I must say perspectives do change. I was never a fan of reading these types of books and left it at that. I preferred reading the funny pages, Bob Ong’s books, and (I daresay) Men’s magazines with “artistic” pictures. I guess a man’s sudden interest in these literature is brought about by necessity and excitement as well.

Hearing my wife make sounds as if she’s preparing to hurl (vomit), burp, or fart (due to first trimester symptoms) makes me more interested in an amused kind of way. Imagine that, a being the size of a small goldfish and rapidly increasing in size is growing in my wife’s tummy…and we were responsible for making it happen…with the farting, burping, and pseudo-hurling and all.

The book and all its 500+ pages say there’s more to expect. I’ll read some more. This is interesting.

For ages, it feels like there is a mystery that shrouds the activity of gift giving to wives. There is always an anxious uncertainty as to what husbands get for their wives for special occassions. This video illustrates my point. I hope husbands enjoy watching this… and LEARN in the process.

Watch and learn, men!

I got my wife a true pair of Cockatiels (lovebirds) in a nice cage. Good thing she liked it (gulp). Honestly. Thank God.

This is interesting. Read on:

Couvade Syndrome
Sympathetic Pregnancy

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By Robin Elise Weiss, LCCE, About.com

Pregnant Women painting by Steve Gribben

Dads, have you ever noticed that you were gaining weight along with your partner’s pregnancy? Do you find yourself feel queasy at certain times of the day? Have you experienced appetite changes? Then you may be experiencing Couvade Syndrome.

Couvade comes from the french word couvee meaning “to hatch”. It has come to mean a man having a

“sympathetic pregnancy.” Yes, ladies, this means that your partner could start to vomit, gain weigh

t, and have many of the “joys” associated with pregnancy.

Generally, couvade syndrome begins in the end of the first trimester and increases in severity until the third trimester. The only known cure for couvade is — birth.

Some people have doubted the reality of couvade syndrome. These doubters say that the weight gain that the father may experience is caused by the eating habits of the mother, nerves, or other changes that pregnancy makes in one’s life. The vomiting? Of course, that is blamed on nerves, too.

What do the dads have to say about this? They don’t know what to think about vomiting, weight gain, and changes in sexual appetite. How can you tell everyone at work that you need to lie down because you have morning sickness?!? And, of course, they would stop vomiting if they could.

This is something that has been researched and found to be quite real. Some men are more susceptible to couvade than others. For instance if you and your partner have experienced infertility or if you were adopted, you could be more likely to experience couvade syndrome.

So, guys, know that you are not alone, and that you have the medical community backing you up. Eat some crackers, get out of bed slowly, drink some ginger tea and try to get a bit of rest and know that birth is right around the corner.

And don’t shove her out of the way of the toilet!

My wife, for a month now, has the munchies. It’s characteristic of pregnant women going through their first trimester. Everything and anything she craves for I have to eat, too. Of course, I need to taste them first. Then if she can’t finish them, I come to the rescue. Hence, I have the munchies, too. I can’t say I’m not enjoying it. I’m loving every minute of this.

I have 2 options:

1. Run 3 miles a day and lose my progressively protruding gut while controlling the munchies.
2. Keep eating till I pack on enough pounds (and get launched to the sky as a new planet) and empathize with my wife’s equally progressing tummy size.

I’ll definitely take option 1… in January 3, 2009. For now, I’ve to finish the Christmas leftovers and the coming New Year’s leftovers from media noche. Try the Sans Rival!

Life is good.

• Big meals motivated by bigger appetites.
• food cravings and/or aversions.
• Midnight/dawn snacks.
• Unannounced pinching and biting frenzies (my wife has been feeling gigil at me. So she bites and pinches me for no apparent reason).
• Sleepy episodes with dizzy spells.
• Long siestas.
• Farting/burping tournaments.
• and a 6-day delay of her menstrual period…

… my wife and I finally decided to buy a pregnancy test kit. The instructions suggested to take the test in the morning as the amount of hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in the urine is high and that will help indicate if its positive or negative. We bought the test at 11 PM after a hearty snack (we still have the munchies). I asked my wife if she could take it now as I was obviously anxious. She said no.

I didn’t get a blink of sleep. She slept like a baby even if she slept a long siesta. Finally she awoke at 5 AM as she felt a strong urge to urinate. I jump to my feet and reached for the pregnancy test kit. She laughed at my excitement. After 3 minutes, she opened the bathroom door smiling from ear to ear with eyes glistening. Then she gave me a tight hug.

TWO LINES!
POSITIVE!
WE’RE PREGNANT!

I felt as if my heart went tachycardic and almost imploded. My soul seemed as if it pirouetted like Baryshnikov. I’m going to be a tatay soon! I said a silent “thank you, Lord” prayer… and a silent good luck for yours truly.

This is the best Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

My brother, though staunchly Roman Catholic, has somewhat chosen to walk the path to marital harmony in Zen fashion. Being married for 18 years, he has earned the right to be called a master who is well versed in the art of harmonizing marriage with special yet modified attention on the shopping activities of his significant other. I’ve a lot to learn (or unlearn) from him. It goes without saying he has mastered the Jedi-like skill of subliminally saying “Yes, dear!” while actually saying “Naaah, I’ll pass on that, dear”.

His comment on my previous post is too good to pass up as it is post-worthy by itself. Chris Butler, a.k.a. Jagad Guru would be proud. His take:

“Husbands with ten years or more on-the-job training usually enlist the enthusiasm of his wife’s niece, ex-classmate, sis-in-law or relatives to that effect, who has the same mindset or common agenda to burn the aisles at Divi mall or 168. The game plan should be to identify a drop off and pick up point, which would be utilized at a pre-determined time, or at their beck and calling… give or take a few minutes after the much awaited SMS is received… A neophyte hubby, of course is still alien to this technique or still bashful to say the risky lines “see you in a couple of hours honey… text na lang!”

The women, wives in particular, were all aglow and zoned in on the tasks at hand as they cross out names from lists on hand. Like contortionists, they’d move gracefully from one crowded aisle shelf to the other with relative ease whilst sticking to the game plan of hunting for bargain buys.  They shove each other ever so subtly and simultaneously haggle with Tsinoys and provincial lasses in broken Tagalog. Target, dig, crouch, squat, sort, choose, negotiate, pay, pack, then onto the next stall with deceiving precision…amazing. 

Behind every woman shopper is a bag carrier with bell boy/concierge demeanor. Said bag carrier is usually garbed in short pants and plain shirt as if he was dragged from his bed, roused from his Sunday slumber to step up to the noble task of shop items hauling.  It is interesting to note that these males (usually a husband or a boyfriend) wear the blank why-am-I-here-look on his face as he hooks shopping bags one for each of his10 fingers, two on each shoulder, and one for the neck.  More interesting is the stark observation that these men seen en masse would intermittently yawn every 5 minutes or so. This would go on for about 4 solid hours. Interesting. 

I’ll say it straight away. Christmas shopping is an overrated activity. I think it’s a marketing ploy hatched by the evil geniuses of the tycoons who own the various gynormous malls. Who on earth would enjoy…?:

1. Walking like a cheap battery-operated robot taking hilariously small steps because of all the people you have to elbow and shove for proper positioning in the tight bargain aisles.
2. Smelling a cacophony of odors (i.e. body odor, and plastic and leather from China).
3. Carry 5 shopping bags (one for each finger) on both hands, 2 shopping sling bags on both shoulders, and 1 medium-weight shopping bag on your mouth (like a dog playing fetch).
4. Asking “How much?” or “Tawad naman” a gazillion times.
5. Waiting for your wife to pick THE ONE right color of fabric from among billions.
6. Inquiring in broken Tagalog from Chinese nationals who are probably illegal aliens.
7. Competing for parking space.
8. Waking up at 5am to get there by 7am.

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FACT: My wife is an elegantly beautiful lady gifted with gracefully impeccable yet modest class about her.

1. “Ang ganda naman ng misis mo! Ano ginawa mo?” (Your wife is so gorgeous! What did you do?)
2. An old female family friend looks at my wife and says: “Ang pretty mo.”. She looks at me, says nothing and just smiles. Then she turns to my wife again and says: “Ang pretty mo talaga!“.
3. “Nabili mo na ba siya ng helmet?” (Have you already bought her a helmet?)
4. “Artistahin ang beauty niya!” (She looks like a moviestar!). The friend then looks at me and says: “Artistahin ka din…” (You look like a moviestar, too.) then bursts into boisterous laughter. I’m surmising she must have meant comic actor.
5. “Totoo pala talagang opposites attract.” (It’s true. Opposites attract). I have no comment to that.
6. The best I’ve heard so far: “Huwag kayo magsisimba kapag si healing priest Fr. Suarez ang pari, baka luminaw na mga mata ng misis mo.” (Don’t hear mass if Fr. Suarez, the healing priest is the celebrant. Your wife’s eyes might get healed.)