Coleen Garcia has taken on a lot of portrayals in the small and big screen. But now as a new mom to Amari, who is turning two months in two weeks, she thinks she found the role she plays best.
Coleen giving birth to Baby Amari in the midst of a pandemic is a beautiful reminder of the brighter days ahead. The Crawford household just got more alive and full of love. Albeit parenting is a daunting task as well, the exhaustion always comes with joy and fulfilment.
Amari was delivered via medication-less water birth at home. “Sobrang sakit talaga,” Coleen described the experience. Her birthing story reflects the strength of a woman’s body. Looking back on that day, Coleen said she listened to her body coaching her and used the pain to dictate what’s going to happen next. The water was a big help in soothing the pain.
“Hindi ko ma-explain but I felt like my body was really guiding me which positions to take at noong time na kailangan ko nang pumasok sa tub, hindi ko alam na 10cm na pala ako pero naramdaman ko na I think it’s time to push na, which I think I wouldn’t feel if I had an epidural,” shared Coleen, who described Amari’s birth as magical.
The new mom is learning to juggle her responsibilities while looking after her recovery as well. Breastfeeding and sleepless nights make up her current motherhood phase. Coleen had to change her diet to make sure Amari gets enough nutrients from her and she won’t fell worn out from feeding him.
Coleen is contemplating on what the “new normal” life would be like for their little family. The changes excite her but at the moment, she opts to just relish her 24/7 mom duty. Amari’s presence changed her perspective about life and she is now more focused on the things that matter. Her world is getting smaller and she doesn’t need to look far to see what’s important.
Coleen knows she still has a lot to learn and she’s determined to figure it all out. “It’s not going to be easy but as long as we have the attitude na we want to keep trying, we want to keep doing the best that we can, at least, we know we’re doing better than we were yesterday,” she added.
Since they welcomed Amari in their lives, Coleen witnessed more of husband Billy Crawford’s patience and selflessness.
On mom-shaming and public scrutiny, Coleen acknowledged that people can be very harsh on social media, which is why they limit posting Amari’s photos. She added that others will always have something to say, so it will simply boil down to choosing whose opinion matters. They would rather listen to their family and friends’ opinion than those of anonymous people on social media.
Naysayers criticized Coleen when she used breastmilk as home remedy for Amari’s rashes. Coleen doesn’t care anymore about what they say because, the truth is, her trick worked. She believes that moms have their own ways of parenting, so there’s no use pushing each other’s beliefs to someone else. Although, she enjoys looking at and learning from other mom’s journey. For Coleen, there’s no perfect formula to parenting.
Coleen looks forward to doing films once things get better. She looked back on shooting the film “Sin Island” in 2018 and romance-drama “Ex with Benefits” in 2015. She’s grateful to have worked with her leading man and now friend Derek Ramsay who made sure she’s comfortable and taken care of while doing the sexy scenes. The action-comedy “Extra Service” was a fun genre to do.
As a mom, Coleen would like Amari to see her as someone present and someone he could always run to. “I don’t want to be the kind of mom who will sugarcoat things. If there are things that he needs to hear, I want to be the one to break it to him. I want to be the one to teach him, somebody na he won’t have to hide anything from,” she expressed. The Crawfords are excited about Amari’s first Christmas and the beautiful things ahead.