MY PREGNANCY JOURNEY - CHAPTER 2

I feel the urge to write today, and I want to share with you the weirdest things I experienced during my pregnancy. Please don’t judge me…

1.       Leg Cramps – Nobody prepares you for this one. I doubt I had heard about it before my pregnancy, we only hear of stomach cramps which interestingly, I didn’t quite experience. Well, since we are now very cool friends, let me be the one to tell you about the ALMIGHTY leg cramps…During my pregnancy, I began to love stretching out whilst sleeping, it was one of the sweetest thing ever! But the moment you stretch a little too much, you immediately have this contraction in your calf. Something like a frozen bone in there. It’s so painful, there is no cure to it. You just have to endure till it wears out by itself. The first time I experienced it, I screamed so badly from my sleep and MJ was lost on how to be of help. Even I too didn’t know whether I should jump up from the bed or lie still or rub my calf. On impulse, I will try to move out of my bed, try to walk or stay calm at the same time and just be totally helpless. I had to read up and they offered four different things to do when you have leg cramps. Suffice to say that I didn’t remember any of these when I had the next leg cramps. The next time I paid a visit to my obstetrician, he made me realise it was normal and I just had to live with it. Oh well…

2.       Drugs/Fruits – I’m not so bad with drugs, so I didn’t think this may be an issue for me. You literally have to take drugs to put baby and yourself in good shape. From day one (even in order to conceive), you have to take folic acid. And then all through the pregnancy, folic acid is your BAE. You still have to take blood capsules to ensure you don’t look pale and you have enough blood for yourself and your growing baby. There’s calcium too – for healthy bones…at your third trimester, you need this more else, I hear your baby may ‘’forcefully’’ take calcium from your bones or you begin to lose your teeth. I remember someone mentioned this to me and I was like ‘’no way’’ how can a baby make me lose my teeth? Next morning, I figured one of my tooth was shaking. I lost half a tooth that evening. I really do not see the connection, but the coincidence was crazy. I called my mum immediately and ordered calcium tablets. Up till writing this, I think I haven’t really understood the nexus between my lost half a tooth and my baby’s calcium needs. Vitamins – Food supplements and all must be incorporated into your diet to make up for those nutrients you might not be getting in your diet. At some point too, you will be given anti-malaria drugs to protect you against malaria during the pendency of your 9 months’ journey. You will also take tetanus toxoid shots for the same purpose (that’s if you haven’t already started or taken these before). Five shots throughout a lifetime. I have had two shots already and still counting. Fruits are highly recommended throughout your journey. Watermelons, beets, pineapple, banana, avocado etc. if you are a usual fruit lover, this should come easy. But if you are an occasional fruit taker, it becomes quite a boring routine. MJ literally had to force me to take fruits on most days. I’m a mango, apple and tangerine lover, but I needed to incorporate these other fruits into my diet, and it was hard. So apparently, you have to take drugs (even when you are fine) and fruits each day till you put to bed. Very weird.

3.       Frequent Urination – I admit; I know pregnant women feel the urge to use the bathroom more often. But nobody prepares you for how often you may need to get up and go take a pee. This isn’t restricted to midnights only, even during the day! And a pregnant lady’s pee is no respecter of places or situations! You may be in the middle of a presentation to your board members and feel the sudden urge to race to the bathroom and trust me, you cannot hold your pee in for so long, it will just embarrass you there. Another weird thing I experienced was I sometime pee on myself whenever I sneeze (this is so true! I can’t even lie). I had this experience several times. More like my baby pressed on my bladder and the moment I take a sneeze, he pressed in more and I can’t hold in. I take a leak on my panties. It’s quite uncomfortable and embarrassing. I told MJ once about it and he looked at me in a funny way…like, ‘’are you sure you are alright, this woman’’ kinda look.

4.       Urge to itch – I found out that because your muscles at your stomach area is stretching as the baby grows inside of you, there’s the tendency for your stomach to itch you and I must tell you that itching it can be so sweet, you want to itch some more. People say if you do, you are likely to have stretch marks on your stomach after birth. I do not know how true this is, but I can tell you that it isn’t worth the try. I just make a conscious effort not to itch. If you feel the urge to, gentle rub the area till you feel much better. Now the weirdest part of this itching which I personally experienced is the bum itch. I need to discuss this here so you can tell me if you experienced this too. You see the mid path in between your bum? The two sides itched me so bad in my third trimester. It is a very sweet itch (I kid you not!). I thought I had ‘’jedi jedi’’ but when I quizzed my obstetrician, he claimed I was fine and it was just my own body reacting in its own way. Unusually, this happened a lot while I sleep at night. I wonder why? Anyone here with similar bum itch?

5.       Sex appeal – You bet I am not going to go all the way on this one. It will be letting out TMI. Some women have a greater urge to have sex during their pregnancy, some have reduced urge to have sex, some just maintain the status quo pre-pregnancy. Your partner also is involved in this one. He may be deeply attracted to you during this time, or not. Either ways, you both have to communicate and understand how to make it work especially when one partner has a heightened sexual urge and the other have a reduced urge. You both need to strike a balance.

6.       Womb watchers/Pregnancy advice & Co. – Once you are married, it’s like the womb watchers just jump out of nowhere and are busy calculating and speculating all what not. I have had someone randomly ask if I was pregnant just because I sounded tired on the phone. Whaaaaaat? Like how do you immediately think that far? Couldn’t stress or sickness or flu make one sound however way he thought I sounded? How on earth? Lol. Some even see you profile pictures and can already spot an eight weeks’ pregnancy. They are the real MVPs in this life. I find them hilarious and weird at the same time. Not everyone wants to have a baby the moment they get married. And even if they did, they may not wish to have it all in the public space, so please let people be biko! That aside, some persons might be privileged to know and still be all up in your business. It irked the hell outta me. The fact that you are in the know doesn’t mean you should always ask me random questions about my pregnancy. I’ve had people who know talk about MY (emphasis on ‘’my’’) pregnancy in open spaces where others who didn’t know where. You shouldn’t be the one announcing my baby for me, when I think I want others in on it, I will let them know. It’s my bits…thank you. It was totally annoying because I wasn’t showing much, and I could easily have breezed through my pregnancy without bothering the world about it, but some persons took it all upon themselves to help me spread my good news __We are at a table and they go: Barbara, you shouldn’t be drinking that at this stage oh, At the office: Barbara are you sure you can bend to pick up that paper? Barbara, you still wear heels, I don’t think you should at this stage oh, stop walking up and down the stairs, you can easily trip and fall…etc. Then comes the pregnancy advice experts. These ones have all the answers to the questions you did not ask them. How ‘’ugu’’ (spinach) and salt is good to avoid swollen legs, how ogogoro and kerosene can cure your bad sleeping habits, how you should not wear panties so that your baby in there can breathe…just think of the weirdest advice ever! I basically, just give a blank stare and let you pride yourself in your ignorance. Interestingly, I didn’t have so much pregnancy drama, so I didn’t need ANY of their advice. Ante-natal classes and surfing the net were the only reliable sources I got my answers from. Baby did just fine and so did I.

7.       Dress fittings – You’ll wake up one morning and all your dresses do not fit anymore. I hear some women get depressed and cry their eyes out. Me I can’t even go into depression for that kind of thing, I am too jaguda for that abeg. It was a major cause for concern though especially since I had to go to work each day and I wasn’t financially buoyant to change my dresses every other month during my preggo days. Luckily, I only grew significantly bigger in my third trimester so I had little time to worry. Those dresses that didn’t fit anymore were relegated to the bottom shelf of the wardrobe, I got a few stretch gowns that will still fit even after I put to birth. I didn’t want to buy maternity dresses and have to think about buying new set after I resumed from my maternity leave. Even if I bought then, it wouldn’t be because these ones were all looking ‘’maternity-like’’. So I opted for stretch dresses that could expand to allow for some baby space now and could still shrink to my actual size after I had had my baby too.