Rosario Celestine. Rosie.
Labor is labor and it's painful and it makes you yell at everyone in the room and curse your husband and tell him not to touch you again because this will never happen again and then you yell again and feel the most painful feeling of being ripped open...
... and then it's done. And all you see is your little baby. And all is right in the world.
And if I thought I had loved him before, I fell in love with Alden again as I watch him everyday loving her.
He took a leave for 2 months. He was with me everyday during my healing and our adjustment to having her with us. He couldn't do the breast feeding but he was solely in charge of diaper changing and then shared all other chores.
Once he got back to work, we ended up fighting a lot because he would get home to a messy house with no dinner prepared yet...His OC self and my matampuhin self were certainly not in sync.
"Bakit ang baho?"
"Eh may poops nga yung mga diaper sa trash! Alangan naman mabango yun?"
"Wala na naman food. Gutom na ako."
"Anong gusto mo gawin ko?! Breastmilk din ipa-kain ko sayo."
"Well, pwede din."
Naman, humarot pa eh.
But luckily, we got through that. We kept our Thursday dates and worked at having alone time. Anything to make this family work.
One day, around Rosie's 5th month, he had to shoot on location for 2 weeks. He came home grumpy. "I can't back out kasi narelease na daw yung cast list."
"Okay lang yun. I'll ask Nanay samahan muna ako."
"Babe, I promised di na tayo maghihiwalay na ganun katagal di ba?"
"Oo nga, but Rosie can't travel yet - baka ano pa virus makuha niya, hindi pa complete vaccines."
"But Babe, ayoko kayo iwan."
My heart broke for him. It broke even more, when after being gone for those two weeks, Rosie didn't want to be carried by him. "Nangingilala na kasi."
"But, I'm her Papa." He pouted. "She doesn't know me na."
"She'll get used to you being here again, don't worry." I could tell his heart broke every time she cried in his arms and sought to be with me.
Since he is Alden Richards, Pambansang Bae, he made sure our daughter fell in love with him again. He took another week off and made sure to work from home so that he was there for her 24/7. Rosie was a daddy's girl again in no time.
I saw him putting her to sleep one night, carrying her. When he moved to put her down, she clung to him tightly. He started to cry. "I'm so happy, Love. I'm so happy I have you and Rosie..." He paused before continuing. "And buti nalang hindi nakamukha ni Mama Ten."
Kung hindi niya lang buhat yung anak namin, babatukan ko 'to eh.
