Have you watched the Funny Clips clip where a husband and wife call the guy’s mother in the kitchen and tell her that they have a surprise for her? They ask her to open the oven and she finds a bun and goes like, “a bun in the oven!” They look at her expectantly waiting for her to realise what she just said and you can just see the moment when it clicks! She keeps going, “a bun in the oven!” and gets really emotional. I just love that clip 🙂
Mwangi, Kamau and I are expecting a new addition to our family. If you ask Kamau, the complete list of people expecting a little baby (and with actual babies growing in their bellies) is Mwangi, mommy, Kamau, Mama (Patty) and Lisa. Each night as we say our bedtime prayers, I mustn’t forget to thank God for each baby- Mwangi’s baby, mommy’s baby, Kamau’s baby, Mama’s baby and Lisa’s baby. He is convinced that just from the fact that you have a belly button and are one of the people mentioned above, you are definitely carrying a baby. I think it’s cute, really. He believes he can talk to the baby through my belly button and will kiss and hug baby to say “hello” and “goodnight.” Every so often I must also reciprocate this. The rounder my belly gets, the more he asks questions about the baby and I just cannot wait to begin feeling the baby move so I can go through it with him.
I am 16 weeks, 4 days pregnant today. I thank God for bringing us this far and have faith He will see us through the entire journey. I always wondered how I would feel when I got pregnant again; would it be a new experience or would I just be like, “bleh! I have been through this before.” The thing about having been through losing a child during pregnancy is that you appreciate the miracle that is carrying a child. You do not take it for granted and you do not think it is something that women just do. You know that each day is an inexplicable miracle that you are a mere vessel of and you embrace each day because it brings you that much closer to meeting that little person growing in your womb. Who was it that said, “this is no ordinary thing, so I give extraordinary praise?” I feel that way each day as I turn in after going through another day.
My first trimester went by fine. Just like with Kamau, I had no nausea- save for those here and there occasions like if I go by a place with a strong meat aroma or when I brush my teeth. I was, and still am, battling with that horrible feeling of being extremely bloated. On most nights I go to bed without having dinner because if I don’t have an early dinner (well before 8pm) I will have a very rough night. Fatigue is another issue. Waking up in the morning is so bloody difficult and each morning I have the same thought when my alarm goes off, “can’t I just call in sick?” I have now planned my morning program to military precision where I know that I can sleep in til a particular time, but brushing my teeth, showering, oiling, getting dressed, etc must each take an exact amount of time so I am out of the house in time to beat traffic. My OBGYN has me on Fefol because of my haemoglobin levels that he said were of concern to him. This and my BP which can get really low are the only things he has asked that we keep an eye on at all times. This means I am back to my Thorn Tree Pharmacy visits to make sure I monitor my BP. My first trimester was mainly me battling paranoia each single day. Every single thing worried me and I was so anxious about getting to the 12 weeks mark; to hear my OBGYN tell me that we have gone past that very delicate period and when I received that email from Babycentre saying, “the risks of miscarriage now reduce dramatically” I prayed-in gratitude- like you cannot believe, Blogiary!
I battle my all-over-the-place hormones and I am happy to say that I come out on top most times. Well, save for moments like when I cried in the movie theater while watching Transformers: Age of Extinction. I still think I’d have cried- pregnant or not. I mean, if you’re an Optimus Prime fan and you watched that scene where that mean-ass Lockdown gave him a thrashing just before he got him on his ship, you must have felt sorry for Optimus. In the beginning too when they killed Ratchet even as he tried to tell them that he was one of the good guys. That movie, hormones or not, was a tear jerker!
I am enjoying being pregnant, Blogiary. I especially love that a couple of my friends are going through it too and we get to go through this together. The best part this time around is that R is here with me every single day. He is wonderful! We are not a country apart and seeing each other every six weeks, but experiencing each day together- another thing on my list that I am very grateful for. I cannot wait for Lisa and Kamau to meet the baby. Lisa sometimes asks me, with a very concerned look, if the baby has eaten. Ha! Good to know baby already has people looking out for him/her. I cannot wait to find out the sex of the baby. The Chinese Lunar calendar claims I am having another boy. The way I look at it, it’s a win-win situation; a little boy to name after my father (the first one!) and a little girl to name after Mwangi’s mom plus the experience of having a little girl.
I sometimes worry about balancing it all. My relationship with R which I never want to relegate to when-I-have-time-after-I’m-done with the babies. Quality time with Kamau so he doesn’t think that he has now been pushed down to second place status. Making sure I am as careful with baby as I was with Kamau- especially breastfeeding right and of course my eight to five. I watched my mother juggle five kids, with an eight to five, and she woke up at midnight every day to get my dad ready for work because he had to drive really far each morning as he refused to live away from us. She baked each of us a cake on every birthday, and when my little sister was born would make time to come home and breastfeed her over her lunch break. If that isn’t the best example of a woman finding a way to do it all then I don’t know what is. I will do it too. I have no excuse. I learned from the best.
Here’s to our little love on top; we cannot wait to meet you!
xoxo!
Raising Kamau! 