BABY SHOWER!

It was totally unexpected and a beautiful surprise. I suppose the first clue should have been a text message I received from my younger sister (mid last week), Shiro, saying she couldn’t wait to see me over the weekend. I concluded we had planned something and I’d forgotten and was excited about spending time with her. My second clue should have definitely been when the wrong sister- wrong in the sense that I wasn’t expecting her- Wanja arrived at around 2 pm. Even when we were all (Njoki and Shiro included) sitting around the island in Patty’s kitchen laughing about Shaniqwa‘s (from the Real Househelps of Kawangware) appearance on The Trend, it didn’t occur to me that something was going down. I chalked it up to one of Patty’s random get togethers- she is a wonderful hostess and really great at that stuff. What is it they call it? Pregnancy brain? When my friend Carol arrived, I had the mind to dash to my house and put on some lipstick because I just knew something was happening. Sly, Emma, Suzie, Kui and Judith and OMG! a wonderful evening with friends- some of whom I haven’t seen in YEARS- was born!

I loved every minute of it. I loved that I had no clue and wasn’t even expecting a baby shower. I remember asking Patty why she was frying mandazi and baking a cake and she said she just felt like it. I was sitting in her kitchen past noon telling her that I was trying to sum up the energy to take a shower! Yes, Blogiary- pick your jaw off the floor. At 40 weeks pregnant, I am allowed to have days when I do not feel like doing A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G! I loved catching up with my friends and reliving adventures from days past. I appreciate my sisters and my friends- even those that weren’t able to attend- for putting it all together.

It’s Sunday evening as I write this; the 25th day of January, 2015. My EDD is two days away and I have an appointment to see my OBGYN tomorrow (assuming I don’t go into labour before the sun rises) and R and I plan on talking to him about our options going forward. I have mentioned being afraid of undergoing a Caesarian section, but after speaking to my friends yesterday (some of them mothers that have been through CS) and with the reality that I could be carrying a baby larger than Kamau was at birth- a delivery that was no walk in the park- I want to go by what is best for baby and I. I am excited about meeting our little angel, holding her and dressing her up in her tiny outfits. The good Lord has brought us this far and I trust He will see us through. It’s been a mixed bag, my pregnancy, but the thought of what awaits us at the end of our journey has made it all worth it.

I don’t know if this will be my last post before baby is born. Perhaps. I will let you know, Blogiary 🙂

xoxo!

MY BELLY…AND THE COMMENTS ABOUT IT.

The conversation always starts the same, “when are you due?” I’ll respond that my EDD is the 25th of January and the gasp of shock follows accompanied with the, “you’re so big!” line and a few others will throw in an, “you look like you’re due tomorrow!” It doesn’t offend me, in all honesty, mostly because the people that will make these comments aren’t trying to be hurtful but merely making an observation. It does, however, cause me a bit of worry. So much so that I spoke to my mom about it sometime back and she reassured me in that way that only a mother can. I’ve read about it on the internet too with most women on baby forums mentioning that with each progressive pregnancy, their bellies were significantly larger. I spoke to my OBGYN about it on Friday and he had a pretty logical-sounding explanation about it. He mentioned that it’s an issue about muscle tone saying that strong muscles will tend to hold better against gravity as opposed to muscles that are already weak/not as strong. This, he said, is the reason why most women have smaller babies during their first pregnancies than in later pregnancies.

My greatest fear, in truth, is undergoing a Caesarian section. I suppose it really is just a thing that I have allowed to grow in my mind as lots of women have been through it and are fine- my mother and sisters included. I’ve just always thought that I would rather go through the pain during the delivery than worry about a new born and healing a wound after. My elder sister tells me I’m making it a bigger deal than it actually is, but I think for me it’s really the fear of the unknown. I feel like I am better prepared for a normal birth (as prepared as one can be, anyway) than I am for a C-section. I am trying not to get so obsessive about how heavy the baby is and what her ideal weight at this point (29 weeks) should be. I told Dr. Kinyua, during my appointment, that I’d began worrying that the size of my bump meant that the baby was getting really big. He dismissed this as a fallacy citing that some women that look really small will deliver three-point babies and vice versa.

I have eleven weeks to go. We’re in the final stretch and I am beyond grateful that we have come this far and I am praying that God sees us through til the end. I am trying not to stress about delivery. Funny, I thought I wouldn’t still be worrying about it this being my second time. I feel like I need my Lamaze teacher again just so she can reassure me in that calm way that she did during my first pregnancy. Eleven weeks of looking like I am ready to pop any minute 🙂 I am also looking at it as eleven weeks to prepare myself mentally so that when the time comes, and with God’s blessing, I can bring this little miracle into the world.

xoxo!