Regine: I’m a happy slave to Baby Nate

Regine Velasquez has proudly announced that she is breast-feeding her newborn son, Nathaniel James.

These days, she says, every day—and her entire world—revolves around the baby. “I can’t go on a diet and I can’t go out much because my routine should follow his feeding schedule.” She has even started taking yoga classes at home, so she could be constantly within reach.

No, she’s not complaining, because Nate, as she and husband Ogie Alcasid call the baby, is “a precious blessing.”

“I’m a willing slave to Nate,” Regine says. “I’m making the most of our time together. Kids grow up fast. We’ll never have these moments again.”

She reveals that, days after giving birth last November, she struggled with postpartum depression.

Plus, she recounted, “Nate was not latching on and I wasn’t producing milk.”

Ogie and, ultimately, Nate, helped her cope with the blues.

She has done a lot of research. “According to the Net, breast-feeding helps new mothers lose weight,” she says.

Weight-loss goal

She’s maintaining a “realistic” weight-loss goal. She knows she can’t slip into her old gowns in time for her Valentine concert with Ogie, “Mr. and Mrs. A,” on February 14 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“My yoga trainer has stepped up our sessions, though,” she notes. “I am doing more cardio workouts, too. I walk around the subdivision. I do step exercises on the staircase at home. It’s a rigid, rigorous regimen.”

She says Nate will not only be present at the concert, he also has a “surprise special spot number” in the works.

The concert is the only project she can do at the moment, the mom stresses, because nursing is a full-time job.

“I intend to breast-feed for a year,” she declares.

Be right back

She will also be back soon on the GMA 7 Sunday show “Party Pilipinas,” but a regular soap is out of the question.

Her two movies, Viva’s “Of All the Things” and Panoramanila’s “Mrs. Recto,” were shelved long before she got pregnant, she says.

She concedes, however, that being a mother is bound to help her internalize her role as a struggling single mom in the indie film “Mrs. Recto,” directed by Dante Nico Garcia.

Nate is 2 1/2 months old and, Regine gushes, “Adorable! He’s so cute. He looks like a little toy.”

The couple’s pet Shih Tzu, George, whom they consider their “firstborn,” is certainly not feeling left out. “He still sleeps in our room,” says Regine. “When the baby’s asleep, George guards him. He’s protective of Nate.”