Month: June 2019

Happy 3rd Birthday Monica

#DearMonica

Happy 3rd birthday anak!

Celebrating you today and everyday as you’ve been a constant source of joy and pride to your daddy and I. Forever you will be, remember that.

It’s been three years of being with you 24/7. I guess I have taught you a lot of things but you have no idea how much I’ve changed because of what I learned from you.

You taught me how to do multiple things all at once and even though I get tired often, I get things done. All because of you. Because you are the reminder that I have to go on.

I know I lose my cool often and sometimes I forget that you are just a child but you’ve never shown me remorse, instead, you still cling to me and look at me as if I am the only one you need.

Anak, they say I make motherhood look so easy, but they don’t know it’s all you who makes it look and feel that way.♥️

Daddy and I love you so much anak.

Love,
Mommy

Din BautistaLeave a comment

Hassle-free Potty Training

Found this image online. Credits to the owner! mastergolflivestream.com

Monica got potty-trained overnight. Well almost. For real.

Ever since Monica turned 2, I’ve been hearing comments saying that “oh naka-diaper pa rin ba sya? 2yo na ah. Dapat hindi na.” To which I will always answer with “Okay lang, ayoko mastress kami parehas.” My mom was one of those who kept on insisting that 2-year-olds should be potty trained already. I get it, she meant well for sure. Haha. But lagi ko sinasabi kay Mommy na antayin ko na lang maging ready si Monica.

Back in the day, kids get potty-trained pretty early just so they can save on diapers. Ngayon, because of Lazada sale (LOL), hindi namin issue ang Pampers. I’d rather spend than get stressed everyday. #SaTrueLang haha. You all know that we don’t have a helper nor yaya, Beej works almost the whole day, so that only means na ako lahat maglilinis at maglalaba kung ma-wiwi or ma-poops si Monica sa bed or floor diba? In short, I don’t like another chore. Ang convenient ng diaper, especially Pampers, very hiyang si Monica dun, bakit ako magdadagdag ng sakit ng ulo ko diba? Haha. I know my temper, it might get in the way and ma-trauma si Monica. Haha. So I stood firm and did not let the comments pressure me to train her.

So I just kept on waiting, I would tell her “Oh let mommy know if you want to wiwi okay?” or “So here’s where we pee and poop” but never really taught nor trained her. In my mind I know she will do it when she’s ready. Then the morning of April 19, Monica woke up not wanting to wear her diaper anymore. She immediately asked me to remove it and peed in the toilet. She’s 2 years and 9 months then. All of a sudden, she’s almost fully potty trained and it was me who’s left shocked and not ready. As in ako ang hindi ready. I was like, huh are you sure? Nakuu baka magkalat sa bed.

That day, we went to a party and I insisted to put a nappy on. She agreed though hesitant. While she was playing, dancing, she went to me and said she wants to pee. I told her she can pee in her diaper. She said “No mommy, I want to pee in the toilet,” OMG. Okay so I brought her to the toilet and she peed. The night came and I was still worried she will pee in bed so I had to put another nappy. The next day, she woke up with a dry nappy, no trace of pee and then she went to the bathroom and peed in her potty trainer (a gift given by my mom looooong time ago).

That’s the second day, totally diaper-free the whole day. On the 3rd day, I bravely decided not to put on diapers. She peed in bed around 12mn – I was like, okay not so bad. Not bad at all. On the fourth day, she said she wanted to poop and there she went, pooped in the toilet!

That day I decided to bring her to the mall, just the two of us. I wanted to see how it will go kung wala syang diaper. I brought a nappy with me in case need arises. Haha. So in the middle of fitting clothes, window shopping, twice sya nagsabi na maiihi sya. Yun ang stressful part – yung feel na feel mo na magsukat at bumili pero kailangan nyo maghanap ng CR! Kaloka. Pero to cut it short, it was a success! Whew. Good job anak!

Then for two weeks, I will wake up around 12:00-12:30 am just so I can bring her to the toilet. For two weeks, there’s a hit and miss and that’s normal. Puyat nga lang ako but then after two weeks of her being nappy-free, she learned how to control her bladder, it got more stabilized as days passed by.

So what did I do? NOTHING. See, wala akong ginawa, I just waited for her to be ready. That’s it. She did it all on her own. She even goes to her potty trainer and pee, she will wash her hands after, and wear her panty – again, sya lang mag-isa without me teaching her.

What makes me so happy is that we didn’t have to be stressed about it. We didn’t even have to buy fancy potty-training tools to entice her. If I wanted it my way, I could have forced her and that will probably leave her traumatized or worse, will hold her pee and that’s not okay! It really pays to wait for your child when he or she will be ready. Kids have their own pace and we all should consider and respect that. It will save us some stress and trouble.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to wait for the kids to be ready. They know better and if we do it that way, it will be easier. It will also make them confident and feel that they have autonomy over their body and their feelings. Who would want to be forced anyway, right? I have nothing against parents who want to potty-train early – that’s perfectly okay. It’s just that, in our case, the other way worked just fine.

Here are the things that we’ve been doing now that she’s nappy-free already:

  1. I time her liquid intake, usually she will pee after an hour (at least on the first weeks). So I make sure I time it and remind her if she wants to pee. Normally I do this but at times, she will tell me when she wants to pee or poo. Nowadays, she can control her bladder already and pee every 3-4hrs, except pag nag-buko juice! Haha
  2. At first, I joined her in peeing and made the pee sound. But now when she wants to go to the CR on her own, I let her. I just remind her to be careful especially when floor is wet.
  3. I affirm her, I validate her actions. Her face lights up when I do that. It’s such a feat for them and they deserve such recognition!
  4. Try going out without a nappy on, it will test the both of you. Don’t be scared. I swear. Only then you will both know what to do next. We traveled to and from Batangas via bus, without nappy on. Imagine my stress but then again, I trusted her and pull it through. No wiwi accidents! Hahaha

To this day, June 14, almost 3 months of zero diaper, and I can say things are so much better. We only had less than 10 accidents total and it’s all because we let Monica take her own sweet time. <3

What is your potty-training story? I hope our story helps! 🙂

Love,

Mommy Din

Din Bautista1 Comment

I lost 9kgs in 2 months. How?


Those who have known me from way back would attest that I have always been in the heavy side, I was never slim. And I was fine with that, used to it perhaps. It’s genetics and I always blame it to my big bones. Lol. That’s okay because growing up, I was never made feel that it was bad. My mom and dad would even tell me, ‘hindi bagay sa’yo ang payat,” And I believed

(Adulthood and) Motherhood happened. I was at 64kg before getting pregnant – probably my heaviest at that time. I barely fit in my clothes and I remember not feeling so right. So when I got preggers, I knew I should watch my diet and weight gain. While I know that eating is important to grow the baby inside my tummy, I made sure not to over indulge. It was successful as I only gained more or less 6-8kgs (because of the vomitting and all). I was at 72kgs full term.

Gave birth and as expected, losyang ang peg. Haha. Hindi naman ako artista at hindi rin ako blessed with slim figure so nganga. :-p Again, it was fine. Breastfeeding will make me lose weight, sabi ng 7/10 na nanay. I believed them. I ate everything I wanted only because LAGI AKONG GUTOM. Every after breastfeeding gutom ako agad. My weight was stuck at 66kgs. I was okay with that plus Beej has always been reassuring that it doesn’t matter even if I am chubbier. What a husband. Haha

For almost 2.5 years, my weight has always been 66kgs. Nasanay na lang ako, again I can always reason out na I am breastfeeding. Pero syempre lumalaki na si Monica, she would only feed for comfort and not because she’s hungry.

Around March 2019, I weighed in and to my surprise, I reached 69 – 69 kgs!!!!!!! Whaaaaat? I can’t believe it (well, kain ako nang kain so not impossible haha). I cannot accept it. I told myself I will start my diet once I am done breastfeeding but that moment I said, I HAVE TO DO THIS NOW. Thankfully, I talked to my mommy friend Jen who proved that the KETO DIET worked for her. Same story with another mommy friend, Iam.

I told Beejay that it’s about time I focus on myself – he agreed and supported me. I ordered Keto meals from @ketogenicmanila (Php 2750) for two weeks. I was semi-strict because I still cheat on weekends. My weight dropped to 66kgs after 2weeks. I tried another one, @deardietph (Php 2250) and my weight stabilized at 65. So so happy! I got used to eating lowcarbs. I also did intermittent fasting, meaning I fast for 16hrs then eat within the 8hrs window time. Fasting meaning, I only drink water in those 16hrs – nothing else. No calorie intake at all.

Here’s how I lost 9kgs (dami kong intro sa taas hahaha).

Disclaimer: JUST BECAUSE IT WORKED FOR ME, DOES NOT MEAN IT WILL WORK MAGICALLY FOR YOU AS WELL. ALSO, I DON’T RECOMMEND THIS TO BREASTFEEDING MAMAS (2YRS OLD AND BELOW) OR TO SOMEONE WITH HEALTH CONDITION. Please patis, wag ako i-quote. K? 🙂

  1. After 3 weeks of ordering and eating Keto plan meals, I decided to just create my own meal plan and do Intermittent Fasting. I was off to a good start as my weight went down to 65kgs already.
  2. I would ALWAYS ALWAYS check the label – check carbs content either in the nutritional facts or in Google. I seriously learned to check everything first. The key here is to be mindful of what I put in my mouth. For you to lose weight, you only have to consume less than 20g of carbs daily.
  3. I gave up on rice, bread, pasta, chips, sweets. Sad? Not really. Before I would eat one pack (or two) chips every single day – I would tell myself na reward ko yun kasi nakapaglinis nako at napatulog ko na ang bata. While watching Netflix, chips galore si Momshie. Ayun, tumaba haha. Imagine, a pack of chips has 13-17g of carbs! Imagine that. A small cadbury yata, like 3 squares have 10g of carbs. And 1/3 cup of rice has 13g of carbs agad. SO DO THE MATH. This way I got really conscious of what I eat. It helped me a lot.
  4. Wala ba akong cheat day? I do! But in moderation. Ayoko naman maging KJ for life. Konti na lang as in. And we seldom eat out na. Hahaha. Panay Samgyup na lang, syempre meat yun eh. Haha.
  5. What do I eat and what time do I eat? On a regular day, I will break my fast or start eating around 9-10am. I would eat pork chop or bacon or omelet, black coffee with Stevia natural. Then I will eat around 3pm na ulit, anything meat. I don’t care about the calories, as long as carbs content is not high. Be careful with fruit diet, madaming fruits mataas sa Carbs especially banana and kamote, so ingat lang. Akala natin diet na tayo kasi fruits pero mataas content so wit na. Last meal would be around 4pm. Tapos na kain ko nyan. Paano si Monica? I feed her regular food syempre. Hindi sya kasali sa diet anoba. Hahaha. Si Beej naman, support sakin, does not eat dinner at home na. Nagpapayat na rin. Hahaha

Do not ever start this if you are not 200% ready, otherwise you’ll just burn yourself with soooo many excuses and the beautiful effect of Low Carb + Intermittent Fasting won’t work. It worked for me, for real. My weight plateaued on the 3rd month to 59-60kgs. Maybe because I am now in the normal level of my weight, my BMI is now at 23ish from 27. But I am keeping this lifestyle. It’s very doable and to be honest, my milk supply was not affected at all. Yahoooo.

I am all for body positivism, but feeling so heavy did not make me feel happy – I was always moody, I get really sad when clothes don’t fit and at times I would look in the mirror and say “ang taba ko!” Monica would hear it and that’s what I don’t want. I want my daughter to grow up confident and happy with her body, so I have to start modeling it for her. I wouldn’t be able to do this without the support of my amazing husband. Ayun, mas malaki na pinayat sa’kin, competitive eh! HAHA. Love you baby.

So there. I am really happy and a lot has been asking me about this already so here you go. <3

I hope you get inspired with this. Let me know okay? You can like, comment, and share if you think this will be helpful <3

Love,

MommyDin

Din Bautista8 Comments