When will I start feeling my baby move?

With my first pregnancy, I started to feel Valentina move at around the third month. Move, in quotation marks, because it felt more like someone had put a popcorn machine inside my belly: little "pops" at random moments throughout the day. 

As time went by, my baby thought she was a gymnast, specially at night. Super fun. More so when the only thing you want is sleep.

However, with my second pregnancy it was different. I could barely feel Matteo. I got to the fifth month of pregnancy and started getting worried about so much stillness. Still, every medical appointment confirmed that baby boy was fine.

Fast forward to present day, and it seems as though each kid's behavior in tummy was an indicator of their personality: Matteo is very serene, but Valentina is fire!

So, what's "normal"? When are we supposed to start feeling our baby move when pregnant?

The miracle that science couldn't foresee

So much planning how I would give my boyfriend the news that we were having a baby and he found out while being sedated in the nearest Emergency Room, with me on the stretcher beside him. Awesome.

I’d visited many excellent doctors through the years and their diagnosis was never very encouraging: 

“You have multiple cysts on your ovaries. You won’t be able to get pregnant without undergoing some kind of treatment”. 

“Polycystic Ovaries”, was the result of one of my sonograms.

My guy would say “it will happen when GOD decides it’s the right time. Forget what the doctors say”.

But the years kept passing.

And then, it was November 2014. I started getting VERY ill. Also, I was late, well, late according to my standards, since Aunt Flo visited me when she felt like it, and brought along TERRIBLE pain. One particularly miserable day I thought “Could I be pregnant?” But I ignored that thought, it wasn’t possible…

I’d spent days throwing up and the pain in my stomach was unbearable, without mentioning the constant migraines,. Finally, one Sunday afternoon, my partner called an ambulance for BOTH of us, since he also was feeling ill.

And there we were, on our stretchers, waiting for our blood work and our medicines. Hours later, our attending doctor came up to me with my results and some news:

“You’re pregnant”.

Social Media and it's influence over employers

When it comes to looking for a job, be it because of necessity or because we are looking for a change, we all strive to present a great resume:

• Objective: 
• “…contribute to your company’s goals…"
• Abilities: 
• “Computer knowledge…ability to work under pressure…”
• Education: 
• “Graduated from _____with a GPA of ____” 

We work hard to present our best “face” so the company for which we are applying doesn’t think twice about giving us the job. But, what if I were to tell you that your Facebook profile, or MySpace, or any other social media network to which you belong, could be part of your evaluation process?

The art of criticism

Recently I was hanging out with some friends when we started commenting about a well-known actress. Being women, the breakdown of our “victim’s” aesthetic defects automatically started:

-“That’s not her real nose”

-“Look how far down her belly button is! One more tummy tuck and it will reach her toes!”

-“Obviously, if I had her money I’D look like that!”

And we were off. It was criticism without malice, just small “observations", but this resulted in the ever popular response from the opposite sex when they witness such a debate:

-“Women just LOVE to criticize other women! Especially when the other one is HOT!”

Of course, being one that doesn’t like to keep her opinions to herself, I couldn’t help answering:

-“The thing is that you guys do EXACTLY the same thing when we girls notice another guy, but you sum up your criticism in one simple phrase: ‘Oh please, that dude is GAY’”

I don’t have to tell you that this provoked uncontrollable laughter in our group because of how TRUE my response was. Girls, hasn’t this happened to you? Or, guys haven’t you been guilty of saying this to girl at least ONCE? Especially when that girl is someone you have your eye on?

Couch Potato Syndrome: Inactivity in new generations

Foto: courtesy of  www.buzzfeed.com

A few days ago I read a note about the “Easy Bake Oven”. Do you remember it? That orange artifact (at least in MY days) that cooked cakes and cookies by the strength of a 100 watts light bulb. It turns out that the Hasbro Company decided to eliminate in its new redesign that characteristic that made the toy so special. 

The news took me back to my childhood years when kids used to have fun playing kitchen or playing hide and seek, or board games. We used to pitch a tent INSIDE our houses, sometimes mom’s sheets being the victims. We even used the living room or bedroom furniture!

We were in the streets, running from place to place, and if it rained, it was part of the fun. Do you remember having wars with our friends with practically anything we could throw without killing each other? MANY times I got in trouble for making a mess on the street after throwing those seeds that grows in bunches on palm trees, had to get a broom and clean the stuff up…what’s happened to all of that?

Parents: know how to protect your kids from online predators

Today, technology is part of our daily lives. The Internet is not only a useful tool in the workplace but also a way of keeping ourselves informed about what’s going on around us. It’s also a tool for socializing, and not exclusively for adults.

Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and the almost defunct MySpace, let minors keep in contact with their friends or meet kids their own age that share their same interests…the problem is that many times that “kid” they happen upon online is a fully grown individual with the WORST of intentions.

In 2009, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo revealed that Facebook’s data bank identified little more than two thousand individuals with active profiles that had criminal records for sexual offense.

Also, approximately two thousand individuals with profiles on MySpace were registered on New York’s sexual delinquent’s list (UnivisionNoticias.com)

Love 101: Cupid is a myth

It’s no secret that Cupid sometimes doesn’t seem to know what the heck he’s doing. During my early adult years he made me slam myself against the ground…MANY times. Inexperience, too often than not, leads you to make mistakes like giving your heart too easily. However, it’s my understanding that there’s a point in each individual’s life where we apply all that we’ve learned after all those painful “meetings’ with the ground and we make different decisions or adopt different attitudes.

I have a case that’s near to me of this girl who suffers from bipolarity of the heart: a constant change of emotions that not even SHE understands. Today she loves someone but tomorrow she loves someone else because bachelor number one did something wrong and bachelor number two SEEMS to be different. 

The result: a constant breaking of the heart into little, bitty, pieces because she didn’t get to know these people BEFORE letting herself be blinded by the illusion. On top of it, she didn’t notice the big, fat, neon sign warning her that those “bachelors” didn’t really have the intention of giving her the value she deserved, and since “we” don’t like being ALONE…

Love should work both ways

I have SERIOUS problems with the exmember of "La Quinta Estación", Natalia Jiménez', new song "Por Ser Tu Mujer" ("To Be Your Woman"). Not to diminish the enormous talent of the artist, but, the lyrics to her most recent hit, from her album "Natalia Jiménez", in my opinion leaves much to be desired.

Have you paid attention to what Natalia's singing? Just so there's no room for doubt, I'll provide you with the lyrics and it's literal translation: