Home Hacks Design

Home Hacks Design for the bathroom such as Simple Hacks To A Prettier Bathroom. Similarly, this also feature Toilet Shopping Tips.

Another Home Hacks Design are for kitchen like Cleaning Tips For Your Dirty Kitchen and cleaning products that is perfect for cleaning.

Kitchen Hacks You Wish You Should Have Known Before like the other great use of paper towels.

Creating an effective cleaning schedule; divide it into categories; daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Cleaning schedule that you also need to consider are those that is done every 4 months such as air conditioner cleaning, pest control, and deep cleaning of windows.

Cleaning of roof and rain gutter are done every year. Cleaning/draining of the septic tank should be done every 3 years or 5 years.

Cost of home make over and DIY for cheaper make over ideas.

Bedroom decorations ideas and where to buy the cheapest bed lines.

Kitchen make over ideas and DIYs for cheaper make over ideas.

Tropical living room themed and where to buy cheap tropical plants.

Home make over ideas in the Philippines. Home interior ideas in the Philippines

Mommy Blog with home hacks topic in the Philippines.

Where to buy cheap wood furniture in the Philippines.

Price of Aluminum Screen Door in the Philippines. Price of the brown aluminum and silver aluminum.

Furniture stores in the Philippines. Abad Santos furniture store address.

Uratex foam custom cut online. Uratex foam price online.

Pregnancy Journey: Vanishing Twin Syndrome is Real And I Experienced It

One month after our first ultrasound and after learning that we’re having twins, we were due for another one. I have been waiting for that day.. really excited to see my babies again. And it’s also the end of my first trim, meaning, I can finally announced that I am pregnant with twins! This pregnancy was not easy, I get tired easily. I can’t even walk my kids to school which was just 300 meters away from our house. I stopped attending events because I just can’t physically. The morning sickness is worse than my other pregnancies. But I am having twins, all these pains are sooo worth it.

Then the unthinkable happened.. on our second ultrasound, the sonographer only saw one baby. I don’t understand.. it’s supposed to be twins! She said my OB will explain… and my mind couldn’t comprehend.. what happened? where is my other baby? what have I done?

The OB said it happens.. and that the genes of the baby is not good and that it will be reabsorbed by the body.. wait.. wait.. where’s my baby again? What happened to my baby? And as the OB finished her routine, I burst into tears.

Why didn’t the OB warned me about it? During our last check up, she said the babies looked fine, though the other one is 2 weeks smaller, they both have a heartbeat. I asked then if I should worry, what are the precautions I need to take.. she said I don’t have to worry. I just need to take my prenatal vitamins.. so what happened?!?

I was crying the whole time.. I was crying the whole day.. I just couldn’t stop wondering what happened? What have I done wrong? Did I fail to do something? What have I done?

I was never prepared for this…there was never a sign that the other baby is not OK.

You know what made me feel better? Aside from my husband’s support and prayers..

GOOGLE

After 4 hours of nonstop crying, I started reading about twins pregnancy and the other twin not surviving. The condition is called Vanishing Twin Syndrome. According to American Pregnancy.org, it was first recognized in 1945. Although most of the cause were unknown, some analysis suggests that there is an abnormality on the chromosome of the twin that vanished.

What are the signs of a possible Vanishing Twin Syndrome?

In my case, there was none. I never experienced anything. I never had bleeding, no cramps, nothing at all. From my ultrasound, they both look healthy, both have a heartbeat. As my OB said, she never suspected anything.

Some readings suggest that women at the age of 30 has a higher risk of experiencing it but it can also be noted that women at this age also has a higher tendency to hyper ovulate (releasing two or more eggs during ovulation which leads to multiple pregnancy).

How to prevent Vanishing Twin Syndrome?

Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent it… you won’t even know when the vanishing started.

What happened to the vanishing twin?

In our case, it vanished.. no signs at all inside my womb. The OB said it was absorbed by my body.

What will happen to the surviving baby?

In my readings, most cases said the the surviving baby will be OK because the vanishing happened on the first trimester. If it happened later on the pregnancy, specially after 20 weeks, researchers found that the surviving twin has an increased risk of cerebral palsy. Also, if it happens at around 15 weeks or more, some of the body parts of the baby will be absorb by the surviving twin.

How about the mother? Is there a medical complication on the mother who experienced Vanishing Twin Syndrome?

Most of my readings suggest that there is no physical threat on the mother if the VTS happened on the 1st trim. But emotionally, it is draining. Even though I already know what happened to my other twin, I just can’t help but wonder why.. the feeling of losing a baby is not easy.. even though it was just a few weeks old. For the past month, I have imagined our lives with our twins. The thought of breastfeeding a twin excites me. The thought of caring not just one but two toddlers, overwhelms me positively. And then it was gone.. I am having a hard time accepting the new reality that we are to face.

There are so many “consolations” in our case.. but I still can’t see that in a light way. I need to mourn for the loss of my baby, for a missed opportunity with him or her.

5 Advantages of Having Your Own Water Purifier

After reading the article, How safe is your drinking water? from Rappler, naalala ko tuloy noong kabataan ko.. I can drink water straight from the faucet, as long as it is clean looking and without foul smell, I can drink that. When I got pregnant with our first child, ayan na.. diyan na nagsimulang maging conscious ako sa quality ng tubig na iniinom ko.

We used to buy our supply at water refilling station near us. Kaos lang, when I saw how untidy their delivery boys are and not to mention unprofessional, I stopped buying from them and opted to have our own water purifying system.

We have been using this for more than 3 years already and I am happy that we made a decision to take care of our water supply.

From our experience, here are some of the advantages of having an in-home water purifier:

1. It’s actually cheaper in the long run. Compute the amount you usually spend on your drinking water in a month. If you consume 3-4 5 gallon container a week, at 40 Pesos each container, that’s around 5000 Pesos in a year. But when you buy your own water purifier, say the new Unilever Pure it, you only need to spend 5000 Pesos once, not yearly.

2. You don’t have to wait for your water delivery, it’s right there on your counter top.

3. No need to deal with unprofessional delivery men.

4. You have control over the handling of your drinking water unlike in refilling stations where in you can’t see the people handling it.

5. And lastly, you don’t have to worry about the safety of your water. As stated in the Rappler article:

Refilled water for delivery is then transferred into sanitized transports that ensure water is maintained at room temperature (25C-28C). Delivery vehicles that leave the containers exposed to dust, pollution, heat and direct sunlight are not acceptable.

We all know that this is not the case most of times. Most water refilling station delivery vehicles are exposed to pollution and direct sunlight. Karamihan nga ng deliveries sa loob ng maliit na subdivision, naka tribike lang! Que horror!

Now I’m curious, where do you get your drinking water supply?

Investment 101: Where Should You Invest Your Hard-Earned Money?

Saving money is good, but earning money is better. For anyone who has had the good fortune of looking at their bank statement and seeing extras you can put into investments, the next question is where should you invest it?

Let’s look at five investment options that you can look into.

Entrepreneurship

Going into business is an investment option that will require a lot of your time and effort. But if it works out, could be the most profitable for you and you get the accomplishment of building something from scratch. The options can be endless but you can get more successful by going into a field that you know best. Investments can be as small or as big as you want so that’s what’s great about going into business. Take a minute to review your assets right now, do you have real estate you can rent out or turn into a store? A car that you can turn into an uber car perhaps or one that you can use for deliveries? See how you can earn money from those assets and you’re well on your way to becoming an entrepreneur! Just don’t forget to get the right insurance products such as comprehensive car insurance when you do decide to put your assets unto your venture.

Stocks

As a stockholder, you get a share of the company that you bought stocks in. There are two ways to earn money from stocks. When you buy a stock for say 10 pesos each and then see that its price went up to 15 pesos the following week, you could sell it and realize a profit of 50% on your investment. Another way to earn with stocks is through dividends. There are stocks (usually “blue chip stocks” that are shares of big established companies like San Miguel or Jollibee) that regularly give out dividends to their stock holders. These may be small but it can be significant depending on how many shares you hold.

To invest in stocks, you’ll need to open an account with a stock broker. These days, there are online stock brokers that let you buy and sell stocks online through their website and the advantage of this is that it’s convenient and you get access to charts that give you an idea of how well that stock has performed in the past. The stock market can be volatile meaning it goes up and it goes down and that’s the risk you face when you invest in stocks. The upside is that the money you need to start investing in stocks can be relatively small. You can open an account with an online broker and invest in the stock market with as little as PHP 5,000.

Treasury Bonds

Treasury bonds are financial instruments issued by governments. Compared to stocks, these carry less risk. You can look into investing in treasury bonds issued by the Philippine government. You can go to banks such as PNB and BDO which have desks that can help you put your money into these securities. Tenors for treasury bonds can be as short as 2 years and as long as 25 years. The downside to investing in treasury bonds is that it needs quite a hefty investment on your part. You’ll need a minimum of PHP 200,000 to invest in treasury bonds according to PNB.

Unit Investment Trust Funds

Aside from treasury bonds, the investment desks of banks may also offer unit investment trust funds. These are professionally managed funds that are invested in different investment types such as bonds, money market securities, etc. UITFs are regulated so the BSP has an oversight on these products. What makes these investments attractive is that these are affordable and have liquidity meaning you can redeem units at any time. There’s also quite a variety of funds to choose from so you can find one that fits your investment goals.

Pension Plans

Think of pension plans as an investment for your future. These are more of a saving plan that you can take advantage of when you retire. It’s easy to find a pension plan that has life insurance component so that your beneficiaries can get the benefits when these mature. These may not be a straight up investment product such as stocks and bonds, but these can compliment your savings nicely.

Investing can get risky and you need to study all the pros and cons of an investment before you put your hard-earned money into it. Diversification is one way to minimize risk and if you plan to go into business, making sure to buy the right insurance products for your assets can serve as a safety net for you.

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