fact that if my ESR went up, i also took prednisone once a day for 3 - 7 days. This resulted for my sugar to went up, thus having insulin shots once a day. If you asked me how much all of it add up, approximately we cashed out 16k a week for four months.

I also went for blood test every week to monitor my HCG and Progesterone. I also went for blood test for my ESR, cholesterol, OGTT (sugar), FBS, HbAC, FT4 and TSH.

My doctor was really taking care of me and my baby. She monitored us closely and that's why i'm loving her!

On getting pregnant..

Once I got the go signal to get pregnant, we were again subject to stressed. Or I was subject to stressed! haha! Oye! It's not an easy task to get pregnant! We monitored my temperature every 6 am before getting up from bed. That was called BBT (Basal Body Temperature) to check if I ovulated or not yet.

Another thing, I also exercised and ate healthily to lose weight and achieve my normal weight. (No more iced tea, No more white rice! Only brown rice, no more desserts and no more fried foods for this gal!) This was required to me by my endocrinologist (Dra. Abrahan). From 138lbs, I became 118lbs. in 3 mos. My endocrinologist suggested to me to take metformin 3x a day and at least target 105lbs! haha! I just wished my PCOS has been cured.. But alas, there was no cure to PCOS.

In the meantime, Dra. Burgos (OB-GYNE) subjected me to take clomid. I took 3 cycles but didn't got pregnant. After that, I became weary and just tired from all of it. I asked to take a cycle of rest. But that was a good decision for us! I became pregnant on that very cycle! You see, all we need was a stress free environment! =)

Seeing that I'm pregnant again, we were scared to lose our little one. (You see, my two past miscarriages never got their heartbeat) My husband researched IVIG from the net and asked both my doctors for recommendation. He learned that it is a very effective treatment for cases like mine. So he suggested that I took it at once even before hearing a heartbeat.

One IViG treatment cost 100k++, we took the risk even though we don't know what will happen. My husband told me that money can easily be earned but a child is something else. So off I went to St. Luke's and even spent a night because it took approximately 4 hours for the treatment!

After a week, we went back to my OB-GYNE and went thru an ultrasound. Alas, there was a heartbeat, beating very very fast at 114 hb/min. We were really so happy that day! No words can described how happy we were! It was all worth it!

On my next post will be my journey from hearing the heartbeat to giving birth to my first son. =)

APAS Test Results

After choosing OB-GYNE and an Immunologist, I got tested for APAS PANEL (KCT,DRVVT,ACA G/M) and LAT ( Lymphocyte antibody test ).

I didn't fair well with my LAT test and NK cell (killer Cell). Both my Doctor suggested that I start my LIT (Lymphocite Immunization Therapy) immediately. That would entail drawing 12 tubes of red blood from my husband and process it to become only the white blood cell, that would be injected thru my skin. I went thru 6x of LIT to get a favorable results.

After getting a positive results, we were given the go signal to get pregnant! I'm just so happy and scared at the same time!

Search for an OB and an Immunologist!

I didn't talked about my pregnancy last time because of it's delicate nature. This is a long overdue post, but I still have to talk about it so that I would give light to whoever out there that has the same problem with mine.

I wanted to document what I went through in my first pregnancy. You see, I miscarried twice in the same year. One on Jan 2008 and another in Dec 2008. After that, it was hard getting pregnant and it also scares me. I became pregnant again on Aug 2009 but it was only a chemical pregnancy. We also went through 2 OBs. One was Dra. Pascua in St. Luke's and the second one was Dra. Chiaoling in Binondo. After I miscarried the second time, Dra. Chiaoling introduced us to the possibility of APAS and recommended us to Dr. Ed Lim an Immunologist in MADOCS.

APAS (Antiphospolipid Antibody Syndrome), still a new term for me after 2 years! It is also known as Hughes syndrome or sticky blood in the UK is a complex disorder that is very unique to every individual affected by it. In layman term, it is an autoimmune system disorder that when the body recognizes certain foreign objects in the bloodstream or the cell components, the immune system releases these antibodies to get rid of them. APAS also characterized by excessive blood clotting that affects both healthy people and people who have primary illnesses.

My case also became complicated due to the fact that I'm PCOS ( Polycystic Ovary Syndrome). That's what I get for being overweight! I love eating! Oh Well..

When we went to Dr. Ed Lim, he wanted us to test several panel. There are 5 panels and boy these tests are way too expensive! According to them, a very known singer/actress also took treatments and test for APAS before giving birth to her 2 daughters.

After seeing Dr. Lim, we decided to asked and search for other immunologist. Because Dr. Lim's fee was way over the top. He charges by the min. 1st 30 mins of consultation was Php1,500 and succeeding 15 mins will be Php500. After the first consultation we were charged a total of Php2,500. The test that he wanted for us to do would cost us a total of 60k. Although we went through the first tests and having to convince ourselves that he is the best in the country, we were left emotionally and financially drained.

We asked several family and friends for a recommendation of other immunologist and OB-GYNE. And at last, a close business friend told my husband about Dra. Madamba-Burgos. He said that one of his relatives were a patient of this OB and she is known to treat such cases.

After visiting Dra. Madamba-Burgos at MADOCS, she refer us to Dra. Aleta, head of the immunologist department in PGH. I will talk about their findings and my test results in another blog post.