MY PREGNANCY JOURNEY - CHAPTER 4

My Pregnancy Update...

Hello Guys! So, today is my due date as given by my hospital. 17:01:2018. But guess what? I am at work and still have no signs of labour at all! I’m pretty much just going about my business as usual. By calculation, I am 40 weeks and 3 days.

Months into my pregnancy, I registered on an app (recommended by my boss at work) that helps me track my pregnancy journey and what to expect each day of my nine months’ journey. It’s BabyCentre.com and I strongly recommend for ALL women. Funny fact is that as at yesterday, the app shows my nine month journey was complete and I got a welcome note when I logged in … ‘’Congratulations, you are now a parent’’ and in my head, I am like, Duuuuuuhhhhh, not yet! Baby is still lounging in here oh. Please don’t leave me now my fave app friend. Lol.

So what has changed since the last time I wrote…

Well, I use the restroom more frequently now. I’ve lost count of how many times I pay a visit there in a day but who’s counting anyway? It gets frustrating though. I can deal with the daytime visits, the one that irks me out is the night trips to the restroom. You get back from the toilet and sleep has evaded you, I’ll literally toss and turn till an hour or two before I catch up on sleep. Sleep that did not reach me to sleep before, my baby pressing on my bladder will now come and shorten it again! At some point, I had to threaten MJ that I wouldn’t get up but pee on the bed. Lol. Imagine if I did pee on any of these occasions, I’m super sure my great grandchildren will not hear the end of it, MJ will sing it to the highest heavens that his wife peed on the bed.

Then again, on my 38^th and 39^th week antenatal clinic, I saw my doctor and also got a scare. My blood level was low. I was scheduled for a blood test for confirmation. Told MJ and he went into panic mode (even though he tried not to show me he was scared). Got my mum involved and luckily, since I was on a three-day casual leave at work, I went to my parents’ house for proper care. We got recommendations from my sister and mum-in-law to buy garden egg leaves or pumpkin leaves (ugu) and chew down. I knew I wasn’t going to chew down some leaves like a goat, so I opted to blend these leaves and mix with malt which was recommended also. The ugu were easier to take, it was basically coloured water mixed with malt and I had already blended and drained the shafts, but the garden egg leaves? Hubby blended these ones himself and kinda sweet-talked me into drinking everything. This one, I cannot lie to you, was bitter! Hubby did a good job of reminding me each morning and night to take the mixture (I undercover resented loved him for this). Like the side-eye game was on a high! Anytime he reminded me to take the mixture, I’ll scream and tell him off, he’ll pet me so much, and next thing, I have a full glass of thick green mixture in my front and I will be sipping. Things we do for love and outta love. Guess what, blood level increased drastically. At my 40^th visit, I had a clean slate. Blood level was okay and you can imagine my wide grin when the Doctor confirmed this.

I always thought I will have my baby at 42 weeks, so by my calculation, baby would pop sometime in the last week of January 2018. At all my scans, I have been getting conflicting due dates ranging from 19^th – 25^th January. The last scan I did even showed a 2^nd February and I screamed at the paper: ‘’jokes on you! who will carry this baby till February biko?’’ It was even more worrisome for me because baby was just chilling in there and rolling upandan (up and down). Well, imagine my surprise when I spoke to my elder sister and she informed me that she had her first child at 40 weeks and some days. She told me I should confirm my EDD at my next appointment. True to her words and at my next hospital appointment, immediately my Doctor saw my file, he asked ‘’Madam, why are you still carrying this baby in there, your due date is in two days. I’ll give you till next week Monday, if this baby isn’t out by then, you will be scheduled for an induction’’. I don’t know if I was scared or happy. Scared because at induction and by my Doctor’s explanation, there’s now a 50:50 chance of a natural birth. Happy because I was going to have my baby with me earlier than I had expected. As I write this, fingers are crossed. I’ll give you an update of how this finally went.

Before I forget, let me take a moment to appreciate MJ, family and colleagues at work who assisted me greatly all through my pregnancy journey. Truth be told, I was spoiled! I’m going to miss being pregnant and having this kind of care. MJ surprised me greatly (I saw a different side to him which was pretty amazing to live by each day). From heating up water for me to have my bath each morning, to making dinner when I get back from work, to cleaning the house at weekends on days the help couldn’t make it, to generally just asking how I am doing and how my baby is faring and yes…the compliments I got from him. He never ceased to tell me I looked great in my pregnancy and trust me, that what the only boost I needed to go by each day. A lot of women get really ugly comments when pregnant and this is truly unfair. You’ll hear people say ‘’your nose is big’’, ‘’you are twice as dark’’, ‘’you have changed and not as smart as you were when you were not pregnant’’ and other hurtful and highly insensitive comments. It’s even worse when these comments are coming from your partner. No matter how tough skinned you are, they’ll affect your psyche and make you a moodier preggo. Luckily for me, I got compliments from everyone and more from my husband. Remember I didn’t even look pregnant till I was well over my second trimester, so when people knew and heard how far along I was, they were in awe. I doubt my hubby even knew how his good comments boosted my morale, nothing and no one else’ mattered really. I didn’t have those large pimples (save for that weird forehead mark I wrote about) or big nose or swollen feet or fat arms. Every part of my body cooperated and it was easy-peasy to move around with my head up high. So please, the next time you see a pregnant woman, PLEASE BE NICE to her. A lot is going on within her that she cannot control. SAY THE NICEST THINGS, THEY GO A LONG WAY.

At work, my colleagues were the most understanding peeps ever! I literally had to inform them each time that I was only pregnant not disabled. Lol. ‘’Are you sure you can lift that? Why are you still coming to the office? You should be at home resting?’’ etc. In my team, we were down with two staff during the Christmas holiday, so it was crazily busy for my Head and I. After the holiday, and when one of us resumed, my Head of Legal insisted I take some days off and rest it out, which I did. I came back to work, and everyone was still surprised I resumed. If only they knew… I want to start up my three months’ maternity leave the first day I meet my baby. I don’t want to sit at home now and regret when I get to spend less than two months with baby just because I already spent a month at home (doing nothing) before baby arrived. I remember my sister had already spent about three weeks before her baby came, it is heart-wrenching to go back to work when your baby is just a little above two months old and still very fragile. So, since I was still pretty strong and even driving myself to and from work each day (please don’t do this!) in the very typical Lagos traffic (those who know, know), I kept showing up at work each day with my hospital bags neatly lying in the booth and praying to God that I do not go into labour while at work or stuck in traffic.

Again, on our 40^th week mark, I decided to set up the baby’s crib with my husband. I had previously told MJ that whilst I will be at the hospital, he could take few hours off, come back home and set up the baby’s crib. I wanted him to do it because I really didn’t want the bed to get dusty from an early setup since it was Harmattan season, secondly, I thought we could do with the space till baby arrived and lastly, I didn’t want MJ to make excuses for not doing it because there was no motivation to do so and then baby will arrive at home and his bed will still not be setup. But on a second thought, I decided it’ll be more fun to do it together and create those lasting memories that money cannot buy. Best decision ever!

Before I forget, we got the crib as a gift from MJ’s sister-in-law. It is a fine crib which she bought a while ago and never used. I can safely say it was the first baby present we got and oh did she save us some good bucks from buying it ourselves! We are forever indebted to her and I hold this gesture from her so dear to my heart. We love you Aunty Ejiro.

So I digress…

We pulled out the box which was neatly packed and started fixing together. Let me just say it was not as easy as we thought it would be and at some point we got frustrated and was just staring at each other. I can bet that if I had left this for MJ to do all by himself, he would have left it undone out of frustration and I wouldn’t have understood this but be furious with him for not completing the ‘’task’’ before baby came home. There was a manual at the base of the crib, but it was not explanatory enough and because it was a foldable crib, there was a lot of bits and pieces here and there, to fix together to make it fit. I think we dismantled and reconstructed about three times before I got an idea, picked up my phone, opened YouTube and browsed a demo. It was this demo that saved the day literally. And that was how we set up baby’s crib and bed and MJ cleaned up because of the dust the crib had gathered overtime. The outcome of our three hours’ set-up was amazing and we just couldn’t wait to have baby in there.

After this, we also did some clean up in his room and arranged his wardrobe and other things. We were mentally calculating how each day in his life will go. From bathing, to dress up, to his playpen etc. We adjusted, re-adjusted, moved and placed things appropriately in anticipation of our baby BOY. It was obvious we were happy and that we couldn’t wait to have our baby at home with us. Did I tell you we already chose his name?

BIG REVEAL on that coming soon…all I can spill for now is that both of us chose an English name for him, and since my hubby and I are from different tribes in Delta State (He is Isoko and I, Ibo), we decided that my parents-in-law will choose his Isoko name whilst my parents will give him an Igbo name. So, he’ll have three names in all and of course, his Isoko surname. But in a typical Nigerian household, EVERYONE names the child, so don’t be surprised when you neighbour or colleague at work gives your child a name. It’s funny though, but I recall that I gave my youngest brother a name at birth; Evan(s). Now that I think of it, I wonder where and how I came by that name for him, I doubt I want him to be associated with that name now too (Mum had a journal she kept where she recorded the names, milestones and other records of each baby. I think I will adopt that too for reference purposes in future and because it was such a nice thing to pick up and read about myself and my siblings and know who was smarter *winks* and who got the weirdest names ever!). Some years ago too, when my niece was born, I gave her about four or five names from different tribes (oh yes, she was my child in my head. I doubt her parents gave her these number of names sef). Like, I was in Law School and couldn’t attend her naming ceremony but I sent my sister a text message with the names I chose for her; English- Nicole, Bible- Naomi, Igbo- Kosisochukwu, Yoruba-Oyindamola. I’ll explain the Igbo name only…It means ‘’As God pleases’’. I gave her this name because I wanted a baby boy as a first child for my sister, but God in his wisdom gave her a baby girl (who is turning out to be the best child ever!) hence her name.

You’ll have to pay me to tell you the reasons behind me giving her the other names.

LOL.

Later Guys!