In the beginning there was shock. When the official blood test confirmed that we were pregnant. Our parents screamed, cried, just about fainted and swear I saw a tear. Going to the scan was exciting and made it all feel real. My ob-gyn reassured me that our child was just fine. Baby was like a little pea, but it was lovely to be reassured that baby was starting life well!
Firstly, what I didn’t know was that once you find out you are pregnant you are actually not 1 week; you are 4 weeks pregnant. Never underestimate how well you know your own body.
I have got tons of energy, and I don’t really feel pregnant. No morning sickness, but I do have cravings. I can’t get enough chocolate-chip ice cream and pickles.
How things change! Suddenly I’m overcome by exhaustion. I want to crawl on bed, get under the covers, and stay there. I tried everything I could Google, but nothing seemed to help. I also tried to fight the tiredness, but my advice now would be just to embrace it, as it will take over no matter what, so getting angry and upset about not feeling yourself only makes it worse. The good news: The doctor says everything is normal.
My clothes were getting tighter and feeling uncomfy but without any bump. I have outgrown normal clothes but not quite filling maternity gear yet, so a really awkward stage, especially if any social commitment requiring to dress up.
The biggest news is that I can finally feel the baby move.
How unbelievable to think we’ll be meeting this little person in a couple of months. What will the baby look like ? Will he/she be funny ? Outgoing ? In the midst of all this dreaming, I realise he or she still doesn’t have a room of his/ her own! We’ve really got to get organised. I hope that nesting instinct I’ve heard so much about kicks in soon!
And like a flash, it’s time for another scan! It was lovely to see baby as they are much more defined at this stage and look like a proper little person. At this scan they take a lot of measurements to make sure baby is on track and look for any anomalies etc. Is it a boy or a girl? There are too few surprises in life – this is one of the good ones. And besides, do we care either way? As long as he or she is healthy, we are happy. We agree that keeping it a surprise is a great idea. We chose not to find out the gender and have a surprise, but if you wanted to this would be your opportunity.
I’m starting to stress about things out of my control: What if something goes wrong during delivery? What if my baby is stillborn? I’m afraid to open a childbirth book because I can’t handle reading the words complications and birth defects. While pregnancy is a truly joyous time, I don’t think any woman is prepared for the nagging worries that creep into your head late at night.
Childbirth classes begin. That’s a lot of information. I think I’d rather have stayed in dark about the ins and outs of episiotomies, epidurals, and emergency C-sections. Hey, for centuries women all over the world have just squatted in a field and delivered their child, no problem. I can handle this, right? As our childbirth instructor said, You have no other choice at this point.
I suffered with restless legs at this stage which just means you cannot get comfy and feel really on edge, but thankfully it was temporary. As your bump grows your skin can also get really itchy, but a really good moisturiser should help.
My mother-in-law threw me a shower.
And no one ever told me just how active these babies are. Some kicks are so strong they literally take my breath away. At other times, I swear the kid’s doing somersaults and handstands. A huge blob will shift to the right, then to the left, then back to the right. Big kicks can disturb your sleep and wake you up in the mornings, but I loved the reassurance of my little boy or girl have a little dance around.
I catch myself day dreaming about the baby or making little lists of what we still need to get done. I’m really trying to meet my deadlines, but you know what? Who cares – I’m having a baby!
I’m big. Really big. Getting up off the couch is tough. But then I touch my belly and feel so happy.
Taking care of this precious new life will be the most exciting thing I’ve ever done — but what if we screw up somehow? To think that for the rest of my life, someone will be calling me Mom and looking to me for, well, everything, is completely overwhelming. At the same time, I feel blessed with this gift.
The natural labour and delivery ward at my hospital was exactly I wanted: calm, cute and totally drug free, unmedicated birth. The pregnancy was going along well, plenty of energy, not uncomfortable. With only a month left before impending birth of our child, I was booked for the ultrasound, with much eagerness we arrived at the radiology. Sonographer was concerned and said I make plans to have the baby in the coming days. Baby had different ideas, as the weeks went by our baby was getting restless and decided he/she had enough. Immediately visiting our ob-gyn, we quickly learned a lot of medical terms and conditions that were being discussed and I was whisked off to birthing theatre for an emergency C-Sect., it was certainly unexpected and a roller coaster of emotions. Having defeated all odds physically and mentally a healthy baby was born at 14:41 on 08/04/2020, a little girl, weighing 2500 grams.